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Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child initiative got a boost this week at the Seven Countries Task Force, which showed crank-free working prototypes.

MIT's One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) got a boost at the Seven Countries Task Force Meeting, which showed rainbow-colored working prototypes of the $100 laptops. Aimed at children in development markets, the laptops are designed to bring basic computing and communications capabilities to classrooms in areas where infrastructure to support information technology may be minimal to non-existent. Although concept mockups of the OLPC systems showed a hand crank which could power the system if no external power source was available, the working models seem to rely on battery and external power.

The working units use slightly different designs, and apparently feature directional wireless antennas, USB and audio ports, a built-in handle, and are currently running Fedora Linux, although the organization is working to slim down a build of Red Hat Linux for the final systems. Also a surprise: colors! Prototypes shown sported an orange-and-yellow look, as well as blue and green. Some units also feature directional controllers built into the screen.

The OLPC project doesn't plan to begin manufacturing until 5 million orders have been paid for in advance: they're hoping for major orders from developing economies like Brazil, India, China, and Nigeria. The OLPC project has been denigrated by the likes of Microsoft, which is now rolling out pay-as-you-go computing options to developing countries, and by some critics who content mobile phones will be the most practical information and Internet technology. Still others contend that re-purposing older PCS for developing nations (rather than developing a new one) is a better use of existing resources.

A photo gallery of the working units has been posted on the photo-sharing site Flickr. With with those antennas, they're sure cute!