John Lennon may be long gone, having died 28 years ago, but he’s still a force for change in the world through his music. And now, thanks to technology and Yoko Ono’s consent, the Beatle has returned in a new OLPC spot.

In the ad, the late musician say’s “Imagine every child no matter where in the world they were could access a universe of knowledge. They would have a chance to learn, to dream, to achieve anything they want.” If you are a Lennon fan and believe in the cause, by all means go make a donation and click through to see the video.

With the success of the XO laptop from OLPC, it makes sense to start working on a second generation device called the XO 2.0. It will be much smaller compared to the first one, and will feature a foldable e-book factor.

It will also be just half the original’s size, with dual indoor-and-sunlight displays that provide both a right and left page when held vertically, a hinged laptop in horizontal format as well as a flat, dual screen continuous interface for tablet mode. Power suckage has been reduced to just an impressive 1 watt. You’ll have a nice long wait though, since it will be released sometime in 2010.

After much speculation and concern Microsoft has put out official word that the OLPC XO laptop will be made available with the Windows XP operation system. Nicholas Negroponte has been trying to work with Bill Gates and Microsoft for years to get the Windows OS for the laptop, but Microsoft had been reluctant due to the rival Linux OS running on the machine.

The writing was on the wall when Microsoft announced that they were going to keep the XP operating system around a little longer for use with Ultra Low Cost PC’s. Microsoft made a custom version of the OS for use with the XO laptop to work with its hardware. The laptop is expected to start shipping in late summer or early fall with the ability to dual boot with both Linux and Windows XP, letting the owner decide.

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) has announced they are launching OLPC America and will be offering Nicholas Negroponte’s “$100 laptop” to needy students here in the United States. Negroponte stated the reasoning for launching the laptops, which were originally intended for children in developing nations, in the U.S. is party due to building “critical mass” and getting some more momentum and production volume going. He also said the goal was to proved education for U.S. children, communication with kids in other countries. “To have the United Sates be the only country that’s not in the OLPC agenda would be kind of ridiculous,” Negroponte said.

The OLPC has been in the news quite a bit over this past year. The original goal was to provide a $100 laptop for children in poor, developing countries, helping their education, communication and understanding of current technologies. The program has met a number of “bumps” along the way, mostly with the production numbers. In order to obtain a $100 price tag Negroponte needed to have large orders of the XO laptop, targeting the governments of many developing countries. To date the orders from these countries have been limited and have kept the price well above the $100 mark. The OLPC has also be working with partners such as Microsoft with rumors of a dual-boot system that would be able to run Windows which has not yet come to fruition. They also had partnered with Intel on development of the XO, in which Intel has recently withdrawn.

With only a handful of days left in the OLPC Give One, Get One laptop promotion, Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of One Laptop per Child, has decided to extend the offer through the end of December. The Give One Get One program was started on November 12 and was intended to run for a limited time of only 2 weeks but according to Negroponte there has been such an large interest in the program that the foundation is extended the offer period.

“In the past 10 days, we’ve experienced an outpouring of support from the public that is truly gratifying and encouraging,” said Negroponte. “Because so many people have asked for more time to participate either individually or in order to organize local and national groups to which they belong, we have decided to extend Give One Get One through the end of this year. During this extended period we will solicit input and transition to a program of giving only at the beginning of 2008. We want as many people as possible to have the opportunity to act upon the giving spirit of the holiday season.”

Nicholas Negroponte and the OLPC XO laptop have received a lot of news this past year without much production of any machines. The latest news had come as a promotion scheme for the laptop looking to the generosity of US and Canadian customers offering a “Give 1 Get 1” deal. The promotion looked to the generosity of North American consumers and allowed them to buy the $100 (now $188) laptop for $400, getting one for them and giving one to a poor child in another country.

It appears now that production which was supposed to start in October will be delayed until November 12, which is also the day that pre-ordering the Give 1 Get 1 program would start. According to the OLPC, the delay will not only push back planned deliveries to Peru and Uruguay but will also not support the deliver of the promised 25,000 North American orders before Christmas. According to Mary Lou Jepsen, chief technology officer for the One Laptop per Child Foundation, some consumers will still get the XO before the holidays but it will be on a first-come first-serve basis.

In an effort to spur some sales of Nicholas Negroponte’s $100 XO laptop (now selling for $188 each), the OLPC is offering the low-cost notebooks to consumers in the U.S. and Canada in a “Give One, Get One” program. The program will run for only two weeks from November 12 to November 26 and will offer the XO laptop for $400 each with proceeds of each sale going to provide a XO laptop for the children of a poor country.

According to Negroponte, the donated laptops will help trigger more sales of the laptops to different countries who are now considering a purchase. The first 25,000 people that purchase an XO laptop can expect delivery before Christmas with the rest of the orders likely arriving around January. The limited time offer is partly due to tax reasons but also to create some excitement around the promotion. The hope is that most will be motivated to purchase an XO laptop with intention of giving one more than getting one.

Nicholas Negroponte’s $100 OLPC laptop has found its way into the news again, this time due to another increase in the laptop’s price which now expected to be up to $188, despite the device continuing to carry its “$100 laptop” name.

The expected price for the OLPC XO has been more than $100 for quite some time now, and this announcement tacks on another $13 from the expected price Negroponte unveiled at the end of April.

On Monday the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative gave the “thumbs-up” to go ahead and start mass producing the XO laptop. The laptop being made is based on the Beta-4 (B4) design and is priced at $176 each, which the OLPC hopes to have down to the originally planned $100 by sometime next year.

The production starts on a path to create 3 million of the B4 XO laptops by October of this year which will be distributed to the governments of 15 countries to then be given out to the children who would otherwise not have the chance to purchase or use a computer. The participating countries so far include Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Greece, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Rwanda, Tunisia, the U.S. and Uruguay.

These B4 model laptops being produced …

On Friday Intel announced that it will join Nicholas Negroponte and his One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative to provide inexpensive computers to the children of developing nations. This announcement came as somewhat of a surprise to many since Intel also has a similar, what some might say competing, initiative with its Classmate PC.

The Classmate PC from Intel is priced at $225 and requires external power, while the OLPC machine, originally targeted for $100, is now costing $175 and is powered by cranking a handle on the side.

Intel may have gotten a “can’t beat ‘em – join ‘em” attitude, or it could be that both companies simply realized that they both had the same goal and could possibly achieve a greater good by combining forces. There are speculations that the two products may go …

The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project head Nicholas Negroponte has announced the the OLPC laptops have had a price increase and may not start actual production until October.

The OLPC machines were previously touted for the very inexpensive price of $100 each, but now Negroponte is saying that the price of the machines may be as much as $175 each due to increased prices in materials, including nickel in particular.

The actual production of the OLPC laptops may be delayed, as well. In order for production to begin orders of around 3 million laptops must be in place, and despite interest from multiple countries an order of 1 million back in February, they are still not quite to their goal in order for Quanta to begin production. Quanta Computer out of Taiwan has agreed to assembly the OLPC laptops …

The OLCP (One Laptop Per Child) group has announced a confirmed order of one million of its low-price XO notebooks produced through Quanta, who manufactures notebook PC’s for Apple, Dell and HP as well as OLPC.

We had reported last month about the new inexpensive XO laptops from the OLPC initiative which are intended for use in remote villages and run on very little power to connect children to information and to each other. The challenges were to make a device that is low cost, durable and useful enough to help improve the economies, knowledge and general lives of people in remote areas.

This confirmed order is good news not only for the OLPC project, but also in the effort to bring the costs of manufacturing the laptops closer to the $100 mark. Currently the notebooks are selling for around …

Earlier this week Slippery Brick reported on the XO laptop and the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organization, stating reports that the company planned on making the XO laptop commercially available for as little as $100 USD. According to Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the OLPC, making the XO laptops available to the public is not in the plans for this year, but may be in the future.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you couldn’t buy one on Ebay from a kid in Uruguay for under $100, but it does mean that OLPC is not planning on selling you one, at least not any time real soon.

“Contrary to recent reports, One Laptop per Child is not planning a consumer version of its current XO laptop, designed for …

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Initiative unveiled it’s XO laptop, the initiatives first industrial prototype at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

The laptop is designed to be used with very little power, and can run on less than three watts to browse the internet and only one watt to display an electronic book, compared to the 40 watts necessary to power a typical laptop. The XO Laptop from OLPC has a battery charger built into the machine that runs by pulling a cord to recharge the battery. “Power was obviously our main concern,” said Michalis Bletsas, OLPC’s chief connectivity officer, at the unveiling in Las Vegas.

Network connections happen wirelessly through a new “mesh” technology that will connect to any other XO laptop within 600 meters, or any mesh network within range. The screens come in color …