While the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program's XO-1 (pictured) has failed to meet its goal of a $100 laptop, India is set to unveil a prototype of the RS500, in Tirupati on February 3rd when the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Techology is launched.

Exploding Li-ion batteries aside, one other problem with such batteries is the eventual degradation of their performance. No matter what anyone tells you, the performance of such batteries drops over time. On Wednesday Hewlett-Packard and Boston-Power announced an upcoming option for HP laptops: a battery designed to last for at least three years without performance degradation.

Wal-Mart's been advertising this Saturday Special for a few days, and the special is limited to today, November 8th, while supplies last. The deal sounds attractive, a Compaq Presario CQ50-139WM laptop, 15.4" screen, 160 GB HD, 2 GB RAM for $298. However, nowhere can I find detailed specs on the laptop, which annoys me.

According to to a preliminary report from IDC's U.S. Quarterly PC Tracker, in the 3rd quarter of 2008, notebook sales surpassed desktop sales for the first time ever. Personally, I've been buying nothing but laptops for the past 4 years; the portability and ability to still buy a powerful (though pricey) machine lured me in.

Dell and Tesco announced the availability of Dell notebook and desktop computers in Tesco, a premier international retailer with operations in Europe and Asia.