Wednesday, April 14, 2010

I don't want the IPad, but what do I want?

I checked out the IPad to see if that is something that would work for me. Unfortunately, it comes short in a lot of areas. But it set me thinking: if I had the ideal electronic thingy, what would it do? That is what this post is about. I think there may be something out there that could accomplish this, but maybe not in as small of a form factor as I want. Here's the list:

1. Small form factor, but not too small. I like the netbook weight, but maybe slightly bigger screen.
2. I want a real keyboard, but the option of turning the monitor around into a tablet like the Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet X200 (that may end up being my answer to all of this, but it is kind of heavy).
3. Both WWAN and Wifi built in. And it would really be nice if the software for connecting was not clunky (See Verizon's VZAccess software), but connected automatically, unless it was turned off.
4. Any document that I might need or e-mail that I need to read/answer would be available. This is not as much about the device as about my own system, but I think it could happen. I think the Google e-mail system is the closest I have seen to this so far. I'm testing out Sugarsync for document availability and so far it seems to be working pretty well. So, I think I may be close. But I'm having a hard time letting go of MS Exchange. It's working really well for me right now and I hate to kick out something that is working, just to get something that might work better . . . or worse, much worse.
5. I would love for it to boot up fast, but I'm not sure if it is worth it to give up the features that come with a full-featured operating system.
6. I also want enough storage so that I could store a substantial amount of files in the event I was somewhere without internet access. By substantial, I'm talking about 100 gig worth of files.

So, there you have it. If you see it, let me know.

1 comment:

The Campbells said...

Have you looked at the HP touchscreen laptop? It's something I've been looking at, because it has the flip-around screen, and also has a pen that is sold separately that works for writing/stylus. It's interesting.