An article from Washington Post about a handful of tech companies, including Google, that want to use white space airwaves to provide broadband to rural areas.

Engineers from the technology heavyweights, including Motorola and Philips, lugged their laptops, antennas and other equipment to parks, homes and high-rises around the Washington area, hoping to prove to the Federal Communications Commission that the unlicensed airwaves between television stations, known as white spaces, could provide a new form of mobile Internet service.

Using white spaces “will provide a way to provide broadband across long distances at much faster speeds than cellphone networks and WiFi,” said Jake Ward, spokesman for the Wireless Innovation Alliance, which includes Google, Microsoft, HP and Dell. The group is trying to convince regulators that using the airwaves will provide broadband to rural schools, beam high-definition online video to low-income households and let consumers stream music while sitting in highway traffic.

There’s been lots of drama with OLPC but hopefully the non-profit can work through it and make some progress with their new partner Microsoft:

The alliance between Microsoft and O.L.P.C. comes after long stretches of antagonism, punctuated by occasional talks, between the two sides. Mr. Negroponte, a former computer researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a new media pioneer, said he first talked to Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman, three years ago.

Link

Link to News.com.

Intel plans on expanding the distribution of its inexpensive, school children-friendly Classmate PC to U.S. and European retail outlets, according to a Reuters report on Wednesday.

The Classmate will sell for $250 to $350, Lila Ibrahim, general manager of Intel’s emerging market platform group, told Reuters. Apparently Intel has already been conducting pilot programs using the devices in classrooms in the U.S. and Australia.

DotOrg officials said they had decided to spend the money on five initiatives: disease and disaster prevention; improving the flow of information to hold governments accountable in community services; helping small and medium-size enterprises; developing renewable energy sources that are cheaper than coal; and investing in the commercialization of plug-in vehicles.

Link to NYTimes article

According to the Wall Street Journal, Intel has pulled out of the One Laptop Per Child partnership, citing disagreements with founder Negroponte.

“We’ve reached a philosophical impasse with OLPC,” Mr. Mulloy said. He added that Mr. Negroponte had demanded that Intel stop selling its own-designed laptop, known as the Classmate, in developing countries and stop supplying its chips to other laptops marketed to schoolchildren in those countries.

“We can’t accommodate that request,” Mr. Mulloy said.

This is unfortunate, however, AMD, which is the current supplier, is capable enough of handling the requirements here. It’s been really hard for OLPC to solidify orders for the low cost PC, and it needs more demand so it can scale to drive down costs. I believe part of the motivation for Negroponte to be the sole supplier of these low costs PCs stems from that.

T-Mobile is participating in a pretty neat marketing program for the OLPC where if you participate in the buy one give one program, T-mobile will give you a year’s worth of their hotspot service for free.

“T-Mobile believes in helping people stay connected to those who matter most in their lives. The Give One Get One program delivers on our unmistakable commitment to enhancing personal relationships,” said Joe Sims, vice president and general manager for Broadband Services, T-Mobile USA. “We are excited and proud to partner with One Laptop per Child, and are hopeful that our contribution will not only encourage other people to participate, but also make a positive difference.”

Here are some important updates on what’s going on with the OLPC and the Classmate PC. First, it looks like Nigeria has selected Classmate PCs running Linux for a nationwide pilot in their country. The article (via slashdot), offered by the linux company supplying the operating system, discusses how 17,000 computers will be provided in Nigeria.

Mandriva today announced that the Nigerian government has selected Intel-powered classmate PCs running on Mandriva Linux for educational use in nationwide pilot in Nigeria. Mandriva is working with Intel Corporation and Technology Support Center Ltd. to provide 17,000 Intel-powered classmate PC. The aim of this project is to improve the quality of technology delivered to students, and to help teachers and parents.

What’s OLPC up to? No updates on big wins like this but Microsoft did announce that they will be building an operating system for the OLPC. Negroponte is fine with this, as he wants to promote the open source spirit with the project.

While the news that Microsoft is developing a version of Windows for the so-called “$100 laptop” has caused some consternation, One Laptop Per Child Chairman Nicholas Negroponte has said the project could not promote openness if it blocked Windows.

The One Laptop Per Child project is beginning to market itself with a campaign dubbed “Give 1 Get 1“.

…on Sept. 24, the OLPC announced a money-raising gambit called “Give 1 Get 1.” Originally, the organization had no set plans to sell or distribute the computers in the U.S. Now it’s hoping to capitalize on widespread interest from American gadget fans to raise enough money to pay for shipments of XO Laptops to four countries that are among the poorest of the poor: Afghanistan, Cambodia, Haiti, and Rwanda.

Under Give 1 Get 1, which will run for two weeks starting Nov. 12, U.S. customers will be able to pay $399 to buy two laptops: one for themselves and one to be shipped to a child in one of those four countries. About half of the purchase price will be tax-deductible. Also, starting Sept. 24, people can simply “give” a laptop by making a $200 donation. Those who’d like to participate can sign up for e-mail alerts on the Web site www.XOgiving.org. The machines, which are being built in Taiwan, will begin shipping to U.S. customers in January or February.

This is actually really interesting. I’m sure a few of my friends will pick these up to hack and tinker with them.

Here’s the latest update on Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child project (aka $100 laptop).

It may have once dismissed the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) Project as a “cheap gadget,” but Intel appears to have changed its mind. The company is now involved in talks to provide CPUs for the $100 (actually ~$175) systems.

According to the EETimes, Intel’s newfound interest in the project is just fine with the OLPC design team. “Intel, like a lot of other people, is more than welcome to try to design great silicon for this project and this mission, and we’ve been working with them to help them do exactly that,” said Walter Bender, OLPC’s president.

The article goes on to discuss how the OLPC is powered by an AMD chip but Intel plans to bid with a more powerful chip.

Here’s a roundup of the various articles on this news–

Cnet- One Laptop per Child undergoes final beta version

BBC UK- ‘$100 laptop’ production begins

Gizmodo- Try the $100 OLPC Operating System at Home