A plethora of digital devices for the kids' room

Michael Rogers Columnist • Profile • E-mail

The results are in -- three recent studies all suggest that while a kid with a computer in his room gets better grades, adding a television has the opposite effect.  But it’s probably too late to do much about that.  A Kaiser Foundation survey recently found that nearly 70 percent of kids 8-18 already have a TV in their room, about half have a video game or DVD/VCR and a third have computers—and they spend an average of 44 hours a week using them, often at the same time. The kids’ room, in short, has become a multimedia center, and just as in the living room, a plethora of digital devices exist to fulfill that function.

At the heart of it is the computer, and here parents face the perennial Macintosh vs. PC question.  The Mac, of course, has the superior cool factor via its iPod cachet and also includes iLife software for photos, music and video creation.  For small rooms the new one-piece flat-screen iMac G5 is both powerful and space-saving, although the larger CRT-based eMac, while bulkier, is a great value starting at $799.  Both could also go on to dorm rooms, although a soon-to-be college student may prefer the portability of Apple’s iBooks, which start just under $1000.  (For the college-bound, it’s worth checking to see if the college or university has any computer recommendations.)  One Mac drawback: a narrower selection of the latest computer games. 

The PC side offers, for starters, more selection and lower prices.  Laptops in Compaq’s R4000 series start under $700 and offer an all-in-one solution at a low price.  Desktops can cost even less: price leader eMachines has well-equipped desktop computers starting under $400.  You’ll need to add a monitor, of course, but you should be able to find something from a brand like Gateway or Samsung for less than $150.  Make sure you keep your eyes open when you shop: because of competition and constant new model introductions, you can almost always find significant discounts or rebates on both PC desktops and laptops that are still perfectly powerful enough for a student’s bedroom computer.

The PC world also offers an interesting alternative: the Media Center PC. Available from a variety of manufacturers, these desktops use Windows Media Center software to provide, besides all the normal computing functions, full control of music, photos and videos, including television.  These PCs one-up the current Apple media capabilities by offering television reception and a built-in digital video recorder.  Sony has recently started to feature Media Center PCs, like the VAIO 540J, and if you add a large monitor and surround sound speakers you’ve got a killer entertainment system as well as a desktop computer that includes a decent bundle of software.  The Sony lists at $1149, but is sometimes discounted—and you can always figure that you’re also providing your kid with a television and stereo for the same price. (Unlike some other manufacturers Sony doesn’t include a remote control—so take a look at the amazing Gyration Media Center Remote that you can move in three dimensions to manipulate the cursor from across the room.) 

Regardless of which kind of computer you buy, think about throwing in a copy of Broderbund’s classic CD “Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.”  Kids often invent their own high-speed hunt-and-peck technique that looks serviceable, but there’s no substitute for touch typing.  And of course, whenever you put a computer in the kids’ room, you’re opening yourself to at least three problems: pornography, unwanted strangers, and viruses and spyware.  ISPs often include parental controls and anti-virus in the access charge, the latest Macs have parental controls built-in, or you can get them ala carte from places like Earthlink, AOL and MSN.  The industry-sponsored Website www.getnetwise.org is an excellent place to get more information on parental controls.  And for a broader view of threats, the September 2004 Consumer Reports article “Protect Yourself Online,” available at consumerreports.org for a small fee, is well worth it.  (MSNBC content is distributed by MSN. MSNBC itself is a Microsoft - NBC joint venture.)

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