A laptop for under pounds 100? It's child's play.A COMPUTER business has become the first company in the UK to sell laptops for less than pounds 100. Bromsgrove's Elonex has launched its pounds 99 invention, with wireless internet connection, email, word processing word processing, use of a computer program or a dedicated hardware and software package to write, edit, format, and print a document. Text is most commonly entered using a keyboard similar to a typewriter's, although handwritten input (see pen-based computer) and and an MP3 music player. The laptops come in pink, green, black, white and silver with enough memory for children to do their homework. Demand has been so popular that bosses at the firm expect to have run out of their 200,000 stockpile by the end of the month. Elonex managing director, Nick Smith, from Alvechurch, who employs around 35 staff at the company's Sherwood Business Park base, said: "The idea behind the Elonex One is to give every kid the chance to have their own laptop. "It is perfect for first time computer users because it has a simple layout and basic operating system (operating system) Basic Operating System - (BOS) An early IBM} operating system. According to folklore, BOS was the predecessor to TOS on the IBM 360 and it was IPL'd from a card reader. It may have been intended for very small 360's with no disks and limited tape drives. . "Parents of disadvantaged children can't always afford expensive laptops, but the Elonex One changes this. "There is no catch - what you see is what you get (jargon) What You See Is What You Get - (WYSIWYG) /wiz'ee-wig/ Describes a user interface for a document preparation system under which changes are represented by displaying a more-or-less accurate image of the way the document will finally appear, e.g. when printed. ." CAPTION(S): FUN LEARNING.... Nick Smith, of Elonex computers, logs on with his daughter Liberty, aged five. Picture: Jason Skarratt |
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