While writing a recent article, on the OLPC XO Laptop, one of the all time most popular articles on Techlife, we got to meet Wayan Vota the founder of OLPC News. Wayan’s a strong, independent voice in the community of OLPC and the XO Laptop. He was featured on 60 Minutes for his work. (see 7:06 mark on Techlife TV for Wayan) I appreciated his grasp of both technology and non-profits and how the two mesh, so we sat down with him to learn more about what makes Wayan tick (tick, tick.) (unabashed 60 Minute pun for the OLPCNews readers who know me.)

Lesley Stahl discusses the 60 Minutes piece on the OLPC on Techlife TV.

Techlife: Wayan Vota. Interesting name, what are the origins?

Wayan Vota: Born on Bali to hippie folks. Got a local name in the process.

TL: Why did you start OLPC News?

WV: In the summer of 2006 I noticed there was much hype around OLPC, but little thoughtful analysis of its proposed methods and assumed impacts. I wanted to explore the details of OLPC’s implementation plan - how it expected to actually get laptops in the hands of children worldwide - in public form of open commentary and discussion. With ~5,000 daily readers, over a dozen writers, and too many contributors to count, I feel that OLPC News is successful beyond my wildest dreams.

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Three of the biggest areas in tech are Gaming, Mobile and Computing. This past month tackled this three ring circus in Techlife’s online blog. We covered a Nintendo Wii tip for the gamers, Techlife TV had video preview of Google’s Android mobile phone operating system and finally we took a diversion to a special kind of computing. If you haven’t visited, check out Techlife online.

At Techlife we often advise clients that giving back to the community is not just good PR. It can really impact employees and your business in many ways. I personally have a variety of organizations that I donate my time towards and the rewards truly are amazing. A recent story once again reinforced it pays to do good. It’s called karma people.

As loyal readers know Techlife is an early adopter, but we don’t always write about things immediately. Our readership appreciates the pace, as the our reports give a real “lived in” flavor. For example we have had a Nintendo Wii in our office for well over a year, as we snagged one early on. But our first Wii article was about something that puzzled us, and we thought might help others.

We have had an OLPC XO Laptop (One Laptop Per Child) in our offices since late last year. For those unaware, these are those little green laptops originally billed as the $100 laptop (ended up closer to $200), and intended for children globally, but with special focus towards countries where computers are few and far between. The idea that if children had the chance to use a computer regularly, their own computer, they would grow up and be able to implement technology into their country with more ease. A noble pursuit.

Click “more” to read how the OLPC XO Laptop Saved the Day… and see the image gallery.
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Techlife TV has a double feature today with videos on Android the Google operating system for mobile phones. These videos demo simple text messaging and chat, rendering of the earth, the videogame Quake, Google Maps and Street view and much more.

As a long time user of the Sidekick by Tmobile, also known as the Hiptop, Techlife TV was excited to see Apple’s iPhone be released and now Google’s Open Handset Alliance operating system Android in the wild. These mainstream devices will help provide competition to RIM’s Blackberry Operating System and Microsoft’s Mobile platform along with the other manufacturers of smart phones like Nokia and Palm. It was interesting to see Microsoft buy Danger the makers of the Sidekick mostly because Danger founder Andy Rubin left a few years ago to form a company acquired by Google and now turned into Android. So all this means more for the consumer.

Which smart phone will win is anyone’s guess? But with Apple moving into the top ten in sales of the iPhone it will be exciting to watch the future unfold in this segment of the marketplace.

Google’s Andy Rubin demos Android for the BBC - Blip.tv video via Gizmodo

Techlife readers know I am big fan of Google Docs. Even Google knows. It is a great tool for collaboration. I also use a Sidekick from Tmobile, and today those worlds collide with the introduction of Google Docs Mobile. Google Docs for your mobile device, also works on such smart phone platforms as iPhone, Blackberry or Windows Mobile but as this reviewer says it is really Google Docs Mobile Viewer.

On the Sidekick you need to enable Javascript, which is common enough. The main page where all my recent docs reside is a great adaptation for the mobile device. It really lets me see the important things quite easily. That is where the goodness ends. The only somewhat manageable document type is a word processor to view mobile. The spreadsheet gives such a small view that it is really unusable and their brand new presentation tool does not work.

Now we all know that Google will evolve this toolset, as they are prone to do. And with the recent announcement of the gPhone being produced, it is clear their next area of growth is mobile. This offering could have been in the labs a few more weeks because my initial excitement was quickly replaced with disappointment at only having “real” access to my word processing documents and here’s the biggest surprise. No edits!

They opted to leave out the capability to edit in this early alpha beta release, which is a big disappointment. What mobile have you tried it out with?

Thanks to Lifehacker for the post.

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Blogging is a pretty cool way to write my syndicated column. Recently other peers in MSM (Mainstream Media) and the blogosphere have been taking notice of Techlife. Our recent brush with the paparazzi came a bit more literally. “Popular Photography and Imaging” magazine and it’s sister publication “American Photo” magazine each have a blog.
In a recent post on the blog PopPhoto.com| FLASH they wrote about the DIY project How to make a LifePoster with Picasa article. They added this great idea:

…use this technique with camera phone images. Most images from phones are far too low of a resolution to do anything with except create avatars or use as backgrounds on your phone. Using this technique, you can gather a bunch of images from your phone (or many phones over the years) and compile them together into a very printable poster that you can hang.

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We saved this information for today, as it is 4/11 (if you are in the USA.) And if you are in the USA you know all about the 411, and we aren’t talking about slang meaning “giving out information” but the national directory assistance that most landlines and mobile phones charge upwards of $1.25 (know something higher? Stick it in the comments.) Well “The Google” is pumping out the 411 in a big way with free SMS information and free directory assistance.

After Techlife’s recent article on getting the price of any house via your mobile’s SMS, the reaction was really positive. People love their mobile and getting information on it. Google has had an SMS service for a long time now. Simply send an SMS to “GOOGL” or “46645″ with say “Pizza and your ZIP Code” and a few seconds later a quick text message reply has you eating cheesy goodness, or at least ordering it. You can also get things like flight and airline information. Google’s free service wants to help everyone, especially frustrated travelers.
But today is 4/11 so we will give you two pieces of information on this “The 411 Day”. Google also recently released Google 411. Another free service from the ominpresent dealers of information.

Google Voice Local Search lets you search for local businesses from any phone and for free. If you’re in the US, call 1-800-GOOG-411 and say what you want to find. Here are some of the features:

You can find a business listing by category. Just say “pizza,” for example.
* You can send the listing details to your mobile phone via SMS.
* The service is fully automated, so it doesn’t rely on human operators.
* It connects you directly to the business, free of charge.

Now that you have the 4-1-1, tell us how you used it in the comments!

Thanks to all the tipsters including SportsFan Dan, Cactusphone, Abkadefgee, Lifehacker on Google SMS Flight Info, and Lifehacker on Google 411. Got a tip for us, send it in to techlifetips [at] dkworldwide [dot] com.

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“Barcodes for houses?” Everyone’s been shopping a big box, where the cashiers are miles from you in the front of the store, the employees are all on their 2 hour lunch break at the same time no where to be found and you need to know how much this Transformers: The Movie: The Board Game is for your nephew. So what did the big boxes install, mobile scanners. Basically you walk up scan the barcode of your item and it reads or announces the price.

Well Housefront just made price-checking a home easy. Even better is they allow you to do it when you need to: checking house prices with your mobile is the perfect application. (USA only for now). I mean how often are you out and see a for sale sign but don’t have your computer with you? Using it was simple.

As Lifehacker notes:

…just text the street address to HOUSE (46873). In a minute you’ll get back a text message listing the year the house was built, the square footage, the number of baths/bedrooms, and the estimated price.

Lifehacker and Techlife also agree that it is much easier than Zillow’s mobile app for the same purpose. I will take it one step farther. Housefront provided way more information in the SMS reply. Now the real question is accuracy, input a home you know and let us know how accurate they are?

Update 1: Housefront blogged about another cool feature today. Automated search history.  Basically by using their service via texting your mobile number creates an account of all the homes you viewed while you were out house shopping.  When you get back to your PC all the data from your searches are saved for your research/browsing.

Readers of Techlife know I use a Sidekick 3 for my mobile email, phone and web. But I also use it for the great AOL Instant Messaging or AIM service it provides. Instant messaging is quick back and forth text snippets, like an SMS message. While chatting with a live friend or colleague is useful, there is another type of chat, chatting with a “Bot”. An AIM bot typically provides various types of information as requested by the user, such as a phone number of a local business or the weather in a specific area.

I have been beta testing FeedCrier, an RSS reader built into an AIM bot. It also works on MSN, Jabber and Google Talk. Wow! That’s a lot of mumbo-jumbo, so let’s simplify it. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and that refers to the code that allows easy and free subscription to blogs, web pages, and other data on the internet. FeedCrier by developer Adam Kalsey takes something simple in Instant Messaging and combines it with a popular format in RSS and the result is elegant yet easy.

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Normally we fire up a computer to manage Techlife but today we were not near the computer when the Tmobile Sidekick 3 alerted us to a comment on a previous post via an email.

I have written before how useful it is in today’s world to have a Sidekick or Blackberry. As a consulting firm, we help small businesses setup their mobile email and it immediately makes a huge impact in our clients work/life balance. They don’t feel so tied to the computer. Our clients love being active and mobile. Contact us to help your small business.

I appreciate the flexibility of mobile email, and today I add the power of mobile web as I post this from my Sidekick 3.

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My un-named techidol friend just got his iPhone and was kind of enough to take a bunch of photos of the unboxing and email them to Techlife,exclusively!

He and I got our Sidekick’s on the same day; day 1. But he is an Apple fan, so I can understand his lust. (Why is there a windows PC in this shot I will never know?)

I was pretty shocked as Steve Jobs said they wouldn’t be out until June in the Keynote. But you VIPs tend to get them in advance.

Another photo after the jump…

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The hipster PDA by Merlin Mann of 43folders.com fame dates back to September 2004.  It has served many people very effectively but of course there is always room for improvement.

In August of 2006 Techlife’s column was about PocketMod.  PocketMod is a single sheet of paper created easily online and printed on a single sheet of paper.  It’s unique feature is the wealth of modules the author created. 

Techlife reader Matt, recently has been commenting on how he uses the PocketMod and how he plans on using it.  I thought it was interesting and others might find it useful.  Feel free to join the discussion.

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MacGyver’s Notebook
To any origami master, a crisp, single sheet of paper can be turned into a beautiful creation with just a few folds.  The Japanese art of taking a simple object and turning it into something beautiful is just that, artistic.  In TechLife, “the useful” is much more my area of expertise.  Television’s poster-child of usability was MacGyver, who seemingly every week used duct tape and a paperclip to defeat the bad guys.  One utility item MacGyver always carried was his Swiss Army knife, a multi-utility tool about the size of a cigarette lighter.

While there doesn’t appear to be a revival of the television show, the idea of a utility tool in all areas of life is always appealing.  I have a special treat for you today, something I call MacGyver’s notebook, also known as a PocketMod.

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Wielding Massive Power 

Batman has Robin. The Lone Ranger has Tonto.  Who’s your sidekick? I know, I can already hear the arguments, ‘Superman doesn’t have a sidekick and he’s the most powerful Superhero of all.’  My retort, ‘Are you sure?’  When Lex Luthor or The Joker plan diabolical schemes to thwart our Super Friends, one of the first places all of these super smart defenders of justice turn is their computer.

How many times has Batman exclaimed, “Robin, to the Bat Computer!”?  While recent feature films have updated this notion, almost all Superheroes have very powerful technology research tools.  These marvels are often small, concealable and now within our reach.  Meet your Sidekick.

More after the jump

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