BARBIE PLAYS NANCY DREW
Until now, the biggest adventure that Mattel Media’s popular line of Barbie CD-ROMS offered girls was a chance to discover a new hairdo for their plastic princess. Mattel’s latest offering, Detective Barbie ($35), promises something different: players must solve a kidnapping and recover the missing loot. Set in a colorful carnival setting, Detective Barbie is fun to play and almost seems daring–until the girls learn that Barbie’s real quest is to find Ken. Nothing new there.
PAGE ME IN PARIS
If the $3,000 price tag on the new lightweight satellite phones made by Kyocera and Motorola seems a bit high, globetrotters on tight budgets might consider Iridium’s $500 Go Anywhere pager instead. When Iridium’s 66-satellite network becomes operational–which is supposed to happen next month–the little pager will receive messages anywhere in the world. Usage fees aren’t set, but could be $50 to $100 a month.
TABLET COMPUTING
When it comes to notebook PCs, thin usually means expensive. But a new line of sub-$1,000, 3-lb. notebooks running the Windows CE operating system is both svelte and affordable. Hewlett-Packard’s Jornada, Sharp’s Mobilon Pro and Vadem’s Clio feature built-in modems, word-processing and spreadsheet programs, and offer up to 12 hours of battery life. The screens on the Mobilon Pro and Clio rotate on a hinge and can lie flat, tablet-style. But none have a floppy drive, making file transfers a bit awkward.
–By Anita Hamilton
More Must-Reads from TIME
- L.A. Fires Show Reality of 1.5°C of Warming
- Home Losses From L.A. Fires Hasten ‘An Uninsurable Future’
- The Women Refusing to Participate in Trump’s Economy
- Bad Bunny On Heartbreak and New Album
- How to Dress Warmly for Cold Weather
- We’re Lucky to Have Been Alive in the Age of David Lynch
- The Motivational Trick That Makes You Exercise Harder
- Column: No One Won The War in Gaza
Contact us at letters@time.com