At Kids on Computers,we bring computers to kids that have no access to technology. We’ve frequently debated the benefits of laptops vs tablets vs computers. I think the new devices coming out will soon lead us to phones … and they’ll change the world for kids in developing countries.
Here are some of the new devices:
- Canonical has an Android phone that proposes to replace your desktop.
- Several companies are making USB thumb drive size devices that are full computers; check out Cotton Candy and Raspberry Pi.
- Mozilla and Telefonica are working on enabling HTML5 devices running on the Open Web to deliver smartphone capabilities at feature phone prices. While a $100 smartphone is still pretty expensive for this audience (especially since it might be harder to share effectively), it is definitely more feasible than a desktop computer or a laptop of their own.
Small devices like this would help us solve some of the problems we have:
- Shipping. It’s really expensive to get computers to some of the rural places where we are trying to bring technology. Shipping full size desktops to rural Mexico or Zambia can be challenging from a cost perspective. (It’s also challenging for customs reasons, but that’s a different topic!)
- Power. Most of the places we’ve set up schools don’t have strong power infrastructures. (Most of them don’t even have telephones.) Not only have we blown power to an entire school trying to turn on just a couple of computers, but we’ve often had to stop our work while we waited for power to come back on. All of the schools we’ve set up are in places with frequent power surges and as a standard practice, they cut power to the whole room whenever they are not using the computers to help protect them. (This has also led to problems. In one school they didn’t realize the importance of shutting down the computers first and they were shutting them down by flipping the power switch to the room …)
- Cooling. Most of the schools we have helped so far are in warm locations (Zambia, India, Mexico) and keeping a room full of computers cool is tough. Especially when power is not reliable.
So the new devices which would be relatively inexpensive and accessible for people living in areas with less infrastructure, would be terrific. My cell phone has worked in all the places we’ve been so far … being able to give a cell phone with all the capabilities of the web to these children would be a wonderful experience to watch.
Disclaimer: I work at Mozilla.