The One Laptop Per Child Program or OLPC is an initiative to get every child, primarily in Africa, a new laptop.  The initial goal was to offer  a 0 laptop, but unexpected costs drove it much higher.  Now, OLPC is making another push to deliver more affordable technology by building a tablet computer.

This tablet is supposed to cost around although many debate if they will be able to hit that price point exactly.  It is a touch screen device giving it complete flexibility and portability.  It does not have a physical keyboard, but a touchscreen keyboard can be used on the tablet’s screen.

There is a unique philosophy that the developers are taking on this tablet.  There are no ports on it like USB or even a power plug.  The idea is that these devices might be used in areas with quite a bit of dirt and limiting access to dust and dirt might extend the life of the devices.  To charge it, it’s likely they will be laid on top of a magnetic charger of some kind like the Palm Pre currently does.

However, the missing USB ports could become a potential problem.  USB would allow for external keyboards and other hardware like flash drives.  It would be nice if there was a way to install information onto these tablets without needing internet access which many children in third world nations realistically are not going to have.

If there was a flash drive available, it would offer an easy way to distribute educational applications, audio, and reading materials for children to learn from.  Hopefully, what comes shipped with the unit will be sufficient to educate children for thousands of hours since there isn’t an easy way to get more material onto the device without an internet connection.

The new OLPC tablet is intended to cost less than 0.  There are absolutely no ports for external devices on this touchscreen tablet.  While this could offer some advantages, it will also take away the ability to add additional hardware and external memory.