But their computers cannot speak to each other, and they offer far less choice than, for example, the much-admired health plan for civilian federal employees.
The innovators and entrepreneurs currently working for multinational companies may do well to turn their attention to the several billions of people who lack many fundamental services but hold powerful computers in their hands.
For a glimpse of a brighter future look at Denmark, where the biggest cable company not only allows subscribers to watch some television on their computers but also allows non-subscribers to pay a monthly fee to watch some of its programmes online.
To fight Microsoft it will encourage users to store their files not on their personal computers but on Google's remote machines.
But few people will abandon their computers altogether.
FORBES: Enough Already with the "Death of the PC Era" Garbage
Almost seven out of 10 people say their computers crash, but of those, two-thirds say it happens only about once each month.
But how many people are hanging around their computers to interact with apps while their Spotify playlists are streaming around the house?
The news that the City of San Francisco is no longer going to buy Macs is not going to make Apple CEO Tim Cook lose sleep since fewer than 2 percent of their computers are Macs, but it remains to be seen is any other agencies will follow suit.
FORBES: City of SF: We're Not Buying Macs Anymore, Not Without EPEAT Certification
Sony worked with IBM and IBM used a version of the chip that they build into some of their mainframes and super computers, but then they actually added enhancements to it.
Hackers have traditionally targeted government and military computers, but in recent years have expanded their efforts into the commercial sector.
FORBES: Night Dragon Attacks Target Technology in Energy Industry
But people also have shifted their attention to games on Facebook, tablet computers and mobile phones.
Like Nintendo, the new generation of small fabless firms capitalise on some special skill (designing cheap but powerful computers in Akia's case) and then use their compactness to run circles around the heavyweights.
But when the machines became smart enough, they lost their jobs as human computers.
FORBES: Why Romney And Obama Can't Fix The Unemployment Problem
But they still can't get the information they need out of their computers.
Imagine if the street vendors no longer rely on their non-smart mobile phones but start using web-enabled tablet computers to conduct business.
After the initial rush tied up the site, it functioned normally overnight but became clogged again early today as Americans woke up and sat down at their computers, Cauz said.
But according to figures just released it appears that consumers have taken to shopping from their computers and mobile devices in a very big way.
FORBES: Holiday Shoppers Flocking Online Create Record Breaking Sales
Police arrested four people for posting the threats but realised the hacker had compromised the computers of these innocent victims and was abusing their machines remotely via Tor.
Handhelds have been the most successful pen-based computers, but as the market has matured, it looks as though their signature input method is on the verge of being erased.
The department and the media firms reached a compromise that let the firms continue using their own computers and data lines to ensure fast delivery of economic news but let the Labor Department control access to the computers and supervise maintenance of the equipment.
But fans wishing to view the fight live will be forced to watch the clash on their computers via an internet stream.
Mitra said he doesn't think teachers are obsolete but suggests their roles may be changing as students increasingly have access to self-learning through computers.
At the turn of the 20th century, letterpress posters advertised boxing matches, circuses and carnivals, but most print shops junked their clunky letterpress printers for offset units in the 1950s or for computers in the 1980s.
Not only do they use computers to maintain their businesses (they run a small publishing house), but they also have a website.
ECONOMIST: Endangered species: The last seven Shakers in the world | The
But I could sniff the winds and saw that BASIC would be key to people adopting computers in their homes, due to books of computer games written in BASIC.
FORBES: Steve Wozniak: His Career Challenges, Steve Jobs, Tech Trends and Advice
But until Skype fixes it, Kayan suggests that cautious users run the program inside a virtual machine on their computers.
FORBES: Researcher Claims Simple Skype Bug Lets Hackers Hijack Contacts' Accounts
But Yurke and Adleman argue that making DNA computers to replace desktop machines may not be the point of their research after all.
Egenera computers may cost 30% more than a comparable amount of bargain-basement processing, but their centrally managed operations eliminate setup and maintenance costs, as well as cables and multiple copies of systems.
Calculators were the original handheld computers, but unlike the whole PDA fad, they've had amazing staying power through their 40-year history -- to this day, buttoned-up dudes crunching numbers at wooden desks have HP 12Cs next to them not for the kitschy retro street cred, but because they're functional, familiar, and do exactly what they're expected to do.
ENGADGET: TI joins HP, creates official business calculator port for iPhone
应用推荐