bee4mee, check out this website. Carphonewarehouse is apparently one of the biggest cell retailers in the UK. I just have to figure out which phone, which SIM card. I can place my order and pick up my phone(s!) when I get there from the store of my choice, closest to whatever hotel I'm staying. For the price - $21 for a phone with a bit of airtime on it - I might buy two to use as 'walkie talkies' and top off as needed! Most advice says to 'rent' a phone in the States so you have it with you. I knew there had to be equivalent mobile stores like we have here, from Best Buy, Target, heck even my grocery stores sells phones so it had to be possible to buy a go-phone in London. Took me a bit but I found one (several, but carphonewarehouse seems to be the daddy). I'll figure out later if I keep the phones for friends who travel, future Europe trips (buying SIMs as necessary) or just sell 'em on ebay. Anyone have a tutorial on web access through a cell phone? My eyeballs are crossed. My DH has an iphone so I know that we have unlimited 'data' for the $20 or $30/month. I'm getting confused with charges per day, per minute, MB bundles. Thanks all! Here is a link that might be useful: Pay as you go cell phones UK

The netbook is sitting on a hard table. I certainly watch Youtube videos on occasion, but not most of the time. I am usually just on line like right now. When the fan began running louder and began exhausting far more heat, it was doing it continuously, day and night and now it is quiet and cool. I just ran a couple of youtube videos without an increase in heat or fan. I also finally just remembered the name Task Manager to determine activity and see that not much is happening (one percent right now, idle processes 99 percent). Unfortunately we weren't looking at it yesterday when things were running so much warmer.

all you need to make sure of is that it is a usb plug in, that it will read and BURN DVD's if it does it will most likely also do various other things including CDs. They are not very expensive, I picked one up on clearance at Staples for under $20. There are many out there that are only players not burners since you will want to use it to make your discs you need one that also burns. use this search string on google to find lots of results usb external cd dvd rw burner drive for laptop netbook some will require an ac adapter some not, for the most portable you want one that does not, some will require use of 2 usb ports to help power it, if it will be mostly used at home getting one that has both options would be best so you can plug it into power when you are home and use only usb power when traveling. If you have windows 7 starter on your netbook be aware you do not have a media player on that OS you will need to download and install a media player, I like VLC free. In general it is simply plug and play that easy plug in the usb cord and start using it. the x in the number such as 8x or 6x or 12x is the speed it will write to DVD or CD. the bigger the faster not really that important unless you will be doing a lot of burning. You may run into some that also use blu ray format which means they will play and or burn to blu ray discs and will be much more expensive. Here is a search from newegg that gives you a lot of choices and some great user reviews of the models, I love newegg for the reviews and I have ordered from them many times. Here is a link that might be useful: newegg

I think it is a good choice for you. I have a desktop, a laptop, and a 10" Dell mini. I like the mini a lot for traveling, because it is so small and light, but the screen is definitely at the limit of my visual comfort level. The one you are considering looks like a reasonable price for something with those specs, and I think you will find the screen will be a definite improvement for you compared to the ones on most of the other minis. I only use my mini occasionally, and so I'm happy with it for my needs, but you will be using yours more than I do, and that one looks like a good compromise considering size, weight, and viewing comfort. The fact that it has a full-size keyboard is also a big plus, I say go for it...