Multemedia Linux Device

Multimedia Linux device

It's an MP3 player, FM radio, video and photo display device, an e-book reader and a sound recorder – all bundled in one.

What more, it's a Linux-based personal computer ready for web, email and office use. Touted as the Swiss army knife of handheld gadgets, Wizpy, has now been launched in India by Japan-based Turbolinux.

The nifty tool which is a multimedia media player that contains a PC-bootable version of the Linux operating system is priced at Rs 11,995.

“This palm sized mobile device enables the user to have their own personal computer environment through which they can access documents, e-mails and the internet, keeping their data secure and confidential,” said Deepak Wassan, president, Turbolinux.

Pegged as a ‘PC 2.0’ product, Turbolinux has partnered with eSys Technologies and online portal cafegadgets in for distribution in India. “Early adopters who are curious about using Linux but either don't want to or can't install the operating system are our target customers,” he said.

Bouyed by its success in universities of Vietnam, the company is aiming to gain foothold in the education sector moving on to the corporate sector before targeting the home users.

The pocket-sized device, that can play audio and video files, is really a Linux carrot of sorts, allowing users to store a complete Linux desktop in its memory. “You can plug the Wizpy into a PC's USB port and boot up the Linux system with all its user settings, passwords, bookmarks, etc,” added Wassan.

Turbolinux will ship 50,000 units of Wizpy to India by the end of this fiscal and also plans to introduce products in the middleware and applications areas.

'Classmate PCs'

Intel to Get 'Classmate PCs' to India

Possibly inspired by Nicholas Negroponte and his $100 laptop, Intel is reportedly now planning to bring its range of low-cost 'classmate PCs' to India. It was sometime around the middle of 2006 that Intel brought the first 60 classmate PCs to India for a pilot test. By the end of the current year however, Intel plans to ship about 100 more such classmate PCs.
The first pilot test was conducted in December 2006 at the Delhi Public School, Vasundhara. The company will start the second round of pilots most likely at Navodaya Vidyalaya, also in Delhi.

A small laptop based on Intel's 900MHz Celeron-M processor, the classmate PC features a flash disk memory instead of a hard disk. As the name suggests, it is designed particularly for school going children. Significantly, sporting a price tag as low as between Rs 9,000 and Rs 11,000, Intel's classmate PC is definitely seen as a direct and dangerous competitor to the AMD-powered One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. And, the original price of a classmate PC is learnt to be around $285 but as the company expects to manufacture in volume, prices are also expected to fall to about $200.

Meanwhile, OLPC's laptop is currently estimated to cost around $175. According to sources at Intel, bringing classmate PCs to India is part of the company's World Ahead Program where Intel works in conjunction with federal and local governments to be able to reach the next 1-billion PC and Internet users.