XO-2

[david at lang.hm]

On Thu, 22 May 2008, C. Scott Ananian wrote:

> There will almost certainly be a 'virtual XO-1' mode for
> compatibility, where the lower touchscreen will display a keyboard and
> touchpad like the XO-1.

a touchscreen based keyboard is far inferior to a real keyboard. it's a 
reasonable stop-gap on something like a DVD player where the primary 
purpose of the machine is output, not input from the user. but on anything 
that's going to have a significant amount of input (and a computer used 
for school had better have a significant amount of input or it's not doing 
a good job) it's not good.

>>  The mock-ups didn't really reveal other features than the dual-
>>  touchscreen. Are there going to be speakers, camera, analog inputs/
>>  outputs, USB, mesh-networking, fold-out antennae etc?
>
> I'm not on the hardware team, so this is just a wild guess:
> a) speakers and camera almost certainly: Record is one of the
> most-used applications on the XO-1.  (The kids in Peru asked for a
> flash; there are safety issues with that, though.)

given how sensitive cameras are getting nowdays, could you get by with a 
few LED's as the 'flash'?

> Some other features that have been discussed:
> d) GPS (unknown whether this will be able to make the cost budget)
> e) accelerometer (so that rotation is magic, not manual)

make this able to be overriden. kids may way to lay on their side while 
useing the machine, having it rotate on them will be annoying.

David Lang