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Making Mobile Presentations Without a Laptop?
eggled writes "My boss makes mobile presentations fairly frequently, but is sick of lugging around his gargantuan laptop (a Toshiba A25-S207). It's fallen to me to see if I can solve this for him. I began looking at netbooks and such, but many of them are slightly high for our price bracket (being that he already owns a fully functional laptop; this will be a presentations-only machine). His current cell phone, a Motorola RAZR, is getting decrepit and the contract is up, so I figured I'd look at smartphone-style replacement, and let AT&T subsidize the cost of the new phone. What I'm hoping to find is a phone that can be attached to a VGA-input projector, and play Powerpoint presentations (PDF would work, too). Web access is a must, but I think I'd be hard pressed to buy a high end phone that won't have internet access, so I'm unconcerned on that topic. Anybody out there have experience with this sort of thing or have suggestions on what route to take?"
Its not going to be drag and drop, but it is pretty straight forward
...an easel, and some Magic Markers.
Or, if you want to go high-tech, have make transparencies and arrange for an overhead projector at each site. I hear you can even make transparencies with a computer these days.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Real men don't need a computer or even a projector. Real men just memorise the presentation and then just wave a laser pointer around fast enough to draw pictures (using vision persistence).
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
No, GIR! Take me to the equipment room, NOW!
Caveat Utilitor
Chalkboard or Whiteboard?
I mean really -- is Edward Tufte fighting a losing battle with his Criticism of PowerPoint, and we're already seeing people incapable of thinking outside of bullet points?
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;625432195;pp;2;fp;;fpid;
You could also just convert the PowerPoint file into a movie file, then use an iPhone to play it, pausing on each frame. Looks liek that;s exactly what this guy did:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=366966
Any phone/pda with windows mobile and a usb/cf port will do.
You just need:
- A USB/CF VGA card
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint Mobile
They're relatively cheap and even the 701 has sufficient oomph to run XP+Powerpoint, assuming you don't go crazy with transitions and movies. I have a 4 gig 701, it does up to 1600x1280 externally. Combined with a bluetooth presentation mouse, it makes a great presentation kit that you can fit in an overcoat pocket.
Though I left it with the default linux install on the SSD(I mostly use it to remote in while abroad), as the open office version of powerpoint is sufficient for my needs.
How much do you make, and how important are these presentations?
If he's flying about the world, he's paying large sums of money for the presentation time he has.
Even if his time and travel isn't valuable, the people who he's making the presentations to must be, or he wouldn't be making presentations.
$500 for a netbook is chump change.
Assuming you make any decent salary, you've probably already spent more then that on research for this scheme already.
I recommend a MSI Wind(~$500) if money is really that tight, or a Lenovo X61(~$1000) if you've got a little more change.
The lowend EEE PC's at ~$300 are a bargain, but in my opinion they have an unusably small screen and keyboard.
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups.