The XO in Action

I am sitting in the Starbucks in downtown Northampton, a place I almost never visit because of the high cost of a cup of Java. There are cooler places just a few doors down. But I am writing this post on my XO (known in my house as the Green Machine) to see how easy it is to post to the blog.

The XO is connected to the Web via a free Hotspot account through T-Mobile that is available to XO owners (for a year) and the hub is here at Starbucks. I connected with incredible speed (faster than my Dell laptop) and I was browsing in seconds.

I am curious to see if anyone asks me about the XO as I sit here at a community table. So far, I have gotten a few curious looks but that is about it.

OK — this tiny keyboard is killing me — I keep making mistakes and moving back and forth with my text. I am a fast typist so the slow progress is frustrating the connection between fingers and brain.

This morning, I was at home with the XO open and one of my sons was incredibly interested in what I was doing, so we opened up the TamTam program and played a little music. (You use part of the laptop keyboard as a virtual piano keyboard). One of my first goals is to learn the various TamTam programs and compose and record a little piece of music. I realize that I need to take this thing apart (not literally, of course) one program at a time. Music seems like a good place to start.

For now, in Starbucks this morning, I am going to use the XO as an e-Reader for some draft chapters for the book I am co-editing on technology and writing and assessment in the classroom. I have the files on a flash drive and in Google Docs, and I want to try both options for reading.

By the way, one of the things I already love about this machine is its portability — it is light, easy to carry and colorful.

Peace (in XOs),Kevin

4 Comments
  1. I can see you with in Starbucks. I see the whole picture and I’m glad to be walking through your early experiences with your new green machine. Mine is still in the box. It will have to wait. I’m on new tech overload. I have my Kindle to burn with it and that’s a PC as well. Can you create a DS with it?
    Keep playing….
    Bonnie

  2. Can you do DS on XO?
    Not yet, I don’t think, but I am too soon into it to know for sure.
    I know there are many new applications and programs being built for it in the Open Source/Linux community and I stumbled on some possible applications for creating comics and stop-motion, but I think they are still in development.

    This while Open Source world is new to me and something I will write about some other day. Interesting and a little disjointed at first. It makes me realize how developed my computer sensibilities are in the Bill Gates world view of the desktop.

    I do wonder, though, how kid-friendly this XO really is and how teachers in the developing world will be able to use it for literacy. It takes a bit of time to figure out the intuitive nature of the structure of the XO — at least it has for me in my limited time on it.

    And I am hoping for a Kindle report, Bonnie. How is it going?

    Kevin

  3. I am loving the quality of reading on my Kindle. My reading seems more focused and more economical. And I love the first book I downloaded, THree Cups of Tea.
    I will write more.

  4. Kevin,

    I hope to get a full report on the music creation stuff — I’ve played with the sound effects a couple of times, but haven’t really gotten to a place where I feel comfortable in those programs. As for reading, though, I’m sold – I’m reading myself to sleep at night with my trusty XO. Didn’t take long for that to become a habit.
    Hope to meet up with you via the XO soon!

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