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Best Technology For Long-Distance Travel?
An anonymous reader writes "Over the past year I have traveled across the globe for work but I can't seem to find the right balance of technology to take with me. After reading a CNET article about tech for traveling, I'm still slightly undecided about what hardware suits me best. On the work side of things I need a laptop, nothing fancy but it can't be too heavy or slow. I also need a smart phone that can receive emails across the world and if possible a satellite navigation device, as I need to get to less-traveled locations on a regular basis. From a personal perspective I need my music but I don't care about video, so I'm looking for something with high-quality audio and great battery life. A compact camera wouldn't go amiss but dSLRs are too heavy for my needs and carrying strength, so something I can tuck in a pocket would be perfect. Any suggestions greatly appreciated."
In any case, we already know the Best Laptop for Going Around the World.
Seriously, compact digital cameras have gotten a lot better lately. I got my wife a Canon PowerShot SD600 a little while ago, which is purse-sized, and takes very acceptable photos. The main differences between this and a DSLR are: first, the DSLR has a much faster shutter speed so can take much better action photos; second, the SD600 has a small non-replaceable lens with a limited zoom, so it is not much good for wildlife or sports where you can't get up close. But for landscapes, it is hard to distinguish its photos from those made with a high-end camera.
If you buy a nintendo DS (or older PSP), you could just upload your music onto that device. The battery life isn't as good as an iPod, but it'll last most lengthy flights pretty well (assuming you don't want it on while you sleep).
You just need the right hardware/software along with your DS, of course. Which isn't that hard to come by.
Check The mod goDS at http://www.themodgods.com/ for more information and (best of all) links to more information sources beyond themselves. The basic "kits" will run about $100. Personally I just use my DS for playing a few games I own so I never bothered buying all the extras, but after seeing all my friend's things, I kinda regret buying an MP3 player...
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
Thus you want a camera with digital image stabilization, as good wideangle as possible and at least 5 megapixels. Last time I did the round up (a few months ago) there were surprisingly few cameras that met these conditions - mostly because most of what is on the shelves in "Best Buy" (not best for at least several years) does not have any wideangle whatsoever.
My purchase was Panasonic Lumix LX-2 which, at the time, was not available in any store in Boston so I had to order it from Vahns. I was not disappointed and even found the movie mode to be useful - it has a higher resolution than my camcorder (which is NTSC like) and, best of all, the movie files are mpeg4 encoded and play readily on my Kubuntu systems.
I don't think cnet is going to tell you anyting other than who is paying the highest price for advertising this month.
From what he said I think I know what he needs. A Nokia e90. My wife has the e61 and it does 90% of the computing tasks I need. Wi-Fi, 3G, phone, office documents, acrobat, web browsing with Opera, Blackberry support, exchange, & Skype. The e90 is big enough to do any office task on and small enough to take with you. It has 2 cameras (one 3m with flash) and is a great MP3 player. If you don't believe me read Maddox's review of the iPhone vs. e70 titled "The iPhone is a piece of shit, and so is your face." . Granted the e90 is a little different than the e70 but who is going to notice that the e90's balls are made out of tungsten instead of steel with kicking them? Plus it runs on Sybian, a great OS with lots of support and not a bitch of M$ or a BSD rip off with flashing colored baubles.
You know it is a great product because the US cell phone companies will only sell a crippled piece of shit version (e62) in the US.
I think you meant Symbian not Sybian.
It seems that there's a group of us fan-boys, but the first thing I thought about is the eee pc that I'm writing this comment on :).
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.... as for me, my 15 inch Thinkpad already feels ridiculously enormous in comparison ... (yeah, I know, weird - I wasn't ready for how small and usable this little computer is despite extensively reading reviews and watching videos of it in in action before buying).
... for transcoding or ripping/burning video or the occasional Windows game, the fire-breathing massive and noisy Ubuntu/XP desktop is still there ... mostly unused 5 feet away, but it's still there ...
I've only had it a few days, but the keyboard already feels completely usable, and the ridiculous boot times and portability (and cost) can't be beat IMHO.
The touchpad is as usable as the touchpad on my thinkpad (though I am a fan of the IBM nipple pointing device when you have to make do without a mouse), but it does work well (I guess if touchpads fundamentally sucked Macintosh laptops wouldn't ship with them).
I'm not sure about installing XP personally, unless there's a compelling reason to do so, when you can get Ubuntu with that 3D visual bling that seems to run great on this little machine based on youtube videos floating around. I'm holding out to the base software mostly because boot times would suffer with anything else, and it comes with just about anything you would actually need to get work done with a portable computer. Firefox, flash, MS Office Docs, and multimedia all just work with less (zero) tweaking than with a windows computer
I was impressed with the OQO (had a chance to play with one extensively) for portable computing, but the price difference makes it a no-brainer for me. In fact, work would have paid for either of the two, but I'm a Linux (GNU OS really?) fan, so a workable command line meant that my job will refund me 400 bucks instead of a couple of grand
If your work is mostly Photoshop (or Gimp) then a tablet might make more sense
YMMV, of course, but I'm happy as a clam with the eee pc
...after a few years of testing out many items. For easy traveling, your items should be flat and thin. 1. Thinkpad X series (had to wait 3 years for the price to drop around USD1200 after rebate/coupon), a bag where you can fit the laptop on its side (easy to carry around) and a PCMCIA modem card (many Asian countries you will get net access through cellphone service providers) 2. Canon TX1 3. Any quad band cellphone with an FM receiver and a bit of memory for storing any music 4. A small LED torch 5. Earplugs 6. flat/thin LED book light, a flat Swiss army card etc. All the above will fit in a thin laptop bag (Wilson has nice leather laptop bags - and they look like normal bags) and will not weigh more than 3.5 to 4 pounds.
Tat Tvam Asi