Simputer ships

The Simputer, my favorite example of socially responsible vaporware, has finally become a hard reality, the Associated Press reports.

It's a low-cost, Linux-powered handheld computer designed by Indian scientists in 2001 to introduce computing to populations too poor to afford regular computers. Simputers aren't designed for use by individuals or single households but entire villages. Wired News outlined the developers' ambitious goals, and the ingenious ways they use technology to circumvent problems such as illiteracy, three years ago (although the specs of the finished device have been upgraded from what's detailed in the article).

Will the Simputer have as great an impact as Freeplay's wind-up radios have? We'll have to wait and see (although people are already hashing out the issues on Slashdot, naturally.)