More Than A Toy Story: Disney, Asus Debut 'Netpal' Netbook

The fact that the netbook is Disney-branded probably won't hurt demand among the target demographic of 6- to 12-year-olds.

The system is being called the Disney Netpal and features an 8.9-inch LCD display with Wi-Fi capabilities and Windows XP Home preloaded. It is powered by an Intel Atom N270 processor. The Netpal has 160 GB of HDD storage or 16 GB of SSD storage and 1 GB of DDR2 memory.

The Disney Netpal is available in Princess Pink and Magic Blue.

Because the Netpal is aimed at young children, Asus has built in a number of parental controls and permissions designed to protect them.

Among the features that parents can enable are preselected e-mail correspondence, browsers and Web sites that children can access. In addition, a calendar can be programmed with times that parents will allow their children to use the machine. Web sites can also be preselected by parents, ensuring that the kids aren't straying off the beaten path. Finally, parents are able to monitor which Web sites children are visiting and see how long they spend at each one.

Although the Disney Netpal has Windows XP preloaded on the machine, Asus also includes the Disney Magic Desktop gadget tray—a 2-D menu that displays Disney-themed e-mail, browser and suite of parental options.

A special edition of the Disney Netpal will be available through Toys 'R' Us.The Netpal will start at $349.99 and be available in late July.