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CNN Live Saturday

Interview With Steve Kruschen, Mr. Gadget

Aired August 10, 2002 - 12:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KRIS OSBORN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we will move on and ask you, what well-prepared student this year, what he needs in his backpack. We are here with Mr. Gadget, Steve Kruschen. It's a pleasure having you in and talking to you.
STEVE KRUSCHEN, MR. GADGET: Thank you very much.

OSBORN: Really interesting stuff. He has all kinds of high-tech must-haves; the days of the pencil and paper are gone. Look at this. Where do we start?

KRUSCHEN: Well, let's start with some high-tech pens, because students all over the country, grades four, five and six have to use erasable ink pens. Well, now, Pilot has come out with erasable gel. Now, everybody, you know, students especially, love gel pens. And they're fun. They're in red, black, green, and blue. But this one is erasable. Totally.

OSBORN: Wow.

KRUSCHEN: Check that out.

OSBORN: Excellent.

KRUSCHEN: So now you can have all the benefits and fun of a gel pen and it's erasable too, so it makes everybody happy. They are only, you know, a couple of dollars.

OSBORN: I was just going to say, is it more expensive than your everyday pen?

KRUSCHEN: No, creamy, smooth. As they say, they write like a pen and erase like a pencil. It's great.

Now, here is a very interesting concept. This is a simple communication tool that can help an accidentally lost child find his way back to or be reunited with a group. I think it's great for schools. It's called Kid Call Alert. And it starts with this badge. And adults program into this -- this system, it's a national database, there is a toll-free number that's called and then a pin. They program in telephone numbers that are for use in case of the child being lost, so the child can call the number or a responsible adult can call the number. And it automatically forwards that phone call to that responsible adult, so that the kids are reunited with the group.

I think it's a great idea for schools and for individuals; it's very inexpensive. It's only about, you know, $13 for a couple of cards.

OSBORN: And you can't say enough about how parents are concerned these days?

KRUSCHEN: That's right. So it's just an added measure of comfort and more information is at Kidcallalert.com. I think it's a great new concept.

OSBORN: What about this? This is an educational device.

KRUSCHEN: An educational handheld that helps students learn English and algebra and also stay organized. This is a TI-83 plus silver edition, comes pre-programmed, preloaded with lots of software. Let me get to the button here and show you that it does so many more things. It's great for learning languages. It's great for staying organized. It's great for learning science and math, and for appointments and for phone numbers and for spread sheets. And you can download much more information or programs for it at TI.com, and then transfer it to the handheld from the computer. It's only about $130.

OSBORN: All kinds of different learning. And this device right here, this educational device really speaks to a lot of where the technology is going, and the kinds of conversions. I mean, that one thing does so many different things.

KRUSCHEN: That's right. It's a wonderful way to go. Now, in a student dorm room, you have got to have a DVD player, as well as the student room at home. The problem has been most of those rooms are kind of small. So, Sony has come up with the -- what they call the PsycDVD Player. It plays all the video formats, plus all the audio formats including MP-3s, and look how small it is. You hook it up to your television. And what's really cool is students can customize it. This little panel here comes off. And I have downloaded and laminated here. This is just one of the inserts that I found at Sonystyle.com, and you can replace the red that we have here with any kind of design or photo or what have you. Comes with a remote. It's only $150. And it's transportable. So kids can take it from one dorm room to another. And you see, it's very compact.

OSBORN: Absolutely. It seems very small. And then, again, doing more things and being small. How much is this, though?

KRUSCHEN: This is only $150.

OSBORN: OK. Oh, wow, really?

KRUSCHEN: Yeah.

OSBORN: You know, I always say I'm going to wait until the price comes down, and this is something...

KRUSCHEN: This is great, great size, great performance. And I think it's a fun thing for back to school for students in a dorm. Now, another thing for students back to school, high school and above, got to have a CD burner. Well, I've chosen this one as an external burner. This is from IOmega, it's the predator CD-RW, and the reason I've chosen it is because it is external, which means it's portable. So not only can kids burn their music CDs, which they've got to do, but it's also great for backing up that irreplaceable information, reports and what have you. And it will plug into any modern computer. It's a U.S.B. connection here.

So it means you can take it and just plug it in and use it. I found this at Best Buy for $190 before a $30 rebate, so it's not terribly expensive and it's a great way to go as well.

OSBORN: What's amazing about a lot of these things, is they're user friendly. It will come with software that you then plug in and it tells you exactly how to hook it up.

KRUSCHEN: Exactly. It comes with software to make the job very, very easy.

OSBORN: Is that an MP-3 player as well?

KRUSCHEN: It will play Mp-3 audio CDs, absolutely.

OSBORN: OK.

KRUSCHEN: Now, another great way to go. We have got some new software. This is the Jump-start advance series for kids. They have the preschool, they have kindergarten, first and second grade, and I have chosen this series because it automatically adjusts to a student's individual learning style.

You know, some of us are more visual. Some of us are more logical. And educators know that. Parents know that. So Jump-start has come out with a series that automatically does this adjustment. Now, parents can go to jumpstart.com, they can take this assessment with the child and figure out which learning style and in fact which character would be best to work with the child in the individual software, or you can just let it happen. In other words, as you go through and perhaps make an error, it automatically tracks that, and as the student makes or -- the little kid makes some different kind of errors, it automatically figures out the learning style, makes the adjustment and goes to the right learning character to help them to -- to progress.

OSBORN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) information age, it compiles data as you learn.

(CROSSTALK)

OSBORN: ... parent, student, how they want to learn. How does it do that?

KRUSCHEN: Well, every time you make an error, it logs that. And as the errors become more consistent, it -- there is a pattern that's established, and that pattern would help to determine which learning style the student or the child is involved with, which is more effective, because it's not working this way, let's try something like that. And then a character comes up and helps the child to go through the program. And it's a lot of fun. It's very interactive. And as I say, parents can take the test with the kids before they even get into the software, before they even buy it.

OSBORN: It's one way to find out if you have a math problem, I guess, right?

KRUSCHEN: That's right. That's right. Now, we're showing it on this laptop and I've chosen this laptop -- this is from Apple, this is the Ibook. I have chosen this -- to me, this is the best way to go for students looking for a laptop. I bought one of these for my daughter going off to college, and I have chosen it for several reasons.

First of all, it's available in 12.1 or 14.1-inch screen, this is the 14.1. And it comes with a rock solid mac O.S, which is now getting rave reviews worldwide, because it is solid, it doesn't crash. It comes with all the software that they're going to need, including the fun things like Iphoto and Itunes and Imovie, great software. And it's very powerful. It will do anything they need. It also comes with a choice of optical drives all the way up to a DVD-rom and CD-RW combo, and it starts at only 4.9 pounds, and priced at only $1,199. So -- and it even has an antenna for built-in wireless networking. So it's a great way to go. Really is my favorite way to go.

OSBORN: A lot of talk about the increased wireless Web applications and more and more devices are getting...

KRUSCHEN: That's right, and it has the antennae built in, so you just drop in what they call an airport card, it's a $99 card, which is internal, I might add, and now students can go all over campus to all of those places where now they have wireless, wireless Internet, and in fact many homes, my home as well, wired for the Internet, but also wireless access. So, you can go anywhere in the house, and again, many places on campus with a product like this and be on the Internet without having to plug in.

OSBORN: Mr. Gadget, thank you so much. Your information and your name does you great justice. I want to end by quickly just saying, does your daughter who is going off to college get access to all of this stuff?

KRUSCHEN: Oh, sure, and everybody can have all this information; it's all at MrGadget.com. If you click on "cool tools for back to school," the information is there.

OSBORN: We appreciate it. Steve Kruschen.

KRUSCHEN: Thank you so much.

OSBORN: Mr. Gadget.

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