Gearing Up a Techie Teen
BY REBECCA WINTERS

Admit it--your 16-year-old is the one in the family who programs the vcr, knows MP3 from dvd and chats online all night. When it comes to technology, teens know what they like--cool stuff that's portable, pretty and entertaining.

1 Kritter usb, iREZ, $129.95. This cute little digital video camera allows a college student to teleconference with a hometown honey or send a video image to Mom and Dad, from the dorm room. Its styling and color choices are Mac friendly, but the Kritter works with any PC that has a usb port.

2 iBook, Apple, $1,599. At long last, here's a laptop designed to be hauled around campus in a backpack. There are no latches to break, hot-swappable devices to lose or slots to collect dirt. The generous six hours of battery life will get students through the school day, and the 300-MHz PowerPC chip packs plenty of punch for writing papers, surfing the Web and sending e-mail. But the standard 32 MB of memory can make multitasking a drag, and Mom and Dad might want to spring for more.

3 5100 Series, Nokia, price varies with carrier. Your cell phone clashes with your outfit? That's so, like, 1998. You can remove this phone's cover and replace it with funky colored and patterned covers, including orange and red flowers, pictured, and characters from The Jetsons. Most service providers carry the 5100, good for lots of talk time.

4 Rio 500, Diamond Multimedia, $269.95. College students have put MP3 on the map, downloading digital music files from the Web and trading collections with the guy down the hall. This second-generation MP3 player, with a usb port, lets PC and Mac users bring two hours' worth of downloaded music on the road.

5 Helio, Vtech, $199. An inexpensive Palm imitator, available in eight colors, it has a to-do list, address book and e-mail manager. But the Helio uses its own operating system, which doesn't have the army of developers writing cool programs for it that Palm's does.

6 DreamCast, SEGA, $199. Yes, it's a video-game console with incredibly lush graphics. It's also an Internet device with a built-in 56-K modem and a massive marketing push behind it. Expect this one on the wish list.

7 13PT30L, Philips, $249. A sleek 13-in. TV with pretty curves, a dreamy night light and an alarm clock for getting to class on time.

PHOTO FOR TIME DIGITAL BY JOSEPH PLUCHINO