I wonder if they’ve thought of a category sub product called “TractorNet Mobile.” Probably not. But then I’m guessing you can put one of these in any kind of vehicle and that includes a tractor. How about checking your email while you’re spending a long day in the field? Or syncing your iPod to your favorite farm podcasts? Or checking the markets online without having to wait to get back to the home office? Actually you can do most of this now with a smart phone as long as you’ve got good service but getting to use your notebook computer is very attractive if you’ve ever spent much time looking at tiny little screen.

AutoNet says that it’s going to unveil this new product/service that turns your vehicle into an internet wi-fi hotspot this coming Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show. They expect to begin shipping them by the spring. It’s expected that the AutoNet Mobile Router will retail at $399 with a monthly service charge of $49. For those of you who spend a lot of time on the road like I do it’s certainly an option.

How much do you want to bet that this will be built into cars, trucks and tractors within the next year or so and come as standard equipment? Yowser!

In designing our service we also knew it was important to enable a wide array of wireless electronics devices to get connected. Since most electronics devices use Wi-Fi, we decided to turn the car into a Wi-Fi hotspot, just like at the local Starbucks. By doing this we can connect devices ranging from laptop computers to mobile media players like the Fujitsu P1610, from Wi-Fi cameras to Wi-Fi phones like the VoIP Skype Phone, and from stationary videogame consoles to handheld gaming units like the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS.