I usually don't stoop to bashing commercial products, but the hip-e has got my goat (and I don't mean Greatest of All Time).

Pandering to kids (and their parents) is nothing new, but the folks at Digital Lifestyles seem to think putting some fur on a on the monitor and keyboard (huh?), including a prepaid debit account for the kids (double huh?), and putting up "displays in malls where pop star Ashlee Simpson is performing" (double-double huh?) will somehow get parents to fork over nearly $1700 for a 1.5Ghz machine with a 17 inch display. Good luck running the latest games, such as Doom3 or Half-Life2. You'll need it.

A quick check at places like Tiger Direct or CompUSA shows it's possible to get a much more powerful machine at a fraction of the cost. Spend more than 30 seconds online and you'll find even better deals.

Kids aren't stupid, but even their dumb parents will quickly realize that they can take the money saved by buying a lower priced, higher powered machines and customize them to meet the kid's wishes.

I mean really. 1.5Ghz! Heck, my 1.7Ghz home machine is years old now.

Insane marketing indeed.