14 DAY TRIAL // If you keep up to date with One Laptop per Child Association's (OLPC) efforts, then you should know the group planed to introduce a $75 tablet device at CES this January, but according to founder Nicholas Negroponte it looks like the tablet will arrive 45 days late, making its appearance sometime in February 2011.
According to Negroponte, which was interviewed by PC World, the date had to be pushed back since the group is hard at work finding an unbreakable material for the XO-3's screen, “which may not be plastic, it may be glass or some flavor of glass."
If you are not familiar with the XO-3, then you should know this will be based on an ARM processor from Marvell, the device being first released under the Marvell brand.
According to Negroponte, the tablet should end up costing $75 and should feature an unbreakable design and low power consumption, making these particularly well suited for classroom environments found in developing countries.
Once the XO-3 tablet will make its debut, it will co-exist for a while with the original OLPC laptop, although it still isn't sure for how long the two will be available together, Negroponte saying that he isn't sure if the haptic keyboard available in the XO-3 will be enough for this to be used as a general purpose computer.
Apart from the Marvell built ARM processor used inside the XO-3, other details regarding its hardware configuration are not yet available, although we do know this will actually be an open device that will make use of standard ports as well as an open-source Linux operating system, the first ones most likely coming with Google's Android OS.
Fortunately, there's not that much time left until February comes when, if all goes well, we will be able to witness how awesome the XO-3 actually is.