What it would take to get me to carry a computer when I travel
 

Do you NOT carry a laptop, notebook, or pocket PC, but you'd like to if only...?

If so, please post your wants/wishes here. Many people have reasons that are non-negotiable, but please save those for another thread.

with Skype you can make free or practically free phone calls anywhere in Europe or the U.S./Canada.

A few reasons why I don't carry such a device:

* The extra weight and worry, particularly if I want to use public transport. Theft is one concern, but so is simply being careless and losing the device.

* The temptation to start working.

* Not feeling entirely safe if I leave the computer in my room, particularly if staying in a hostel, or even a hotel without a safe.

If you could eliminate my concerns about safety, security, and weight, then I'd consider it.

I can't change your head. I assume you mean property theft. Safety and security are "eye of the beholder" quantities. If you mean data safety and security, all you need is education on how the pros do it.

As for the weight issue: my Compaq weighs about as much as 2 liters of water. If that's more than you can carry, <i>tant pis</i>.

I would carry one if I got it for free, it weighed one ounce, and it was as large as my thumb--but when I wanted to use it, it would expand to a full size keyboard and flat panel monitor with free connection to the internet.

I don't even lug two liters of water around, let alone something I wouldn't use and weighed the same as two liters of water. It's not a matter of &quot;can't carry,&quot; it's &quot;don't want to carry.&quot;

But if others like to have a computer with them while they travel, it's certainly no skin off my nose. Different strokes for different folks.

I would not carry around or as they say &quot;Schlepp&quot; a computer but an IPod with downloads of maps, language helps, conversion tools, a bit of music?
Robes, you have been a guru on those matter and you have made those things sound derned handy!

If there were free wireless internet access in all hotels and apartments, and if I had enough room in my carry-on luggage.

The one time I traveled that both those conditions were met in the year since I inherited my daughter's somewhat broken and outdated laptop, I brought it along and it was very handy.

If free access to wireless internet was available worldwide! (And if I owned a laptop...)

We discovered how expensive internet access is, especially in Florence and other Italian cities.

I'm w/Rufus...I only take things I need on vacation, I don't need a computer in any form. Seems like another chance for Roby to talk about his 2 oz. whatchamacallit...that makes his bed &amp; does his nails for him as well...lol

&gt;What it would take to get me to carry a computer when I travel&lt;

A threat of major bodily harm.

((I))

I'm with MaureenB. I love my laptop and would travel with it more often for various reasons if it were somewhat smaller and I could easily hook up to wireless internet anywhere.

It would also be nice if I could just leave it in the carry case when going thru security. Just plop the bag on the conveyor belt and let her ride. :)

For those of you who are waiting for a price point: check out this week's CompUSA ad. They're offering a Compaq 14&quot; notebook for $299.99 after rebate. It has built-in Ethernet, and for $25 you can have WiFi.

http://www.compusa.com

I would carry a computer when I travel if I knew exactly what kind of computer to get.

Do I want a laptop, iPod, or who knows what?

That Compaq laptop looks good but what should I add to it to customize it properly?

I hate being a technology dufus. I think I need a 14 year old to bring me into the 21st century.

Initially, I want to say I'd carry one if it takes up no space and weighs nothing. But I just came back from a trip and not emailing or surfing the web for 5 days was really really refreshing to me. So, I guess I will never carry one.

I don't think I would ever trave with a full sized laptop (just too big and heavy) I can't imagine lugging around 2L of water - that is 2kg! But a very compact PDA/ipod with a good sized hard drive would be very useful for storing hotel into, train schedules, flight numbers, maps, downloading photos off of a digital camera, listening to music and sending emails.

On a side note . . . why is it that Americans use metric for absolutely nothing. But somehow 1L and 2L drink bottles have crept onto the scene?

As I've mentioned I took my laptop, newly carded for wireless to Europe this summer and met with very little success being able to log onto the internet. At the time, I just thought it was because it was in Europe.

So currently I'm in California where I've rented three different apartments all with wireless internet. Guess what. I could not log onto any of the three. Actally all three told me that I was connected, but I was unable to access the internet. I got messages like &quot;Cox
Communications is unable to register your computer at this time&quot; or &quot;unable to establish IDP address&quot;. I have spent hours on the phone with Gateway and with several servers with no luck. They have had me reconfigure things on my computer, remove firewalls, do various system restores, etc., and nothing has made a difference. And all three apartment owners have said no one else has any problems. I even erased the program for my wireless card and bought a different one -- installing that. I still got the same results.

Meanwhile, none of this has been a big issue since -- at two of those places I was easily able to log onto some neighbor's unsecured network. Here in San Diego I've been logged onto a network for the entire week (with a rather weak signal), yet still can't log onto the system that is set up in the apartment. In San Francisco I took my laptop to three different free WiFi cafes and it instantly logged on to all of them.

So why am I telling you all this? Despite the complications and problems, I really like having the laptop with me. I access local restaurants, make reservations, communicate with home, and of course, log onto Fodors a lot.

I'm just anxious for my next laptop which will be purchased wireless and perhaps not have these crazy problems that no one can figure out.

I think it's really funny that a lot of people who wouldn't consider carrying a one or two kg. subcompact computer think nothing of loading ten pounds of books, magazines, maps, guides, dictionaries, travel paperwork, CDs, MP3s, and phone equipment into their luggage.

While there are people who will not think twice before lugging all the stuff Robespierre will them on trips, I do.

I thought about every single piece of stuff I carry on my trips, from luggage (I pay more to buy light-weight ones) to the model of music player and headphones (iPod nano and Shure E4c) to paper (I print hotel/car itineraries double-sided and throw them away enroute after they're not needed).

To me, even a small laptop is a lot of weight, and it's not just the laptop but the associated weigth (power supply, the larger suitcase or laptop bag that has to be carried).

It would have to be a business trip or for some creative project that required my laptop to be on me.

That said, I used to never ever travel with my laptop, but then I upgraded to the amazing PowerBook G4 and because it has a great CD burner and downloading capabilities, I take it with me when I visit friends to get their CDs onto my iTunes and to make them mixes of any of my music. I also love to go to bars and discos that I like and get their music (most of them let me if there are not a lot of customers).

Even if I had nothing stopping me, I would not take a laptop on a trip with me. Then again, you are talking to the girl who spent a month in Morocco with only 3 pairs of underwear, 2 shirts and a pair of jeans and a pair of shoes. I travel light and cut it down to the barest of bare essentials. I would never consider a computer an essential.

I am another who carries &quot;toss-able&quot; photocopies of information, and those, along with my ipod (for photo storage, audiobooks and music) don't come close to 2kg.

Even if I could eliminate 2kg of other junk to &quot;swap&quot; for the laptop, it wouldn't be worth it, as a laptop isn't practical to carry around during the day while visiting sites. And it can't be broken up into lighter parts. I like to have relavant information on me during the day - and currenly only carry a few sheets of paper - pretty light weight.

And you don't want to pull out a laptop whenever you need to look something up. I can just picture walking from the train station to my hotel, laptop in hand!

So size really is the issue. A laptop is overkill for my style of travel. I don't need to &quot;compute&quot; on the road, just access info and store photos. An ipod with a bigger screen and the ability to store maps etc, would be ideal.

If something like this already exists please tell me about it!

I don't carry a laptop around - I only use it when I'm sitting in a hotel or car (or watching my own movies in a plane).

When on foot, I carry a Pocket PC (sort of an iPOD with brains) that has all my navigation, sightseeing, dining, and shopping data in it. It's also my free international phone and a GPS mapping unit.

Google <b>iPAQ</b> to learn about them.

I'm taking my laptop to Rome later this month but we're only staying in two apartments and doing minimal travel.

We've been told that the apartment in Rome has wi-fi access, but this time I want the computer more for looking at my pictures at the end of each day. That and I can just see us sitting on our balcony overlooking Sorrento and sipping a limoncello while listening to a little light jazz or Vivaldi. Just kind of completes the picture :)

I would certainly travel with the computer more, but the weight factor is the biggest deterrent for me. Having wi-fi access is probably the biggest plus for me.

So you carry an ipaq AND a laptop?

Thanks for the ipaq link. It looks really interesting, and would do a lot of the things I want, BUT has no hard drive, so it can't do the photo storage that my ipod does now. I have a digital SLR, so need lots of storage space. (And I'm not willing to buy THAT many memory chips!) And for me, it wouldn't be worth getting an ipaq to replace only my photocopies, it would have to be able to replace the ipod too.

As soon as one of these comes out with a HD, or an ipod comes out with some of the functionality that the ipaq has, then I'll be ready to go fully digital!

The CF slot in my iPAQ supports an 8gb hard drive: http://www.cesell.com/images/thumbnails/t_68674.jpg

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Steve Jobs to turn the iPOD into a computer. He'd have to compete, and that's contrary to his strategic instinct. Like the Mac, iPOD will always aim for a niche that no one else wants.

8gig isn't too bad . . . that is a lot of photos - but what does that cost? There is no doubt that technology is getting close to meeting my check list of wants. In a couple of years, I am quite sure I will be a digital traveller.

But, what do you mean by the ipod being a market that no one wants? I thought everyone wanted in on that?? I keep hearing rumors about microsoft coming out with an &quot;ipod killer&quot; - I think they want in on a share of the action!

Hi Robespierre:
My wife &amp; I are going to Italy this winter -- and we are planning on bringing our ipaq 4155's with us for itenerary, Italian phrasebook, etc.
Questions:
Will we need to join a service to access wifi in Europe?

The 6-hour layover (ouch!) at JFK coming home from Milan this past spring was enough to make me start looking at notebooks again. But weight and battery life are always issues &amp; I'm still not sure the screen would be any better for DVD watching than the whopping 4x6 screen in the Alitalia headrests! ;-)

For interim data storage we took a foto-chute 20Gb mini-hard drive. I liked the one-button synch'n'download camera approach, but... no view screen for photo sharing and I was afraid I'd leave the dang thing plugged into an internet cafe PC! For reference, we tag-teamed the foto-chute with our Canon Elph cameras (4 &amp; 5 megapixels models) and after 3 1/2 weeks, still only took 8 Gig's of pix. Seemed light to me!

ski - I don't know if you can easily find open WiFi networks in Italy or not. They're fairly ubiquitous throughout the UK and France.

SkiItaly, we were in Rome, Florence, Venice, and Santa Margherita Ligure (Italy) this past May. We had an iBook, and needed internet access in each of those cities. There are internet stations, cafes, and pubs in those cities. which are rather expensive per hour for hard-wire usage, and take strict precautions to register your passport. I don't remember exactly what we paid to purchase an hour of time. It wasn't exorbitant, but it adds up if you need access daily.

Some hotels we found have WiFi in their lobbies, like the Hotel Columbina in Venice, which charged us a less expensive rate to use their lobby wireless accessibility for 1.5 hours. Maybe your hotels will have WiFi or hardwire connectivity?

Thanks Robespierre &amp; MaureenB.

One other question -- the ipaq has GPS capabilities when used with a receiver &amp; mapping software. I've looked at the GPS threads -- and have been debating purchasing mapping software for Italy -- thoughts?

Right now, along with two desktops (different O/S's), we have two laptops and an iPaq. So far, we've only taken computing equipment along when we'll be based in one spot and not always then. A recent weekend trip to Puebla, MX our guide consisted of 6 photocopied sheets from books, in my backpocket. Kind of freeing, but that's not to say that another trip couldn't benefit from gadgetry.

Been thinking a lot about your fondness for the pocket PCs. I haven't warmed up to ours yet (bought it for my wife). I think it's the tiny keys/stylus interaction that I haven't adapted to yet. I'm comfortable in front of an iSeries terminal, various flavors of Unix on whatever, even the old VAX and Warp stuff... but then, I still remember poo-pooing Windows when it first came out when I realized it was still going to use a dos kernel to start. &quot;Hah! People who need pictures to run a computer... bah humbug&quot;. hehe. I got over that. But so far, what's left of my mind says that if I have to poke a computer with a stick, it must be because it's dead. I'm likely to get over this too (although I'm not so sure my gnarled hands will).

So, in the interests of bettering our travel computing experience, if you had any favorite mapping and other travel related software you consistently enjoy using? Of course, I may still have to ask my better half drive the stylus.

I will take my Averatec laptop for all the info I saved in it. I hope I can use the WiFi that the Paris apartment we are renting has.
One added incentive is that we can listen to all kinds of streaming commercial free music.

Hi Robes,

You have convinced me to leave the trees at home for our 2008 trip to France (that and a near hernia from all those books). Your constant posts have made me re-evaluate the way I travel in the future.

Here are my wants and wishes. Any help is appreciated. I have been a MAC guy, so go gentle on me.

First, I am an avid planner and create my own &quot;guidebooks&quot; for our trips in word documents (by the way, I do this on my MAC if that makes a difference on what to buy and what is compatable). I also include photos of places we are going to travel.

What I am looking for is a laptop or even something smaller where I can put those documents and pictures to bring with me (sans heavy travel books), along with a good GPS system for navigating Dordogne, Languedoc, Provence, French Alps, Loire and Normandy (yes, it is going to be a long trip).

I would also like to input notes as I go instead of writing them out as I have done for years. My camera stores a ton of photos, but I suppose downloading to this laptop/hand held device would be a good thing, too.

Because I am no longer a young man (in years only dammit), I would like both a screen and keyboard that I can actually see and relatively easy buttons to access the different functions. Some of these devices have buttons so close to one another that hitting the wrong one seems an inevitability.

Hopefully this explains what I need, but if I have left anything out (I do not profess to be an expert in computers, only in what I need fror them to do), please ask.

Since I already have an IPOD (yeah, I'm one of those guys, but I did get it free), a music function on the device above is not necessary. I already have way too many songs.

Thanks.

Convert Tom
((H))

It looks as though the Chiclet&reg; keyboard and 3&quot; display found on palmtops isn't going to cut it for you, so a notebook seems to be indicated.

The very smallest ones - called &quot;subnotebooks&quot; - are very pricey, but if you would like something that will slip into a coat pocket, this is the deal. I'd stay away from Sony, because they have a considerable history of quality control issues.

The next-larger size is still small enough to tuck into a daybag, and doesn't cost any limbs. You can get a Compaq Presario at BestBuy for $499 - I don't know what the deal is on shipping.

There is rumor of Apple coming out with a new subnotebook within the next 6mos - a year. It very well may be available for a 2008 trip, and would give you the best compatibility with your Mac stoftware etc.

My Sony subcompact has been a dream to use, except for the THREE MONTH period when it wasn't working and no one at Fry's or Sony would believe me, or actually work on the stupid thing once they had it in their possession. I will absolutely buy a similar device in the future, from a different company.

The mini keyboard takes a little getting used to, but until the Sony started responding to the pressure of my %$^&amp;*( BREATHING to start clicking at random, it was tolerable. Nothing like being in the middle of a Fodor's post and having your computer suddenly jump backwards four screens, down two pages, and start typing in a password box somewhere instead. If I could figure out how to completely disable the built-in touchpad entirely I would. Plug in a wireless optical mouse and you can use it on your pants leg in a pinch.

But the thing is the size of a thick magazine, and fits in my briefcase just fine without even a protective sleeve, let alone a giant &quot;PLEASE ROB ME&quot; black nylon case.

Hard-core keyboard jockeys like me just need to make sure it has a Windows &quot;flag&quot; key. Without flag-e (Windows Explorer), flag-f (Find), and flag-r (Run) I wouldn't know what to do. My other pet peeve is directional keys (arrows, home, end, page up/down) that require using a Fn key. Barf. But for small size you have to make some sacrifices. As with cameras, if it's too bulky to carry around, it's not helping you.

The single biggest reason I wouldn't carry my computer on vacation is the temptation to read email. I get hundreds of emails a day and not reading them is one of the reasons I GO on vacations in the first place.

I knew this would be confusing to me. Thanks for your answers, although they just give more questions.

Robes: Which Compaq Presario (2000 or 6100)? It looks like they weigh only about six pounds...that's good.

Saltymuffin - I think I'll stay away from Apple on this one.

fnarf - I think the subcompacts or subnotebooks might be too small for me.

All - On the GPS front. I've seen Garmin, tomtom and others noted on posts. Do you load that in your car CD player or in the laptop/notebook you take along?

Sorry to be so clueless, but I blame Robespierre. Before he converted me to his way of thinking, I was happy with an IPOD and my Personal Guidebook that ended up weighing more than my clothes.

Change is good. Unfortunately, change for me is a little confusing. Thanks.

((H))

Selecting a Compaq is subject to the same rules as anything you buy: get the minimum capability you need at the lowest cost.

The standalone GPS units mentioned here either go in your pocket or on your dashboard. The one I use is a separate module that costs less than $100 and plugs into your laptop or palmtop computer. Check eBay for <b>streets trips gps</b> and you'll see dozens of offerings. For European maps, search for <b>autoroute</b>.

Merci!

((H))