Surfing the Web, with a camcorder. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. Multi-function seems to be the name of the game for all kinds of consumer electronic devices these days. Cell phones that take pictures, digital cameras that play MP3 music. Sony's new line up of camcorders for this year... includes models that can take 2 megapixel still pictures... and models that can surf the Web... using a dial up or high speed Ethernet connection...

"The idea of networking is you're able to access the Internet without a PC. So if you're traveling and if you don't take your PC with you because you're on vacation, you have your camcorder with you and depending upon the model that you have you can access the Internet and you can send and receive emails, you can upload images to ImageStation, which is our photo sharing service."

Sony marketing manager Kelly Davis. The add on accessory for high speed Internet access will sell for about a hundred dollars. How practical is it to send and receive email through a camcorder?

"Very good question. You actually use the stylus which is supplied with the model. All these models here have a touch screen system so you're able to type here and pull up a keyboard, just like a keyboard on a PC. So you're able here to touch the system and if you want to go to a URL, whatever it may be, type in the URL where you would like to go, and it's just as simple as that."

Tapping on a screen is not exactly speedy, but so far at least, you can't plug a keyboard into a camcorder. Prices for the Network Handicams range from a thousand dollars to about 25 hundred. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.