Karma chameleon: the hotspot to combat the connectivity conundrum

Device lets travellers to the US avoid expensive data roaming charges - and helps locals avoid restrictive data limits

Karma wifi was first mentioned to me as I was heading to a conference in Texas early last year. A friend lent me their own hotspot, their early adopter enthusiasm pitching it as a secret weapon against the tyranny of expensive and irritating data costs when travelling abroad.

And we all know that odd sensation of internet angst - the feeling that your laptop has become an island of futility, cast adrift from all the cloud-based streaming, email and web services upon which we have all become so dependent.