Concepts for the XO-3
Dec 29, 2009
I bought the original XO computer when it came out in support of the idea as part of the Give One, Get One campaign in 2008 and wrote about it here. It’s interesting to see the concepts for the XO-3 and how much they adapt the concepts presented by gestural computing and the iPhone’s single screen minimalism. The computer aims to be half the thickness of the iPhone, waterproof, use less than a watt of power, and cost only $75. We’ll see if they can pull it off. I hope they do!
“I wanted to bring the One Laptop Per Child identity to life in this new form,” says Yves Behar, founder of FuseProject, which designed the both the original and the XO-3. “That meant taking the visual complexity away, bringing tactility and friendliness, touch and color.”
Behar says he hopes to shrink the frame around the XO-3′s display down to practically nothing, opting for a virtual keyboard instead of a physical one, and no buttons. The result, in his mock-ups, is a screen surrounded by only a thin green rubber gasket. “Nicholas [Negroponte] asked for something extremely simple and practically frameless,” he says. “The media or content on the computer will be the prime visual element.”
