TechBits package

-Fi hotspot for extreme roaming

NEW YORK (AP) — Want to get email on your iPhone or BlackBerry in the middle of the ocean, or in the Arctic? Now you can — but it'll cost you.

Satellite phone company Iridium Communications Inc. said Wednesday that it is launching a cigarette-pack-sized box that connects to an Iridium phone.

The box produces a Wi-Fi hotspot that smartphones and tablet computers can connect to. The phone relays that connection to satellites overhead, which then shunt the signal to a ground station connected to the Internet.

The data speeds will be slower than dial-up, but they should be good enough for meaningful use of email, Iridium CEO Matt Desch said.

Iridium, which is based in McLean, Va., said the AxcessPoint will cost less than $200, but it needs to be paired with a phone that costs about $1,000. The data connection will cost about $1 per minute.

Iridium phones can already connect laptops to the Internet, through the use of a cable.

AT&T Inc. sells an alternative solution for those who need Internet access where there are zero bars of regular coverage: a "Genus" smartphone that connects directly to a satellite. However, that satellite covers only North America, while the Iridium network of 66 satellites spans the entire world.

— Peter Svensson, AP Technology Writer

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Miramax films on Netflix's LatAm streaming plan

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — Award-winning film studio Miramax says hundreds of films that it has arranged to be streamed online to Netflix Inc.'s U.S. consumers will also be available to international markets, starting with countries in Latin America.

Starting this month, more than 140 Miramax movies such as "There Will Be Blood," ''The English Patient" and "Spy Kids" will be available to Netflix video streamers in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Dozens of titles will be added on a rotating basis.

The movies can be watched on TV, tablet computers, personal computers and mobile phones.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Netflix has been streaming Miramax movies in the U.S. since May.

The DVD mail-order and Internet streaming service launched in its first Latin American country, Brazil, on Monday. It plans to expand into 43 countries throughout the region.