Laptop Club

Netbooks are designed to work over the Internet. That assumes persistent broadband—which, as anyone who's tried to find a hotspot on the go can attest to, can be a tricky thing. But as Wired reports, more and more netbooks may come with built-in WWAN radios—that is, if buyers are willing to pony up $60 per month to activate them.


Acer, Radio Shack, and AT&T have taken the usual cellular modem idea a step further by requiring a contract with their latest subsidized netbook. The Acer Aspire One costs only $99 up front but requires a two-year agreement (just like a cell phone). It features an 8.9-inch screen, an Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 160GB hard disk.