smallest 'computer' for trip advice wanted

I am planning a 3 week, multi-city, plane-boat-train-foot-bike trip to
Europe in July. I need advice on small device I can carry w/ a
detachable flexible roll-up, or fold-up keyboard for text entry and
storage. I will later download the text to home computers in the U.S.
or possibly email to myself from cyber cafes along the way. My laptops
are WAY to heavy at around 8 lbs each and I am not interested in buying
the high-end ultra light pricey Vaio--I just need a tiny, light weight
device that will store plain text and plug in iLink or usb (or similar)
to a PC. Maybe use a USB keychain storage chip for saving text on. I
know the small roll and/or fold keyboards are available--having seen
them in PCMagazine. What kind of a device does anyone recommend?? I
lean towards Sony PC products as they network so readily and I always
buy refurbished. Thanks in advance for all advice.

On 13 Feb 2005 21:01:30 -0800, wrote:

I am planning a 3 week, multi-city, plane-boat-train-foot-bike trip to
Europe in July. I need advice on small device I can carry w/ a
detachable flexible roll-up, or fold-up keyboard for text entry and
storage. I will later download the text to home computers in the U.S.
or possibly email to myself from cyber cafes along the way. My laptops
are WAY to heavy at around 8 lbs each and I am not interested in buying
the high-end ultra light pricey Vaio--I just need a tiny, light weight
device that will store plain text and plug in iLink or usb (or similar)
to a PC. Maybe use a USB keychain storage chip for saving text on. I
know the small roll and/or fold keyboards are available--having seen
them in PCMagazine. What kind of a device does anyone recommend??

A mobile phone, then you don't need to carry a phone aswell, save
yourself a device, and a thing to charge.

Jim.

Jim Ley wrote:

On 13 Feb 2005 21:01:30 -0800, wrote:

I am planning a 3 week, multi-city, plane-boat-train-foot-bike trip to
Europe in July. I need advice on small device I can carry w/ a
detachable flexible roll-up, or fold-up keyboard for text entry and
storage. I will later download the text to home computers in the U.S.
or possibly email to myself from cyber cafes along the way. My laptops
are WAY to heavy at around 8 lbs each and I am not interested in buying
the high-end ultra light pricey Vaio--I just need a tiny, light weight
device that will store plain text and plug in iLink or usb (or similar)
to a PC. Maybe use a USB keychain storage chip for saving text on. I
know the small roll and/or fold keyboards are available--having seen
them in PCMagazine. What kind of a device does anyone recommend??

A mobile phone, then you don't need to carry a phone aswell, save
yourself a device, and a thing to charge.

Assuming your phone doesn't have a qwerty keypad (as most smaller models
won't) some models have them as accessories. I have an Ericsson one-
it's tiny.

--
David Horne- www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk

wrote:
What kind of a device does anyone recommend?? I
lean towards Sony PC products as they network so readily and I always
buy refurbished. Thanks in advance for all advice.

A small notebook or sketchbook and pencil, which you can keyboard once you
get home, thus freeing you from futzing with tiny keyboards and other
paraphernalia during your wonderful vacation.

That's what I would choose anyway. Have a great trip!

But I don't think ordinary phones have pc interface. I know my Nokia I
have now doesn't. And certainly no USB or memory for text documents.
What phone exactly?

There are folding keyboards for PDAs such as the Palm series. I think
Belkin makes one which communicates through the wireless infrared port. I
saw it at Radio Shack but should be widely available. You could probably
save an almost unlimited amount of text if you have a large memory card in
the PDA. Some of them even have GPS capability.

wrote in message
oups.com...
I am planning a 3 week, multi-city, plane-boat-train-foot-bike trip to
Europe in July. I need advice on small device I can carry w/ a
detachable flexible roll-up, or fold-up keyboard for text entry and
storage. I will later download the text to home computers in the U.S.
or possibly email to myself from cyber cafes along the way. My laptops
are WAY to heavy at around 8 lbs each and I am not interested in buying
the high-end ultra light pricey Vaio--I just need a tiny, light weight
device that will store plain text and plug in iLink or usb (or similar)
to a PC. Maybe use a USB keychain storage chip for saving text on. I
know the small roll and/or fold keyboards are available--having seen
them in PCMagazine. What kind of a device does anyone recommend?? I
lean towards Sony PC products as they network so readily and I always
buy refurbished. Thanks in advance for all advice.

wrote:
I am planning a 3 week, multi-city, plane-boat-train-foot-bike trip to
Europe in July. I need advice on small device I can carry w/ a
detachable flexible roll-up, or fold-up keyboard for text entry and
storage.

A Palm organizer would probably do most of what you want. I have a
fold-up keyboard for my Palm M500 and entering text is only marginally
more painful than using the usual laptop keyboard. The Palm takes (I
think) SD cards for extra storage (I've never used the card slot in
mine). Transferring to a computer running the Palm desktop software is
a trivial task. Not sure about transferring via phone but it's probably
possible, particularly since later versions of the Palm are much more
sophisticated than mine.

-- Ron

In message .com,
writes
I am planning a 3 week, multi-city, plane-boat-train-foot-bike trip to
Europe in July. I need advice on small device I can carry w/ a
detachable flexible roll-up, or fold-up keyboard for text entry and
storage. I will later download the text to home computers in the U.S.
or possibly email to myself from cyber cafes along the way. My laptops
are WAY to heavy at around 8 lbs each and I am not interested in buying
the high-end ultra light pricey Vaio--I just need a tiny, light weight
device that will store plain text and plug in iLink or usb (or similar)
to a PC. Maybe use a USB keychain storage chip for saving text on. I
know the small roll and/or fold keyboards are available--having seen
them in PCMagazine. What kind of a device does anyone recommend?? I
lean towards Sony PC products as they network so readily and I always
buy refurbished. Thanks in advance for all advice.

I use a Handspring (Palm) Platinum Visor, with a foldable keyboard by
Stowaway. Together they pack quite small - the size of two tiny
paperbacks.

The Visor is rather outdated - only 8mb and an LCD screen, and not great
in low light conditions. It's also battery operated, so spare
rechargeables and a recharger add to the weight and bulk. However, I can
touch type on the Stowaway just like a normal keyboard.

Text only input won't take up much memory, so constant uploading isn't
necessary, though wise in case you lose your material or your device.

I've also got a lightweight USB synchro cable which means I can connect
the Visor to a PC and swap the info, but this also requires the relevant
Handspring/Palm software (theoretically, I could have this to hand on my
USB MP3 player/recorder).

--
congokid
Good restaurants in London? Number one on Google
http://congokid.com

On 13 Feb 2005 21:01:30 -0800, wrote:
I need advice on small device I can carry w/ a
detachable flexible roll-up, or fold-up keyboard for text entry and
storage.

Probably a PDA is the best solution - some have mentioned Palm, though I
would suggest Windows Mobile PDAs as well. These generally store text in
flash cards, which could be plugged into a USB flash reader (that will
show up as a generic disk on any PC). I haven't used any recent Palm
devices; I know they accept SD flash cards but I don't know if these are
readable on a PC.

Some of the PDAs also have 802.11b wireless, so you could just connect up
to the internet at some wireless access point. Finding the access points
could be a challenge, though, and the prices are higher for these. But it
would allow you to do web surfing and internet chatting as well. Browsing
on such a small screen is not terribly effective, and the browser that
comes with Palm is reportedly pretty buggy.

As far as the keyboard goes, there are fold-up and rollable keyboards. The
fold-up ones tend to be a bit smaller than normal keyboards, but generally
usable for touch-typing. Some connect to the PDA via bluetooth (radio) or
IR (light). The IR-based keyboards are very picky about line-of-sight to
the PDAs IR transceiver. The bluetooth ones aren't, but tend to drain the
PDAs battery faster. Newer PDAs allow the screen to be flipped 90 degrees,
so the wide part is what you're typing on...but some IR keyboards don't
account for this.

Personally I think the WinMobile ones are better for standalone use; the
Palms havel always focused on syncing with PCs that have specific software
installed. Dell makes some nice, cost-effective ones. You might be able to
get a Palm solution cheaper, but you'd have to check on the ability of PCs
to read the SD card. FYI, I have a friend who recently got a Palm, and a
generic SD card worked fine (you don't need the expensive ones from Palm).

I thought about getting a PDA for this purpose, as I'd like to keep a
journal and being able to type and edit is so much faster and effective
(for me) than handwriting.

--
-BB-
To e-mail me, unmunge my address

I would have to second that, but again, it's a matter of choice. One of the
joys of travel, for me at least, is to get away from all the things that
encumber us at home, and just enjoy the place. Besides, I'd rather get
postcards from people than email, so I do the same...

--
Bob

Travel and Astronomy Photos
www3.sympatico.ca/bomo


"OughtFour" wrote in message
news:3O2Qd.56886$g16.53941@trndny08...
wrote:
What kind of a device does anyone recommend?? I
lean towards Sony PC products as they network so readily and I always
buy refurbished. Thanks in advance for all advice.

A small notebook or sketchbook and pencil, which you can keyboard once you
get home, thus freeing you from futzing with tiny keyboards and other
paraphernalia during your wonderful vacation.

That's what I would choose anyway. Have a great trip!