Briefly
Noted:
For the past several years, Indians at
the Bangalore-based
Institute of Science have been working on a handheld computer
that would be simple and inexpensive enough to be used widely to
access the Web, email and other basic computer functions. Finding a
way to produce it commercially was less simple, but the product has
now been launched by PicoPeta Simputers as the Amida Simputer (Simputer
stands for Simple,
Inexpensive, Multilingual,
People's Computer).
The company claims it hopes to sell 50,000 Simputers in the
first 12 months.
Priced
at about $200, its backers hope that it will substantially increase
the penetration of information in India, where less than 1% of the
population currently owns a computer.
PicoPeta hopes that using the Simputer to access information
will cost less than one Rupee a day
Some
of the applications PicoPeta is targeting include billing for
electricity meters, education, microbanking and finance, rural life
and agriculture, e-governance, healthcare, and sales and sales force
automation.
Currently,
the device is manufactured for PicoPeta by Bharat Electronics.
Hardware:
It is built on a 200 MHz processor with 64Mb of memory, a
lithium ion battery (with 6 to 8 hours of usage), two USB ports, an
infrared port, and a 3.8” backlit touch screen.
It includes a speaker and microphone.
Software:
The Simputer uses a version of GNU Linux, with a browser and
email support (both developed for the Simputer); it also offers
consumer software (MP3 player, photo album, movie player, and
games), an address book, and some financial management software.
It can access the Internet via a landline or cell phone
connection. An SDK is
available for software developers.
A
more advanced version of the device is planned at a price point
between $279 and $470.
SCO
More news on the SCO front.
One of SCO’s financiers, part of the $50 million deal they
put together last fall, is asking for its money back.
BayStar Capital says that SCO is in default on certain
provisions of their agreement and it wants its $20 million back.
The Royal Bank of Canada, the other investor in this deal,
has not expressed an opinion so far, but could follow suit.
At last accounting, SCO had $56 million
in cash and blew through $3.4 million for legal expenses in the last
quarter. Without that
$50 million, SCO would have great difficulty in financing its
various legal cases and, in fact, SCO has previously described this
$50 million investment as a war chest.
SCO denies understanding why BayStar
believes they are in breech of their agreement.
Various commentators on the web note that it is usual in such
circumstances for the parties to have many verbal discussions before
a written demand is made. We’d
guess there will be more to follow here.
On another SCO note, Open Source Risk
Management has completed its investigation and review of the Linux
2.4 and 2.6 kernels and has certified the Linux kernel to be free of
copyright infringement. It is now prepared to offer risk mitigation
and coordinated legal defense services to any Linux user who may
require them.
OSRM will provide legal protection for a
fee of about 3% of the desired maximum covered; this is comparable
to other IP insurance. This means $1 million in coverage would cost $30,000 per
year. Note that this
coverage is not insurance, but a combination of risk assessment,
risk mitigation, and legal services.
Information about this program is available at www.osriskmanagement.com.
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