Free wireless breaking out all over

In this week's column, read about the sudden and very welcome outbreak of free Wi-Fi access all over Dublin. While Esat BT bravely soldiers on charging an arm and a leg for its Wi-Fi (in fairness it's targeting business users in comfortable locations - just today it pledged to connect some O'Brien's sandwich bars), Eircom has been quietly enabling loads of phone boxes where you can hook up for nowt. If you can bear the cold and the muggers, that is.

Thanks to the appalling structure of Eircom's web site, there's no direct link to the list of free wireless availability but go to www.eircom.ie, click on Site Map, then choose Wireless Broadband Locations. It's a small list but growing and a good sign that free Wi-Fi will soon be the norm.

Also read about Dell's new X50 range of Axim PocketPC-based personal organisers, which are handsome devils and, as usual, great value.

In games, Ghost Recon 2 is a simplified and therefore much more enjoyable squad shooter sequel, Blinx 2 fixes many of the problems which bedevilled the time-bending original and CSI: Miami is undemanding crime-solving repeated.