At the Palm of your Hand

Somewhere between the too tiny keys of a blackberry and the 6 lb weight of a laptop, a hybrid laptop has emerged. I saw a girl on the #8 bus this morning with an 8 in mini laptop in her lap, typing away in Word. She had one of the most popular of this emerging product, the Aero Aspire One Netbook. Not only does it go easy on your shoulder at only 2.2lbs, but easy on your wallet as well. Most netbooks cost under $500. I am conversational at best at tech spec language but I believe the money savings comes from the low quality drives and screen.

Per my tech geek dad: "They're designed primarily for web browsing and email, so they have a very basic operating system, like XP or Linux, no CD drive (so you can't load software onto them except via download), a small (like 16 or 32 GB) solid state hard drive (like that used in an ipod Nano or shuffle), and a wireless network interface. You can't open a word document or spreadsheet, or anything like that, unless you're using something like Google Docs."

Doc has been researching buying one before he leaves for Fiji next month per the recommendation of lots of returning Peace Corps volunteers. They are very easy to travel with and if you run it with Linux, there is less of a chance of catching some ravaged computer virus from the South Pacific. They have a battery life of 5-6 hours, which is good if your going to be living a hut for 2 years. Most come with build in webcams so your friends and family back in the US can track the length of your dreadlocks over 2 years. Or to connect with an elementary school in the US to teach the youth about volunteering and the vastness of the world. The possibilities are endless!