A low-cost laptop priced at $100 makes its New Zealand debut with Kiwi co-founder Prof. Barry Vercoe taking the lead. The cheap laptop is part of an international goal to provide educational computers to millions of children worldwide.

The Kiwi native, along with his colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), began the development of a budget computer eight years ago, dubbed as the $100 laptop. The One Laptop Per Child program has now come to New Zealand to reach schools across the country.

The program founders also hope to gain government funding. Prof. Vercoe, who is also a professor emeritus of Media Arts and Sciences of the prestigious Boston Institute, had assisted making XO computers available to schools in some of the most remote places in the planet before moving back to New Zealand.

Vercoe said he thought of bringing the program home since he had already gone to other countries to spread the $100 laptops.

One school in New Zealand, Te Wharekura o Manaia in Coromandel, has taken the $100 laptop program and issued 67 computers to junior students.

The laptops, developed by the Media Lab of MIT, were designed to withstand abuse but are powerful enough for children to enjoy interactive educational activities. The software used in the cheap laptops was taken from open source and free software to ensure schools will not have to pay for expensive licencing programs.

The systems built into the budget laptop encouraged children to build and create than just simply browse the Web.

In 2008, the program was able to distribute free XO laptops to children in the Pacific Islands, including Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. In 2012, the federal government of Australia made a $12 million investment, which resulted to the distribution of 50,000 units to the country.

Vercoe hopes New Zealand will follow the footsteps of Australia.

GTA5 Uses New Zealand Audio Technology

Arvus Digital, a New Zealand technology company, has confirmed that Grand Theft Auto Five (GTA5) developer RockStarNorth used its unique audio technology using HDMI to AES/EBU digital audio converter and the HDMI-2A.

Arvus Digital used the same type of digital audio technology for Sony in 2011 and has since become the leading standard HDMI to AES/EBU interface for both the film and game development industries.

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