Clark Howard's Tips

Internet gets its wings, netbooks to be hot holiday item

Sept. 30, 2008

Remember several years ago when Internet cafes were all the rage? Over in Europe, some of these cafes were huge and occupied multi-floor buildings.

The last time Clark was in London, however, he saw one formerly popular cafe that was reduced from 500 terminals to about 75. What happened? The marketplace changed. Free wifi became wide-spread and suddenly everyone could access the Internet from their cell phones.

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Likewise, the Internet will increasingly be anywhere you go. Delta Airlines will have high-speed connections on all its flights by 2009. The price for access will be around $10 for a few hours or around $13 or $14 on longer flights. Delta's system will not be compatible with Skype.

Meanwhile, what you surf on is undergoing a transformation. A new class of ultra-lightweight mini-laptops -- called "netbooks" -- is all the rage. Many of them are Windows based.

Clark recently over paid for one Hewlett Packard model at $599. Lenovo's S10 ThinkPad is going for $399, which is not much for a fully functional mini-computer. Expect a big marketing push for netbooks this holiday season. People will be snatching them up for themselves and their favorite road warriors.

Speaking of traveling, there are new TSA-approved computer bags available where you don't have to unpack your laptop at security checkpoints. The TSA can actually check your laptop while it remains in the bag.

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