Designed for your future-computer geek, PeeWee PC’s Pivot Tablet Laptop weighs in at just 3 pounds and is built to take the spills, bumps, scrapes, and drops that you should expect from a 3-10 year-old. Just like the average netbook, the Pivot runs on a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor and 945SE chipset, and packs in 1GB of memory, and a 60GB hard drive.
The rotating 8.9-inch (1024 x 600) touch screen twists and folds down to turn it into a proper tablet that recognizes handwriting—or whatever passes for “writing” for kids at that age—when used with the stylus.
It looks pretty simple, but the spec says it’s actually a full-featured, ruggedized netbook. The rest of the Pivot’s features include a rotating 1.3MP Webcam for chatting with mom and dad, a Walt Disney Windows XP theme, and 10 pre-loaded apps and games suited for kids from 3-10. It runs on a Windows XP operating system and is geared for accessing the Net via Ethernet LAN or Wi-fi b/g/n, but is built with security features that lets parents control how and when the laptop is used.
The PeeWee security software allows parents to limit how much time their children spend browsing the internet, block inappropriate sites with any browser, take screen shots, view browsing history, and control the laptop remotely. Parents can also limit the amount of game-time, as well as a feature that prevents the kids from changing the system settings, in case they get too computer-savvy.
The Pivot Tablet Laptop is now available for $600. The price may be a stretch for something that’s built for a 3 year-old, but it might be more powerful than the netbook you bought last year.
