What are they? :O

It's a small USB stick that plugs into your laptop and connects to the cellphone network, at broadband speeds (the theoretical max speed is 14.4 Mb/s). In the UK, that means internet access anywhere (seriously - the networks here all have >99% population coverage, so about the only place you can't get a signal is at the top of a Scottish mountain).

Aaaa that's really awesome! Do you have to pay for it by minute or...? (And is it just cellphones or like...idk?)

You pay per amount data transferred, usually with a few GB included free if you get one on a contract. Mine's on Vodafone's old pay-as-you-go plan, so there's no monthly fee and top-ups cost me £15 (about $22) for 1GB worth of credit (and 1GB is a surprisingly large amount of data).

The stick itself works in exactly the same way as a 3G mobile phone.

That's really cool... aaa you make me want one now!

They're incredibly useful if you have a laptop and travel with it, but not much use otherwise as they're more expensive than a home broadband connection. I bought mine when I was on holiday in Cornwall, and since then I tend to use it on long train journeys.

Because despite what we know they're made up of, what they really are is a tiny box with the entire world inside.