Cybergoodies for your schools
January 1997

Kiddie Newton

Apple is getting extra mileage out of its Newton platform with the eMate 300, a subnotebook for students that adds a keyboard, larger screen, and more built-in applications to the familiar personal digital assistant. With a reinforced chassis, no internal moving parts, and a long-life rechargeable battery, it's billed as a kid-proof mobile computer for under $800. There's no built-in modem, and it doesn't have the adult Newton's spiffy new 160 MHz processor, but the eMate does have a cool green case.

What's up, Doc?

If Silicon Graphics' latest workstation--the O2--looks like something out of a cartoon, it's because Hollywood computer animators drool over its graphics and computing power. Give the budding George Lucases in your school a real computer to animate their futures with. Prices start at $6,000 for a 180 MHz RISC processor, 32 MB of RAM, and a 17-inch monitor.

Read to me

From Ray Kurzweil, who made the first reading machines for the blind, comes a system designed to help students with learning and reading disabilities. Place any book or magazine on the scanner, and the Kurzweil Educational Systems Omni 3000 will read it aloud, visually highlighting the words on the screen as it speaks with a clear and natural-sounding voice. The complete PC-based system goes for $5,000.

Not just a prettier face

With the addition of the Windows 95 user interface, Microsoft's industrial-strength network operating system receives a much-needed facelift and many functional improvements, too. Windows NT Server version 4.0 will run your network faster than the previous iteration, Microsoft says, and now it's a web server to boot. One of its many new features is the ability to combine the speed of several modems and ISDN lines for a zippier connection between your school's network and the Internet--a neat trick.