laptop vs netbook vs notebook vs tablet vs i dont know vs please help!

I take as many pictures as I want, but in spare moments (like waiting for a bus) I click through them and delete the ones that are obviously not what I wanted. At the end of each day I upload them to my little Acer netbook, which I bought at Best Buy for just over $200 (less than my camera). I save any editing until I get home because I don't want to use precious vacation time doing that (though I do, occasionally, late at night before I go to bed). My Acer weighs less than 3 lbs and takes up very little space. I also use it for blogging and email. And like Terry kathryn (and unlike Randy), I use my netbook at home all the time. I would rather catch up on personal email and websurfing in my recliner than sitting at my desk in the computer room upstairs.

Take fewer pictures. One thing you might consider is to knock out the obviously bad pictures at the end of each day by scan through the memory card and using the screen on the camera. I often delete a third of my pictures. Second, editing at home or during the trip takes the same amount of time regardless how you do it. Doing it during the trip will decrease the amount of time you have for other things. Third, if you are as technologically deficient as your indicate, then there is really nothing we can recommend. The only real solution for you is to carry a notebook/small laptop that is capable of uploading photos via card reader. How did you sort through the 1800 from the previous trip?

To elaborate on Frank's excellent advice; There are many options for photo editing on the go. But each one costs money and has a learning curve of some sort. If you don't have internet at home, I'm guessing your learning curve is going to be long and steep (no offense). I think your time on your trip is better spent seeing stuff that merits photo-taking than sitting still using a tech device to edit photos. I wouldn't necessary suggest taking fewer photos, however. In the digital age, photos are free. Go wild. But try this; get yourself several smaller (like 1, 2 or 4 GB) memory cards and use a different one for each destination on your trip - or a different one for each couple of days. That's a good idea anyway, because it saves you from losing all your photos is you lose the camera or a card goes bad. But that also helps keep the number of photos on each card manageable. The, when you come home, instead of being faced with 1800 photos at once, you can sit down and edit you 200 photos of Florence or whatever, and then do another batch later. Also, be brutal when editing. If you have 20 photos of the Eiffel Tower, for example, quickly pick the best 3-5 and then throw the rest away. Believe me, you're not going to pine for any of those lesser photos later in life. Low stress...

oh i should have clarified - there isnt really a learning curve here. i have a computer at home, i know how to edit pictures. i just dont buy anything ever unless i absolutely need it and up until now, ive never felt i needed a laptop (or whatever) so i never bought one. i just dont know which would be the best item to buy/bring with me. i am never going to cut down on the amount of pictures i take. how did i edit 1800? on my computer at home. then i uploaded them to a flash drive and brought them to work to upload them online. of course i realize it will take the same amount of time to play with them as i travel as it would when i get back home. on my upcoming trip, i have several 6-ish hour train rides followed by an eleven hour flight home. id like to spend some of that time going through my pictures and getting started with naming them, etc. "The only real solution for you is to carry a notebook/small laptop that is capable of uploading photos via card reader." so......should i get a notebook OR a small laptop? thats my question. im sorry i posted it in a way that made it seem i was asking for lessons in how to use a computer 101.

Jennifer... I was posting an answer just as you clarified your question... so, in answer to that, I would look into a small Acer. You can do everything on it that you will need and its pretty cheap and lightweight. Also, for help in the editing process...Here is what I do...I download each day and edit each folder individually. I also do what I call a 'reverse edit' meaning I go through all the images and choose only the very vest...no more than 1 of each scene. Then, I will look through those and see if that gives me the overall view of that day. If so, I will then quickly look through the remainder and see if I missed something outstanding. If not, I am done with that day. I think it is so much easier to choose the best, than to go through and get rid of the rejects. I am a professional photographer and have to do this all the time, and once I started this way my editing time cut down by about 70%. When I am finished with all the days I combine the images I have chosen into a folder called Finals. Then I take a look and make sure it tells the story of my trip as I see it. Editing is as much an art as the photography. Just remember it is Quality vs. Quantity. Edit: There is a new little computer that I have been looking at for travel, but I can't remember the name... I will look it up if you like, but when you talked about 11 hour flight you will need something with good battery life.

I love my ipad for traveling. On a Paris trip a couple of months ago, my sister had everything labeled and edited before we got home. There's a ton of great apps out there for editing too. She also copied them all to a flash drive so we both had copies and a back-up. Plus I have all my travel books on there. It has greatly cut down on all the stuff I carry. It's my TV, newspaper, laptop, book library, and photo storage all in one.

thank you terry! i defintely want at the VERY LEAST to be able to upload each day into a folder every night. even just that small task would make things a lot easier for me. last year, i did go through the pictures on my camera daily and deleted the ones right off that didnt come out that well. my last trip was 25 days, my next trip is 25 days. so im averaging 72 pictures a day. id like at least six hours on a battery. im sure ill sleep a bit on my flight. or at least i hope so. if you wouldnt mind letting me know the name of what you were looking up, i would really appreciate it. im so lost on where to start, there are so many products out there and it makes my head spin more than sorting through 1800 pictures!

I also suggest a tablet computer which is thin, light and handy. I'm familiar with the IPad so I will speak to that. I use a free photo editing app called PhototoasterJr. It does everything I want in simple editing: crop, lighting, hue, saturation, contrast, borders (which I rarely use). It doesn't have a text feature, however. Five minutes is all it takes to figure it out the first time. There are several apps for editing so perhaps you can find one with the text feature. The iPad has no USB port so it's necessary to get a small plugin device for the camera's memory card. I don't know whether other tablets are that way. If you can put Apple's iCloud on your business computer, the photos will be on it already when you return assuming you've been on wifi during your trip. If not, do as you now do and put them on a memory card after editing. A tablet is also good for wifi and apps such as Kindle, iBooks (ipad), notes, foreign language dictionaries, etc. I have the iPad and my wife has the iPad mini which is even lighter and handier. We find them very useful and don't travel without them.

What I have been looking at is the Asus Netbook. I think the one I liked was the 10 inch and it has a touchscreen like an Ipad, but it is still a computer with a keyboard, and a USB port so you can back up your images on a flashdrive or external hard drive. I have looked at everything out there and for what I want to do an Ipad is just not what I need for imaging. To save your images to Icloud you need to be on line... and that does not always work when traveling. There is the new tablet by Microsoft, which I thought was the answer, but is too limiting with programs such as photoshop, etc. There is a new one on the way called the 'pro' or something like that but will be $1000. The Asus was about $450 and is really lightweight and thin and looks like an answer for me right now. It will take the editing program I use (ProSelect) as well as Photoshop.

Now that you clarified that you are not new to computers, I'll give the response I give to everyone else when this question comes up; The smartest purchase/product is the one you use every day (or at least really often). Netbooks before the days of tablets were very popular and practical for computing on the go. That was fine several years ago when a person's concept of what computers mean was limited to desktop computers and their little children - the laptop and mini-laptop (netbook). That used to be the end of the story. But with the advent of the iPad and it's various copycat tablets, people's concept of computing is changing. It is morphing into a combination of media consumption and light computing while lounging on the couch or walking down the hallway/street. I read an article the other day on how tablets are killing netbooks. Many of the companies that made them just a few years ago are quitting. I think a netbook could be quite useful for you on the trip. But when you are home and have access to a decent size computer, you're never going to use it. Get an iPad instead. Buy the $29 camera connector kit. Try 3-4 photo apps and find out which one you like the most. Then you will have a great device for your trip that - most importantly - you might use almost every day at home. Most people who have never tried a tablet are a bit put off by the idea at first, but after a short time, they love them so much they can't imagine ever going back to the "old days" of 2005 or so. Also - with your photos both on SD cards and on the iPad, you don't really need to worry about further backups.

thanks everyone! you have given me some really specific things to look at and this was exactly the type of advice i was looking for. my head just spins whenever i try to get started with figuring out what i need.

If you want to do nothing else but upload and process pictures, I would use a pad. Try to find one that has a card slot (my ASUS does; I don't think iPads, at least the early ones, do). If not, you'll have to buy and carry, and possibly lose, a card slot attachment. On the other hand, if you want to do any other things, like send emails, the phoney keyboards on pads are a PITA. You can get a small (~2#) netbook for cheap, cheaper than most pads, definitely cheaper than an iPad. Then you will have a real keyboard. I have both a netbook and a pad. When I go to Europe, the netbook goes with me, the pad stays at home. BTW, I occasionally use my pad to follow this website on the sofa in the evenings while watching TV, but if I want to respond to a post, I go to my desktop, with a real keyboard. I don't find a pad to be useful; I don't think I have used mine in 6 months. They are really just toys. One other thing. The latest netbooks have 100+GB hard drives to store lots of big photo files. Pads have less and get a lot more expensive for more storage.

@Randy... just for the record...when I am home I use my netbook all the time. I would not choose to go sit in my office on my big computer to do stuff like emails, RS helpline, editing photos, etc. I do that while sitting on my sofa in front of the fireplace or tv. I can also use Office, burn DVD's and do everything I can do on my office computer, only with a smaller screen...so I think it might increase Jennifer's ease in editing those 1800 images. Seems less like work when you can edit while watching the latest episode of your favorite TV show.

i dont really want to use whatever i buy at home. i got rid of the internet about six years ago and i do not miss it at all. i have plenty of time to be online at work. i mean sometimes it would be useful to have it, maybe. but i defintely dont miss waking up and running to check my email every morning.

Jennifer... then if you plan only to use it for travel to store images and edit I would look at an ipad mini. The smallest extra piece of technology that you would need to haul around. Then, you can access images from Icloud after you get home and put them on another computer.
:)) Obviously can tell who lives in cold weather...way more posts than normal because I don't want to go outside so I am wasting time on computer!

jennifer, I'm getting into the discussion a bit late, but have a few thoughts on the various devices you mentioned..... > Laptop - often larger and heavier than other devices, so not always the easiest to travel with. However they provide the largest amount of storage space (hard drives) for photos, good displays and the most "horsepower" of the portable devices, but cost more than Netbooks. Depending on your budget, you could consider a small PC Laptop, a MacBook or a MacBook Air. > Netbook - AFAIK, "Netbook and Notebook" are the same thing. Typically very small and light and therefore one of the easiest devices to travel with. The processors are optimized for battery life, which in some models is about 10-hours. However, the processors don't usually have much "horsepower" so app's such as Photoshop are not possible with some models. Screen size is usually about 10-11", which is not great but for travel it's a compromise. Many Netbooks have a built-in SD Card Reader which makes loading photos very easy You could consider Netbooks from ASUS, ACER, Toshiba, Sony or others. > Tablet - very light and easy to travel with, but some limitations. Solid-State memory is more expensive and smaller compared to devices with hard drives. These are not the best solution for those that deal with large photo files or RAW images, but work fine for those using smaller JPEG files. For storing lots of photos, buying a model with lots of memory would be a good idea (but that will be more expensive). Some users have issues with the virtual keyboard, and prefer a "normal" keyboard where a lot of text entry is involved. I'm only familiar with the iPad models, so can't offer any suggestions other than that. Continued......

jennifer - continued..... You didn't say what price range you're looking at, but it's likely that the device you choose will be determined at least partially by the cost. A Netbook is usually the least expensive option, but you'll have to check stores in your area for current prices. Photography is an important component of my travels, so I always travel with the following: > P&S Camera (SD Cards) > dSLR Camera (CF Cards) > Netbook (Toshiba NB-305, a couple of years old and now replaced by newer models - i use it for not only storing photos but also for E-mail, checking train schedules, storing E-books / Guidebooks, Blogging and usual internet applications - Except for a few photos I might post on a Blog, I don't upload photos when travelling as I don't want to waste my valuable touring time for that). > iPhone - this is a recent addition to my kit, so I'm still "fine tuning" that. I use it to keep in touch with family back home (Texts are very cheap), the occasional call to confirm hotel reservations or whatever, checking E-mail occasionally and taking a few pictures (in good light, it's capable of getting some acceptable images). I also have some specialized App's for airlines, trains, etc. I don't do a lot of "pruning" of photos during travels, unless a photo is clearly beyond salvage (ie: badly blurred, too dark or light, etc.). I prefer to wait until I get home when I can see them on the big screen and then delete those that I don't think will be of any use. Good luck with your decision and happy travels!

nancy - is yours one of those google chromebooks? i was looking at those online. ken - thank you for your detailed post(s). coming from knowing nothing, i now know something!

I am answering for Nancy... but only because I know what she has as I have one too. It's a great little travel computer, and the only reason I am looking at Asus it's because my Acer is about 5 years old, has a few issues and it's not worth fixing anything. But, I loved mine and would look at another one, but the Asus will also be a great replacement for it.

Samsung Note 10.1 Comes with a version of Photoshop and has a stylus for editing. Pricey but one of the best tabs out right now. Can hold a 64 GB card and you can attach a card reader or USB adapter.

No one has mentioned the obvious issue - that an iPad is the most expensive device you can buy for this purpose, so if you're absolutely certain you're not going to use whatever the device is at home, you should factor in cheapness and lightness as the two primary issues. Tablets beat netbooks for weight, but they are more expensive. Netbooks are disappearing from the scene, though. Also I hate using the touchpad on netbooks, so I'd hate to be editing photos without a mouse accessory, which takes up more space...

Just another word about deleting off the card (having worked in a camera store, I learned this - not knowing about it before hand) but if you delete too many photos, you can corrupt your card, or risk deleting the whole shebang in error. This could be a very unlikely occurence, but believe me, the tearful people who would come into the store because they lost their child's 1st birthday pics or accidently deleted the whole card wish they knew about this. (There are fixes if you do this...just don't mess with the card - there are recovery programs.) It really is best to put your pics into the computer and then reformat the whole card when you are ready to use it. I also just read an article about not filling your card all the way up as it can cause errors - the suggestion of having smaller cards is a great idea - they are well priced now (and don't cheap out...)

nicole - i once deleted my card on accident. i was able to recover it, thank god. i had three weeks of pictures on there. totally my own fault too, i can still remember the exact moment i deleted them....and then started screaming.

I agree, Ken's done us a favor by posting that information above. It pretty much reflects my experiences/opinions after several trips. Photography is also a big deal for me. However, I've learned by experience that I have little time/energy for photo processing while traveling, even on the long flight home. These days, now that I have a smartphone and small tablet for internet connections, my reason for taking along a netbook/notebook would be to copy photo files from my camera SD cards to a hard drive. And that's only for backup - I carry plenty of cards along to avoid having to erase/reuse any of them while traveling. I'd rather not lug even a lightweight computer along only to back up my photos. I realize that Jennifer's criteria include working with her photos on the computer during the trip. But I'll mention that I've been looking at a special purpose small hard drive device which will copy/store/backup the files from your camera card. So far I've considered these two, which are much differently priced: http://amzn.to/14C9DWZ and http://amzn.to/VGV97W. I have a lot more research to do before I buy anything. Apologies to Jennifer for kind of hijacking your topic with talk of storage devices. IMHO unless you are going to use an iPad in your daily life, it would seem more prudent to spend less $$ for a netbook/notebook so you can download and work on your photos while on your trip.

hi As someone who regularly takes 500 to 1000 images a day. a couple things. Have a look the solid state hard-drive net-books out on the market. WiFi, Bluetooth full keyboard, 11 inch screen. sometimes built in SD slot, somewhere around $300-500 usd. RAM is important in photo editing so no less than 2 and prefer 4 , but its more likely that you want a viewer to "delete" unwanted, duplicate,out of focus etc images, rather than post post processing the images, Do you shoot RAW or JPG . Whatever you as software, Some come to mind, Photoshop elements, lightroom. If you shoot Canon, their supplied DPP software, can be d free . Each will have a "batch" process to the images and group name then eg romeday1 , though I prefer yyyymmddrome as a naming convention. Photo files are getting larger, carrying a portable usb hard drive of say 500gb, allows saving off computer.
Talk of corrupted cards, I currently have ten either CF and SD cards, your cards after the photos have been removed, should regularly be formatted. SD cards are rated , higher the class the higher writing and reading speed, I'd suggest at least class 6, higher if you camera recognises class 10. Non photo related, add a free pdf viewer, and load your scanned documents for your holiday.

Hi Jennifer, Let me start out by saying that I take a lot of pictures when I travel. On my last big trip, I took over 2,00 in a week. I usually can't through my first flight without snapping at least 50 photos. Generally it takes me a week or two to sort 'em and figure out which shots are the best. Here's my recommendation: First, do not take less photos. If you like taking photos, take them and take as many as you want. Second, do not go for an iPad or Nexus tablet. They are great for viewing photos, but they are not meant to be devices to work with and store your photos. For example, a 64GB iPad would last me about 3 trips before it was completely full (I think I took more photos on my last trip than would fit in the 16GB model). Then what? Transfer it to your computer and have to sort them again? A tablet is adding another step, but it doesn't really get at the heart of the problem. Third, do not get a netbook. These lack the space (same problem as a tablet) and it is harder to transfer photos from the netbook to your main computer. Netbooks are good for e-mail and general internet surfing, but not for heavy hitting photos. Fourth, what you really want is either an ultrabook or a desktop, either one with a large harddrive. At least 320GB for a laptop, if not 500GB. 128GB or 256GB is surprisingly small when you start throwing pictures at it. If you plan to carry it around with you to send photos on the fly, then look at weight, but it is perfectly fine (and lighter and cheaper) to only carry multiple memory cards with you and snap away with that. I generally carry a 32GB card and a 16GB card. Continued...

Finally, and here is the important: Download Picasa. It is a great tool for sorting your photos, creating collections of photos, uploading photos easily, and making quick corrections. Generally, you can correct most minor problems with photos in under 15 sections, often with a single click. It also has facial recognition built in, which allows you to keep track of all the photos you have of the people that you know. You can geocode your photos as well, also inside of the program. Uploading is simple and sharing is simple as well. You can e-mail photos and upload them to Picasa (free) all inside the program. Your photos are all local, unless you decide to upload them. It's the solution that you are looking for and you can download it on your computer right now to get started.

James, can I play my 45's on the netbook? They're smaller than my old record player, so I'm not sure. Jennifer says she doesn't have internet at home, so I'm not sure what she'd do with Picasa. Or how she snuck on this site!

Netbooks and notebooks are not the same. Notebooks are versions of a laptop. A netbook is used only for accessing the internet - there is no CD or DVD drive. Any software has to be installed by download. I upload pictures from my camera by putting the camera's SD card into the built-in card reader. I love my little netbook and really haven't come across anything that I have wanted to do with it that it couldn't do (except watching movies on DVD). Oh, and I carry a mini-mouse, which takes up almost no room, for when I get tired of the touch pad.

Yea, I think people are starting to get far enough off track here to be less helpful. Jennifer clearly prefers to limit the technology/internet in her life. I can respect that. Unless I'm mistaken, she's not a pixel-peeper looking to do some intensive post-production on her RAW photos. She's just a person who likes taking pictures on her trip and wants to get a head start on some basic sorting & trimming with them before she gets home.

Nancy, I have never seen a netbook without multiple USB ports (mine has three). Portable USB CD/DVD players/burners are ubiquitous (I have several). And with the pretty large hard drive on a netbook, you could load some movies to watch.

@Lee, yes my netbook has three USB ports - but no DVD drive, as I said. You may be able to load movies to it in advance, but you cannot watch movies ON DVD with a netbook, unless you attach an external drive, which defeats the whole purpose of going small with the computer.

Jennifer - I can still picture the lady who came in who lost all the photos from her child's 1st bday and first time at the local exhibition...she was just so upset...and I think she made the mistake of taking more pics on the card before bringing it in, and we weren't able to recover...hard lesson to learn... That being said, we bought a 8.9 netbook a few years back and took that with us - it had a slot for sd cards...but after the first few days, it got too tiring (for me) to sort thru the pics...I did use it for internet and such. I did find it was getting heavy to take with us...I am now the proud mommy of an ipad mini (lol) which I think will be great even for carrying day to day with us (the ipod was just too small for maps and such)...you can get attachments for sd cards and such...but even a samsung tablet would prob do the trick (and cost less) - I've heard great things about the Samsungs (our netbook was a Samsung)...not sure what we will do with our netbook now - it was just getting to heavy (and slow) to take...paperweight I guess :)

karen - i do realize you were kidding about playing records on your computer, but you actually can do this with a usb turntable. i bought one so i could turn my "only released on vinyl" records into mp3's. very very very boring project. also: "Jennifer says she doesn't have internet at home, so I'm not sure what she'd do with Picasa. Or how she snuck on this site!" i post from work. nicholas - picasa seems like it would be good with someone who had internet at home. but i do not so i wouldnt be able to access my pictures unless i was at work. i carry a flash drive and i have my pictures stored on my work computer, on my home computer and on the flash drive. i have editing software on both computers. randy: "She's just a person who likes taking pictures on her trip and wants to get a head start on some basic sorting & trimming with them before she gets home." if you dont mind, i may ask you to ghost write for me the next time i have a question!

Yep. Netbooks don't have DVD/CD drives. Neither do most of the really lightweight notebooks. I've used an external DVD drive hooked by USB with my netbooks/notebook at home for software installation, file management, etc. In terms of a lot of bang for the buck, there's a $199 3-lb. AcerC7 Chromebook with an 11.6" screen at http://bit.ly/Tzlsrf. Possible downsides: it's got only 4 hours battery life, and it has the Android operating system. In its favor: you can start it up fast, copy your photo files onto the 320gb hard drive, and there are several apps you could install on it to do the "sort/name/crop maybe lighten pictures" you mentioned in your question - and all that can be done offline after the apps you need are installed. I have a Toshiba lightweight notebook (3.3 pounds) with an 11.6" screen and more computing power than the typical netbook, and I love it. I really like the screen size so much better than the 10" screen on a netbook I had. If I ever have to replace this Toshiba (I'm writing this post on it), I'll look at something like the Acer C7, realizing it won't be a full-fledged Windows computer that could be a total desktop replacement, but that's not what I'd be looking for anyway, and Jennifer, apparently that's not what you're looking for either. Good luck!

Your photos are on your work computer? Eek. What if IT decides to re-partition your HD and they get wiped? It sounds like a laptop might be something to add to your tech mix. Also, while I did say that netbooks shouldn't be considered, I've reconsidered that: Current netbooks are far better than what they used to be (I was thinking about the EEEPC that only came with 8 or 16GB... not the 300+GB HD that a lot of them have). That way, you can take that to a cafe (at home or on the go) and upload photos from there. An external HD might also be a good idea: When you plug the drive in and picasa is open, all of your photos reappear automatically. It's pretty nice.

"Your photos are on your work computer? Eek. What if IT decides to re-partition your HD and they get wiped?" i would still have them on my home computer and on my flash drive.

suz - that chromebook is something ive been eyeing for a while now. it SEEMS like its perfect (except for the battery life).

Jennifer, only you will know if the 4 hour battery life on the Acer C7 would be a problem for you. If you'll be using the thing mostly while in your hotel room or at a coffee shop or another place where you can find an outlet, it shouldn't be a big deal. I swapped a 10" underpowered netbook with 8+ hours battery life for this 11.6" lightweight dual-processor, 4GB RAM, faster notebook with 4 hour battery and haven't regretted it. Unless you seriously want to spend hours watching movies or working with photos on it using battery power, such as on a long flight, IMO the 4 hour battery would probably be sufficient. But of course that's just my two cents. Good luck, and let us know what you end up getting for this next trip!

iPad=10 hours of battery iPad=easy access to books, movies & music iPad=almost 1,000,000 available apps, many of them free, most of which work offline iPad=many photo editing apps
iPad=the future of mobile computing, netbooks=the past Now, just so you don't get too angry with me; I'm not saying that anyone's netbook is a poor option. It might work great for you and nobody should tell you otherwise. I'm just saying it's like 1988 and the advent of compact discs and this group of people is talking about the best way to manufacture vinyl records....

Netbooks=easy access to books, movies & music Netbooks=zillions of software titles, many of them shareware, most of which work offline netbooks=many photo editing tools
Netbooks=all the current models of netbooks/ulta-laptops now use the same processors that tablets use, making them very fast and responsive+the added benfit of a real built-in keyboard and a touch screen.

Should we start printing up Team shirts?

like :) (You might be surprised to know that I don't even own an iPad. I've been waiting for the next better generation to come out to make it worth making the leap from my 11" Macbook air, which I like a lot. The thing is though, there is no question I will make that leap at some point - it's only a matter of time. Meanwhile, I use my iPod touch for my ultra-mobile device & it works well enough for now.)

Well, give me a "No iPad shirt". iPad = Not enough disk space for photos and apps. Cheapest iPad = $329 for 16GB. $529 for 64GB. Compare to netbook where $329 buys a full computer, plus 320GB (only 20x more space than the cheapest iPad) iPad = Locked into the Apple Ecosystem. No picasa. iPad = Expensive for what it is. Buy a Kindle Fire or Nexus for half the price. iPad = Already obsolete when announced (They already have the next iPad planned and ready to go when the iPad is announced. That's why the specs are always just a little less. iPad = No GPS, unless you get the expensive 3G models ($459 = CHEAPEST. Compare with $199 Nexus 7 that comes with GPS built in)
iPad = A limited machine for consumption. If you want to do anything serious with an iPad, you need a real computer backing it up where you do the real work. Now don't get me wrong. The iPad is a great accessory, if you have the money to spare. It's great at consuming media, but it is not a device that is up to task for an active photographer. E-mails and Angry Birds? Great. Photos? Not so great. I would fill up an entire iPad worth of photos (exclusive of apps) in a week, even with the free 5GB of storage via iCloud.

I have a 10 hour battery for my netbook. Not only that, I carry a 4 hour spare. If I run out of power on my 10 hour battery, I swap in the 4 hour one. What do iPad users do when their 10 hour battery runs out - they cry. "it is harder to transfer photos from the netbook to your main computer." Maybe for you, but I do it all the time, and it is not hard for me. Of course, I am dealing with a smaller number of pictures, so I can do it with a flash drive. However, anyone who has a home network can put their netbook on it and transfer files by hardwire or Wifi. Today I saw a USB "null modem", that allows you to connect two computers via the USB ports to transfer files.

"What do iPad users do when their 10 hour battery runs out - they cry" Actually, they plug it in and go to bed, wondering if maybe they could have led a richer life in the previous 16 hours if they had not been sitting there on their iPad for 10. More likely, however; they use it all week and plug it in on the weekend. I'm not sure anyone using an iPad wants to carry an extra brick/battery around with them. Life is too short. But I can see how a person carrying around a netbook would hardly notice the difference carrying an extra brick/battery around. What difference does one extra brick make after all? All said in jest.... ;) As for GPS; I usually know where I am, so... As for not getting any work done on one; Tell that to all the businesses who buy them by the truckload for their employees. Is there a business anywhere that gives their employees netbooks? Laptops, maybe. Netbooks? I doubt it... As for cost; You get what you pay for. Here we are, talking about priceless photos taken on a multi-thousand $ trip and we're going to quibble about a couple hundred $? I use ebay frequently. 1-year old Apple products will hold about 80% of their value. 2-years old; 65%. 3-years; at least 50%. Go ahead - try to sell your 3-year-old netbook on ebay...

randy - i am going to apologize in advance to your loved ones for having to clean up the exploded bits of your head after you read this post - but vinyl records still exist. i refuse to buy cd's. the vast majority of the bands i listen to are not only still putting out vinyl, but they are putting out ONLY vinyl. so if i want to buy a record from a band that is written and recorded in 2013 - there is a very great chance that the only physical version will be on vinyl. never on cd. technology has improved for us vinyl loves though and records now come with download codes so you can get the mp3's from the record label's websites. key word there is "record". theres also a big comeback of cassette tapes, which i hate. but if thats the only way for me to own a physical copy of the music, i have to suck it up and buy it.

Hey Randy - so is your gig as a paid spokesperson for Apple paying for your hiking trip to NZ? of course, said in jest.... ;) Everyone I know who owns an iPad carries it, and the keyboard attachment, around in a leather portfolio-style case that, folded or open, approximates the size of a net/note book.

Jennifer; Ha! No worries about my head exploding :) I own about 250 LP records that I haven't listened to since about 1995 - the last time my turntable worked. I'll admit I do get a little misty about those sometimes. And I do think that those recordings - when they were new and free from most "hiss & pop" had a certain "live" sound quality that is elusive digitally. But I'm a realist, too. No one wants to go back to the days of hiss & pop. As for cassettes; yuk. I haven't listened to one of those since about 1995 either. Good luck on your search for a solution.

Elaine; Don't I wish! I SHOULD get some kickback! Honestly though, the fact that I like Apple products of the last 10-12 years is not so much about Apple but rather about the merits of truly outstanding design. Many of the products now making some headway vs. Apple got to that point by essentially giving up on old design concepts and copying Apple. Look at Android phones and the latest round of "ultrabooks". And then there are the dozen or so brands of tablets out there - none of which existed until Apple took a chance on a product everyone said would fail - the iPad. There is another issue at play as well (and many people will reflexively balk at this concept); there are times in our lives when we have to be pushed a bit to recognize what is good for us, and not simply rely on our own prejudices and stay in a rut. Apple tries to make great products. Whether they will appeal to the pre-conceived notions of already existing markets is largely beside the point. Their philosophy is that if they make it well enough, people will fall in love with it. Other companies have to rely on bowing to what the market already thinks it wants and then undercutting the price of every competitor. Apple operates differently. I have deep respect for that. It seems to be working pretty well for them, too. Oh, and for what it's worth; I work in an environment with a lot of iPads (and also a lot of Macbooks and hardly any other brands of laptop) and while most are carried around with some sort of cover or sleeve, I have actually never seen anyone carry around the optional bluetooth keyboard attachment. Everyone I see seems fine with the glass-touch-typing process. It's just something people get used to. But you do have a point, The current full-size iPad is not THAT much smaller than my 11" Mackbook air - one of the reasons I have not yet made the switch myself.

that chromebook is something ive been eyeing for a while now. it SEEMS like its perfect (except for the battery life). jennifer - the battery life wouldn't be as much trouble as the fact that it is a chromebook. They are designed to only work in the Cloud. If you don't have a good internet signal when you want to open your chromebook you may as well leave it closed. There is, as far as I know, absolutely nothing you can do with it unless it can see the Cloud. That's where the files are, that's where the applications and apps are. When it can't see the Cloud it is a paperweight. So, with no Internet at home, and gaps in the Internet, or weak signals which are more common than I care to remember, it looks to me like it wouldn't be the best fit for you.

nigel - in my mind i imagine i could use it if my pictures were on a flash drive that i plugged into the chrome book. is this not the case? i honestly dont know the answer.

LOL - Randy - I don't believe for a second you are not a paid spokesperson by Apple (missed opportunity for them!!), you are the most ardent supporter I have ever encountered. (Not that I have encountered that many.) My one experience with a Mac Laptop was very, very sad.

Nigel, although the Chromebook has the Android OS and is optimized for online use, you can indeed work on it while offline. The one I mentioned has a 320gb hard drive, which will hold a lot of photo files, and can run photo editing apps in offline mode. I have a 10" Android tablet. Like the Chromebook, it's a great Internet device, but I have used it for hours offline. In my case I was reading Kindle books and watching videos I'd loaded onto it, in addition to a bit of writing on a word processing app.

//As for GPS; I usually know where I am, so... That's may be, but one of the most compelling reasons to own a smart device is location driven applications. Anything location based just doesn't work quite correctly without GPS. How can a technology of the future lack one of the most basic components of any futurist gadget or app? //As for not getting any work done on one; Tell that to all the businesses who buy them by the truckload for their employees. Is there a business anywhere that gives their employees netbooks? Laptops, maybe. Netbooks? I doubt it... How many of those employees have an iPad on the go and a full computer back at the office, where the real work is done? My bet is almost all of them, which is why I said it is a great accessory. Alternatively, if all that you need to do for work is answer e-mails and play angry birds, then it's a great business machine. ;) //As for cost; You get what you pay for. Here we are, talking about priceless photos taken on a multi-thousand $ trip and we're going to quibble about a couple hundred $? I think we should be precise: We are talking about hundreds extra (the Apple premium) for something that will not serve the intended purpose in the medium term. We can easily see the horizon when she runs out of space for photos. Then what? Even the iPad with the most room ($799!) only has 40% of the space of a $300 netbook. Alternatively, for $799, you could buy an amazing machine like this: http://www.adorama.com/ASUX32ADB51.html?gclid=CM-MqMzwpbUCFWyCQgodmXkAWg //I use ebay frequently. 1-year old Apple products will hold about 80% of their value. A better question would be why people are selling their iPads. ;) Why would they want to get rid of them after 1 year if they are so amazing?

The sub-thread on this one is about vinyl/cassette/cd/mp3, which may tell us a lot about technology advances and retreats. Vinyl is making a comeback, with record stores opening instead of closing. Will netbooks recover from the current pad phase? We've solved our vinyl issue by getting a $50 portable nearly antique record player, and putting the albums in the pool room. It also has a jukebox, so we're all retro, all the time. It's been fun scouring shops for the perfect jukebox songs, but for what we've spent to repair the jukebox, well, we could have had a pretty nice mp3 system. Not as much fun, though. There is nothing like holding a long neck, picking out songs on a jukebox while people are shooting pool.

I'm hooked on my wireless ipad. When I travel I like to do a blog and upload selected pics to it. It's a good way to slow down and think about what I've seen and done that day, and I like to do it when the memories are still fresh.