How the MSI All-in-One Touchscreen Unites My Family

by Lori Cunningham

As Mother’s Day draws near, my kids often ask, “what do you want for Mother’s Day?”  I tell them I’d enjoy hugs, kisses, and any  pictures they draw of our family.  Mother’s Day is a great day to sit back, do nothing (in a perfect world!), and enjoy your time with your family.

As a mom who loves tech, I am always looking for technology that helps me become more efficient and allows me to spend more time with the family.  I found a great tech item that allows me to do both.  The MSI AE2050 All-In-One touchscreen computer has unleashed me from my office computer and paved the way for fun journeys with the kids…without even leaving our kitchen.

Before I brought the MSI AE2050 home, I imagined all the things I could use an All-In-One computer for.  I saw it as a:

1. major communications center for the family
2. the extra helper I always longed for when cooking dinner
3. an entertainer and educator for my kids

But would the All-In-One (AIO) be able to live up to my ideals?  Would I use it daily or would it be a passing fancy?  Would I finally get my act together and use it to make fun different meals each night or would I continue to rely on my now boring standby’s?

The first week I got it, I could hardly get a chance to sit down at it.  My kids have been so enamored by it.  I haven’t seen such excitement since I got my first touchscreen smartphone and they played Angry Birds nonstop!  Once the kids were back in school, I’ve had more time to play with it.  I explored how the MSI AE2050 stacked up against my ideals:

1.  Communications Center

As a communications center for the household, I envisioned the MSI AE2050 to be the center point where family members could:

• review our family calendar
• leave notes to each other
• see reminders
• check and write e-mails
• serve as the hub for Skype and other video communication
• see our fun family pictures (previously stored in our family vault – on my PC)

Family Calendar. Are there any Cozi.com users out there?  I remember when Cozi, the first major free family organizer, came online.  I signed up right away, thinking what a good idea it was.  That was at least 3 years ago and I’ve barely touched it…until recently.  I’m giving it another try as I believe it will be a GREAT companion to the MSI AE2050 touchscreen.  Before, Coziwas on my PC in our office and no one else could see what was going on.  Now with the MSI AE2050 touchscreen in the kitchen, we can all keep track of our family schedule.  The kids will finally be able to get a glimpse of what the family is up to for the day, week, month, or year.

Notes.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the notes feature, YouMemo, built-into MSI’s proprietary software, Wind Touch.  It’s a post-it note program where you can choose the color of paper and type and color of pen/crayon/chalk.  After your draw/write your note, you can add fun colored stamps to it.  Then just post it on the bulletin board for the family.  My kids spent over an hour on creating their whimsical notes the first night.  Our on-the-computer bulletin board is now filled with many vibrant notes and artwork.

Reminders.  MSI Wind Touch has a great program where you can leave notes/reminders for family members that can be scheduled.  When a certain date and time comes to pass, your scheduled reminder note will appear.  I used these reminders for chore announcements, questions about the type of school snack they want for the day, and doctor appointments.

E-mail.  Currently, I am on the only one who checks e-mail on the AE2050 touchscreen.  It is so handy as I no longer have to go to my home office to check my e-mail throughout the day.  I’ve used tablets before, but typing on a tablet to respond to an e-mail is tedious.  The MSI AE2050 gives me a full-scale secondary computer to do all the things that I currently do on my primary computer…but at a remote location.  I will be setting up my daughter soon so she can check her e-mail as well.  She’s only 8, but I know her grandparents would LOVE to receive e-mail and webcam pictures from her.

Skype. I began using Skype when I reviewed a HD webcam about 8 months ago.  Boy is it fun!  Although I don’t know a lot of people on Skype, the number of friends using it is growing. My daughter and one of her best friends have a lot of fun with it.  Most of the time they giggle with each other but they had the most fun when they played online chess together…right through Skype.  They had a blast.  I enjoyed adding funny hats and morphing my daughter’s face while she chatted with her friend (hence the laughter!).  Skype is free and not difficult to set up.  Skype is a natural for use with MSI AE2050’s built-in camera.  Next on the list is to get the grandma’s set up so we can Skype with them.  For more fun things see The Top 5 Things To Do with Your Kids and a Webcam.

Family Pictures. The MSI AE2050 touchscreen is the perfect way to show off your family pictures…to your family and others.  Using either the included Windows Live Photo Gallery screen saver or another screen saver, such as the free Cozi screen saver, you can untether your family photos from your other computers.  Our pictures flow freely on the screen saver during dinner.  We get to revisit when the kids were babies, last year’s Easter fun, old family photos of family from generations ago, pictures of my husband and I when we were dating, and even childhood pics of us when we were kids.  The pictures are fun, entertaining, and give us a chance to tell the kids more about their younger years…and ours!  In addition, Windows 7 is an excellent tool for uploading, editing, and storing your pictures.

Cooking Helper

I’m afraid the meals I have prepared these past 6 months have been rather, well, boring.  To people outside of my family, they might sound great and enticing.  But when you’ve been eating them over and over for quite a while, they tend to lose their luster.

I have subscribed to AllRecipes.com since 2003.  Everyday they send me meal suggestions and when I see something I like, I add to it my personal recipe box on their site.  To date I have 897 recipes in my box.  I have probably tried 75 of them.  My problem has always been that my computer is in the office and to use a recipe, I’d have to print it each time to take to the kitchen.  Although I have done this a number of times in the past, it’s so inefficient.  First, I’m wasting paper.  Second, my 3 ring binder is overflowing with all of the printouts.  Third, I’m missing out on all of the great comments from others online who have adjusted the recipe.

Cooking now is a dream with the MSI AE2050 touchscreen.  The screen is 20″ and is plenty big to read my recipe.  If the screen gets splashed on during cooking, I simply wipe it off.  I can even listen to my favorite tunes, streamed right off my computer from the office!  I’m in hog heaven now!  What’s better is that AllRecipes.com recently added an upgraded menu planner section where you can plan out the meals for the week and have a customized shopping list created for you to take to the grocery store.  So now I can do all my meal planning in the kitchen, gaining input from family members on the fly!  In fact, right after dinner is over I can easily rate the recipe on my MSI AE2050 touchscreen so I know in the future whether to serve it again.

Entertainer & Educator

There a wealth of knowledge to be discovered online, the only problem is, it so overwhelming to find it!  Wouldn’t it be great if someone did all the work and categorized it for you?  MSI realizes that when it comes to finding good educational websites and videos, it takes a lot of time and hassle.  Recognizing the value of the touchscreen to curious children, MSI created Touch Zone which includes 5 games for toddlers-to-preschoolers as well as a fun interface for your child to check their google e-mail account.  Knowing that even the most discerning kid would need more, MSI partnered with Kidoz, an online portal to children’s’ fun.  Kidoz offers  access to 100’s of websites, videos, and games, taking the work out of finding these sites on your own.  Kids can easily scroll through pages of content and choose the website, game, or video that they prefer.  Parents don’t need to worry because kids are safe in the Kidoz environment and can’t wander off.  Even if a child clicks on an ad on a website, it won’t pull up.  Only normal content pages are viewable on a website.

Membership to Kidoz is free for 30 days.  Afterwards a lifetime license can be purchased for $59.90 or $5/mo.  I was surprised it wasn’t a monthly fee.  $60 initially is a bit steep, but is a great environment for kids from toddlers up through 12 years.  My kids figured out how to use it all by themselves and are happy watching their favorite cartoons on demand as well as playing their favorite websites…without my help.  Websites include all the Disney cartoons, Word Girl, Toy Story, Handy Manny, Bob the Builder, Phineas & Ferb, PBS Kids, Starfall, Cartoon Network and hundreds more.   Kidoz further scoured the Internet to find fun videos for kids from YouTube and unique games…all within a kid friendly interface.

Of course, you can surf to your favorite educational sites as well through the Wind Touch browser (which has bigger buttons to press) or the normal Internet Explorer browser.  Educational games and quizzes are more fun and interactive with the MSI AE2050 touchscreen.  I just love the fact that I can touch anywhere and the touchscreen responds.  I can even adjust the screen size by pinching the screen or moving two fingers apart to make the screen bigger…just like on my smartphone.

Here are some great educational games that I have found to be very fun and interactive on the touchscreen:

• Quia.com
• ilike2learn.com
• Sheppardsoftware.com
• Arcademicskillbuilders.com

A Mom’s Perspective

Now I can see with more clarity that yes indeed, the MSI AE2050 has lived up to the ideals I placed before it.  I am so excited to have this great tool in my kitchen to use on a daily basis.  I have always felt so trapped in my office, away from the hubbub of the central area of the house…the kitchen.  I am using my computer like never before.  With the MSI AE2050 touchscreen, our central communication plan is coming together, our meals have been more interesting and tastier, and the kids are enjoying their favorite websites and videos…together.  The screen is big enough so that it becomes a SC – a social computer, as opposed to a PC – personal computer.  In my book, that’s what I’m looking for– for us to grow together, on the same screen, as opposed to separate screens.

The MSI AE2050 retails for $679.99.  For all the things you can do with it as well as its impressive specs below, that’s a really good price!

• dual-core processors
• 1 TB hard drive
• 5 USB ports (two are the newest 3.0 standard)
• built-in wireless adaptor and Ethernet port
• Windows 7 platform
• built-in webcam
• built-in rewritable DVD
• 6-in-1 card reader
• saves 70% more energy than desktop PC’s
• Super Charger – allows you to sync and update your iPad at the same time!

An iPad 2 without 3G and 64GB memory costs more!  I have only scratched the surface on all the things you can do with an All-In-One computer like the MSI AE2050 touchscreen.  Please leave a comment and tell me how you would use an All-In-One computer.