Sell Your Free Cell Phone For Cash

You were smart about where you bought your new cell phone and got a state-of-the-art smartphone for free with your service order. You didn’t pay more for service because you know those plans are the same price no matter where you get them. It’s the price of the phone that varies from store to store.

Now your contract has expired and it’s a good time to upgrade to a newer model phone. Once again, you want to shop around and get the one you want free or at a deeply discounted price. But, what about that phone that just came off contract? What are you going to do with it?

Most people toss their old cell phones in a drawer, figuring they’re too good to throw in the trash and might be useful someday. We’ll at least they don’t go in the trash. There are materials inside those phones that become toxic when they decay in the environment. But once in the drawer, a cell phone rarely goes back into service. Hey, it was a free phone so who cares? It’s not worth anything, right?

Nothing could be further from the truth. Just because YOU didn’t pay for the phone doesn’t mean it has a lower value. That marvel of technology may have cost hundreds of dollars to manufacture. You took good care if it and everything works just as well as it did a couple of years ago when it was new. That gadget has residual value that you can extract, once again because you are smart.

Here’s the smart thing to do with a free phone that has just come off of contract. Move as fast as you can to sell your cellphone for cash online. Technology has a limited shelf life. The older it gets, the less it is worth. The very best you can do is sell your unwanted phone immediately after you are done using it. Pocket the cash and use it for whatever you want. After all, you’re getting your new phone free too.

It’s an easy process. All you have to do is look up the particular make and model phone you have, check a few boxes about the condition of the device and what accessories you still have, and request an offer. You’ll get an instant online offer for your phone. If you like what you see, then click through and request a postage paid shipping box so you can send it in at no cost to you. Once your phone has been checked out, you’ll get a check in the mail. Mmmm. Money in the mailbox for something you didn’t pay for. Does it get any sweeter that this?

What about new phones that never went into service? You got a holiday or birthday present from a well-meaning relative, but you have no use for this thing. You don’t want to pay for a contract to put it into service. What to do?

A simple “thank you” will suffice. Then, when you are sure they are not looking, check the value of your gift and send it in for cash. Since it is brand new, it will be worth more than one that’s been used for a year or two and is no longer the latest model. You could be looking at a hundred bucks or more in your pocket if you act quickly.

Here’s another little secret to getting money for stuff you don’t want. Gazelle also offers to buy electronic games, navigation devices, digital cameras, laptop computers and many other recent vintage technology gear. It’s a virtual gold mine right after the flurry of holiday gift giving has subsided. It’s also a way you can regularly get cash for stuff you are upgrading any time of year. Who knew that free electronic gadgets could be worth so much?

Recycle Your Cell Phone To Save A Gorilla

There are many good reasons to recycle old cellphones, but one of the best is to save the Eastern Lowland Mountain Gorilla in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

How is it that what you do with a cell phone affects gorillas in Africa? It has to do with our fragile and tightly coupled ecosystem. Here’s what happens. Cellphones are constructed from various electronic components. One of these is a tantalum capacitor. Tantalum is a rare and valuable metal that enables once physically large capacitors to be made small enough to squeeze into those slim cell phone cases. You get tantalum from columbite tantalite, a metallic ore called Coltan for short. Eighty percent of the world’s Coltan reserves are found in Africa, with the majority of the deposits located within the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ah, you are starting to see the connection. Here’s how the gorillas get involved. It’s illegal to mine for Coltan in the Congo, but with the material going for as much as $400 a kilogram, such mining continues on a large scale. Forests are cleared to make way for the mining and paved roads are installed. The gorillas become exposed and easy targets for bush meat hunters who sell the meat to feed miners and rebel armies in control of the area. More than half of the mountain gorilla population has been lost in just the last five years. It’s also thought that an entire population of elephants has also been wiped out in this activity.

So what we have is a situation where demand for a rare mineral has mushroomed to support the hundreds of millions of cell phones manufactured for use worldwide. High prices for Coltan have promoted the destruction of wild habitat and the killing of endangered gorillas and elephants who once enjoyed a protected environment. Is this just the price we have to pay for technology or can something be done?

Something is being done. The Jane Goodall Institute and Melbourne Zoo in Australia have joined forces to create a mobile phone recycling program called “They’re Calling on You.”You can visit the zoo to collect a postage paid recycling satchel or download and print a postage paid label to send your phone in. They’ve even got a program for corporations to donate fleets of old mobile phones. If your school would like to help, you can integrate the program into your curriculum.

They’re indeed calling on you and, if you live in Australia, you have the unique honor of being able to answer this call. But what about the rest of the world? Is there anything we can do?

Absolutely, there is. In the United States, Gazelle offers a cell phone and electronic gadgets recycling program that also includes a free mailer. This one goes beyond mobile phones to include electronic games, computers and even photography gear. They will even pay you for recent vintage equipment in good working order.

Elsewhere around the world, look for local or large scale recycling programs. But whatever you do, don’t toss that cell phone in the trash. That only compounds the problem. In addition to the damage done by creating the product in the first place, electronic components degrade in the environment and leach out toxic chemicals that can pollute the soil and water table.

The recycling programs offer a double benefit. They not only prevent damage from decaying products, they also reduce the need for mining and manufacturing by refurbishing the old phones for use in disadvantaged communities. Devices too old or not functional can be ground up by reclaimers to recycle the minerals to make new phones.

Listen! They’re really calling you... and it’s a very important call!

Note: Photo of gorilla courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Banish Vampires To Reduce Global Warming

There’s something with tiny little teeth sucking on your electrical wires. The blood it draws isn’t just electrical current. It’s your money, a few cents at a time. It’s also your future, because while it’s trying to drain your bank account, it’s also heating the atmosphere and indirectly belching greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. What kind of a hideous creature could do this? One that’s a parasite on the equipment that you want and need for your business and home. It’s the dreaded electronic vampire!

Well, it should be dreaded. Sadly, it generally isn’t. If this was the type of vampire that lurched from behind a curtain and bit you in the neck, you’d quake in fear at its mere mention. But this vampire is more insidious. It hides inside perfectly acceptable electrical devices and does its biting behind your back. The damage isn’t a couple of bloody punctures from an attack that’s over in minutes. It’s a steady sip, sip, sipping of your precious resources. But the result is eventually the same as if you were attacked. You wake up and your whole world has changed.

So where do these electronic vampires live and how do you spot them?

That’s the tough part. These vampires are something like body snatchers, only for things that use electricity. They’re buried inside. You’ll know they’re around, though, because they leave indications. The first indication is a glowing light. Does anything you plug-in have a small red or green light that never goes off? Suspect a vampire inside. Is there any other visual indication of activity when you turn the equipment off? This might be an LCD display that still shows information, particularly a digital clock. It could be the sound of a fan running or the click-click-click of a hard drive being accessed. It could be a case that’s slightly warm to the touch. All of these are sure-fire indicators of a vampire inside.

One certain tip-off to vampire circuitry is a remote control. The remote runs on batteries and is likely not drawing any power until you push a button. But the device that it controls has to be awake to see the invisible beam of the remote. Even if the front panel is completely dark, there’s something hooked to an infrared detector or UHF receiver that continuously draws power on the odd chance that someone is going to push a remote button soon.

The new wireless network devices are power vampires. WiFi b/g/n is a power-intensive technology. That’s why smartphone and laptop computer manuals suggest you turn off WiFi access when you aren’t using it so your battery will last longer.

The truth is that the power switch is rarely a power switch anymore. It’s a stand-by switch. All you are doing when you turn off a computer, a television set, a printer, or even a coffee pot is switching the device from the high power to the low power consumption mode. A true power switch physically breaks the electrical circuit so that no electrons can flow.

The whole vampire power problem got started because people got antsy waiting for their vacuum tube television sets to warm up. They wanted instant-on. The only way to do that is to keep the picture tube filament on and up to temperature. It’s just like leaving a light bulb on all the time in a closet where you don’t see it. It’s still on, drawing power and producing heat.

Back in the vacuum tube days, there was no concern over continuous power draw in TVs nor any mention of global warming. But now we know better and more things than ever are drawing vampire power. Just how significant is it? Studies suggest that standby power draw can range from around 5% to over 25% of total energy consumption. Think about it. If we banished the vampires completely, homes and businesses would cut their monthly expenses by a significant amount and numerous coal-fueled power stations could be switched off with no adverse affect.

The effect of eliminating vampire standby power is even more significant. Every device that uses power generates heat. There may be no measurable effect on warming the entire atmosphere directly, but all that heat has to be dealt with indoors. That means extra air conditioning load in the summer that leads to more electrical draw and more demand on coal-fired electric generators.

If you are wondering just how much you are losing to the vampires, a good way to find out is to use a device like the Kill A Watt energy usage monitor. Plug it into the wall, plug your computer or other device into the monitor and read the meter when you have your device in both the ON and STANDBY modes. Add up the standby draw from all the devices you are powering and be prepared for a shocking total. Sometimes you can just look at the power specifications for the equipment in question. The manufacture will often unabashedly quote standby power even when it is 30 or 60 watts for a device that only draws a few hundred watts at full power.

How can you take action? Since the problem is distributed, you need to actually turn off anything that plugs into the wall that isn’t currently being used. That means a wall switch that controls the outlet or a power strip with a switch. You need surge protector power strips anyway to protect your valuable equipment. Keep the switch readily accessible and turn it off overnight or when you know you won’t need the equipment for awhile. It will come alive from a complete power shutdown soon enough when you return. Be sure to unplug those modular “wall wart” power supplies that are used to power smaller equipment and charge mobile devices like cell phones and MP3 players. That little black transformer is a tiny vampire in itself.

Some manufacturers are becoming more sensitive to the standby power problem. My laser printer has a sleep mode, but it also has a mechanical power off rocker switch. I’ve taken to turning the power off when I’m done for the day and only back on when it is next needed. During the day it goes into sleep mode, which is at least some power savings. Other companies are offering ultra low power modes of 1 watt or less when on standby. It’s not perfect, but it is a good compromise when you have something that really needs to be instantly available or if you’re not good at remembering to flick the power switch.

Just remember that every vampire banished is one more that won’t be biting your wallet or infecting us all with more global warming. If you find the prospect of global warming disturbing, there are many more great posts to read as part of Today’s (October 15, 2009) Blog Action Day 2009 - Climate Change.

You may also be interested in reading our other posts this week related to climate change and technology. They are:

Monday: Blog Action Day For A Less Toasty Tomorrow.

Tuesday: The Green Energy Fairy Tale Is Real.

Wednesday: Every Home And Business Is A Battery.

Cash For Clunker Cell Phones

The government’s Cash for Clunkers program may be ending for automobiles. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a great idea. Did you know that there is a way you can get cash for your old clunker cell phone? In fact, there’s cash available for all sorts of unwanted electronic devices. You should really be getting your share.

Scratching your head because you haven’t heard about this on TV? That’s because it isn’t part of the hot news cycle right now. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get paid for old cell phones, laptop computers, PDAs, GPS systems, camcorders, gaming consoles, video games, satellite radios, external disk drives, LCD monitors, calculators, movies, camera lenses, desktop computers, streaming media, Blu-Ray players, home audio, projectors, digital cameras and MP3 players.

Whew! You didn’t realize that you had so many clunkers sitting around your house, did you? They may well be worth cash. The only way to find out for sure is to check the value of your electronic gadgets. You can do that right now.

To be sure, this is not a government program like the “Cash For Clunkers” stimulus. Some might think it should be, but there’s no need. The commercial marketplace has already risen to the occasion. In fact, this opportunity has been available for some time. It just isn’t as well known as it deserves to be.

How does it work? You may suspect that the cell phone that just came off of a two year service contract might be worth something. But it’s not your priority. What you want to do is start using the new cell phone that you got for free or at a deep discount from your new provider. So, the old cell goes into a desk drawer where it will be safe until you figure out what to do with it. Time passes and five or ten years later it’s still there. Only now it’s really not worth anything. Had you recycled it for cash right after you started using your new cell phone, you might have gotten $25, $50, $100 or more. That’s even if you got the phone for free in the first place.

The process is simple. You simply check the value of your electronic device, get an instant offer and request a prepaid shipping carton. Drop your electro-clunker in the mail and you’ll get a check in return. Does it get any easier than this?

If you indeed have a worthless clunker, you can also send it in for proper recycling. Electronic waste is becoming a scourge on society, as it piles up in landfills and leaches out toxic chemicals. Be part of the solution and send your unwanted electronics in for recycling instead of just tossing it.

Military Surplus Telephone Equipment

Here's an idea for dealing with the current business downturn. Let Uncle Sam help you out.

OK, perhaps you don't qualify for any TARP or other government stimulus funding. But there still a way your red, white and blue Uncle can save you money. All you need to do is bid on and win any of the mountains of surplus parts and equipment that the government doesn't want anymore. It's patriotic, it's "green" since you're recycling this unused equipment, and it's often a huge bargain.

When we think of government military surplus, things like jeeps, boots and tents come to mind. Oh, you can still get those if you want them. But the inventory of government surplus now in warehouses nationwide goes far beyond those usual military items. How far? How about high technology parts and equipment like computers and telephone gear?

Let's have a look at some of the items up for bid as of this writing. Would you be interested in a lot of 100 telephones that include some Nortel Network model M3902 phones? How about a pallet or so of telephone wire?

Do you find fiber optic equipment a tad expensive? Would you be interested in a Cisco LightStream 1010 ATM switch? There's one available.

There's test equipment, too. How about a Packeteer PacketWise Technology Packet Shaper 6500 protocol analyzer? Looks like this one cost $19,000 to acquire. I'll be you can get it for a lot less.

On a more mundane level, there are 9 pallets of printers and fax machines from manufactures like HP, Xerox and Lexmark awaiting your perusal. Why just go out and pick up a printer when you can have a truck load of them?

Well, maybe you'd just like a nice video projector. Or 4 pallets of Pentium IV desktop computers. Or some IBM ThinkPad docking stations.

Where did I find all this stuff? It's online at Government Liquidation. This is a site where you can register to bid on official U.S. government surplus equipment and supplies.

They also have a selection of items you can just buy outright. Most of these are clothing, but they did have a couple of types of computer speakers available the last time I looked.

If you've ever enjoyed browsing in local surplus stores, you'll find yourself spending a lot of "coffee break" time looking over the latest offerings online. Just tell the boss that you're researching ways to save the company a bundle and perhaps nobody will look closely enough to see that you are really checking out aircraft parts or inflatable boats. Who knows, you may just stumble across a great deal on a PBX system or some expensive fiber optic routers that you can get for a song.

Green Your Cell Phone For St. Patrick's Day

Ah, it's St. Patty's Day - a time for the wearin' of the green. But these days "green" means a lot more than shamrocks or tinted beer. Green means good for the environment as well. How about doing a little something green for good green Earth before you get too caught up in the day's festivities?

Now don't worry. This will only take a few minutes and you can be on your way. First, you'll need to find that old cell phone you tossed somewhere when you got your brand new one. Did you know that there are something like 100 million cell phones set aside each year? If you piled them all up, you'd find enough gold inside to make a respectable pot at the end of the rainbow. Before the leprechauns get wind of this, you better retrieve that unused phone and see how you can profit from it.

Got your phone? Good. Now see how much your cell phone is worth to a company that recycles them. New model phones can be worth hundreds of dollars. Take it in cash or donate your proceeds to charity. It's up to you. Older devices or broken phones can still be recycled to keep them from polluting the landfill. So send them in as your good deed to honor the day.

Now, didn't that make you feel good? You're just getting started. In addition to selling or recycling cell phones, you can also get cash for your old digital camera, MP3 player, PDA, laptop computer, gaming console, GPS device, camcorder, satellite radio, external hard drive, video game, LCD monitor or even Blu-Ray movies. You get the great feeling of cash in your pocket and the landfill gains a little breathing room. Eventually, everyone will be doing this and there may not be much need for landfills.

Sound interesting? Then take a few minutes to see how to get cash or recycle your old gadgets. There's a short video to watch that explains the process. You can learn what happens to your stuff once you're rid of it. There's an easy search bar so you can quickly find your particular device. Then check off a couple of boxes about condition of the unit and whether you have the AC adaptor and manuals or software. All of these have some effect on how much you'll get. You can even view a chart that shows the price history of your gadget, what it's worth now, and what it may be worth in the future.

Happy St. Patrick's Day and best of luck to you!

The Painless Way to Find Network Technicians

Your business is big enough and high tech enough that you have an in-house data network and a PBX telephone system. Perhaps you have even converged your networks with an enterprise VoIP phone system. But what you don't have is the budget for a full time IT staff and certainly not a telecommunications department. You need to hire the services you need as you need them. But is there an easy way to find contractors to do this work?

There is now. It's called the VAR Network. VAR stands for Value Added Reseller. These are companies that specialize in the equipment offered by one or more manufacturers. VARs range in scope from authorized dealers that simply stock and ship equipment to full service companies that offer consulting, sales, system design, installation, training, upgrades and repairs.

The VAR Network specializes in two types of technologies. They are business telephone systems and computer networks. If what you need is help with either of these technologies, then the VAR Network is your place for one stop shopping. The VARs that are part of this network can help you with everything from replacement parts to turnkey systems.

Here's how it works. You simply browse to the VAR Network site and look for the link that best describes the services you need. That could be network equipment, high speed Internet service, phone system hardware, telephone service, or VoIP equipment & service. You can simply start your request by selecting telephone or data networking. Or just put in your zip code and let the site guide you through a structured inquiry.

What happens next? Your request is matched to participating VARs in the database. These are dealers and technicians who have registered to become members of the VAR Network. The are distributed geographically across the United States. You'll only be contacted by VARs that serve your area and have the capabilities that you request. When a VAR calls, you can get into a more detailed discussion or set up a meeting.

How much does all of this cost? Absolutely nothing to you the customer. VARs support the network based on the new business it brings them. They compete to get the best leads by providing superior service that may include both the system and the connectivity you require.

Do you have a need for technical support? Perhaps something you've been putting off because you weren't sure where to get the right help? Here's your chance to get the service you need without any more grief. Simply visit the VAR Network right now and get your inquiry started. The system is available 24/7 online so anytime is a good time to give it a try.

Chumby Kicks the Clock Radio to the Curb

Is an alarm clock a hideous way to get ripped out of a peaceful slumber? How about a clock radio? Oh, yeah, nothing fit to listen to. OK, then. How about a high tech way to get your day started? Imagine some streaming music from your favorite Internet radio channel. Glance over and see what's coming for you on the weather radar. Check the market report to make sure you haven't gone bust before you even get started. See how those auctions you been watching are coming along. Get the latest news and sports headlines. Or just grab the thing and play a game. What thing? Why, Chumby, of course.

What's a Chumby? It's a wireless Internet device with audio amps and loudspeakers, a large touch sensitive video screen, and motion sensors. It looks like a really nice clock radio, but it puts clock radios to shame. Alarm clocks? You're kidding, right? Those things went obsolete right after Jacob Marley and Ebenezer Scrooge went out of business. Oh, you still work for Scrooge? In that case, I suggest you use
Chumby to keep you posted of the latest job openings. Get it set up before those ghosts come back.

The Jobster, Linked-In Network and Monster USA IT are all job search widgets that run on the Chumby. They're just a few of hundreds of widgets you can get for things like video clips of The Early Show, Letterman's Monologues, CBS NASCAR Sports Clips, VH1 Mobile Video, and YouTube Videos. Who can possibly start the day without seeing that skateboarding dog?

Other widgets let you keep an eye on the stock market, today's weather forecast and local radar screen, Olympic headlines, baseball scores or surf reports from around the world. Wouldn't want to get caught buried in the server room when surf's up, now would you?

As you probably have guessed, a device like this is really too good to be used only as a substitute for your tired old clock radio. You'll want to pick it up and put it on your desk wherever you happen to be. That's fine as long as you have access to a decent WiFi signal that's not encrypted with some exotic enterprise security. The Chumby is designed for wireless routers that support 802.11b/g with typical home-type security such as WEP, WPA personal or WPA2 personal.

Alas, you'll just have to keep the Chumby for your own personal use in the bedroom, living room or home office. Maybe take it in the bathroom while you're getting ready. OK, not if you're inclined to panic when your tech shares takes a dive. Jerking a razor when the stock ticker goes south can result in one nasty cut.

Anyway, Chumby is the coolest way to get a wakeup call short of five star hotel service. You can customize the clock and alarm functions and it will both play and charge your USB connected iPod. The 3.5 inch color display is big enough to see without fumbling around for your glasses or putting the contacts in. If it looks blurry, just pull it closer. If it still looks blurry, you better hope that the clock function on your coffee maker works as well as Chumby's.

You're intrigued, right? It's truly well past the time to kick that old alarm clock or clock radio to the curb and embrace THIS century's technology with Chumby.

Drowning in a Sea of Cell Phones

The latest estimates I've seen put mobile subscribers at about 3 billion around the word, with 1 billion new cell phones sold each year. With a 2 to 3 year churn factor, that means that roughly a 1,000,000,000 mobile phones go obsolete each year. That's a billion with a "b". Where do they all go?

Right in a drawer at home, that's where. Actually a new survey says that only 44% actually wind up just sitting around the house like a boomerang college graduate. (Ouch, I was one of those). Another 25% get passed on to family and friends. A full 16% get sold. But only 3% are recycled.

Frankly, I can't see why you'd recycle a device that could be sold. But only 16% of those billion sales opportunities are turned into cash. That's hundreds and hundreds of millions of phones and dollars wasting away.

Well, perhaps there's not enough money to make it worth bundling up the old cell and driving it to the post office. I took a look through the listings of a company that re-purposes used cell phones for application in third world countries and as emergency phones in the U.S. They give you a mailer and send you a check for each cell they receive in good working order.

How much can you get? Most models seem to be in the $4 to $20 range, although there are a lot of newer models and smartphones that garner $25, $50 and more. Got an old iPhone you want to unload? You might get $150 for it.

What about phones that have collected a layer of dust because you sat them aside - a few years ago. Blow it off. Then send that junker in for recycling using a free mailing label. It will be out of your way and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing it isn't adding to the mounting tonnage of old electronics that will have to be dealt with someday.

Whatever you do, resist the urge to drop it in the weekly waste along with all the old pizza that's gone dried and wrinkly. Nature will reclaim pizza. The nasty arsenic, cadmium, plastics and other environmental degraders will live on to poison future generations. Some cities have electronic recycling days where you can drop off your circuit board laden trash for proper handling. If not, get that free mailing label and send it to a recycler specializing in cellular phones. They'll reclaim any valuable chemicals and metals and make sure whatever is left gets dealt with appropriately.

So now that you've unloaded your prized vintage mobile collection for cash and recycling, there's only one thing left to do. Go shopping for the latest and greatest mobile wireless devices.

Taking a Read on the Amazon Kindle

The demise of paper has been prematurely predicted since computers were first introduced into offices. Indeed, we have learned to create, edit and share documents purely in the electronic realm. What wasn't seen was the huge increase in demand for paper created by millions of dot matrix, laser and ink jet printers. Newspapers are now online, but we still get paper copies delivered. E-books are readily available, but bookstore shelves are bursting with good old paper volumes. What is it about paper that just won't go away in the electronic age?

It could be that it's hard to curl up with a good e-book and its attendant PC. It could be that we like scribbling notes all over our disposable paper copies. A lot of it has to do with the fact that books, magazines and newspapers don't give you eyestrain the way reading on a backlit computer display does. It may also be that computers just don't fit well in the bottom of a bird cage.

Amazon believes it has solved all but the last issue. Polly will still get to do her duty on that impossibly frustrating Sudoku in the comics section. But the rest of us may begin to change our reading habits with the introduction of the Amazon Kindle. Others have tried and failed to build stand alone portable document readers. The problems had to do with size, weight, short battery life, low storage capacity, and the infamous eye-straining display. Kindle's design has worked through all of these issues, plus a few others.

The idea behind Kindle is that it looks, feels and weighs-in like a book. A trade paperback, mind you, not a romance novel. Even so, just 10.3 ounces for a 7.5" x 5.3" x 0.7" plastic device sure beats lugging a laptop. The most important feature of emulating a real book is the appearance of text on a page. That's where Kindle has advanced the game. The display has no backlight. It's an electronic paper display that uses a new technology to display black letters on a grayish white background. This isn't liquid crystals. It's ink particles controlled electronically. You can take it out and read in sunlight or under a lamp in the living room. It looks like paper and it doesn't get hot. Eyestrain? No problem. If you want a larger text, you can increase the font size. No need for special large print books.

The Kindle is designed to be held like a book with buttons on each side to advance a page or go back. There's also a QWERTY keyboard along the bottom to take notes or search for text, look up words in the dictionary, or shop for new books. Ah, that's another surprise feature. The Kindle comes with Sprint EV-DO cellular broadband to connect it to the Amazon bookstore and Web resources such as Wikipedia. Before you blanch at the thought of what that's going to cost, I should mention that Amazon picks up the tab on the broadband connection. You don't pay any fees. They expect to recover the cost of the service by making it easy to buy and download books, newspapers and magazines from wherever you happen to be. Think of it like a mobile iTunes for printed materials.

So how much will this portable reader set you back? It's priced at $399 and they've flown off the shelves so fast you have to get on a waiting list for the next shipment. For that you also get access to a download library of 90,000 books with best sellers and new releases prices at $9.99 each. The Kindle holds over 200 titles in memory. If you turn off the wireless between downloads, you can read for up to a week on a single battery charge.

Amazon's Kindle seems perfect for anyone who needs to tote around a bunch of heavy books. I'm thinking college students or those poor hunched over kids in middle and high school trudging home with their fifty pound backpacks. Technical professionals, too. How about the ease of studying for computer certifications or carrying your reference library in your jacket pocket? I did a quick search on "Cisco" in the Kindle bookstore and found 42 results including some popular study guides.