| I wonder if it still has the mesh networking too. They also totally ditched their OS. This just seems like a stock tablet with some apps preinstalled. The device is a software/design project more than a hardware one now. Also it seems like they are trying to push the content to the kids rather than letting them explore themselves. The problem with the content push is now you have to provide all the content. You have just created a replacement for a text book. They can still fire up a webbrowser or dig through layers to what they want but it's not the same. Without a keyboard it is going to be massively less productive. Say goodbye to teaching them programming skills. Kids learning to program on a tablet will probably begin to hate the entire concept as they are fighting a sluggish interface. I love reading comics on my tablet, but I still use a keyboard/mouse device for browsing. A plug in keyboard might help but it isn't enough since its a hassle (Also will they be providing keyboards to students?) I don't think they are going to be able to fire up a copy of GCC (I remember having a go at C++ when I was like 12, my main problem was getting a compiler and tutorials since I had no internets, now days it should be easy). I learned heaps with qbasic since that was just sitting on my system. imho tablets are largely hype/marketing. They are a massive growth industry right now because it's a new market and everyone is trying to grab the market share but we aren't going to see desktops/laptops replaced, just augmented. The tablet market will likely die back when it has reached saturation. They have basically 'perfected' the tablet already. People won't really need to upgrade their current generation devices, they already have fast, smooth web browsing, gigs of ram, retina displays and so on. I don't see a new version of Android being released over the next 5 years that will no longer be compatible with the hardware out now (although manufactures might not release the updates for those devices) other then a few gimick hardware features things like NFC or that TV streaming stuff which will be desirable to some but not all. About the only thing would be more storage space which will also reach a point when its enough for most people. Then it will mainly be people replacing broken devices or just needing the latest. Maybe we will see a glassed free 3D display and then a retina version or it. Maybe they will make a transparent one. In any case the XO project isn't supposed to be about making a product to sell. It seems like it's been taken over by designers. Maybe for the XO-4, they will do something like a dockable tablet. With Ubuntu's Mir based Android hybrid. You would get the productivity of a keyboard and the power of a full desktop OS under the hood. They could also bring back their Sugar stuff. |