I'm having a lot of headache not being able to work (type text, write down music ideas, reading ebooks etc...) while outside home. they used to have palm pilots but apparently now they are all made into cellphones.

A full sized laptop seems to be too big. (15 inch screen is the smallest these days)

Is it too early to invest into tablet technology? At 10 inches and really thin I always feel those things are going to get easily warped or screen pierced/cracked. And they can't be carried around in your pocket like a palm pilot or mp3 player, so you will always have to carry a bag with you. And they are all touchscreen based, so that's a part of the problem as well.

How do you find them (if you have one)?

I avoid the problem altogether by never going out. I hear these new transportable contraptions like the Osborne 1 are jolly clever, though.

Edit: apologies for being entirely unhelpful. :unsure:

I think the Macbooks are the best option if you want a keyboard, and portability. If that too big, maybe a smart phone with a keyboard?

Netbooks are good for that sort of thing.

I vote for the Asus Transformer or the Asus Slider (is that out yet?).

Typing on the screen of a tablet svcks.


First, Macbooks are no longer produced (only pro and air), second: :rofl:

This.

DEFRON is a boss with computers so just go with whatever he says.

Are the pros and airs bad or something? I don't actually have any knowledge of them, they just looked nice and sleek from the commercials.

... You based your recommendation off of advertising? :blink:

The OP could get at least an Asus Transformer (with dock) and a netbook for the price of a Macbook Air/Pro. Probably have a couple hundred to spare too.

Edit: Why does blink no longer blink? This is of the utmost importance to fix! :brokencomputer:

I type faster on my iPad than on my keyboard. Probably something to do with me pretending I'm in some Minority Report-type movie, and wobbling my head side to side saying http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiqkclCJsZs when I use it that get me into the touchscreen typing zone.

well, when you are suffering from RSI, I'll be sipping tea at my 100% ergonomic desktop setup :meh:

As a bass player, piano player, computer student and gamer, I'm fairly certain I have RSI already :sadvaultboy:

Eek!

C'mon, we all know how accurate and unbiased Apple's commercials are. Actual experience is unnecessary to recommend their products.

I'd simply go with a modest Netbook. They should get all of your light computing jobs done well, and most of them aren't a particularly large investment, about as much as a video game console these days. They're a dying breed, but the cheap price should make up for their soon-to-be obsolete status.

It's probably a little too early to jump into the tablet market. At least a serious tablet market. The Android options right now aren't all that great, and the iPad still hasn't really made the jump from gimmick to utility quite yet. Check back in a year or so when Microsoft gets Windows 8 out on the table and some more serious tablet offerings are available.

If you'd like to keep the tablet possibility open for the future, then stick with a cheap PC. That can tide you over until then, and when the day comes that you have a better choice, you can make it without much collateral spending beforehand.

Can the smaller palm pilots or ipod touch type devices still work as a word processor, and run portable apps (i.e. scorewriters portable)

at first i loathed the netbooks but since im looking for one for school and i just break down and cry every time i go laptop shopping i think i might end up getting one. its $300 and it does pretty much everything i need it to do as far as documents for school are concerned. i dont think it can do microsoft office but i can use the school computers or my home PC for that stuff if it comes up.

whenever i look at laptops i figure that if im going to get one then it had better play games at least since im going to be spending hundreds if not over a thousand dollars on it. to get anywhere even close to my desktop i have to spend something akin to 3 grand which is not happening. they just make me cry. :sadvaultboy:

My mom own a 1st gen mac air, and I've gotta say that it's a sixy piece of machinery. However, the price isn't worth it, and it doesn't really fit the OP's criteria of being small. Reading on it, or browsing outside, also isn't all that great due to its glossy screen (same as the ipad).

Depending on your (OP's) requirements, a eReader is also an option. They are definitely superior for reading, and can be used to write and surf the net as well (though obviously not as easily as a notebook/netbook/tablet). They are also significantly cheaper.

... Did you just ask in all seriousness if a Windows program can run on a Palm or iOS device?

I have one of the first-generation Asus Eee PCs. It's just a single-core first-gen Atom CPU and 2GB of RAM. It runs Office and most general software just fine...even video is decent. Heck, I've even done some light Photoshop on it without any real trouble. The newer, higher-clocked, dual-core netbooks should be able to do general browsing and school tasks just fine.

I use notebooks to write in... I know crazy right pen and paper HOLY F ing Sh$% what a novel idea

No, I'm saying do they come with basic wordpad/notepad type programs.

And I remember I saw some portable scorewriters, maybe even free on the net somewhere.

And I didn't say I want an ipod, I said something with the functions of an ipod touch. Enought to input and save basic text (not fancy word processing), and can run a very, very basic scorewriter. Just a single grand staff with 4 voices is good enough. And it should read some kind of ebook format too. (e.g. pdf.)

I misunderstood what you said I took "scorewriters portable" as being a specific windows application (as it got hits for windows apps on google) anyway:

1. Palm is dead

2. Never heard of a scorewriter for iPod Touch, and would be extremely surprised if one existed. maybe (still a big maybe) for the iPad. I doubt a scorewriter exists on any mobile platform

3. yes, note-taking applications exist on pretty much all mobile platforms

That makes no sense. An Apple notebook is known as a "MacbooK" regardless of its model name - ergo, they're still being produced.

"On July 20, 2011, the MacBook was quietly discontinued for consumer purchase in favor of the new MacBook Air."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macbook

Macbooks were a specific product line, which are now discontinued. Macbook Pro and Macbook Air are different product lines and this can be shown in their manufactuered parts, which are all different. If you don't like it, take it up with Apple, they are the ones that discontinued it, not me (or blame semantics, your choice).