Word: modem
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...most cherish the spontaneous instant messages sent via the Internet from their 10-year-old granddaughter in California. That wasn't always possible before wi-fi. It used to be that they would wait for cheap evening rates on their mobile phone and then dial online through a cellular modem. Now the messages zip freely back and forth. "She writes 'Grandpa?', and I write back, 'Hi, Peanut.' I love that," says...
...which anyone can provide it. Ignore the geeks who use Wi-Fi's painful official designation, 802.11. Here's a more familiar name for the technology: radio. The Wi-Fi card in your laptop is a receiver, and the Wi-Fi router--which plugs into a cable or DSL modem at your home or office or coffee shop--is nothing more than a short-range transmitter-receiver. (Here's a piece of trivia for your next cocktail party: the patent on which Wi-Fi technology is based was filed back in 1942 by actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil...
...countries, and a fifth of the New York Times's 3,800 electronic subscribers are from outside the U.S. Users can buy annual subscriptions or individual copies for about the same price as for paper copies. Downloads can take minutes with broadband or hours with a dial-up modem, but they can be scheduled to move while you sleep. Coming soon: a version for Macs and an archiving service...
...course, you could buy a pair of webcams for less than $100 that will let you do the same thing over your Mac or PC, but who wants to sit in front of a computer any longer than you have to? Besides, webcams require a microphone, speaker, modem and special software. The only extra the Beamer needs is the phone you already...
...dial-up modem speeds, however, it's more like Click-N-Crawl. Lindows tries its best to act friendly and look Windows-like, but right now it's hard to use for half an hour without a lot of jargon about the root directory and other comp-sci stuff appearing on the screen. It will run a lot of Windows programs--games being the major exception. (Robertson has backed off earlier claims that his system is entirely Windows compatible.) Basically, Lindows is a work in progress. Stand by for the final release...