In a bid to make the Windows brand become more involved in the ultra low-cost PC market, Microsoft has been prepping up the usually-pricey Windows XP into becoming OS of choice for the budget machines, including OLPC's XO notebooks, which are aimed towards developing countries. More in the full article.

Here's an interesting update on One Laptop Per Child (OLPC): Nicholas Negroponte has just announced that they will be running the Windows operating system for their XO laptop.

With their developments on-going, Negroponte added that they should be able to make the OS run in 60 days or less. Find out the details in the full article.

One Laptop Per Child's charitable program has come to a close with the coming of 2008, even though it's life was prolonged due to certain circumstances. With this, LAPTOP Magazine was able to interview the founder and chairman of the charitable institution, Nicholas Negroponte.

He gave his thoughts regarding the program. Details on the interview after the jump.

This time it's not a delay, but a deadline extension: in order to give people more time to participate in their Give One Get One Program, the One Laptop Per Child Foundation (OLPC), has decided to extend their Give One Get One program up to December 31.

OLPC chairman and founder Nicholas Negroponte explained why OLPC decided to extend the original two-week deadline. Read more about this after the jump.

Finally having made peace with each other after allegations of Intel sabotaging One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Foundation's efforts in providing very affordable laptops to the developing world, the major silicon chip mogul joined forces with the non-profit organization in its mission to make children in developing countries computer-literate.

Intel's Will Swope said that both Intel and OLPC have come to terms with what transpired in the past. He explained:

What happened in the past has happened. But going forward, this allows the two organisations to go do a better job and have a better impact for what we are both very eager to do, which is help kids around the world.

Indeed, with Intel being one of the leaders in computing technology backing up OLPC in its quest to give children easier access to laptops, people all over the world can be assured that their noble mission will be a success. Nicholas Negroponte, founder of OLPC, says that, "Collaboration with Intel means that the maximum number of laptops will reach children."

Intel now joins 11 other companies working for the One Laptop Per Child cause, which include Google and Red Hat, among others. The first line of laptops manufactured by OLPC, called the XO, are powered with another OLPC Foundation member and Intel's rival chip-maker AMD.

There are plans to use Intel chips in future laptop models, however. "I think we will end up with a family of products that run across a wide variety of needs," Walter Bender, head of software development for OLPC, said. "Intel will be part of that mix." They also plan to use software that will be compatible on both OLPC's XO laptops and Intel's Classmate series.

The XO laptops were sold to participating countries at US$ 176, but OLC will bring down the price to US$ 100 as previously intended. On the other hand, Intel expects that the US$ 200 price tag for their classmate will go down as well.

A war of words has erupted between One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Nicholas Negroponte and Intel chairman Craig Barrett. According to the BBC, Professor Negroponte said that the chip-maker "should be ashamed of itself" for working to undermine the OLPC's US$ 100 laptop initiative.

Negroponte also said that Intel has "distributed marketing literature" to governments with titles like "the shortcomings of the One Laptop per Child approach." These reportedly outline the supposedly stronger points of the Classmate, Intel's new US$ 200 laptop.

Intel boss Barrett has dismissed these allegations as "crazy." "We're not trying to drive him out of business," he said. "We're trying to bring capability to young people." Barrett also noted that there are "lots of opportunities" for both camps to work together.

Nicholas Negroponte, M.I.T. Media Lab co-founder, recently showed off the $100 laptop that will fuel the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project during an educator's conference recently. The National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) warmly received the contraption that aims to bridge the educational gap.

In his presentation to the NECC, Mr. Negroponte said that "children are the main agents of change" and that these laptops should be and hopefully would be distributed to developing countries starting next year, although he didn't mention any specific date. This statement was surprising since he mentioned in his previous statement that the hand-cranked laptops will be out by April 2007. Is there a delay of production or would the laptops come in an earlier date? Your guess is as good as mine.

NECC members got an early look at one of the project's most innovative developments: a dual mode display that can be easily viewed in natural and artificial light, which helps to reduce the machine's power consumption. Although the price tag of each computer still comes in a hefty $130-140 pricetag, Negroponte and others involved in the project believe the cost will drop as component prices decrease.

The 100-dollar laptop, which is the product of MIT's One Laptop Per Child Program, will make its debut in the next two weeks. Nicholas Negroponte has announced that the laptop will be shown at the National Educational Computing Conference on July 5-7. Aside from the $100 price tag, the contraption also requires little power thanks to a hand-crank that juices up the batteries which was designed to be suitable for places like Africa that have little to no electricity in most places.

When asked to elaborate on the conference, Mr. Negroponte said that "[The conference] will be the first public forum at which we not only show a working prototype of the $100 laptop, but also provide hands-on access to developer machines". But even if the project's intentions are good and noble, it still attracts some critics, specifically the hand-crank factor.

Some critics are saying that a minute of hand-cranked power would only equate to 10 minutes of battery life. Craig Barrett, Intel Chairman even said that the laptop is a "$100 gadget". Even education and health advocate, Bill Gates, can't help but criticize the thingamajig. In this year's Microsoft Goverment Leaders' Forum, he can't help but say "geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you’re not sitting there cranking the thing while you're trying to type". Harsh...

Mr. Negroponte believes that there is ample room for improvement. In the said conference, he plans on recruiting advisors for his $100 laptop wherein some attendeed will be asked to participate on their developer's program.

Nicholas Negroponte has already showed off the prototypes of MIT's fabled $100 laptop, so naturally the next step would be to announce its availability and new price. Yep, you read that right, the $100 laptop will be sold for $130 to $140 (without shipping) to governments starting April 2007. The Linux-based laptop's pricing will depend on the size of the RAM, but the main focus would be on the display, as it has to be sunlight readable. That should be fixed by August or September. Though the slightly more expensive starting price may be a let down, Negroponte expects to reach the $100 price point by the end of 2008, when manufacturing reaches 5 to 6 million units.

The One Laptop Per Child project aims to revolutionize education in developing countries. Currently, seven countries are evaluating the system. The most enthusiastic are Nigeria, Brazil, Thailand and Argentina. Other countries who have expressed interest in the system are China, India, Egypt, Russia, Mexico and Indonesia.