In Brief

By Anita Hamilton

PSSSST!!! Kids love to share secrets, and now they can do it in high-tech style with a new line of personal communicators. Hasbro's Talkin'acha ($30 in August) is a handheld-size mini-recorder that lets kids create voice messages as long as 8 sec. and pass them to similarly equipped friends three ways: through removable "buzz cards," by holding up two communicators together or simply by touching each other on the arm. Shown here is Girl Tech's Laser Chat ($15 this spring), which can record a message and send it wirelessly as far away as 35 ft. For more advanced messaging, Tiger's Lightning Mail ($60 in September) comes with a screen and keyboard and lets kids send real e-mail free to friends, once they hook it up by phone jack to the Internet. And for the kid who wants it all, Cybiko ($130, March) offers interactive games, a personal information manager and wireless messaging over distances as far as 300 ft.

NET LOSS Last year a Carnegie Mellon study suggested that Internet users are depressed. This year Stanford University is reporting that heavy users are becoming socially isolated. Here's the damage:

Netheads Spend Less Time:

59% Watching TV 34% Reading newspapers 26% Talking to family and friends on the phone 13% Spending time with family and friends 8% Attending fewer social events

DIRECTOR'S CHAIR Thought Ewan MacGregor was all wrong in The Phantom Menace? Hated Winona Ryder in Girl, Interrupted? Think you can cast movie roles better than Hollywood does? Here's your chance to vote on starring parts in an independent comedy, Returning Mickey Stern. Go to castourmovie.com to watch auditions by actors in RealVideo, read their resumes and check out their mug shots. Then vote for sexy and brainy IIana, 26, or her evil ex-boyfriend Ben. Winners will be announced on March 23, and shooting starts in April.

--By Anita Hamilton