Acer and Webaroo to deliver the Web on a laptop... sort of
Today a startup called Webaroo is expected to announce a deal with Acer to sell laptops preloaded with a 40GB snapshot of the "essential web." In addition to storing relatively permanent information for offline search, the system will also refresh itself automatically when connected to the internet, allowing for updated "Web Packs" featuring content related to headline news and sports among other specialized subjects. While we agree that much of the web is "redundant" and "junk," we're still not too keen on the idea of turning over more than half our laptop's disk storage to someone else's idea of "essential," especially in an age when always-on connectivity via EV-DO, WiFi, etc. means we're almost never offline. (Where was this service in 1998? Wait -- where was our 40GB hard drive in 1998?) But we'll wait to see if Engadget makes the cut before passing final judgement, eh?
