Gadgetory

the best things in life are free I'm Bridget Carey and this is your cnet update it's the last updates show of the year so let's jump in with a new device that could change the way you pay for internet access karma is a 4g mobile hotspot that uses the clearwire wimax network anyone who buys this $80 hotspot can get free data for every person that hops on and uses it that's why they call it karma if you let someone connect to your hotspot the network gives both of you 100 megabytes of data if you want to save money that means you need more people to connect to your network but of course we've all been taught to not trust range Wi-Fi hotspots so if you just go to a coffee shop or an airport what people even want to connect to your karma connecting to the hot spot requires signing in with a Facebook account so maybe that will discourage people from connecting but there are some good points there's no contract and the data you accumulate never expires if you don't have people to connect with you'll have to pay $14 for 1 Giga data which is still quite cheap if you travel often this is an easy device to take around and just load up data when you need it it isn't practical though if you're always streaming movies and using things like Netflix or online gaming at home in a previous show I discussed a similar product from freedompop buying the home router will get you one gigabyte of data for free every month but users can also earn more data for free by referring friends the network for both of these services is clearwire and it's in about 80 metro cities I've used the network's hotspot in New York and found it to be reliable and a good speed for everyday web browsing there's also been an interesting development in the traditional television space the company Aereo lets users watch live broadcast TV on the internet for small fee network operators have sued area because it doesn't pay for stations that are broadcast free over the air waves and those lawsuits are still ongoing but now the company has its first cable TV station partner Bloomberg TV for eight dollars a month users can even record live TV to watch shows later like a DVR right now only New Yorkers can access area but the service plans to expand to 15 others early next year and if you're in need of a gift idea or need to give something at the last minute you can pull out your iPhone and quickly send someone an app iOS 6 users now can gift an app to someone right from the app store you can't give an Android app as a gift but there's always gift cards to the Google Play Store and if you know someone with an e-reader or a tablet you can gift an e-book for the kindle and nook that's your tech news update you can get links to all of the stories I mentioned on our blog sina com / update the show returns the first week of January as we gear up for the biggest tech conference the Consumer Electronics Show thanks for watching and happy holidays from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey see you in 2013