Log24

No logo for the initiative has yet been released, but designers could do worse than adopting as their symbol the bright yellow hand-crank that protrudes from the side of the laptop. This throwback to the days of the gramophone is designed to enable users to manually crank up electricity to run the laptop in places with irregular or non-existent access to the fixed electric power grid.

Details from Wired News
Kevin Poulsen, 12:58 PM Nov. 17, 2005 PT:

TUNIS, Tunisia — If tech luminary Nicholas Negroponte has his way, the pale light from rugged, hand-cranked $100 laptops will illuminate homes in villages and townships throughout the developing world, and give every child on the planet a computer of their own by 2010.

The MIT Media Lab and Wired magazine founder stood shoulder to shoulder with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to unveil the first working prototype of the “$100 laptop” — currently more like $110 — at the U.N. World Summit on the Information Society here Wednesday. The Linux-based machine instantly became the hit of the show, and Thursday saw diplomats and dignitaries, reporters and TV cameras perpetually crowded around the booth of One Laptop Per Child — Negroponte’s nonprofit — craning for a glimpse of the toy-like tote.

With its cheery green coloring and Tonka-tough shell, the laptop certainly looks cool. It boasts a 7-inch screen that swivels like a tablet PC, and an electricity-generating crank that provides 40 minutes of power from a minute of grinding.