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SALT LAKE CITY -- Along with the usual candy and soda, students at the University of Utah can now get laptop computers from the vending machines.

LaptopsAnytime is trying out the service in the University of Utah's A. Ray Olpin Union Building.

The vending machine is pretty easy to navigate. People use the touch screen, swipe a credit card and then slide out a computer. Rental fees start out at $1 for the first 30 minutes.

Rental fees start at $1 for the first 30 minutes

Most of the students KSL spoke with didn't even know it was there. Matt Alexander says it was the first time he had seen it.

"I do think that students, when they feel that emergency and need to get something done, get on the internet and the computers are full downstairs, they'll come and use it," he says.

But Alexander, who owns a laptop, says he'll probably never rent.

A lot of students say the computer labs on campus are regularly full and that may spur more rentals. Aubrey Oco says she would consider renting a computer, "if I left my laptop up at the dorms or if I needed to get on a computer."

Some students walked up to the vending machine to take a look at it, but then walked away.

A student employee says that's what most people do. But he believes as people get used to the machine and as the semester goes on, more students will rent.

E-mail:cwall@ksl.com

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