Dustin Drueckhammer's Profile

Expanding on my earlier comment, I think the subscription model could work, as long as the subscription is free. This is where Google comes in. Because they make their money off of search (basically advertising) they could offer the hardware and software (Linux or Unix w/ Google Web Browser GUI, all apps online) free. I would assume this model would use a very small internal HD or Flashdrive and rely on the user to purchase flash drives for any additional external storage. It is interesting to ponder if Mr. and Mrs. Joe Public would subscribe to the idea of a Google PC if the hardware and software (productivity and internet) were free but ad supported ie. ads come up in email, websearch, bottom of word processor etc. just like they do now for many Google apps. It they would and I think this would take a huge bite out of M$ consumer profits and would be a hard act for M$ to follow because they aren't really in the search business (MSN has a fraction of the market share of Google) and haven't been traditionally good at transitioning. Even more interesting, Google could sell maintanence plans for the "GPCs" which would probably more than pay for their costs that "Mr./Mrs. Joe Public" would eat up.

Thanks for the informative posts Robotech and Beeblebrox...It seems after reading your explainations that bluetooth would indeed be the best network option for integration into a car audio system. I have a Nintendo DS lite and really need to test how long it lasts using the 802.11b connection. My experience so far with 802.11b enabled devices is based on this and so far has been positive, including battery life. The DS has a sleep mode but doesn't have any auto on/off connectivity such as you are describing and it works for me. The average user might have trouble using it though because you do at least have to be able to detect a Wifi hotspot and enter a WEP key if needed. I plan on getting the DS browser for non-image intensive sites when it comes to Europe (emailing, blogs etc.) and hope my perception of the battery life doesn't change after using it. One positive thing is that with the browser I should be able to finally access public hotspots that require a username and password login such as my university, Starbucks, McDonalds, hotels etc. Any wifi enabled iPod needs to be at least as easy as the DS and hopefully easier with the auto-detection/connectivity features you mentioned.