Now maybe you can help me out here, folks. My understanding this that the Simputer is that it would allow PC-like access to everyone. It would be both cost effective and location neutral. Apparently I was way off as the Amida Simputer is about as much as you might pay for a PDA here in the States! Oh ya, I can see that typical man in a third world country buying this for some $300 - alrighty then.

For a long time, the Simputer has been under development. Today, through an email by Jon ‘maddog’ Hall on the Digital Divide email list, it came to my attention again - in a big way.

Amida Simputer is here. And it’s got some cool features.

LiPod?

The MP3 player ability is a requirement these days, and this Simputer has the ability. You can also send voice messages yourself, or emails in your own handwriting. While 64 megabytes doesn’t hold a lot of music, they have USB Flash sticks that can expand this. I’m betting that any USB Flash stick would work, but it’s not too clear based on the site.

Connectivity

Getting online with the Simputer is a necessity. For simple text email and web browsing, it looks like it can perform well - and this is important for a device being used to target lower income people, and give them a useful machine at a reasonable price. [Read the rest]