Take Note

Such illicit classroom pastimes as passing love notes, cribbing the answers on tests, and secretly playing games may get an upgrade this fall, thanks to a new gizmo that may already be in some students' pockets.

Called the Cybiko Inter-tainment System, it looks like a cartoonist's riff on the staid Palm Pilot handheld computer. The plastic housing—in a choice of Cyber Sea Blue, Electric Shock Yellow, Magic Clear, or Backstreet Black— surrounds a matchbook-size...