We have talked about in the past, and much more seriously recently, about getting a laptop PC. The main purpose would be casual browsing while downstairs watching TV or a movie, and in bed.

At least once or twice during any movie we watch a question will arise such as:

What other movies was that actor in?
What is that actor's name?
Where is the city/country/etc?

You get the idea.

Sometimes we also like to go to places like Panera Bread or a local coffee shop that has free Wi-Fi to kill a few hours on the weekend.

Now that neither one of us has a work-laptop to bring home on the weekends we have been thinking about it a little more seriously.

You can get a model good enough for internet surfing for $800 - $900. Still a lot of money, but we are heavy enough users of the internet that it would be worth it.

Well, just this week an announcement was made, by of all companies Nokia, that they are going to release the $350 wireless 770 Internet Tablet this summer. That is all it does. You can use the internet and check your e-mail. You cannot install any other software like games, spreadsheets, Quicken, etc. You will be able to load MP3 files and listen to internet radio stations and watch movie files.

It is only 5.5" wide by 3.1 inches tall. It is 0.75 inches thin! It could slip into your back pocket. The screen is 800 pixels by 480 pixels.



I am thinking this might be all we need for what we want to do. The one thing I hope it will accept is a USB keyboard so I if I want to type a lengthy e-mail or a blog post I can use a keyboard rather than scratching it out with a stylus. If the average web page is legible and the text is not too small and smushed up when I look at a floor model this summer we will most likely get one.

I will probably write about this again as I find out more details and as I consider purchasing one.





(Sorry about the lousy pictures. They were all I could find on the Internet right now.)