Yet Another Computer Device For The Masses

from the we've-seen-this-show-before... dept

A researcher at Carnegie Mellon is getting ready to launch a $250 computer/TV/DVD player for poorer parts of the world where users couldn't necessarily afford a more expensive computer. He's calling in the PCtvt, and the whole thing sounds like quite a noble goal, but haven't we seen this movie before, and wasn't it called the Simputer? Wasn't it also massively overhyped, delivered years late and hasn't done particularly well. Also, while the Simputer was a Linux box, it appears the PCtvt uses Microsoft software... so if the pricing is about the same as the Simputer, you have to assume they had less money to spend on the actual hardware.