U123

By Jeff Zbar;
www.homeofficehighway.com

Years ago, surfing in public meant first paying $15 an hour for a user ID and password hand-written on a scrap of paper so you could log on to some cyber cafe's network.

Now, it's as easy as hitting the MiFi, powering up the netbook — and in less than a minute, you're up.

This year's home office highway is shaping up as an exercise in simplified surfing. Last year, setting up a network meant powering up and wiring in a router the size of a cigar box. This year's "access point" is a business card-sized device that enables five Internet devices — netbooks, laptops, MP3 players, an iTouch — to log on simultaneously.Read more

The MSI Wind U123 netbook was just released with a six-cell battery and weighs in at less than 3lbs. The Wind U123 can be upgraded with a nine-cell battery for an additional $30 and a little more added weight. Some of the key features include, an Intel Atom N280 (1.66GHz) processor, 1GB of RAM, a 10.2-inch (1024×600) screen, 1.3 megapixel webcam and a 160GB hard drive.

The new Wind netbook is available in blue, gray, red and white. The starting price is $349 ($379 for the 9-cell battery version) and you can get it now at most online retailers. For the full spec sheet, click here.