I'd be tempted by one of these

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Nook or Kindle Fire?
 

The Nook and Kindle are ebook readers that also cover web browsing, email, WiFi and have lots of Apps and some other Android features.

Probably not as much of a "real" computer" as others but for travel (for me) it may suit?

The $174 Nook, is not too expensive, IMO ... and it's $300 less than the new Apple ipad air. It does NOT have a camera (I don't need one as I have a "real" camera that takes pics and pretty good movies)

Seems OK for storing pics, posting to forums and sending emails on the road.
It even has some GPS ability (no idea how it works). I'm an IT moron ... so ... what am i missing here? Does someone with very little IT ability really need more?

Things I don't need in a travel computer:
camera
massive storage
storing or editing movies
Games
Use only very few Apps

Things I DO need:
Decent web browsing
Good WIFI functionality
Email
storing pics
A few books and some music (not a lot)

?c?

Yeah.... Me too...

Looks kinda flimsy though don't you think.

Yeah the connecting parts look like they could be a tad flimsy. That said its designed to be used as both so I'd like to think that its a bit tougher than it looks..... or i might just be being optimistic...:innocent:

The bit where I wrote "I have Win 7" should have read, "I hate Win 7" :innocent:

Nevertheless I have two versions on Windows on my MBA. I have Win XP running as a virtual machine under Parallels Desktop which means I can run Mapsource et al as windows within Mac OS. I also have a separate 25GB boot partition with Win 7 on it, though I have to say it's been six months or more since I used that—many of my older apps are flaky with Win 7 which was the reason I decided to move away from Microsoft's OS.

No problems with USB. If Parallels Desktop is running and you plug something into a USB port it asks whether you want this to be connected to Mac OS or Windows.

Why is this so difficult... Too much choice these days isn't there.

Now I'm looking at a Google Nexus 10... haha

I can't buy into Apple. They are pure evil. And they drink the blood of babies...

Last May I did a road trip from Vancouver Island to South Dakota and back over about two weeks. I took an Acer Android 7" inch tablet that cost about $200. It did a great job. Almost every place I stayed, including campgrounds, had wi-fi. I found it very useful for looking at maps, researching destinations, making campground reservations, email, ebooks, etc. It also had a decent camera, but I tend to use my smartphone for photos or video as it is smaller and more convenient.

I kept it in a heavy leather case that gave it very good protection, so I had no issues with scratching or sturdiness.

The only caveat is that a touchscreen is not that good for typing more than a few sentences at a time. If you expect to do a lot of typing, you might want to get some kind of a Bluetooth wireless keyboard.

I wouldn't hesitate to take a tablet of some description on my next road trip.

bluetooth wireless keyboard you say..... Now why didn't I think of that.

:thumbup1:



They even have their own fan page.. . Nexus 10 Keyboards ← Keyboards for the Nexus 10 Tablet

The Microsoft Wedge keyboard is getting a lot of internet love..

Microsoft Wedge Mobile Keyboard | Microsoft Hardware


Soooo. I think the 'new' Nexus 10 is on my list when it finally comes out along with a bluetooth keyboard..

Rugged net books are harder and harder to come by, so no I am running on an iPad 2 in a otter box shell, together with a Bluetooth keyboard, which you can find at any dealer that sells tablets, it works like a sharm, no problem with lengthy writing.
Downside is that i can not transfer any pictures from my slr to the tablet, so that have to wait until I get to a proper computer. Instead, I have portable hardrive I can use when I find a Internet cafe. On that hard drive is all the tools i need to take care of the pictures from the slr, mostly by using portable apps.

Why can't you transfer photos from your SLR? I have no problems transferring photos from my Canon DSLR onto my iPad 2. You just need the adaptor that allows a USB connection and then the photos can be transferred to iPhoto easily.

Having said that, I'll be taking my Macbook Air 11-inch on my next trip, along with a My Passport For Mac external drive, and the iPad 2.

That's what people have been telling me, and I will check it up. I guess that I have been to lazy about it :0. I'm more of a Linux guy, and actually this iPad is my first Apple product, and I am surprisingly very happy with it, even though I am not ready to convert ..... Yet

I've got myself a Panasonic Toughbook. Pretty rugged, reasonably waterproof and able to cope with knocks and vibration. On the downside a bit heavy

I bought one of the original Eee 701s for about £120 when they were going out of production, and dragged it all over the UK and Europe for a few years. SSD, card slot, virtually indestructable, cheap enough it wouldn't matter if you did. Perfect travel machine...


...until you get a video camera. While it will deal with backing up files and reviewing stills, it won't even play 720p video, let alone do anything resembling editing - didn't want to do anything fancy, just cut a couple of minutes out of longer videos to post snippets online while on the road. Proper editing can be done at home.

So then I bought a 10" Archos tablet - again for about £120 in a sale. As long as you keep the screen protected with a case, the same applies as for the Eee - cheap, solid state, proper full-size USB host port to take a card reader. Plus it can deal with video (although I've still not found a decent Android video editor).

Took that to the US with me last year, and it worked pretty well. Given I tended to write a lot more than I did stuff with video, I did miss having a real keyboard. I'm currently trying to turn my notes from the trip into a proper writeup - I'm pretty sure there would be less work to do now if I'd had the Eee with me to type on as I went along.

At home I'll always use my 15" laptop for anything other than idle web browsing, again because of the keyboard. But I would be a bit edgy carrying my (relatively cheap) £500 laptop on a bike trip. If I took leave of my senses enough to pay whatever a Macbook Air costs, I'd be too scared to take it out of the house :eek3:

You just need this Apple connection kit. The connector on the left is the USB connector that will allow the SLR (or other cameras) to be connected. LINK

netbook --> Macbook Air ---> Ipad &iUSBport
 

I started out taking a netbook. Move to a macbook air. Last trip I took an iPad and iUSBport with an external drive so I could transfer video to the hard drive.

I was amazed the iPad did everything I needed, the only thing that defeated it was the spreadsheet used by my accountant for my business accounts.

Macbook air is great but I ruined a Nikon camera on gravel roads so decided the ipad might be a bit more forgiving on rough roads.

Lilian