The One Laptop Per Child's project just got one step closer to updating its venerable XO portable through a newly-struck licensing deal with Neonode. The XO Touch 1.75, a slight rebranding of the as yet unreleased XO 1.75 we saw last year, will use Neonode's MultiSensing to give the laptop a multi-touch screen that's both very responsive and eco-friendly in the same breath. Even as it samples finger input at up to 1GHz, the new OLPC system's 300 DPI display will still use under 2W of power and remain viewable in bright sunlight -- students can even wake up the new model with a gesture instead of using anything so crude as a power button. As important as these advances are to bringing touch to remote schools, we still have some questions about the release schedule and the cost. The XO 1.75 was originally due this year, but we don't know if the Neonode pact will alter the timetable or hike the target price. We've reached out to the OLPC team for comment and will update if there's new details.

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OLPC XO Touch 1.75 to use Neonode tech, take multi-touch on world tour originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jul 2012 20:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.