All batteries will ultimately fail, stop working, and cease to operate, and or otherwise end their useful life. It is the reality of a consumable product. The cost to operate a replacement battery in your device, however, is relatively cheap so it is not a catastrophe when batteries stop working (although certainly an inconvenience). Yet when batteries do fail have you ever wondered why? In my next series I will look more closely at the common causes of battery failure including:

• Batteries degrade and lose the ability to power a device
• Batteries can warp or bubble
• Batteries can explode
• Batteries can have incompatible designs
• Batteries can have improperly selected hardware
• Batteries can be misused or abused

Battery degradation and power loss is the normal result of internal battery use. Technically battery degradation and power loss includes declining capacity, increasing internal resistance, elevated self-discharge, and premature voltage cut-off on discharge. I have written about each of these points in depth in another article at our Battery Education blog so please see that blog for more info, but what is important to get across is the fact that battery degradation and power loss is real! Much like gravity it exists regardless if we believe that it does not!

Furthermore battery degradation and power loss begins when one of the following occurs: when the battery is charged, when the battery is connected to a device (the device does not have to be turned on), when a battery is opened, or when a battery is chemically activated in any way. Any assumption you may have where a battery could still be considered new even after it was charged, connected to a device, been opened or chemically activated in any way is faulty. Why because inside the battery itself, a chemical reaction is produced the moment any of the aforementioned factors occur to begin electron flow. The chemical reaction is purposely designed to create electron flow (i.e. electricity). The electron flow is measured (or moves at speeds) in amperes, where 1 ampere is the flow of 62,000,000,000,000,000,000 electrons per second! Therefore once the chemical is activated and the flow of electrons takes place, even for a second, then the loss of power and battery degradation begins and there is no stopping it. Once battery degradation begins a battery is considered used and its natural life will deplete in a matter of time.

In part 2 of the series I will look at some of the other reasons why batteries fail including batteries that warp, bubble, explode, and batteries that have incompatible designs or improperly selected hardware.

© Dan Hagopian
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included with link. Dan Hagopian of http://www.batteryship.com is a known electronics author that specializes in portable power gadgets. His work can be found on the BatteryShip blog at http://www.batteryeducation.com He frequently writes about pda batteries, ipod batteries, general battery technology for our mobile world, new fuel cell technology and interesting power related inventions. For further information please visit http://www.batteryship.com where you can also find PDA battery replacement kits, smartphone batteries, twoway radio batteries, barcode scanner batteries, camera batteries, and camcorder batteries.

“A cellphone exploded in his living room last year, causing up to $100,000 in damages. Ortega and his family had to live in a trailer for a few months while their house in California was fixed” as reported in the Chicago Tribune back in 2006. Without question the impact that the fire had on this family is devastating but what is alarming about that fire is that through the fire and insurance investigation the cause was found to be due to a cell phone’s lithium-ion battery failure and subsequent spontaneous combustion. What? How is that possible?

If you have a PDA, MP3, MP4, Laptop, Cell Phone, Smartphone, DVD player, or other electronic device then more likely then not the battery within your device is a high capacity smart battery pack (the chemical base being lithium ion). What is a high capacity smart battery pack? A high capacity smart battery pack is a complex battery system designed to power high tech consumer electronic products.

What differentiates smart batteries from standard batteries is the specialized hardware that provides calculated on demand current as well as predicted information.

This specialized hardware includes:

• the connector
• the fuse
• the charge and discharge FETs
• the cell pack
• the sense resistor (RSENSE)
• the primary and secondary protection ICs
• the fuel-gauge IC
• the thermistor
• the pc board
• the EEPROM

Each of these components working in concert allows electrical current to be created, controlled, and transferred to your individual electronic device on demand. Your battery in effect was purposely designed to be an energy dense power pack, which used within its properly designed purpose you can feel comfortable that your battery will not explode.

How can I say that you will “feel comfortable” because statistically your battery will not explode or even become defective! The report about the fire at the Ortega’s family house is one of 339 battery-related overheating incidents tracked by the Consumer Product Safety Commission since 2003. 339 overheating cases sounds like a lot but when compared to the well over 100,000,000 battery related devices that have been bought by consumer since 2003 it represents a very small percentage (.000003) of all battery related devices on the market.

However when smart batteries do explode, bubble, or warp the cause is due to an internal cell short that may cause the battery to overheat and explode, posing a potential hazard to consumers.

To isolate the ultimate cause of the short circuit a study of every aspect of the smart battery development and customer use must be considered including:

• the specialized each of the hardware components
• the cell design
• the manufacturing processes
• battery operation in extreme conditions
• intentional battery abuse
• unintentional abuse through the use of the battery in any device, product, and or in any conceivable manner other than what the battery was specifically designed to be used for and in

So yes it is possible to have high capacity smart battery pack explode and cause unexpected damage but as we have seen it is very unlikely considering the sheer quantity of lithium ion based batteries on the market.

© Dan Hagopian
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included with link. Dan Hagopian of http://www.batteryship.com is a known electronics author that specializes in portable power gadgets. His work can be found on the BatteryShip blog at http://www.batteryeducation.com

He frequently writes about pda batteries, ipod batteries, general battery technology for our mobile world, new fuel cell technology and interesting power related inventions. For further information please visit http://www.batteryship.com where you can also find PDA battery replacement kits, smartphone batteries, twoway radio batteries, barcode scanner batteries, camera batteries, and camcorder batteries.

iPod is one of the most successful consumer electronic products in history. It is the best selling mp3 / mp4 player in the market today. The combination of sound quality, sleek design and unique user interface, made the iPod a hit, causing an entire industry of accessories to emerge almost overnight.

The Apple Corporation first released the iPod on October 23, 2001.

Presently we are now on the 5th generation of iPod.

The first generation - Mp3 player with mechanical scroll wheel and four buttons.

The second generation - It has touch-sensitive wheel, 10 GB and 20 GB hard drives.

The third generation - It has touch-sensitive bottoms and USB connectivity.

The fourth generation - It has click-wheel and only two hard disk version, 20 GB and 40 GB.

The fifth generation - Mp4 player with 60 GB memory storage and video capability.

iPod has won several awards ranging from engineering excellence, to most innovative audio product. Very often it receives favorable reviews on looks, designs and handling.

iPod was designed as an mp3 / mp4 player for people with an active lifestyle. It is compact, sturdy and lightweight enough to take with you wherever you go. It was designed to fit comfortably in the palm of your hand or to be carried into a pocket or purse for easy transportation.

It comes in many storage capacities from 512 MG to 80 GB. The amount of memory it can hold, depends on the model or on the compression rate of your songs.

As an mp3 player it was designed to provide the best quality sound. It has a powerful 60 MW amplifier so it can deliver audio as loud as you want. It also has a 20 MZ to 20 KHZ frequency response, which means you can hear distortion free music at the lowest pitches.

iPod built-in rechargeable battery provides between 8 to 20 hours of music playtime depending on your model. Using the appropriate stereo adapter your iPod will sound great on your home or car stereo system. All iPod`s come as standard with a non removable lithium rechargeable battery. The battery charge will last about 14 to 28 days without use. The lcd display shows the battery level on the upper right corner of the screen. You may charge your iPod by connecting it to an Apple iPod Power Adapter or connecting it to a USB port of a computer. A full charge takes approximately four hours while 80% charge will require at least one hour.

Apple has designed the iPod, as an mp3 player, to work with the iTunes media library software, which allows you to select your music on your computer and on your ipod. iTunes can automatically synchronize this mp3 player with specific playlists or with the entire content of a music library each time you connect your iPod to a host computer.

The first three generations of iPod used two ARM 7TDMI derived CPUs running at 90 MHZ, while later models have variable speed chips which run at a peak of 80 MHZ to save battery life. Another great feature of owning an iPod is the fact that someone can record a discussion and then post the audio file on the internet. This means people can download the file and listen to the file on their iPod. As an mp4 player, with iTunes 4.9, you can now browse and subscribe to podcasts at the iTunes Website. Podcasts are radio shows or other audio/video programs that are downloadable over the internet.

In order for you to be a more satisfied iPod customer, as to the usability and longer battery life spam of this mp3-mp4 player you should consider the following tips:

- Keep it turned off when not using it.

- Update to the latest software.

- Keep it at room temperature whenever possible.

- If you are not using the backlighting, turn it off.

-Turning off the equalizer will save you battery.

- Use compressed songs.

With the availability of compact audio format, we have had mp3 players such as iPod, which provided an unprecedented portability to eager electronic consumers. Now iPod, as mp4 players, is already able to deliver video capability and a whole new set of features and services yet to come.

Roberto Sedycias
IT Consultant

This article is under GNU FDL license and can be distributed without any previous authorization from the author. However the author´s name and all the URL´s (links) mentioned in the article and biography must be kept.

This article can also be accessed in portuguese language from the News Article section of page href="http://www.polomercantil.com.br/mp3-mp4-audio-portatil.php">PoloMercantil

Roberto Sedycias has a bachelor degree in Business Administration and over 20 years experience in systems analysis and computer programming. Currently working as IT consultant for href="http://www.polomercantil.com.br">http://www.PoloMercantil.com.br

What makes a smart battery “smart”? What technology is contained within the batter of my pda for example that makes it power my device? In my first two articles of the series Dissecting A Smart Battery I discussed some of the specialized hardware contained in the smart battery including the connector, the fuse, the charge and discharge FETs, the cell pack, and the the sense resistor. In my final article of the series “Dissecting A Smart Battery” I would like to round out some fother important features of the smart battery.

As we have done in the first two parts of Dissecting A Smart Battery let’s recap the specialized hardware we have talked about. Included in the smart battery are the following specialized hardware:

1. the connector
2. the fuse
3. the charge and discharge FETs
4. the cell pack
5. the sense resistor (RSENSE)
6. the primary and secondary protection ICs
7. the fuel-gauge IC
8. the thermistor
9. the pc board
10. the EEPROM

The Primary and Secondary Protection IC

Integrated Power Management Circuits protects against over-voltage, and under-voltage conditions and they maximize battery life between charges, minimize charging times, and improve overall battery life. Batteries for PDAs, MP3s, Digital Cameras, and Laptops for example have designed within them integrated power management circuits that insure that the deliverance of reliable power is properly managed. Without these power management integrated circuits even fine tuned handhelds will exhibit problems such as over-voltage, and under-voltage conditions. Incidentally, overcharging is potentially a very dangerous problem. Overcharging is the state of charging a battery beyond its electrical capacity, which can lead to a battery explosion, leakage, or irreversible damage to the battery. It may also cause damage to the charger or device in which the overcharged battery is later used.

An integrated circuit in general is a miniaturized electronic circuit. An electrical circuit is a network that has a closed loop, giving a return path for current. The goals of integrated circuits are multifaceted, for example when designing for signal processing integrated circuits apply a predefined operation on potential differences (measured in volts) or currents (measured in amperes). For batteries the use of integrated circuits with the goal of power management is integrated battery management which include voltage regulation and charging functions. Power management integrated circuits offer other key benefits as well including maximizing battery life between charges, minimize charging times, and improve battery life. The other critical aspect of power management integrated circuits is their functioning design to detect and monitor voltage levels in batteries. When certain parameter thresholds are exceeded or dangerous conditions exist, these “supervisory circuits” react through a programmable logic design to protect the monitored system and correct problems as programmed. Supervisory circuits are known by a variety of names, including battery monitors, power supply monitors, supply supervisory circuits and reset circuits. They perform critical functions including power-on-reset (POR) protection to ensure that processors always start at the same address during power-up. Without POR, even well-functioning systems can exhibit problems during power-up, power-down, over-voltage, and under-voltage conditions.

The Fuel-gauge IC

We may all be familiar with the battery charge indicator on our device. The little blinking light or bar meter indicator that let’s us know when we need to recharge our battery. But did you know that the calculation of the remaining battery capacity (power) is performed within the battery and that calculation is transmitted to the device from within the battery to the device through the connector. The calculation of remaining battery capacity is performed by the fuel-gauge integrated circuit. The fuel-gauge stores cell characteristics and application parameters used in the calculations within the on-chip EEPROM (which we will discuss shortly). The available capacity registers report a conservative estimate of the amount of charge that can be removed given the current temperature, discharge rate, stored charge and application parameters. Capacity estimation is then reported in mAh remaining and percentage of full charge.

The Thermistor

A thermistor is a temperature-sensing element. The thermistor is used to determine starting temperature and prevent charging if the battery temperature is too low or too high. The battery charger also uses the thermistor as an external thermal sense that provides input to temperature sense for the fuel gauge.

The PC Board

All the components that we have discussed throughout the series on Dissecting A Smart Battery (the connector the fuse the charge and discharge FETs, the cell pack, the sense resistor, the primary and secondary protection ICs, the fuel-gauge IC, the thermistor) is at one point within the battery connected to a PC Board. The PC Board or printed circuit board is used to mechanically support and electrically connectthe aforementioned specialized hardware using conductive pathways, or traces, etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate.

The EEPROM

Lastly I want to discuss the EEPROM, which stands for the electrically erasable programmable read only memory of the smart battery. It is a reference in effect to the user programmable integrated circuits memory devices which retain stored information in the absence of electrical power and in which the information may be altered electrically.

© Dan Hagopian
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included with link. Dan Hagopian of http://www.batteryship.com is a known electronics author that specializes in portable power gadgets. His work can be found on the BatteryShip blog at http://www.batteryeducation.com He frequently writes about pda batteries, ipod batteries, general battery technology for our mobile world, new fuel cell technology and interesting power related inventions. For further information please visit http://www.batteryship.com where you can also find PDA battery replacement kits, smartphone batteries, twoway radio batteries, barcode scanner batteries, camera batteries, and camcorder batteries.

When shopping for a notebook computer, there are a few things that you should consider before making your purchase. Of course, the price is one of the primary determining factors when deciding which notebook to get, however, there’s one other thing that should be considered even before you and your computer salesperson talk about price. You must carefully check a notebook computer’s specifications – see what it has ‘inside’ – so that you can establish whether it is particularly suitable for the portable computing tasks that you have in mind.

NVIDIA SLI Technology

SLI (Scalable Link Interface) is a proprietary technology developed by NVIDIA, an acknowledged world leader in graphics processing technologies. NVIDIA is responsible for some of the most commonly used programmable Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) in PCs all over the world today.

A Graphics Processing Unit or GPU is a dedicated graphics-rendering device. High graphics resolution (visual realism) and fast graphics rendering are the chief advantages a GPU has over integrated graphics.

For increased graphics output, NVIDIA has developed their SLI technology, which facilitates the link-up of two GPUs. The SLI application rests on the premise that a computer’s graphics processing speed and performance can be increased significantly (up to 2X over a single graphics solution) by combining the graphics processing power of two GPUs. In effect, when the computer user is calling up a 3D image, the two GPUs share the graphics-processing load resulting in smoother performance and faster load times.

NVIDIA SLI Technology In Notebook Computers

It has long been a point of frustration for notebook computer users that graphics processing in desktop computers is far more satisfactory than in notebooks. That is why the introduction of NVIDIA SLI technology for notebook computers in 2006 was very exciting news for these hardcore PC enthusiasts.

With NVIDIA SLI for notebook computers, two mobile GPUs (particularly the NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 7950 GTX), which have graphics processing capabilities comparable to desktop GPUs, can now be bridged for extremely high-speed, high-quality graphical performance in notebook computers.

Why You Need NVIDIA SLI Inside Your Notebook Computer

If you are a computer games aficionado who just has to play Doom, Half-Life, Chronicles of Riddick, Age of Empires, Tomb Raider, or any other GPU-intensive game wherever you are, than you better look for an NVIDIA SLI-ready notebook computer. Combine the power of two NVIDIA mobile GPUs, the parallel graphics processing rendered by NVIDIA SLI, and a high-resolution LCD and you will have intensely realistic graphics and an immensely satisfactory gaming experience with your notebook computer.

This article may be republished freely as long as this copyright notice and box of resource links are included at the bottom.

Copyright © 2007 MALIBAL, lLc

MALIBAL is the Home of the World’s Fastest Laptop! Headquartered in Las Vegas, this groundbreaking company has transmuted the world of mobile computing with its nonpareil laptops and unrivaled 24-hour USA-based support.

Please, check out these recommendations for the best notebook computers.

The fascinating world of mobile computing has only been around since the 1990s. Since then, devices that have been developed for mobile computing have taken over the wireless industry. This new type of communication is a very powerful tool for both businesses and personal use. Mobile computing is defined as the ability to use technology that is not physically connected to any static network. This actually used to mean radio transmitters that operated on a stable base, usually with the help of large antennas. 2 way radios used by police officers were also considered mobile technology but now, it means people can connect wirelessly to the internet or to a private network almost anywhere. As long as a person has one of the devices capable of wirelessly accessing the internet, they are participating in mobile computing. Chances are, you have done it with a laptop computer or a personal digital assistant or PDA.

These days, most laptops and personal digital assistants all have wireless cards or Bluetooth interfaces built into them for convenient mobile internet access. Mobile solutions are right under everyone’s nose these days, and connectivity has never been easier. Other common tools for mobile computing include devices like global positioning systems and smart phones like the Cingular Blackberry. Tons of PDA software development has been going on in the past five years simply because companies have been trying hard to make PDA technology more available to the general public. These days, software companies almost make more software for PDAs and smart phones than for actual desktops.

Pocket PCs are another way to conveniently access the internet on the fly. Everyone has probably heard of the Palm Pilot. While they were the pioneers of the pocket pc, many other companies such as Dell, HP, and Toshiba have all delved into the market. Pocket PC software has also become much easier to use. Most Palms use the familiar Windows interface, allowing the general public to access the internet via the usual Internet Explorer or other ISPs. Also, people can easily download useful software, including games, Media editing tools, organization tools, and even electronic books.

Mobile computing has evolved from two-way radios that use large antennas to communicate simple messages to three inch personal computers that can do almost everything a regular computer does. People can’t go to their local Starbucks and not see a laptop linked up to a hotspot these days, and mobile computing is still in its baby phase.

Natalie Aranda writes about computers. The fascinating world of mobile computing has only been around since the 1990s. Since then, devices that have been developed for mobile computing have taken over the wireless industry. Mobile solutions are right under everyone’s nose these days, and connectivity has never been easier. Other common tools for mobile computing include devices like global positioning systems and smart phones like the Cingular Blackberry.

Do you have a cell phone and are you aware of all of its features? By now, most people have a cell phone. With today’s technological savvy population it isn’t any surprise. But did you know, there are a few features on your phone you most likely didn’t know you could unlock?

For instance, most of everyone knows about 911. But what if you don’t have service, and can’t call in case of an emergency? Not to worry, you can simply dial 112 instead, and you will connect to any network available to report an emergency even if your cell phone is locked.

You can also operate your car’s remote entry system by your cell phone. Next time you leave your remote entry device at home, just call home and have someone use the device in proximity to the cell phone- and puts yours next to your car- it actually unlocks your car!

Many people wish they had bigger cell phone batteries- I bet you didn’t know you can tap into your reserve power, for up to a 50% increase in battery life. To access this feature, just press * 3 3 7 0 #, and your phone will restart with reserve power- a handy trick. This power will be charged next time you charge your phone.

There are many tricks to use with cell phones- these are just a few to show you just how innovative you can be with one. With these new tricks, comes regulation. These tricks might not last forever- so make sure you take advantage of them!

Eric Hartwell oversees “The World’s Best Homepage” intended to be a user-generated resource where YOUR opinion counts. Anybody can contribute and all are welcomed. Visit us to read, comment upon or share opinions on cell phones and visit our associated site articles for free.

What is the interest of a Original Equipment Manufacturer notebook?

The advantages are numerous. That can allow a local assembler to dissociate his product from a great brand.

Several factors take into consideration :

• the price,

• performances,

• the possibility of powerful configurations and/or attractive specifications, for example by just adding the most powerful of the hard disks, the best of the processors and a powerful graphics card.

Perfect solution?

The advantages which we have just seen also have a counterpart. The retailer of the OEM cannot ensure a service of international or even national guarantee as effective as a great brand. the great failures often require a return to the importer.

The immobilization can thus be long, up to 3 or 4 weeks…

A time which enters in competition with the bad after sale service of certain great brand !

Some retailers give wide guarantees which offer the repairing of the machine within reduced times and include the expenses of sending… The laptop OEM becomes hyper interesting if the retailer is close !

The support is also summary the notebooks are delivered with a CD-ROM of drivers. The updates of a OEM laptop are comparable with those of a home made desktop it will often be necessary to go to directly seek the last versions on the sites of the manufacturers.

Are all the OEM equal?

The answer cannot be given in a radical way. All depends on which produced the machine and on this level, it is not always possible to find the source in an easy way.

performances?

If quality is variable, the performances are generally good to see very good level.

Brand or OEM ?

You have now all the cards in hands to judge. The safety of guarantee and support, are prerogatives of great brands, but the OEM offer largely lower prices for performances often definitely higher. The fact that great brands buying their machines directly from Compal is a proof so necessary that one can find the same level of quality on both sides. With a OEM, you must seek to update your pilots, but considering the speed at which certain large manufacturers update their site, this is not a big problem…

The greatest fear is the repair service in the event of problem. The sending of the machine is likely to dissolve the savings made with the purchase… OEM notebook is however an alternative of most interesting which will certainly allure more and more ” experts ”.

For more information about laptop visit laptop support and my blog Laptop Help.

Didier Pradel is the webmaster of laptop support and The linux laptop support where you can find many useful informations, and help for your lovely laptop.

In part 1 of Dissecting A Smart Battery I mentioned that smart batteries have contained within them specialized hardware that when working in concert provides the power necessary to run a device such as a PDA, digital camera, or ipod player. Continuing the dissection of a smart battery this article of the series will look at the smart battery’s fuse, charge and discharge FETs , the cell pack, and the sense resistor (RSENSE) to discover what role they each play within the smart battery.

Before we begin let’s just recap some of the specialized hardware within the smart battery:

1. the connector
2. the fuse
3. the charge and discharge FETs
4. the cell pack
5. the sense resistor (RSENSE)
6. the primary and secondary protection ICs
7. the fuel-gauge IC
8. the thermistor
9. the pc board
10. the EEPROM
11. the SMBus

The Smart Battery Fuse

When we discuss fuses in relation to electronics we are speaking directly of a fusible link that is responsible for protecting the device from over current. Fusible links have a metal wire that melts when heated to a predetermined electric current rating. When melted the electrical circuit is opened and thereby protecting the circuit from an over-current condition. The obvious concern here is the selection of the fuse – an improperly selected fuse will not protect from over-current conditions and the result will be a fire or damage due to a short circuits.

In a smart battery a typical fuse has three-terminal components that limit current flow based on the temperature, current, and or power across the heating wire. Besides temperature ratings other important factors when selecting the proper fuse to work with each smart battery is hold current, trip current, maximum battery voltage, and fuse size.

The Smart Battery’s FET (field effect transistor)

Smart batteries must have a series FET (field effect transistor) switch to open and protect the battery’s cells. A FET is a transistor that uses an electric field to control the conductivity of a particular ‘channel’ in a semiconductor material. FETs at times are used as voltage-controlled resistors. As such field effect transistors are chosen based upon their designed ability to dissipate on demand power.

The Smart Battery’s Cell Pack

The battery cell can be thought of as the holding area of the battery’s chemical. The battery cell pack is critical to the overall capability of the smart battery. Cell packs have to be designed and integrated based upon the vitals of the battery including chemistry type (Li-ion, Li-po, NICD, NIMH, etc.) cycle life, storage-capacity loss, shelf life, impedance, capacity at different rates of discharge and temperature, and mechanical and environmental requirements. It is critical to say the least.

The Smart Battery’s Sense Resistor

The final specialized hardware I want to review in this article is the sense resistor (RSENSE). In electronics, sense, is generally referred to the task of producing the correct voltage. Current not temperered will cause damage so sense resistors need to be integrated in order to control power and temperature.

In my next article on the dissection of a smart battery I will cover secondary protection ICs, the fuel-gauge IC, the thermistor, the pc board, and the EEPROM.

© Dan Hagopian
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included with link. Dan Hagopian of http://www.batteryship.com is a known electronics author that specializes in portable power gadgets. His work can be found on the BatteryShip blog at http://www.batteryeducation.com He frequently writes about pda batteries, ipod batteries, general battery technology for our mobile world, new fuel cell technology and interesting power related inventions. For further information please visit http://www.batteryship.com where you can also find PDA battery replacement kits, smartphone batteries, twoway radio batteries, barcode scanner batteries, camera batteries, and camcorder batteries.

The OX-9 as the One Laptop per Child program is now being called is a great idea and shows what’s possible when technology is not overburdened. The design is functional and fantastic and would have a huge impact in the developing world. But the fact that the computer has to come from the government rather than through the public markets raises skepticism. Doing so limits the impact the laptops are going to have.

The problem is that it is limited to ONLY developing countries. Selling to the public would allow market forces to take the project to a greater level of empowerment and allow it to be measured up with ther products in the market. I am interested in this project not because of what it could do for the Children, because despite the promotions, only a very small amount of children will ever get their hands on this machine. But because it has opened a new door for less is more products. Somebody in the developed world that just needs a basic laptop could buy one of these. It would follow the same pattern the DACIA Logan has in Europe. The car is selling in Europe as strong as in the developing countries it was intended for.

The OX-9 will have a bottom-up shake up. on one side allowing kids learn programming and other computer skills early creating a new class of customers. On the other hand it would influence how technology is used in the developed world. To the advocates of the OX-9, sell it to the public as well as selling it to governments of developing countries and unleash the full potential of this innovative project.

Tonami Playman is a computer science student at Knoxville college. He is an avid information consumer and contributer in computer and automotive circles.