A keyboard for the next-gen kid

(Credit: Califone International)

It's so complicated to be a kid these days. There was a time when, using something called a typewriter, you punched a key and got a corresponding letter, number or punctuation mark. But things are different now, and the last thing you want your child to do is accidentally hit, say, alt-ctrl-del (aka the "three-fingered salute").

No one knows all this better than Califone International, which has been developing classroom technology for more than 50 years. So it's marketing the color-coded "KidsKey" keyboard, which helps children locate and learn numbers, vowels and consonants at the family-friendly price of $29. Just make sure your tots don't mistake it for your color-coded Bella video-editing keyboard, which costs considerably more.