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Kid's Notebook By jason_mcguire,  May 27, 2007

I believe Dell should sell notebooks for kids. My 2 year old daughter is always on my pc, and she has a difficult time using my desktop.

A notebook or tablet PC that is designed especially for her age group would be perfect. It should include the following features/attributes:

-Portable

-Include a DVD player to play movies at home or in the car

-Large keyboard for letters and numbers that are color coded, i.e a red A, a blue B, a green C, etc...

-Ruggedized

-Lightweight

-Colorful

-Offer a docking station for home use as well as a docking station that's mountable in the car

-Include software for kids, i.e. learning tools, games, etc...

-Include easy to use buttons for launching a browser, mail, movies, etc...

Jason McGuire

DELL/ Status Update

Please check out The Nickelodeon Edition Inspiron Mini
jason_mcguire430.0
  Sun May 27 15:16:01 GMT 2007
Comments: 16
Categories: Laptops  Sales Strategies  
Status:Partially Implemented


Comments

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By jervis961  May 27, 2007
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Interesting idea, wonder how much it would cost. I would assume go low end on the parts to keep costs down since kids don't usually complain about speed and video quality as much as an adult.
By petzymathuram  May 27, 2007
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Hi, Good idea, please give a small teddy bear as a gift with it.
By helmecj01  May 27, 2007
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you can run Linux on it or Linux-based operating systems
By jmxz  May 27, 2007
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Good idea - but don't make it too underpowered like some kids computer vendors. At 2 my kids loved playing with the laptops; but you'd be surprised how quickly they learn the letters and numbers. I'm intending to give my kids an old computer when my new one that I just ordered will arrive. My opinions on your ideas: * Portable - YES. That would be good if they can move it from their room to the living room themselves without breaking it. * DVD player - YES - and especially ruggedize the DVD-loader-tray -- those get a lot of abuse from my kids; though surprizingly they didn't break it yet. Perhaps they're stronger than they look. * Colorful / color coded keys - Not in my kids case - they want it to look like daddy's and be "real"; and I was shocked how fast they learned all the letters with the "Elmo Keyboard Game" on pbskids (google it).
By bennish  May 27, 2007
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2? man kids are growing fast these days. probably tells you what you're doing wrong! "no dad, you don't do that!" hehe anyway good idea. i know plenty of ppl who use 2nd hand laptops for their kids, but a cheap safe one that's specially for them would be good.
By petzymathuram  May 28, 2007
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Hi, An option for the Primary school kids aged between 7-11 years as well. They have exams on MS Paint, MS Word to start, moving up with more advanced syllabus. There need to be an option to load MS ( Paint/ word / Media Player (MWA) to cope up with their syllabus. Still it needs to be a portable one, ruggedized, with DVD player, games, etc etc.
By airblazer  May 28, 2007
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Why do the linux geeks feel the need to post comments like above to every thread. Can u imagine a 2-4 year booting up Ubuntu etc and thinking to themselves wtf? Let them stick to Windows and when they're older then let them experiment with different OS's. At least with Windows Daddy will probably be able to tell them what the problem is. Great idea with the kiddies notebook though..my nephew and nieces are going mad to play with it.
By bennish  May 28, 2007
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well said airblazer. we don't need linux ads in EVERY thread
By jmxz  May 29, 2007
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airblazer - Linux seems way off topic here, but since you specifically asked: airblazer - "Can u imagine a 2-4 year booting up Ubuntu etc and thinking to themselves wtf?" Yes. When my kid was 2 he had no problems at all. And it was easier for me to tune the UI to work well for him (double click speed; make most things single-click; set permissions on various directories so he had read-only access to most of the computer, etc). airblazer - "Let them stick to Windows and when they're older then let them experiment with different OS's. " Please no. When he tried Mommy's Windows computer he had a tendency to want to click "yes" to all the "would you like to run this .exe" popups he navigated to. Those don't seem to cause any problems under Linux - and indeed can't mess up anything outside his own account -- but are rumored to sometimes cause problems on Windows computers.
By bennish  May 29, 2007
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sure jmxz, that all may be, but we're specifically referring to the useless comment by helmecj01. it just comes out of the blue like a silly ad. i mean, of course you can run linux on it. we all know that. he doesn't need to come in to a fairly unrelated thread and just basically do a 'linux rulez!' post.
By jmxz  May 29, 2007
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bennish: Yup - I agree. This idea is 100% orthogonal to what OS might work on it.
By steve.au  Jun 13, 2007
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LOVE the idea guys. A couple more suggestions;

I've just started introducing my two year old using my work laptop. There are just WAY too many buttons.

It would be great if there could be an admin function to enable/disable the input functions as his skills get better;

Space Bar only
Touchpad & Right Button only (maybe remap Left button to Right)
Whole keyboard

You could probably do this with third party apps (haven't looked) but ease of use I think means it needs to be BIOS
By jmxz  Jun 14, 2007
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steve.au: "It would be great if there could be an admin function to enable/disable the input functions as his skills get better;" If you've got a Ubuntu dell, it has programs like "xmodmap" and "xkeycaps" that let you can map, say, all keys but the space bar to a no-op. http://web.mit.edu/answers/xwindows/xwindows_xmodmap.html I did try that a bit but found that in the end it was easier to reprogram the kid than the computer. Thanks to the Elmo keyboard game (which he absolutely loved at 2) he learned most all the keys (and lettters) before 3. http://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet/games/flash.php?contentId=9495524 Just make sure you set up a non-admin account for him since my kid sure liked to click "yes" to "would you like to run this .exe" popups. Don't know how well Wine ran them; but I'm glad it wasn't under my account.
By steve.au  Jun 21, 2007
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jmxz: "it was easier to reprogram the kid than the computer" Unfortunately at this stage I'm only getting syntax errors trying to program the kid. Don't get me wrong, I can see a place for Linux, just not for me. When I get home I really don't want to do scripting. I just want a nice easy commercially supplied option in BIOS for me to turn on or off. Call me a sell out I don't care. One more idea. A 'child lock' on the notebook so that the power is not turned off by wandering fingers. A link is posted here http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/69623/Child_Lock_on_Power_Switch
By petzymathuram  Jun 22, 2007
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Hi, The laptop panel on the top side can be designed Rugged like a Cadburry Dairy Milk chocolate depression moulds written "Dell" instead of "Cadburry". It will look pretty Rugged, a chocolate look, child attractive, will it not look different? A child will fast select / prefer chocolate computers right? ;) ;)
By petzymathuram  Jun 22, 2007
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Hi, We have pencil cases, lunch boxes, etc etc. designed likewise, so Y not the top of a laptop?

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