Does anyone use a netbook to upload photos from their digital camera to the 'net? I don't know much about them and am wondering if they have SD card inputs or USB (this one I would assume) so that they can grab the photos from the camera.

My netbook has at least one USB port. I'd rather check the pictures on a bigger screen before posting, perhaps doing some resizing, rotating, selecting, or even (gasp) cropping before they go up for the world to see. The netbook is a computer, merely slower than bigger laptops or even a desktop.

My older netbook (Lenovo S10) has couple USB ports and an SD port, but I decided about four tours ago that it would stay home, instead I bring a small android device to use with wifi. Either a smartphone with 4.7 inch screen or tablet with 7 inch screen. I do not think my netbook has been on a bike tour since 2010.

I do have a three year old 7 inch Android tablet that will handle a camera memory card in a USB adapter, but most such devices can't. If you decide to go that route, make sure that the device will allow you to plug a memory card or adapter into it before you buy it.

Yes. The netbook category started around 2007 and this was after USB is pretty prevalent on laptops - and many consumer laptops also came with SD cards. So the most likely answer is "yes" but you'll want to check the specs of the particular machine you are thinking about. If the machine doesn't have an SD card slot, you can also get there with a SD reader that plugs into USB.

I've used small laptops for a while on trips to upload photos and keep a blog. In 2007 prior to netbooks, I used a small sony (same idea but they charged a lot more for it). After netbooks arrived, I used some small HP netbooks including trip across Africa.

Two things I also do:
- I use it to upload photos, but I also make an extra copy of those photos on a removable media such as a USB drive.
- I also take with me key documents (e.g. passport, airline info, etc) scanned and kept on USB drive as well. I should probably encrypt that info too. I've also kept copies of documents such as the user manual to cycle computer in PDF format so can figure out how the settings work, etc.

We have small notebooks and, yes, I use mine to upload photos from my digital camera. I can either insert my SD card or the USB cable.

I'm not sure how netbooks differ from notebooks.

Both 10-11" netbooks I've had had SD and three USB. My Lenovo was nice, as one of the USBs stayed hot even when hybernating, so you could charge a phone off it if you wanted to.

I think there's a setting somewhere on my Toshiba to make that happen but I haven't bothered digging for it.

I love my netbook, and use it for everything. It has an SD card reader, and 3 USBs. Unfortunately they more or less dissolved as a category with the introduction of tablets. At one point Walmart had about five of them for sale, with prices for good stuff starting at 150. Another option is the Mini notebook, which is usually a 7 inch screen and an android operating system. I haven't used one myself, but it would seem to fit in a bit like a tablet, in weight and cost, or lower. But you get a keyboard. Start around 50 bucks.

The 2007 Asus EeePC Netbook was a very low cost ($200), solid state, diskless pc with a 7" screen, low-power Intel Atom processor, very long battery duration and instant on/off switch. The low processing power was offset by avoiding Microsoft and running more efficient Linux sofware.
Netbooks were hugely popular with computer professionals who wanted a secondary device in addition to their full sized power laptop.

Sales of low-margin netbooks were so high that chip manufactures considered them a threat to sales of more expensive laptop processors. The whole industry began a campaign to kill off the netbook.
Microsoft was added for "compatiblity".
Screens were increased in size to improve "usabiliy"
Discs were added to improve storage capacity for MS
More powerful chips were used to run MS.
Battery life was reduced.
Instant on/off was lost.
A PR campaign was started to blur the line between laptops and netbooks. The term Notebook was introduced to describe small laptops similar in spec to the now larger netbooks, in the hope of confusing people. PR surveys declared that people were dissatisfied with netbooks compared to the performance of notebooks
Eventually the original concept netbook died under pressure from PR, manufacturers, and the introduction of smartphones/pads

I've used an iPad Mini on my last few tours and it's worked well for blogging purposes (ingesting and editing photos, uploading posts to my Wordpress-based site). The Mini can also be used on Verizon's network, so I don't have to rely on a wifi connection. I only activate this feature during tours.

Using the touchscreen keyboard isn't ideal. There are keyboard attachments you can use via Bluetooth.

The Mini is a good size. It's big enough for photo editing and small and slim enough to fit in a standard handlebar bag or, in my case, a Revelate Pocket.

Another benefit of the Mini, or any tablet for that matter, is that you can charge them with a dynamo hub. I prefer to be as independent as possible when traveling. Hunting for outlets to charge my devices isn't appealing.

I always thought net book was anything sub 13" with no optical drive. I guess I never thought much about the notebook definition. Some of what I thought were net books might be notebooks.

My experience with tablets is very limited: my wife has a Kobo Arc, which is marketed as an eReader but essentially is an Android-based tablet. However, other than WiFi, it has no connectivity to the 'net but, at the same time, I don't think I'd want a cell phone data plan for a tablet so WiFi would be sufficient. I agree that an onscreen keyboard would be an issue. Furthermore, the Kobo doesn't support input devices such as SD or USB. For those reasons, I didn't consider a tablet as an alternate device. However, I do like the fact that it can be charged by a dynamo hub (I don't currently have one but I think I'd like one).

My focus on netbooks was primarily because they are lightweight; I have an old Dell laptop but although the size is right, it is heavy and if I remove the battery to save weight, it will only run if connected to power.

Good info people, thanks!

We've used netbooks for several years and it has the same computing power as many desktops and laptops from the same era. Photoshop even runs well on it.

We have owned 2, an Acer with a 16 GB solid state drive, and a Toshiba with a larger conventional hard drive. The Acer was very slow and would not handle many programs. The Toshiba on the other hand is fast and just as durable with about 12,000 miles in a rear pannier and still going strong. The 225 GB hard drive will handle programs like Photoshop without any problems. It has 3 USB ports and an SC card reader. We thought about tablets, but we often work on projects while on the road. We have even produced monthly newsletters for an organization we are associated with while on the road. On a recent tour we downloaded 10 GB of pictures to the laptop as backup for the cameras' cards. We usually backup the pictures to large capacity thumb drives. The lack of USB ports as well as the smaller keyboard make the tablets less convenient for our needs. However the weight difference makes switching to a tablet appealing.

My last tour, I used my 700c touring bike without dynohub instead of a 26 inch bike which has a dynohub. I was often on the hunt for an outlet. Photo is of a power outlet in an unoccupied campsite near the hiker biker site I was in, I was charging my tablet with a USB charger, using a camera Lithium Ion battery charger for my camera, a charger for the AA rechargeables for my GPS. I had a five foot long charging cord for my tablet that came in handy in some restaurants where the outlet was not quite as close as I would have liked.



The photo also highlights how useful a 3 into 1 outlet adapter can be so you can plug more devices into an outlet.

I thought that a notebook required a pen or pencil as a user interface.

Good history.

I also want to add the demand for the "Netbook" never really died but the manfacturers wanted to get rid of them and sell higher priced notebooks. They thought the market recovered from the recession and was ready for more costly computers. However, we are in another economy and the consumer did not want to go back to the $1,200-$2,000.00 dollar laptop.

In 2007 Amazon released the first generation Kindle at $300.00 dollars and was an instant success. The Kindle was limited for sure but the consumer was content with the low price and even lower books. It wasn't long before Apple sized the opportunity and introduced the Apple Ipad the same year at $499.00, basically filling the need for the those who wanted a Netbook! Also, let's not forget all the inexpensive $150.00 Android tables that filled the market left wide open by Micosoft and Intel when they walked away from the Netbook.

I use an 11" Macbook Air as my only computer. I got used to the lack of screen "real estate" and now, I don't mind a bit. It's more powerful than a netbook, which I need when working remotely with photo editing and web work.

It goes with me when I tour. For pictures, blog and journal updates, and as a charging battery for phones and lights, it's irreplaceable. I generally steer away from technology and prefer a map to a Garmin, but the little skinny Macbook is a really great creature comfort.

I'm a credit card tourer, but no matter how minimalist I go, I always pack a 11.6" computer, which to me is the latest incarnation of my previous 10" netbooks. Since I am the last person in America without a cell phone, it's my communication device as well as photo editor. As well as firing off photos and emails at lunch stops, I use it to book motels in the next town, check ferry schedules, Google Maps and Street View, look for restaurants, etc.

Having a separate camera and computer gives you flexibility, but also complicates things. I just use an iPhone. I take photos and can upload them to Facebook, Instagram, a Wordpress blog, Flickr etc or just email them.

I think MS killed off the netbook segment by eliminating the low-cost starter edition (in an attempt to sell RT editions), forcing manufacturers to adopt Chromebook for their low-cost offerings.

For last summer's tour I bought a $250 Asus netbook from Best Buy. Amazing how the price has come down on these things and how good they have gotten. This one even has a touch screen tho I have little use for that. Besides the trip its been dropped, knocked off of the bed and trodden on by both dogs and cats open and closed. I'm typing on it as I speak.

No problems loading photos on it with an SD card reader both on tour and later. Biggest worry I had is that with technology marching onwards SD cards and their readers might become hard to find, so I bought extras.

Mike.