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Time Publishes Back to School Tech List for Wealthy, Spoiled Students

Posted by Zealot on August 28, 2009 – 12:59 am
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298137903_086d8cf7ff Well, Time has rolled out it’s list of 25 Must Have tech items for this year’s crop of incoming Freshmen…and I for one am not sure what economy they think they are writing for. The phone of choice is an iPhone 3G, ok, obviously. Kids are kids…but the laptop is a 13 inch MacBook Pro. Isn’t that a bit pricey in these days of tight budgets and netbooks?

The champagne tastes don’t stop there…a 300 dollar Samsung digital camera, an Alienware gaming monitor, a Kindle DX, a Livescribe, a Optoma Projector…a ROOMBA???

Grand total for the list? At least $5015, not counting data plans, optional accessories or special notebooks for the Livescribe (at 15-25 bucks a pop).

Lets hope that someone puts out a more reasonable list of good back to school tech suggestions that won’t eat up the entire trust-fund…and that your kids don’t see this one by Time.

Any of you have suggestions on great tech deals or ideas you found for your kid’s this year?

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By day a department manager and writer for a major network device vendor...by night Zealot stalks the mean magnetic streets, striking fear into the hearts of bandwidth abusers and theme park mascots. Zealot has been involved with mobile devices for more than a decade now, starting off with dumb phones, moving to PDAs and then to smartphones, notebooks and netbooks with the odd PMP thrown in. Most of his mobile time currently is spent on a Treo Pro, Zune HD, Thinkpad T61, Gigabyte M912M or a Hackintoshed Compaq Mini 704. He proudly groks the Geek community and considers himself a Neo Maxi Zune Dweebie (thanks Will Wheaton!).


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  • zanira
    The Livescribe notebooks are $15-20 a pop for a SET of 4 notebooks. Had to point this out, cause a $20 notebook sounded a little to ridiculous.
  • I stand corrected, thanks.
  • LOL Great title. Personally, I get the Roomba more than the Optoma projector. Students are lazy (or too busy studying and partying) and don't want to vacuum, but what do they need a projector for? Are they playing YouTube videos from their iPhone on the bathroom wall of their dorm?

    If you really think they need a pico projector, there's a refurbished 3M one at Yugster for $180, including shipping -- $120 less than Optoma's and with better resolution and distance.

    And if you're going to suggest an Alienware monitor for gaming, wouldn't a Windows laptop (maybe even a pricy Alienware laptop) be a better recommendation? Has Mac gaming caught up with Windows gaming yet?

    I'm also not convinced about the Kindle. Are lots of textbooks available in Kindle form? If not, what's the point? If you can get them in PDFs, you can read them on the laptop or iPhone.

    Another stupid recommendation is the MiFi. Besides requiring another data plan (on a different carrier than the iPhone's), it's another piece of equipment to lug around along with the laptop and iPhone.

    Instead, why not suggest tethering your laptop to your iPhone? (Even if AT&T doesn't support tethering, maybe "there's an app for that" -- but probably not on the Apple App Store.) (Another good reason to use Windows Mobile. :D)

    But I guess the article is titled the "25 Best Back-to-School Gadgets", not the "25 Most Reasonable Back-to-School Gadgets". :D

    Steve
  • elrond
    Wow. This is bad in so many ways. I am having trouble deciding which soapbox to get on. The digital divide? Proper respect for a work ethic? Missing the point? Or maybe I am missing the point and this is just a stimulus project?
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