I just watched David Pogue’s charming 4-minute review of the $100 laptop (which, as it turns out, costs $188 each). It’s charming because he really seems genuinely excited about the product, and eschews his usual unfunny schtick.
He does reference ‘snarky bloggers’ who apparently aren’t digging the laptop. What? Bloggers snarky? I can’t imagine. I think it’s cool–a little piece of nerd history, really–and want one when they go on sale in November.
They’ve got a brilliant sales strategy which you’ve probably already heard of: Americans have to spend US $400 (just CAN $399.04!), buying two computers. They keep one laptop, and another gets sent to a classroom or child in a developing country.
If I can be a snarky blogger for a second, it’d be great if the New York Times let me embed Pogue’s video in this post, instead of just linking to it. You know, like the rest of the planet.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
My worry is that after all this effort in making the laptop, kids are just going to use them to play games (as opposed to educating themselves, or whatever they’re for). A friend of mine says he read about an experiment where a bunch of poor children in some developing country were given computers… and all they did was play games. I’m not sure whether these will really bring about any change if there’s no real infrastructure behind them, with classes or instruction or purpose given to the whole thing.
I’m snarky! I’m snarky enough that any kid I’d give this to would be felt held accountable! Why not simply funnel the distribution through bitches such as myself? We’re a dime a dozen.