child

Kids, PCs and politics

CORONADO, Calif.--Say what you want about all the projects to bring low-cost PCs to the world, but at least someone's thinking of the children.

The Future in Review version of PCs-for-schools, Project Inkwell, tries not to get sucked into the increasingly competitive world of low-cost PC projects. Nick Negroponte of the One Laptop Per Child project recently traded blows with Intel Chairman Craig Barrett over who's more concerned about helping the poor, and who is simply looking for a new market.

"We think it should be a good business, we don't think there's anything … Read more

Unofficial Child Surveillance Day: IMSafer and MySpace upgrade

-- IMSafer, the parental IM monitoring system we covered in October, got a big upgrade today with support for Mac OS X and Windows Vista. The app keeps an eye on your child's (or spouse's!) instant messages, and alerts you via e-mail if the analysis tool finds inappropriate content. Previously, there was no Mac support.

-- MySpace is planning to launch an app that lets curious parents or significant others track MySpace log-ins on the family computer. Code-named "Zephyr," the app will make note of username, age, and location, then save the data to your machine. … Read more

CareSquare: Babysitting 2.0

Babysitters scare me. The concept of giving my child over to the care of a young (usually) person I barely know is utterly terrifying. That's why word-of-mouth referrals are so important for child care. But talking to friends to find a sitter? That's old-fashioned.

A new site, CareSquare, is a social network and scheduling utility for parents, babysitters, and nannies. On this system, you can review babysitters' profiles and see reviews from the community at large or from other parents in your network.

More importantly, you can search for child care by date and time. This is the … Read more

First $100 laptops ship, finally

It seems as if the $100 laptop (give or take a few bucks) has been discussed forever, but the first ones appear to have finally been built and shipped. The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project says it has received its first 10 from Quanta, its Taiwanese manufacturing partner.

The project is still in a beta stage, as the first 10 "B1" laptops were hand-assembled before a larger 900-unit run, according to the OLPC Wiki. Pictures were also available on the project's news Web site.

The B1 laptops run Linux and come with AMD's Geode processor, … Read more

Child's Play: Gamers for Goodness

Gaming-geek, Web-comic superstars Mike "Gabriel" Krahulik and Jerry "Tycho Brahe" Holkins have kicked off the third annual Child's Play charity drive. Child's Play sets up wish lists full of video games, toys, and other fun things to purchase and automatically donate to children's hospitals. Last year's Child's Play drive raised more than $600,000 for children's hospitals. With 28 hospitals participating worldwide so far, this year has potential to be even bigger.

Child's Play was originally created as a response to the public misconception that video games helped to … Read more

Music stand could make you a virtuoso

We've always had a secret desire to be a concert pianist, but there was just one problem: We never learned how to play the piano. The reason, of course, was that it's just too difficult to turn the sheet music and play at the same time.

If only one of these hands-free page-turners from Hammacher Schlemmer was available when we were kids. Not only does it solve the multi-tasking conundrum, but this digital tablet also doubles as a library that can store thousands of scores and display them on its 12-inch backlit LCD. It even has an MP3 … Read more