The Search For The Next Portable Computing Device: Christmas 2008

Despite the 'like' I have for my Gateway ML6720, it places limitations on me that even the later Gateway Dual Core 1.73GHz 1GB 160GB DVD/RW 15.4-Inch Vista can't address. My life is anything but simple and docile.

In an average day, I may be out rattling through the bush with the 4x4, checking on my corn and other things. While I'm down there, I may run across tenants who want information on things, which I have all electronically stored and encrypted on a memory stick or two. From there, I might head off to a lawyer's office, or to the revenue office, or to a wireless hotspot, or to the University of the West Indies, or to the beach, or... In essence, my entire life requires a rugged existence that I worry to put my present laptop through.

I'm a bastard when it comes to durability. I maintain my equipment well, but some equipment just falls away - and when it comes to data, and the ability to write when inspiration strikes, I need something that can handle being in a pickup that gets flipped in the bush while cutting a new 'road'. Not that this has happened, but it could. I've almost done it. Seriously.

Then there's the administration of websites - CaribNexus.net is coming next - which should be done whenever possible. A simple login to make sure that the spaminating idiots out here haven't taken over the site is usually important... and catastrophic failures are something to keep an eye out for.

So I need a new device that:

• Is light and fairly rugged. A solid state drive is viewed as a necessity.
• Has an interface that won't irk me.
• Is wireless enabled, and can allow me to transfer data from my other systems via USB.
• Crams as much power as possible into a light footprint.
• Isn't more than $500.

Clearly, this rules out anything with a version of Microsoft Windows on it. The Windows operating systems simply require too much overhead to allow for efficient use of the hardware - hardware that I want to maintain as long as possible despite my own odd life.

I looked at the Palm Pilots; they have a few in Radio Shack which are locked away and I couldn't play with. The concept of the Palm Pilot is simple enough, and they are good at what they do. But is what they do what I need? When I considered how I sometimes come out of the bush and have to deal with large OpenOffice.org files (which would be 3x larger in Microsoft Office), the Palm Pilot line just wouldn't cut it. It's meant for someone who is a lot more domesticated than myself. I go to places where I can urinate behind trees without anyone around.

So what next? Not Windows. Not a Palm Pilot. Solid State Drive. An Apple laptop? They are pretty, and OS X is a seduction unto itself.

But Apple's just way out of the budget. With the global economy as it is, I wonder whether the iPeople out there are going to be in pawnshops with their Apple's soon. Don't get me wrong, Apple machines are great machines - but typically they cost a metric buttload more. And the Apple laptops with solid state drives? Yikes. I'd need a bailout from Congress to afford one. iSteve iJobs might be great at branding and assuring a nice aesthetic design, but he needs to work on his iPrices.

So, darn it all, we're basically stuck with Linux or some variant of CPM that has escaped into the wild from a rabid Commodore 64. The latter is unlikely.

A search for a Linux Tablet seemed worthwhile. And lo! It only came up with 3 results:

• Nokia N810 Portable Internet Tablet
• ASUS Eee PC 701 (UK, 512MB, 4GB, Linux, White with webcam)
• Nokia N800 Portable Internet Tablet

The Nokias are slim, sexy little things. But I need something a little more... functional. The memory available just isn't enough for me. I have a friend who has the 800, and he loves it - but he works in a bank and just scribbles notes to nowhere. And the ASUS looked interesting enough, but still not enough horsepower for me. Following the links around, I came across the ASUS Eee PC 1000 10-Inch Netbook (1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB Solid State Drive, Linux, 6 Cell Battery) Fine Ebony.

Hmm. It seems it's the best option for me - I can shake it a little without having to worry about mechanical parts (though electronic parts, too, can get rattled). Compact. Seems OK, with only one review warning of a potential file system bug. I can work around that if I have to, but other reviews I have read around the web have made no mention of the bug. Perhaps it's fixed. Perhaps not.

That's the joy of shopping in a place where you can't walk into a Circuit City (Chapter 11) or Best Buy or another place and play with the machine. Maybe that's one of the defining characteristics of the digital divide at a national or even regional level. Food for thought.

So, as it is, it looks like the ASUS Eee PC 1000 may be the new toy on the shopping list. It still isn't my dream machine, where I can just write on it with a stylus and have it do character recognition or even voice recognition so I can have it transcribe as I talk...

But then, nothing is perfick.

Anyone out there have a better idea?