Imagine if a group of the world’s cleverest and richest people pooled resources to create a piece of technology intended as a force for good rather than profit. It may seem fanciful but that is exactly what has happened and the result — which could become one of the most widely distributed bits of technology ever made — was unveiled last week.

The long awaited $100 (£50) mini-computer from the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative, is aimed at improving the quality of education in developing nations. The fact that it exists at all is testament to what can be achieved when global corporations put their heads together.

Greeted with considerable scepticism when first mooted, the makers have achieved what some said was the impossible by assembling the components and sticking them together to create a fully formed laptop for the cost of a medium-priced restaurant meal for two.

OLPC, which is a not-for-profit spin-off project from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, achieved this engineering triumph through a combination of astute design and goodwill from component manufacturers. The machine runs on customised open-source software (see tinyurl.com/ 2v535q) that is free online.

The XO laptop (its proper name) will be sold at cost price — currently $150 (£76), though the intention is for this to drop to $100 shortly — to the governments of developing nations in bulk and then distributed without charge to school-age children.

It is primarily an educational tool. A built-in webcam and the ability to connect wirelessly to other XO laptops in the vicinity without needing an existing Wi-Fi base station also make it a powerful communication device for the children who will receive them.

The most intriguing feature of the new laptop is not the low price, though this is quite a feat, but that it won’t be reliant on conventional power sources. The final details of the dynamo-power feature are yet to be announced, but the makers say owners will be able to power it up by yanking a ripcord or winding a handle.

The OLPC organisation says the roll-out will begin almost immediately with several hundred machines being sent to the seven launch countries: Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uruguay and Thailand. It has ambitious plans for 1m laptops to be delivered to each country by mid2007.

The scale of the project is impressive. Nicholas Negroponte, OLPC founder and chairman, claims that it intends to ship 5m10m units this year alone, and if the project’s ambitious objectives are achieved the XO will within two years account for around half of all the laptops being sold in the world. No wonder Microsoft is so miffed that it doesn’t run Windows.

So what is the machine like to use? After months of speculation about whether the laptop would ever be produced The Sunday Times was the first British newspaper to get its hands on a working model at the 3GSM mobile phone trade show in Barcelona last week — and came away impressed.

The first thing you notice about the XO is its size. Though billed as a laptop it’s smaller than you might imagine, with a 7.5in screen. Considering its tiny dimensions, however, it feels weighty. OLPC insists this is because it is designed for harsh treatment; the casing is 2mm thick as opposed to the 1.3mm of a standard laptop.

That said, much of the clever work here lurks beneath the rather lurid green surface. “Our laptop is very low power, has few parts, no moving parts and no openings through which dust and water can get in,” explains Michail Bletsas of OLPC. It also eschews a traditional hard drive or CD/DVD drive — two prime causes of computer failure — in favour of flash memory and three USB ports for transferring files to or from the machine.

The rubberised keyboard is reminiscent of the ZX Spectrum — an early mass-marketed computer — but it’s far easier to work with. The keys are nicely responsive, though they are more suited to child-sized hands than adult ones. Like most laptops there is also a touch-sensitive trackpad, but this is split into sections and will allegedly recognise a stylus, or even pointed gestures, as well as finger swipes.

The liquid-crystal screen is the single most expensive component and is surprisingly good quality, if not of super-crisp resolution. A full-screen video was perfectly watchable, but a little stuttery.

The screen has four buttons for brightness settings and can be used in black and white mode in strong sunlight. Certainly text was perfectly legible under the bright lighting of the convention hall. The screen also swivels and folds down to form a tablet, turning the device into an e-book reader.

Given that Google is one of OLPC’s biggest sponsors (along with News Corporation, the parent company of The Sunday Times) it is perfectly feasible the device could be used to display digitised school textbooks (Google is currently digitising noncopyright books en masse).

So how will the laptop receive e-books or other information? It communicates with the aid of two 3in flip-out aerials serving its built-in wireless feature, dubbed mesh networking. This enables the laptops to talk to one another. Crucially they can also “piggyback”, so if one machine is within range of a wireless internet connection — most likely at the local school — all of them will be online too.

It seemed to work smoothly under test and websites loaded faster than on many palmtops. The XO machine uses specially designed web browser software that reformatted the text slightly to accommodate the machine’s small screen, but the results still looked good. The clever use of icons along the bottom of the screen makes it obvious what task you are engaged in.

What’s even better is the inclusion of instant messaging and social-networking software. This means that owners in developing countries will have the ability to share ideas and information in a similar manner to their western counterparts, even if they are not within range of the internet.

Perhaps the most important design feature of the budget laptop, though, is its low power needs and the ability to be powered by mechanical means. It allegedly consumes a maximum of 7W with normal usage, as opposed to 20-40W for a normal laptop. In e-book mode consumption is claimed to be as low as 300mW.

OLPC insists that “it will come with at least two of three options: a crank, a pedal, or a pull-cord” and children will be able to generate power themselves at a ratio of 10 minutes of use per one minute of manual charging.

The development of self-powered devices marks a growing trend in gadget design. As the power needs of portable devices outstrip current battery technology, the ability to “scavenge” energy from alternative sources such as movement, solar panels or body heat is becoming crucial.

All in all, despite the modest nature of its components, this funky-looking machine is a fully fledged computer and perfectly usable, albeit with software applications that are a touch sluggish to load up.

Whether OLPC succeeds in its lofty ambition to reshape the global landscape of education and create a new global village depends to a large extent on how effectively it is able to make its dynamo power technology work.

Additional reporting: Will Findlater in Barcelona

OLPC XO laptop specs

Size 193mm x 229mm x 64mm

Weight Around 1.5kg

Processor AMD 366Mhz

RAM 128MB

Storage 512MB of flash memory

Display 7.5in liquid crystal TFT

Price Initially $150 (eventually $100) All specifications subject to change www.laptop.org for details

Charging ahead in search of cheap power

Dave Pollard and Simon Kurs check out energy-scavenging gadgets that claim to provide electricity free

Freeloader portable solar energy £30 01242 210 100 www.solartechnology.co.uk

This portable charging unit contains two fold-out solar panels and an internal battery. It works by storing energy from the sun, which you can then use to charge phones, MP3 players, palmtops and digital cameras. It takes about five hours to charge on a sunny day — on a gloomy day charging takes longer but once fully loaded the makers claim it can power an iPod for 18 hours, and it proved effective in tests.

Mobile bike recharger £25 British Eco 0870 979 7800 www.britisheco.com

This clever gizmo will charge your phone battery while you cycle. You fit a small dynamo on either the front or back wheel and a cable runs from there to an electrical socket bolted either to the crossbar or handlebar. The maker claims that 70 minutes riding at 12mph will charge a phone battery from flat.

Forever flashlight £13 Gadgets Quick 0870 4321 521 www.gadgetsquick.co.uk

This torch relies on Faraday’s principle of induction, rather than a conventional battery. Shaking it horizontally causes a sliding magnet to move back and forth inside a spool of copper wire, creating a current. Shaking for 40 seconds was claimed to give four minutes of light, though we found that after three minutes the light had faded to a firefly glow. The shaking action is also easily misconstrued.

Electric shoes

Boffins at SRI International have developed a method for harnessing some of the energy expended when we walk. Essentially, they embedded a bellows into the heel of a shoe which, when compressed, produces about 1W of power with each step. The team believes that improved design could see the unit sitting in the heel of your Nikes and powering your iPod in the near future.

Seiko Thermic wristwatch

This prototype watch is powered from body heat and exploits the temperature difference between the surroundings and the wearer to create electricity. For it to work the ambient temperature must be well below body heat (37.5C). Seiko claimed it as a world first but it never went on general sale.

Fruit powered clock £11.50 the Green Shop 01452 770 629 www.greenshop.co.uk

We’ve long been told that we can get energy from fruit and here’s the proof — a digital clock powered by an apple. The clock employs the chemical energy potential available from most fruits and vegetables and converts it to electricity. As a novelty gadget it’s good value, though perhaps not as practical as a battery.

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