Two years ago during a final exam I was administering, I surreptitiously checked the e-mail on my laptop once while the grad TAs kept watch to try to minimize cheating.
Yesterday, we all had iPhones, Blackberries, and iTouches and we were all checking our e-mail and favourite sites throughout the exam we were administering.
"The times, they are a-changin'..."
Didn't stop us from catching some flagrant cheating, though.
So how do you construct a meaningful price index with all this new technology? It seems to me the best technique would be to use a rolling market basket instead of using market baskets that change only infrequently.