Reading last issue of the Guardian my attention has been grabbed by article about Hand – Powered Laptop. The proposed laptop was announced in January 2008 and was designed specially for use in the developing world (Charlotte Higgins 2008). The production cost of the computer is $180. The aim of the project is to provide the laptop for every child in developing countries for free. At the moment a number of 600,000 have been distributed in the developing world or are on order in Peru, Uruguay, Mexico, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Mongolia (Charlotte Higgins 2008).

The computer uses 90% less power than standard laptops and has a screen that can easily be read in sunlight (Charlotte Higgins 2008). To save money it will run off the open source Linux operating system, which is free, instead of a proprietary system such as Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X. The machines will have a modest 500MHz processor (slow by today’s standards, but not much of a problem when running Linux OS), and will be fitted with 1GB of flash memory rather than a hard drive, which is more delicate due to its moving parts (Jimmy Lee Shreeve 2005). The laptops will be full-colour, capable of wireless connection to the internet, and encased in rubber (Jimmy Lee Shreeve 2005).

Before I have read the article I thought the pictured item was a new toy in the market. However, analyzing its software and other features it seems both interesting and useful item. I think it would be great to have this laptop while traveling to places with no electricity supply. Imagine you could spend a week in the higher part of the Mountains and still enjoy photos, movies or games on your computer with no worry about charging batteries. I really could buy one of those …but than I came to the end of the article which informed “none of the technology was patented: there is nothing to prevent the adoption of similar low-energy computers on the western market” (Behar 2008). Hence, I can forget about it …because it will be probably too expensive to buy…