TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Free OLPC e-books for children? (+ e-book specs for XO laptop)

By Robert Nagle

Monday November 12 is the day when Americans are able to buy a One Laptop per Child (”XO”). The cost is $400, which includes the purchase of a laptop for someone in an undeveloped country. Also, T-Mobile has announced that it will give free HotSpot access for one year to any American who purchases the Buy One Give One deal. I’m assuming that you can use this not only when using XO but your normal portable device as well.

Here is the most recent information about XO’s ability to function as an e-book reader. Note: I will try to update this information over time so it stays accurate.

1. Evince. This reader lets you view PDF and also DVU image files (which presumably would be scanned from print books).
2. Open Document reader (not OpenOffice). Reads .rtf, .odt. Note that Abiword (which is included in XO) can create .rtf files.
3. HTML in a Browse Web browser. So conceivably it could read books on webpages.
4. Display. Here is a description of the two display modes (from the Hardware Specs(PDF)):
   

   In reflective (monochrome) mode, it supports a display of 1200 x 900 pixels (200 dots per inch), each capable of 64 gray levels. In transmissive (color) mode, it supports a display of 693 x 520 color triads, although perceptually the resolution is higher and dependent on ambient light levels, in a bright room test indicate that 1024×768 resolution is perceived. Each component of the triad has 64 brightness levels.

5. Font using Freetype engine and Pango

Here are some more things you can download:

1. Adobe’s Flash Player and Java™ virtual machine can be added via Yum or RPM. (Versions?)
2. Storybuilder, a multimedia storytelling game that seems not quite-ready for production.
3. Sophie Reader. See this video on an OLPC prototype. The earlier Sophie (PC version) included the reader + creation environment together. Apparently now they’re working on a separate reader to be used on OLPC.

Here is a public list of XO e-book libraries and here’s an annotated list of those e-book libraries and educational activities. Here is a how to guide about creating your own content bundle (which lists formats that can be used on the XO). Here is a walkthrough about how students download an e-book. Here is a XO screenshot of how students share e-books in a classroom.

Here’s notes on how a bundle .xol file is created (compare with .epub):

A content bundle is a directory compressed as a .zip file, renamed to end in .xol. Each content bundle must contain a single top-level directory which has the same name as the bundle, minus the extension. All of the other files in the bundle must be within this directory. The top-level directory must also contain a subdirectory called library that contains certain configuration files.

In the XO library list of downloadable e-books mentioned above, there is an impressive variety of material in English. There are items from International Childrens Digital Library, Wikipedia and Project Gutenberg. I particularly enjoyed the children’s wikibook, famous paintings book and the classical music in midi bundle. Also, the CIA World factbook seems useful too. It’s odd that students in undeveloped countries would be looking at CIA publications, but it is short and noncontroversial and easy to read.

Here is information about the OurStories project, which consists of 3-5 minute audio interviews produced by children using the XO.

Here’s October 30 release notes about activities that would be in the final laptop.

Finally, here is an amazing and totally bizarre video of a birth of a calf taken by a Uruguay student using the XO. XO has been collecting long narratives with photos of how XO fared in pilot programs. Here’s the report of XO success in an Indian village, Peru, and Thailand. Here are some random photos of children taken by the XO in Uruguay.

Right now, XO is going to be sold to subsidize overseas purchases. So for Americans the cost is $400. However, group purchases of 100+ bring the price down to $299 per unit. It’s only a matter of time before someone sets up a “buyer’s club” to sell XO at discounted rates. (Is anyone on TeleRead thinking about that?)

Update: Apparently the laptop comes only with a 30 day warranty. Also, they seem to be lowering expectations about delivery dates and their Terms of Service seem explicitly to exclude resale possibilities.

Also: See my announcement about starting a monthly OLPC club in Houston for kids.

Technorati Tags: OLPC , One Laptop Per Child , ICDL , InternationalChildrens Digital Library , Wikipedia