TI's PDA for Teens

Computers are now a fact of life for most teenagers, whether they use them as a gaming platform, to do research, or to type up term papers. However, you just don't see a lot of kids walking around with PDAs. Texas Instruments is looking to change that with a low priced "handheld companion" for teenagers. The TI-83 Plus Silver Edition includes a bunch of classroom applications that cover everything from math and science to language arts and history, but at its heart, it's touted as a device that helps teens track and store tasks, class schedules, appointments, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and other information. It also remembers when tasks are due and summarizes tasks that have been completed. At a price point of $129.95, the handheld comes with a TI-GRAPH LINK (read: USB) cable so youngsters can connect the gadget to a computer to upgrade and add software, and transfer files and data to be printed or stored on disk. To make it even more attractive to the school-aged crowd, the TI-83 Plus can be customized with translucent red, yellow, green, and purple slide cases. TI is also encouraging kids to become burgeoning software developers. The company's Freeware Signing Key, which is packaged with its TI-83 Plus SDK, allows students who have learned to develop their own applications to distribute their work to others. We understand the "get `em young, train `em right" marketing model, but where are the games?