blackberry phone = phone, camera (passable), email (sometimes make you too available), notepad, small games, online google maps w/ sat view, alarm, video camera, voice recorder, watch digital uploaded movies, usb connection to copy files, blue tooth.

plenty of solar chargers available

I have a Dell Mini-9 running OSX. It will do that with no modifications. Neither Dell nor Apple support the idea. I bought it with OSX loaded just as eBay closed down all sales of Dell/OSX. I took it on tour last year. It worked perfectly and weighed about 2.2 lbs. The only thing I couldn't do was get a photo fixing program on it. I loaded Photoshop Elements, but it won't run because the screen is too small.

Tom

Hi All,

I just looked on eBay and there are nine auctions for Dell Mini-10s running Snow Leopard (OSX). So they may not be as concerned about it.

Tom

Yeah, the screen is too small, but it's not because it's OSX, you'd have that problem even under old Windows XP. Some apps won't work on it. I think Photoshop will work, although it'd be a pain to use. I wouldn't even attempt editing images on a netbook. I'd upload some unedited images to my journal but replace them later with better quality images once I'm back at my home computer.

Seems funny to me I did put windows 7 Home on it.And it does work good no problem at all.Who ever told you it would slow it down did not know what they was talking about at all.

Good Web site to choose an Internet device for touring: http://www.umpcportal.com/products/

I would go Netbook if I wanted something on a tour. Less than $300 and you've got exactly what you need. Would be good for for websurfing from the couch at home, etc., if you don't have a laptop already/anymore, as in my case.

+1 for Ubuntu!

I always take my Macbook 13" in a Pelicase

I use a netbook. I barely notice any weight and it does the job. Acer Aspire One in Blue.

And you couldn't install Google Picassa? I have never seen an installation of Picassa fail.

My second post from my new iPad. Loving this little thing!

It just seems funny to me how some people tells you don't install windows 7 home on a netbook computer.Guess I have the only netbook computer that works like a full size computer with no problem at all.My Acer Aspire one has replace my home tower computer for me.The cost for a usb dvd burner was not that bad.About 50.00 bucks.And it gives you all you the stuff you need to do with I think anyway.I did add the max on ram it now has 2 GB of ram.

Congrats on the new netbook. They are very useful on tour, but you can do most of the necessary stuff on a smart phone like the Android or iPhone. If you are into serious photography I can see an argument for a netbook and camera combo but for most applications I find the iPhone perfect. Oh Im using it now.

Nokia N900. I love mine. It has a decent camera, GPS, cell phone, wifi connectivity, plays music (both mp3's and internet radio), plays video, has great battery life, and it will fit in your pocket. One cool thing is that it has Skype built in. You can make Skype calls through the phone anywhere in the world that has a wifi connection.

Anyone who'd buy an iPad would already probably have an iPhone.

Aside from that, you're hostage to Steve Jobs edicts as to connectivity.

I may buy an iPad for my upcoming tour (Northern Tier) because I don't have an iPhone. I do have an iPod Touch, which I love, but I'm not willing to commit to the recurring fees of an iPhone.

The iPod Touch would be fine, if only I could get pictures from my digital camera (Canon S90) to it without the use of a computer. I like the idea of being able to do some presorting of my photos along the way, rather to deal with two months of images when I return. Unfortunately, there's no (reasonable) way to move photos form a camera to the iPod Touch but, as has been mentioned, Apple does make this possible with the iPad.

I like the idea of an iPad over a netbook because of the small size and ability to power via USB. I have a Shimano front hub generator, and have ordered an E-Werk, so I'd have no trouble keeping it powered.

Be sure to investigate the iPad charging issues before embarking on this plan... I own an iPhone and have an iPad through work. If I couldn't get by with the iPhone, I'd opt for a Netbook over the iPad.

Thanks for the heads up -- this does indeed look like a serious hurdle for my hub-charging plan, and I'm thankful to learn about it before buying the iPad.

An iPad in the field? Personally, I don't want to put my grubby hands on my screen be it a tablet or phone. I just don't want to hold the thing. For considerably less money, with a netbook, you can get a legit keyboard, a screen that folds open and stays put, and as much battery life as an iPad. If you know what you're doing, you can run some flavor of Linux (Ubuntu's a good place to start) to sidestep the Microsoft tax.

I'm going to give my Asus EeePC 1000HE a hug now.

I figured I'd like, you know, wash my hands before use ;) I suspect our needs / wants are different. I just want to do some organization of photos from my camera, and occasionally write some email and blog posts (including photos from my camera). I anticipate less than an hour of usage per day -- when I'm relaxing after setting up camp (and hopefully clean) or in a cafe with Wi-Fi. I'd be happy with my iPod touch, if only it could pull photos from my camera.

Also, isn't the iPad lighter and smaller than any netbook? Since i don't plan to use it very much, that matters to me.

Finally, it looks like the charging issue won't be as big of a deal as I feared. From what I've read, it looks like it WILL charge even at the low end of USB 2.0 current levels (500 mA), albeit slowly and only while sleeping. Apparently if it's only getting 500 mA it gets just enough juice to keep running -- not enough to top up the charge. But, that would work for me because my daily usage will be so low. I have a battery that outputs USB that I'll be charging during the day with the E-Werk, and I could use that to charge the sleeping iPad overnight.

Note: I don't have either the iPad or E-Werk yet, so none of this is tested. The E-Werk should be here in another week or so, but i can test iPad charging from my external battery in the next few days because one of my friends already has the iPad.

Probably not a big difference. My iPad seems remarkably heavy...

I'd recommend doing some tests. When I connect my iPad to my MacBook Pro it seems to charge very, very slowly. As a result, I end up charging it via the wall plug 99% of the time. I'd also try blogging with it. For me, the iPad "keyboard" is tremendously annoying. It's just close enough to usable than I end up cursing anytime I have to type more than a single sentence...

For touring, I decided to go with a netbook that supports USB "Sleep-And-Charge". That's either the Toshiba brand or generic term for it...Dell may have something called Powershare that is similar. I got the NB305.

It allows me to charge my cell phone via a a specialized USB port even if the computer is sleeping, hibernating or even powered off! Only the newest sleep-and-charge chipsets support the powered-off capability. This feature gives me a large backup battery for the cell phone, a Motorola Droid in my case. The droid has a similar high-amperage charging requirement as the iPhone 3GS does, so what works for a Droid may work for both older and newer iPhones as well. In addition, the droid and netbook combination can be used for campsite internet access for email or for pushing out photos/video taken during the day.

I'm going to investigate whether an e-werk/hub combination, which arrived today from starbike, will be able to charge the netbook when it is powered off during the day or if I'll need to supplement with solar and/or cafe powerup stops.

Wow, I like the e-werk-hub idea from a purely technical point of view.... I have no need for it and have never ever even considrered bringing a laptop on tour and do not even like having to worry about digital cameras or phones when I am biking, but that hub sounds cool none the less.....

The E-werk is basically a very flexible power converter for any 6V dynamo (hub or bottle). I'll have to experiment to see if it can produce enough wattage to charge a powered-off netbook while riding. My hope is that an unregulated "6V 3W" dynamo will actually produce enough wattage above 3W (which is really the lamp system rating, which is why the good lamps include internal regulation) at reasonable speeds that it'll start pushing significant enough current into the netbook via a DC up-voltage adapter to trigger the charging circuit. The netbook's power adapter is rated a lot higher, of course, but it's rated to deliver both a high-speed charge current and power the netbook operation at the same time. So, it may depend quite a bit on the charging circuit of the netbook itself at lower amperage.

Because my loadout on my first couple of overnight practice trips turned out to be more (heavier) than I expected, I'm actually re-thinking if I even need a laptop/netbook for a 3 week trip. I can do all internet related stuff from an iPhone and carry enough memory cards for my camera so I don't have to offload them to a laptop. For a longer trip I'd probably want a laptop/netbook.

During the practice trips I shot some pictures with the iPhone and emailed them to friends and the pictures were good enough, I updated my journal from the iPhone too, it was totally doable despite the small size. And the ability to take photos and email them instantly is cool. I still shoot pictures with my camera but I will post-process them after the trip.

Adam

I did it myself and it was too slow fro me. Windows 7 chokes on anything less than 2GB RAM. I guess speed is a personal and relative concept.

That's essentially what I did. I used the iPhone to post to Twitter and upload a few pictures so that friends would know where I was and what was happening. Put a big memory card in the camera and didn't worry too much about filling it up. At the end of the day, I'd delete stuff that was obviously bad or out of focus but I waited until I got home to deal with the majority of stuff.

For a longer trip, I'd probably augment this strategy with an Eye-Fi Explore X2 or Pro X2 card to geo-tag images in-camera then upload them whenever I passed a Starbucks (or other AT&T WiFi hotspot).

The USB camer kit will allow it to import photos off of USB or SD and send them via email. Honestly, it's not for everyone, but for many people it does more than enough.

There are a lot of discussions about Windows 7 and Mac OSX in this thread. I just think it is worth that there are Linux distributions that are available for free for many devices.

I have the most experience with Ubuntu and Fedora. I just figured it would be worth mentioning these when netbooks have been brought up.

Yes, I bought an iPad for an upcoming tour (hasn't arrived yet). Never owned an Apple product, but after researching at http://www.umpcportal.com/, the iPad fulfilled my needs best: 1.6 pounds, 10 hours battery life, small footprint, USB adapter, 64GB plenty of capacity for pics and some short vids, and no fragile spinning hard drive. With a Wi-Fi 3G model, sign up from the iPad for AT&T 3G for $29.99 per month with NO contract, month-to-month. I typed on one for the first time a few days ago, and in landscape mode the keyboard works very well for me. Much easier and faster than tapping on an iPhone or Droid.

For $30, the Griffin PowerBlock is a little faster charging than the standard Apple iPad charger. Re USB charging, as somebody already mentioned, do some research on that because I think there are some issues to consider.