The latest generation offers e-mail and basic Web browsing so that busy users can stay in touch with the office, check flight times and get the latest stock quotes wherever they are.
At the time, people were unfamiliar with the concept of a computer password, which required structuring a scene early in the film in which the main character, played by Matthew Broderick, sneaks into his high-school principal's office to check out a piece of paper showing a list of random words.