PeeWee Pivot Tablet Laptop for kids

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Design, PC / Laptop, Toys

We’ve gotta hand it to PeeWee PC, as their Pivot Tablet Laptop looks exactly like something that would be a home run in the hands of a technology-curious child. Don’t go comparing this to the OLPC XO, though, because the Pivot Tablet starts at $599.99. What do you get for the cash? Let’s run down some of the specs. First of all, the Pivot Tablet Laptop if drop-resistant and spill-resistant, which immediately should give a bit of piece of mind to parents (like me) who know the horrors of kids + tech + juice. It also has a handle, making it easy for the children to tote the 3 pound device around. Getting into the nitty gritty, the Pivot Tablet Laptop sports a 10-inch touch-sensitive rotating display with stylus, 6-cell Li-ion battery, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB RAM, a 1.3 megapixel camera, and a 60GB hard drive. Not too shabby. You’ve also got two USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi, and the whole thing ships with Windows XP Home, which is customized with a theme of your choice (things liek Disney, Sci-Fi, etc.). Being a device for kids, there is also a security suite that let’s you keep on eye on what the little one is up to while using the device as well.

You can pick one up starting today.

Read More | PeeWee Pivot Laptop product page

Gallery: PeeWee Pivot Tablet Laptop for kids

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Academic Earth Offers Free Education

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Internet

Academic Earth is a new site dedicated to offering free learning with online video lectures and courses. There are thousands of them from 6 universities and dozens of instructors. Subjects include astronomy, computer science, chemistry, economics, mathematics and physics. Their goal, they say, is “giving everyone on earth access to a world class education.” We find this to be a noble plan and applaud the site in its efforts. They also welcome input to help improve it.

Read More | Academic Earth

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OLPC Give One Get One at Amazon

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Hot Deals, PC / Laptop

Once again, the OLPC project is offering its Give One Get One deal. This time it will be on Amazon. For $399.00, your child and one in another country will receive one of the colorful XO laptops. The company is still hoping to lower the price to $100.00, but so far increasing product costs have prevented it. About 473,000 units have been placed in 31 countries thus far. Order now in the U.S. and UK and get your XO this year. We are thinking that if you want to give your kids a great present for the upcoming holidays, he/she would love to know that they helped another child somewhere else.

Read More | OLPC

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HP 2133 Mini-Note PC launches

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Design, PC / Laptop

Today, HP made rumors of their releasing a low-cost ultra-portable PC a reality with the official announcement of the HP 2133 Mini-Note. Meant for the education market, the HP 2133 Mini-Note is designed with students in mind, and is optimized for both in-classroom and out-of-school learning. The 2133 Mini-Note features an 8.9-inch WXGA scratch-resistant display, lightweight anodized aluminum shell,and Wi-Fi. HP also threw in their 3D DriveGuard technology, which locks the drive in the event of sudden movement for protection of data, as well as HP DuraKeys, which prevents fading. You know kids and their greasy fingers.

“HP listened to our needs and now is delivering a product designed by education for education,” said Chris Sieger, director of information technology for Alexandria City Public Schools in Virginia. “Teachers and technology are the two most important assets in education. HP’s announcement demonstrates that it understands what schools need from industry.”

HP is aiming to keep this one inexpensive, so the Mini-Note starts at $499 USD. You can add on things like Bluetooth, integrated VGA webcam, and CompuTrace software which helps local law enforcement track stolen computers.

The HP 2133 Mini-Note PC should be available later this month, and you can check out more images of the device in our Mini-Note photo gallery.

Gallery: HP 2133 Mini-Note PC launches

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Check Your URL With Blog Readability Test

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Internet, Misc. Tech

Want to know how intelligent your readers have to be to get you? Critics Rant has devised a Blog Readability Test. Just paste in your URL to find out how much education is needed to understand it. It also works on MySpace, Livejournals, Facebook, and most other profiles and Websites. We plugged in Google, which came out rated “Genius,” MySpace and Facebook ranked “High School,” but you only need a “Jr. High” background to handle Yahoo. We’re not exactly sure of the method to determine the outcome, but we found it to be a pleasant enough diversion for about the length of time it takes to read the average blog.

Read More | Critics Rant

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England School to Use PSP as An Educational Tool

Posted by Lolita Beckwith Categories: Handhelds, Video Games

If you’re a gamer, you know that Sony’s Playstation Portable has an incredible amount of uses: UMD movies, music player, photo viewer, homebrew, internet access, and, oh yeah, video games. Well, instructors at Holyhead Secondary School in Birmingham, England are about to test a new use: teaching aid. Over the past 2 months, Holyhead teachers have been learning how to create podcasts, download media, upload pupils’ schoolwork, and more with the PSP. Lorna Diprose, whose departure from Sony Marketing to teach French at Holyhead led to this test run, feels the PSP is “...just like a mini-computer…you can use it to tailor-make lessons for pupils who need support or stretching.” The PSPs start their new job right after Easter break and will last until the end of the school year. 

Read More | BBC News via Joystiq

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