A funny thing happened on the way to work . .

About a year ago, I was doing much of my information intake on trains. I don't know about you, but I average close to an hour a day traveling around in Tokyo's speeding sardine cans. Until this spring, I would connect my handy Visor PDA to my computer in the morning, download fresh news stories and features from major content providers and devour them during my morning and evening commutes.

Then tragedy struck: My brand-spanking new iMac went belly-up (I'll spare you the gory details), effectively severing my slender umbilical cord to a wireless mode of being.