A Zonbu for 1/4 of your monthly broadband bill?

As I’ve wandered around the web and read the different comments people have made about the Zonbu, one of the more popular themes that has emerged is “Subscription fees suck! I’d buy one of these but I’m not payin’ no stinkin’ fee”.

As someone who has over twelve years in the ISP/IT/broadband space, I find this to be a very strange comment.

No one seems to have an issue with paying $40+/month for their broadband access. Or even more than that for their cell phone plan…

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Webcams, IM, Zonbu, Grandma and YouTube

The Zonbu claims to be able to replace your desktop PC for most (if not all) of your day-to-day Internet tasks.

I realized the other day that when I wrote What do we really use our PCs for? that I forgot one really important task: video conferencing with IM contacts.

In our house, this principally means video calling with Grandma who happens to live about 4000 miles away. Being the caretakers of her first and only grandchild, webcam activity is fairly common in our house.

So, what does the Zonbu offer in the area of instant messaging and video support?