Re: Opinions on Mobile Computing Wanted

Dale Hodge wrote:
> wanting is web/email access while away from home.  The question is how
> best to accomplish it.  My choices are:

The main question I'd ask you to start with is what is most important:
portability or moderately heavy use?

Anyhow, I've used a Droid, N810, Eee, and Tablet, so here goes ;-)

> Smart Phone - Droid?  (Android 2.0)

I posted reviews of it here:

http://changelog.complete.org/archives/1214-in-depth-review-motorola-droid-with-some-iphone-comparisons

and

http://changelog.complete.org/archives/1222-droid-review-update

In short, it's a great phone.  I would recommend it over an N810 right
now, as the browser is far faster and more stable than the N810 browser.
 Also it has a calendar, which the N810 lacks.  The Droid calendar can
sync to Google or any other ActiveSync server, and works very well.  I
think its browser is better than the iPhone.  The UI consistency isn't
quite as good as the iPhone, but there are more options and power under
the hood for sure.

Droid doesn't currently support tethering a device to it, but VZW says
to expect that within 3 months.

If you're thinking of something as your sole mobile Internet device,
Droid will let you do light emailing, chatting, or web surfing.  While
it is technically capable of it, don't expect to use it to participate
in a high-volume mailing list or forum.  The keyboard and screen are
just too small to do that.

It does excel at location-based services.  If you travel a lot, it could
be handy -- to answer questions like "what's the nearest pizza place"
for instance.

> Tethering  with -  UMPC  (Nokia N810 or similar)?  Netbook?  Tablet
> PC?

I love the Asus Eee series.  I have a 901 that I've been using as my
regular laptop for about a year now.  It is supremely portable and
lightweight.  Battery lasts for may 2-3 times as long as with most
laptops -- I'd say 4-6 hours on a charge, maybe more.

The CPU isn't the fastest, but the annoyance is more the 1024x600
screen.  I really would like a bigger screen on it.

But it's what I take with me when traveling (in addition to the Droid
now, of course).  It lets me run thunderbird, Firefox, and really
anything Debian, and does so quite well.  If you care more about being
able to work with regular mail clients and perhaps a more traditional
workload, it's a good bet.  Prices on them have really come down lately
too.  I have tethered it to a BlackBerry over Bluetooth, and have also
used a Sprint USB modem with it.  No GPS built in.

A couple of years ago, I had a HP tablet PC.  I felt it was more a
gimmick than anything, and didn't work out like I had hoped.

-- John