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.

This is a point of concern for me if I decide to take my netbook on tours. I've got an Asus Eee 1000HE, and it currently has an old-school 160GB hard drive. My concern is how this drive would stand up to road vibrations in a pannier. I've got a neoprene sleeve for it, and I could liberally pad around it in the pannier. Still, I'm tilting toward buying a solid-state drive (SSD) for a more robust solution.

Anyone have some insight they can share regarding hard drives vs. solid-state drives?

When the computer is powered down the hard drive's head is immobilized and parked securely, and the platters won't spin unless power is applied to the motor. So I wouldn't worry too much as there is little chance of damage in the "off" state due to shock and vibration. A neoprene sleeve and some clothing around will be plenty enough. Just turn it off, don't put it to sleep and make sure it's sealed so no dust gets in. I put mine in the sleeve then in a Ziplock bag and stash between clothes.

Hard drives are likely to malfunction when they're used and are exposed to shock or vibration, when the parts are moving.

I'd still prefer an SSD though :) They make computers noticeably faster. Although, they can die too for no apparent reason as well.

If you're worried about losing your pictures due to a hard drive failure then get a large USB Flash Drive and use it for backup.

Though a non-SSD hard drive would probably be fine, as many folks have toured with one, I had the same concern. I figured something designed with moving parts would be more likely to fail from the sustained vibration, and since I was buying something new, I leaned toward solid state.

Many of the latest UMPCs have SSD. Typically less capacity, but as Adam mentioned, a bit faster, and maybe a tad more durable.

So I now have the E-Werk, and I've had a chance to try it out. With the lights off, my battery indicates that it is charging by 11 mph (it specifies 5V and 1.5 A for input, which is how I have the E-Werk set).

Also, I visited my friend who already has the iPad last night. His iPad indicated that it was at 90% charge, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it said it was charging once it was connected to the battery. We put it to sleep, and an hour or so later it indicated that it was up to 100% charge. My battery still had ~25% of its charge left (that's a crude estimate based on its status lights).

My battery claims to have a capacity of 10 Wh, whereas the iPad has a 25Wh battery. So, even if the charge transfer were perfectly efficient, it would take 2.5 charging cycles for the battery to fully charge a depleted iPad. However, as I mentioned earlier, my intention is to just use it for an hour or so per day, and I think that should be doable with daily top ups.

I haven't read through all the responses yet so sorry if this has already been mentioned. I plan to take my Motorola Cliq, which is an Android OS based phone, with me on my tour this summer. My plan is to get a bluetooth wireless keyboard to make typing easier. These seem to run in the $100 range for a standard device. My hope it to keep my blog updated along the trip.