New Toy
On a lot of the travel forums and message boards there are debates about whether to take a laptop or not on this type of extended trip. I know there are internet cafes just about everywhere, but I still feel like there are times when you just want to hang out in your hotel room and surf. The other key concerns people express about traveling with a laptop is the extra weight and potential for loss/theft/damage.
We found a cute little PC that addresses most of those worries. Our new Acer Aspire One is just 2.2 lbs and cost about $399 (so if anything happens to it, we’re not out huge $s). The keyboard is about 90% size, so while it’s not quite as comfortable as a “normal” PC, it’s much better than most of the mini PCs out there. It runs Windows, which means we can take along Skype, iTunes, and our camera software. We bought it now to start getting it up set up before we hit the road.
Aside from online bill paying and blogging, there’s the most critical reason we’re taking it… We can update our fantasy football lineups from anywhere in the world! League members, be warned.
Along with this post, we’re also adding something new to the blog. There is now a “Gear List” along with the other permanent pages at the top right (below the Itinerary and FAQs). It’s not final, but we’ll be adding to it as we make final decisions about what goes and what stays.
halftime
August 27th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
What! No eeePC?!
August 27th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
The EeePC vs. another laptop was a tough choice. The 7″ screen version was a little too small to be our primary PC. We also wanted Windows instead of Linux because of the software we need to install. The larger screen versions of the EeePC are quite a bit more expensive in the US right now. We also checked out the MSI Wind and the HP Mini-Note, but in the end the Aspire seemed to be the best value for the price.