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Hardware CRIMP?
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Posted by WSP
Jun 1, 2011 at 01:42 PM
I use a similar solution. I have a ridiculously small netbook—the Sony Vaio P—that is perfect for note-taking in libraries. (I’m a writer/scholar.) At times the screen feels uncomfortably tiny to me, but it’s actually functional (the Vaio P runs Windows 7 very smoothly), and it’s a pleasure to carry around—about a pound and a half. When I’m going to be away from home for an extended period of time, I hook it up with either a monitor or my iPad (using the MaxiVista app) and a bluetooth keyboard—and at that point it becomes a reasonable substitute for a desktop computer.
I assume that in the future we’ll all be doing something like this, though I suspect that the central device will be a smart phone or a tablet rather than a netbook, and much of our data will be in the cloud. You can get close to that experience right now by using Evernote and an iPad (with an external keyboard), but Evernote seems to me still rather klunky on the iPad.
The other Bill
Posted by JJSlote
Jun 1, 2011 at 02:33 PM
>My apologies for using the phrase “quite cool” twice. Once is barely acceptable - twice is… well, twice is not good.
If anyone finds a stylebook-in-software that can detect patterns in writing and offer valid critiques on grammar and usage, please recommend it here. My bad habit is to start with a perfectly good sentence, add another element, and fail to notice that I’ve edited my way out of subject-verb or possession agreement.
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Jun 1, 2011 at 03:44 PM
If it were me, rather than carrying around and paying for an iPad and a netbook, I’d just go with the 11” MacBook Air. Close to the same cost, no Windows operating system to deal with. Practically the same rapid start up time. Far more robust applications to choose from (than the iPad). In fact, I’m almost talking myself into it as I write… Talk about hardware CRIMP!
Steve Z.
Posted by JohnK
Jun 1, 2011 at 03:54 PM
WSP wrote:
>I assume that in
>the future we’ll all be doing something like this, though I suspect that the central
>device will be a smart phone or a tablet rather than a netbook, and much of our data will
>be in the cloud.
At least two companies agree with you:
The Atrix smartphone fits in a ‘lapdock’:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/smartphones/367423/motorola-atrix
And there’s the new ‘Padfone’, still at the prototype stage:
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/mobile-devices/2011/06/01/asus-demos-hybrid-padfone-prototype-40092939/
Posted by WSP
Jun 1, 2011 at 04:04 PM
Your point seems reasonable, but let me add that (a) I bought the iPad primarily for pleasure and have only gradually realized that it could also be used for work—e.g., as an improvised external monitor when I am traveling; and (b) I admire Apple products tremendously and would like to make the switch, but changing over would make a zillion of my programs, old files, and fonts unusable. (I’ve been using DOS and Windows computers since the mid-1980s.) I just can’t leap over that precipice.
Bill
——————————
Stephen Zeoli wrote:
>If it were me, rather than carrying around and paying for an iPad and a netbook, I’d just
>go with the 11” MacBook Air. Close to the same cost, no Windows operating system to deal
>with. Practically the same rapid start up time. Far more robust applications to
>choose from (than the iPad). In fact, I’m almost talking myself into it as I write…
>Talk about hardware CRIMP!
>
>Steve Z.