There are so many things wrong with this computer that we hardly know where to start. When we first turned it on, for example, we ran a check on the hard drive and the numbers that came up said the drive was half full. The child’s account we just created was already 90 percent full. Ninety percent? We hadn’t added a program or done any work and the account was already nearly full. What’s going on here?

Well, what’s going on is the game of loading up new computers with ads and trial programs to try and sell more stuff. Every new computer anyone buys has trial programs and videos to entice the buyer to order more stuff. (Hint from bad experience: don’t fill out anything that asks for your credit card number.) It is advertising, and companies pay the computer maker to be placed onboard. In fact, there’s so little profit in selling the computer itself that the junk they put in is probably where they make their money. Unfortunately for you, the user, all those sales pitches take up a lot of space and slow down your computer.

The solution: We downloaded the popular and free “decrapifier” program from pcdecrapifier.com. It will strip out the extra stuff and you’ll end up with most of your hard drive clear. You can control what to let it remove and what not.

But that’s just the beginning of the problems with this machine. The “40 built-in parental controls” in the sales pitch turned out to be a joke. Unless you restrict your child to the Disney browser, which takes you only to Disney websites, you’re left with the same parental controls found on any Windows machine. These are difficult to set up but if you ignore them,  your child can go to any site on the web, including pornography. Clicking “help” in the “Parental Control” panel didn’t help much. It says things like “click here,” when there is nothing clickable. There is an interface for setting time limits for commonly used programs, like Disney Radio or games, but when we tried to restrict access to porn sites, we restricted all websites.

Other negatives:

• This computer is basically an ASUS “eee PC,” with drawbacks. You only get five hours of battery life, compared to 8-10 hours for the same laptop without the Disney name and decorations. The eee PC also costs less and has a bigger screen.
• You can’t upgrade the Disney laptop to 2 gigabytes of RAM without voiding the warranty.
• When you search for favorite websites, you get frequent messages that say “Site not Foind (sic).” Moving past Disney’s inability to spell or proofread, after Windows updates, some programs say they can’t be displayed unless you change the screen resolution. How many kids are going to know how to do that? And why should you have to change the resolution in the first place? The whole thing has the feel of being rushed out the door to catch the holiday shoppers.

What is there to like about the Netpal? It’s cute. It has built-in Wi-Fi, a webcam and links to lots of fun sites. You also get a “gadget tray” at the bottom with Disney-themed email, browser, and games icons. Click on them and you won’t be able to display some things unless you change the screen resolution. Good luck.

Energy density isn’t the same as voltage, but is a figure made up of the usual voltage and amperage numbers delivered over time. So a battery made by their radioactive isotope technique could have the same voltage as a AA battery but last a million times longer. The battery can be made as small as a penny. The researchers say it gives off very little radioactivity and is harmless to the user, say in a cell phone for example.

Let’s start with a few of the highlights from the annual Consumer Electronic Show (CES) held each January in as Vegas.

One of the more interesting developments is a new kind of Web TV, worked out in a collaboration by Yahoo!, Intel, Toshiba, Samsung, and a few others. Some time later this year (2009),you’ll be able to buy new Internet-linked TVs. in addition to the normal picture, they will have a strip of icons along the bottom of the screen. Collectively, they’re called the “Widget Channel.” You will be able to click on “news,” “stocks,” “weather,” “photos,” or “YouTube” to start with. More icons will undoubtedly be added as the release point nears.

These Internet connected TVs are expected to cost around $300 more than regular high-definition models, though competition should drive down the difference. Right now, only about 1 percent of the population has Internet on their TVs but that’s expected to climb to 14 percent by the end of the year. By 2010, such TVs are expected to dominate the market.

– Among other new products from the CES, accompany called “Dashboard Devices” is bringing out a $2700 computer for the car that collects your email and reads it to you as you drive along. It will also play Internet radio channels and have a seven-inch touchscreen for quickly bringing in other functions.

– A new kind of “green” battery called the “Fuji EnviroMax” will deliver reliable current but be harmless to the environment when it is no longer useful. It doesn’t contain cadmium or mercury and can be disposed of through normal waste systems; the other ingredients will be biodegradable. Batteries for toys, radios, and flashlights are expected to cost around $4 per package and longer life batteries for devices such as digital cameras, remote controls and video games will be $6 a pack.

There are a score of portable power packs available today for reviving your dead or dying cell phone, iPod,  music player, game machine, Blackberry, etc. We’ve written about a couple in previous columns, but we particularly like a sleek new black one from Kensington.

It’s called simply Portable Power Pack (how straight-forward) and can be charged up either by connecting it to a USB port on any computer or using its small power adapter plugged into a wall socket. It takes about an hour to fully charge it off a USB port connection, and it will restore your mobile device to full power in a few seconds. That’s enough for about 55 hours of music play or five hours of cell phone talk.

The Portable Power Pack is smaller than a deck of playing cards and half as thick. A sequence of LED lights on one surface lets you judge how much power is left. The device comes with a USB cable and adapter plug for attachment to an iPod or smartphone. It’s $60 from Kensington.com.

We’ll point out right away that such backup boxes have been around for many years, and we found them for sale recently on the Web for as little as $28. The big “but” that attaches to any further description is that there’s a lot of difference in features and reliability as you move up in price. In fact, you can go to units costing several hundred dollars, but those are aimed at fairly large businesses.

The Belkin Battery Backup has some features we really like. One is a built-in rechargeable and removable flashlight — if the power fails, it’s often dark in the room. But the main feature is that the backup battery delivers up to 300 watts for around 20 minutes. That’s enough power to keep several pieces of equipment going and enough time to save your work and shut everything down in a normal manner.

The unit weighs about 10 pounds and is about the size of a kitchen blender or tabletop coffee machine. It has six electrical outlets plus a phone line outlet and attaches to the computer through a USB port. Works with PCs and Macs. The Belkin Web site is Belkin.com.

There are two problems with recharging things on Earth. One is finding a place to plug in, but the bigger problem is finding a connector that fits the gadget. We recently tried out the new PowerAid Mobile from US Modular, a backup battery that comes with five adapters that fit cell phones, iPods, Treo PDAs and many other devices designed to take their charge from a computer’s USB port or a wall outlet. None of the adapters fit our Sony-Ericsson cell phone, but that wasn’t crucial since we can never remember to turn it on.

The PowerAid Mobile weighs about 10 ounces and fits in a shirt pocket. It can recharge your cell phone or PDA in an hour. It holds a charge for two to three hours of heavy use. (Five indicator lights tell you how much charge is left.) It comes with a transformer that allows recharging from a standard electrical outlet and a USB cable for charging it from a computer’s USB port. If you recharge from a computer port, it takes about six hours.

Having the PowerAid in your pocket is one solution to a dead gizmo, but what if your devices aren’t compatible with it?

Targus.com will sell you just the tip you need to plug into a portable device, but it doesn’t have tips for every phone. (Once again, it didn’t have one for our phone.) The tips run around $10 each and a charger to fit them sells for $20. But that does not include a backup battery you can carry with you, like the package from US Modular. The PowerAid Mobile lists for $50 at their own site: USModular.com, and it was the same price atTigerDirect.com.