...among a bunch of (largely) boys who love their Mac toys, but here goes.
I've been a one laptop-only user for many years now. However, I've been thinking about making a change, and perhaps getting a desktop... and maybe an iPad or a laptop or even just a netbook. (Yes, a Windows one. Gasp.)
I'm probably not going to fully make this change for several months, but I can incrementally make changes, but right now I'm just kicking around ideas for a better computer set-up. And even though my MBP is up and running post-OJ spill, MacDoc has advised me that it's better replaced sooner than later.
I have no idea what my budget is right now, since if all goes well I will be coming into some money in a few months, and if all goes poorly I will be selling off my shoes to buy groceries.
Some factors:
1) Because of QuickBooks, my time at the office is largely spent switching between a desktop Windows machine and a laptop. Sometimes I share this Windows machine, but more and more often it's just me.
2) Our email now runs on Google Apps for Domains, so it's available to me everywhere. (All but some older stuff, which is getting less and less relevant.)
3) Almost all of my working files, etc, were moved to DropBox for backup. (Got spooked after a writer friend of mine had her house broken into and her computer with all her work stolen--but thanks to Dropbox she could access everything in seconds.) This means that I can effectively work from any machine without having to physically carry that machine with me.
4) No matter how light a laptop is, it's still a pain drag around from place to place.
5) It's a pain to fiddle around and try to make printers work with my Mac laptop at the office, and then have 'em all break when I finally get around to upgrading the OS, and then re-fiddle.
6) Nothing I do requires specialized software... it's email, Internet, Word and Excel. (Oh, and Ommwriter, but that's not much of an issue.) And sometimes I watch movies... even at work (if it's late and I have a lot of mindless stuff to do.) But I don't really *need* to have my own personal computer for any of this.
Still, the laptop is handy for me. I do travel, and I do like to take my laptop out for a walk and write in coffee shops, though I don't do that very often. I also drag it back and forth to my boyfriend's place, but there's an argument to be made for seeing him and NOT being able to goof off on the internet.
It's also nice to have a personal and private computer as work (we share machines here) particularly when I am doing stuff that is not actually work-related (such as posting on ehMac.) But it's very clearly more of a luxury than a necessity for me.
On the other hand, there is the fact that I'm cheap. And I don't want to have lots of stuff for the sake of having stuff. It's a war between my geek-past and my Luddite-present, I think.
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Stay away from a netbook. They are so darn cute and so useless. The one I had was so underpowered, the keyboard was not good and it was so small I couldn't use it on my lap and being small, the screen was too small. The only good thing was a little app that let me rotate the screen so I could read eBooks.
Get yourself an iPad. You'll like it for tramping around and soon you'll find that it does almost anything you want. Once you're comfortable with the iPad, you can look at something to do the heavy lifting at work. I bought a $500 laptop with windows 7 on it that would do all that you say you need, but I didn't pay enough attention to the keyboard - it's horrible.
I'm a pretty good typist on a decent keyboard and worried about the lack of a physical keyboard on the iPad, but I can type almost as fast using one finger on the iPad.
I'm retired, but for nearly 30 years everything I did involved a computer and I can see that my current setup would have got the job done for me.
The sticking point with an iPad is the typing. I am (in theory) a writer, and in the next few years I will should have more time to spend on writing. Not sure how that will be to go out with an iPad and tap out a thousand words or so. (And I can't use Word on an iPad.... OmmWriter, yes, Word no, but they serve different purposes for me.)
The iPad makes a lot of sense for me for a lot of things--even around the house, it could be my goof-off machine versus my actually-doing-something machine, but the sitting down and writing part gets tricky.
I suppose I could have a desktop, a laptop and a tablet, but that's getting into a lot of stuff....
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I use a D630 that I picked up on boxing day for $199 and it has been a pretty good laptop. I'm writing on it now, I have Win 7 loaded on it and put the max amount of ram and a much bigger HD in it. Having a DVD burner in my case is handy. These also have Firewire ports and PCMCIA slots but no card readers.
You could get an iPad dock w/ keyboard, or (better yet IMO) pair it with a Bluetooth keyboard. Kind of defeats ultra-portability, but if you're going to be using the iPad without a keyboard most of the time, but do want to be able to park it on a desk and use it for writing sessions, this might work for you.
The sticking point with an iPad is the typing. I am (in theory) a writer, and in the next few years I will should have more time to spend on writing. Not sure how that will be to go out with an iPad and tap out a thousand words or so. (And I can't use Word on an iPad.... OmmWriter, yes, Word no, but they serve different purposes for me.)
The iPad makes a lot of sense for me for a lot of things--even around the house, it could be my goof-off machine versus my actually-doing-something machine, but the sitting down and writing part gets tricky.
I suppose I could have a desktop, a laptop and a tablet, but that's getting into a lot of stuff....
Maybe you could use Word on your iPad with an app like Splashtop remote access. Lifehacker blog did an article on it this morning. I set it up but haven't really tested it much. You can access computers that are on a different network by logging in with your gmail id.
An iPad is not a proper substitute for a desktop or laptop if you're creating content. It's fine for consuming content but for writing, I dunno ... it would make me crazy personally. I have tried the BT keyboard with iPad and it's still no laptop substitute for my needs. I will also third the "stay away from netbooks" comments.
No one has mentioned one other option, a Mac Mini for a desktop coupled with an iPad for travel. You likely already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse with the old PC. Depending on the configs of both machines, $1,400 to $1,700, or about the price of a MBP. Just a thought. The small form factor is also attractive and relatively uncluttered for either machine.
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You likely already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse with the old PC.
Nope, nope and nope. Got rid of all that stuff two moves and one husband ago... Might be able to scrounge up something from the office, but a lot of that stuff is still parallel/serial port. (We're old-school here.)
I do like the idea of it not taking up space though.
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