Cool tech and a very uncool Design.

I am definitely not a fan of this device. Why why why would anyone want to use a huge, heavy two-screen device? Sub-optimal for reading. Sub-optimal for writing. Sub-optimal for battery life. Sub-optimal for costs. What do you think?

A Viliv S10 with a Pixel-Qi screen would be a far far better solution. One screen. One backlight. Dual-mode. Real keyboard. Productive operating system. However, weight needs to be cut down drastically from the 1.2KG of the S10 which is why converged smartbooks/readers will probably end up as dockable single-screen tablet-only style devices.

In a significant architechtural move away from X86, the 2011 generation of the XO (One Laptop Per Child Project) will move from a VIA C7 CPU to a Marvell design based on ARM cores.

In an updated article at Engadget, the word direct from OLPC is that it will ‘enable two times the speed at a quarter of the power usage. That version will sell for somewhere in the $175 range.’

Sounds like a ARM Cortex A9 MPCore to me.

If the tech details sound boring though, check out a concept they’re touting for XO-3!

More images and reading at Engadget:

OLPC shows off absurdly thin XO-3 concept tablet for 2012 (update: XO-1.5 and XO-1.75 coming first) — Engadget.