Ultra mobile portables

My spouse went through graduate school using a tiny Toshiba Libretto. It ran Windows 95 and was, literally, as small as a VHS cassette. I had a Thinkpad 240. It was a little bigger, with a 10-inch screen, and weighed 2 pounds. Both served us for years. Ultra portables work quite well because there’s no reason not to bring them along. Mobile computers are excellent tools only when they’re available. I’ve seen people totting laptops that weigh too much. Personally, anything that’s more than 3 pounds is heavy. And anything heavy is usually left at home.

These days the Asus Eee PC represents, for me, an excellent ultra-portable. I always carry mine. It’s 2 pounds, has a 7-inch screen, runs Linux, and inexpensive. I recommend it highly. It takes about a week to get used to the keyboard. I do a lot of writing and the Asus allows me to write practically everywhere. Get one.

Convergence

Cellphones have come a long way. I remember the time when only one member of my clan had a cellphone. Today, everyone in our extended family has one. A few have two or more. I read somewhere that 3 out of every 4 Filipinos have a cellphone. Cellphones aren’t just phones anymore. They’ve replaced our alarm clocks, our planners, our flashlights, our cameras, our calculators, and, yes, even our books. No wonder a lot of people can’t last a day without their phone.

My phones are loaded with e-books, several Bibles, a couple of full-length movies, about ten CDs of music, hundreds of photographs, and several folders of documents. I agree with the Nokia tagline for the N95– it’s what computers have become.