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Tools for the Independent Road Warrior |
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Written by Tamara Mazzei
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Wednesday, 09 July 2008 |
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Like most independent publishers, I don't have an unlimited budget to indulge myself with the latest and greatest technology. However, I do have to travel sometimes, and investing in the right tools can really make a difference in what I can accomplish when I'm on the road.
I'm leaving for the UK this afternoon, and over the next two weeks, I'll be testing a new tool: the ASUS EeePC 4G. This little Linux-based computer is smaller than a typical laptop. In fact, the screen is only about 7 inches wide. But in its tiny package, it has a built-in web camera, wireless, Skype, and a bunch of other interesting features that I've yet to try. And all for a price of $399.
It worked well in a trial run last weekend at the lake, and I have plans to use it for blogging, web surfing, and Skype when I have internet access, and also for taking notes on some historical research I'm planning to pursue. I'll probably also play with the built-in camera, although I'll be bringing my Sony Exilim digital camera for its higher quality pictures and convenient size.
That brings me to the first drawback I have noted about the EeePC. It does not have bluetooth and it does not recognize the USB connection to my camera. Although I am not certain of this, it appears that the only way to move pictures from the camera to the EeePC is to manually remove the storage card from the camera and insert in the EeePC. I really have no interest in fooling with that, so I intend to use the camera as I normally would and simply wait until I get home to download my photos.
The other drawback I have noted is that there doesn't appear to be a good e-book reader for the EeePC because the operating system is Linux-based. I found this out in the course of my research on e-books as I was hoping to load up the EeePC and avoid loading down my carry-on with books. After a long search, I was finally able to obtain some e-books from www.fictionwise.com in PDF format, but they were not my first choice in reading material and I was quite disappointed that I didn't have the option to select any books I wanted.
Still, these are minor drawbacks since neither of them concerns the primary functions of the EeePC. They are just extras that I was hoping for. Over the next two weeks, I'll be putting the EeePC through its paces and reporting them here.
Happy trails!
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 July 2008 )
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