I have just finished a complete overhaul of my computing life. I made some major decisions that go along with my new philosophy of what is happening in the technology world and changed things accordingly.
For a long time now, the desktop computer has been playing second fiddle to the laptop. Laptop machines have become more powerful and innexpensive. You can get very near the power of a desktop and the mobility too. But things are changing, primarily due to the smart phone and portable tablets.
Smart phones like the iPhone and Droid phone are packing a great deal of power and functionality into our palms. Smart phones are so good now, they can take on many of the rudimentary tasks of a notebook. Add to that the new iPad and things get even more interesting. I’ve tried using an iPad as a notebook replacement and I will tell you it’s not there yet, but I do believe the platform will get there soon.
The other big realization I made is that I rarely use the power that my notebook has when I am mobile. When mobile, I mostly like to consume content and blog. I don’t generally produce a lot of audio or video. I would prefer to do that on a larger screen at home. The power of a big laptop, than, is wasted. What I really wanted was something at home that was big and powerful and that could be hooked up to large screens; a desktop machine. For mobile, I wanted something very light and with tons of battery life.
What I did was get a 21″ iMac for home, connected to a second 21″ monitor. For mobile, I went for an Asus Eee PC. Now you may asking me why I
went for a netbook instead of an iPad. It’s a good question and I’ll tell you why. The iPad is an elegant, beautiful piece of technology, but it has several drawbacks. I do think it’s a little heavy, especially after you have been holding it for awhile. Also, the sides don’t provide enough space to grip it and my fingers always slip into the touch area, resulting in unwanted actions. They keyboard is surprisingly good for a touch device, but still not quite as good as a physical keyboard. In addition, I have not found a good way to lay it in your lap while typing. The angle never seems to work. With a netbook, you have a hinged screen, so I can adjust the angle at will. Like many Apple products, the second and third generations of the iPad are the ones to wait for. There is also the fact That I was able to get my netbook for around $250 whereas an iPad would have cost me at least twice as much.
Is the netbook perfect? Hardly. The keyboard is good but small and so harder to get used to. The screen does seem tiny, smaller than the iPad even though both are 10 inches. But for now the netbook works for me. I assume that I will indeed transition to a tablet, but not until some good Android tablets come out or possibly a second generation iPad. My new computing architecture now lines up as follows: Droid Incredible – small, Asus netbook – medium, iMac – big. At every level, I’ve got it covered, and notice that it also happens that I end up with three different operating systems, Mac, Android and Windows. The best tool for each need and I overcome the OS by living as much as I can in the cloud. I don’t think much about OS anymore, I think more about apps and function.
I’d love to Hear what you all are thinking and doing with your environments. Let me know in the comments.
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