Flash drives will remain useful as long as ISPs have bandwidth caps and shiatty upload speeds.

100 Watt Walrus: I wish someone would make an Android or WebOS alternative to the iPod Touch.

http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxyswifi/

Bigger and about 2/3rds of the price of an iPod Touch in the UK. 8GB, but expandable with MicroSD.

Mikey1969: Yep, if anything shows that the distinction between a 'Tablet' and a 'Netbook' is anything more than semantics, that would be it...

Keyboard.

TsukasaK: It's actually somewhat easier to fax than it is to scan+email. If you're using a massive officecenter-style machine, typing the email is a pain on those touchscreens (I'm looking at you, every copier company ever). The phone buttons are hardware keys, and a phone number is invariably shorter than an email address.

Well yeah, which is why you program in your own email address. Then you scan in your document, send it to your own computer and not only do you now have an electronic version but you can open up your email client/address book and send away.

I dunno, of the two faxing is significantly more annoying if you ask me.

algrant33: Mikey1969: Yep, if anything shows that the distinction between a 'Tablet' and a 'Netbook' is anything more than semantics, that would be it...

Keyboard.

And also, the fact that "netbooks" are real computers with baby processors, but "tablets" have the micro-OS to go with the baby processor. My netbook runs Vista Basic (yes, it still runs Vista Basic) and full versions of MS Office '07 with an Atom 1.2 GHz proc. Probably helps that I splurged on the 2 GB of RAM for it. My netbook had more real-world functionality 3 years ago than the iPad 2 does now. And battery life? Better than my Android phone... :(

Only thing I miss? Decent speakers. And on rare occasion, Bluetooth. (It had BT as an option but it was unavailable when I ordered it.)

lennavan: Then you scan in your document, send it to your own computer and not only do you now have an electronic version but you can open up your email client/address book and send away.

Considering that who I'm dealing with generally doesn't grok the concept of "email documents", all this provides is an extraneous version of the document floating around on my PC.

It's still easier to enter number, insert document, hit start than any equivalent solution with the PC. At least right now.

/email isn't "legally acceptable", the document could be tampered with en route
//and fax is!?
///jackiechan.jpg

TsukasaK: OhioUGrad: but paying to have access to something you own store something you own on somebody else's server which therefore makes it accessible from anywhere?

FTFY. You're not paying to access your stuff, you're paying to store your stuff somewhere else where it will be backed up and managed and you don't have to fark with it anymore. Power, disk space, and IT people aren't free.

/don't understand all the cloud hate

And when you are nickle and dimed for bandwidth to access that content you own, when you could store it and back it up yourself?

algrant33: And also, the fact that "netbooks" are real computers with baby processors, but "tablets" have the micro-OS to go with the baby processor. My netbook runs Vista Basic (yes, it still runs Vista Basic) and full versions of MS Office '07 with an Atom 1.2 GHz proc. Probably helps that I splurged on the 2 GB of RAM for it. My netbook had more real-world functionality 3 years ago than the iPad 2 does now. And battery life? Better than my Android phone... :(

Only thing I miss? Decent speakers. And on rare occasion, Bluetooth. (It had BT as an option but it was unavailable when I ordered it.)


Unfortunately, I broke my own Cardinal rule and bought something that was first-generation. I bought my wife a Netbook when they really first broke 3 or 4 years ago, got one of the Acers. It was nice for awhile, but it is anemic in the RAM department, and there is seriously no way to replace it without voiding the warranty(Which is expired now, so I'm ok), the website said it would take 4 GB, and the thing only has 1 GB on it, I contacted tech support, pointed all of this out, and they told me I was high, that there is no way that it would support more RAM than it came with. They have since fixed this, and there is access to the RAM now. Also, her Windows is corrupt, and I can't remove the drive to extract important files before I wipe it, once again, no access without taking the thing completely apart. Not very well thought thorough, but when the thing was working, it was perfect, AND it was only about $300 from the beginning, rather than have that be about 1/2 of the original asking price. I also have to say that I was impressed with the keyboard. Compact, but still easy to use, not a lot of fat-finger issues.

OhioUGrad: TsukasaK: OhioUGrad: but paying to have access to something you own store something you own on somebody else's server which therefore makes it accessible from anywhere?

FTFY. You're not paying to access your stuff, you're paying to store your stuff somewhere else where it will be backed up and managed and you don't have to fark with it anymore. Power, disk space, and IT people aren't free.

/don't understand all the cloud hate

And when you are nickle and dimed for bandwidth to access that content you own, when you could store it and back it up yourself?

It's kinda like this: My company owns 2 vehicles (at this office) outright, but still manages to pay a monthly payment on them. They pay a fleet maintenance company to manage the fleet fuel card, periodic maintenance contract, and other stuff. Yeah we can give everybody a company credit card, and budget it ourselves, but this way it actually gets done.

Convenience, man.

OhioUGrad: And when you are nickle and dimed for bandwidth to access that content you own, when you could store it and back it up yourself?

The finer points of running a $service server, and backing it up, and making it accessible from the web, and putting a pretty interface on it is beyond the grasp of most people.

And besides that, convenience.

TsukasaK: lennavan: Then you scan in your document, send it to your own computer and not only do you now have an electronic version but you can open up your email client/address book and send away.

Considering that who I'm dealing with generally doesn't grok the concept of "email documents", all this provides is an extraneous version of the document floating around on my PC.

It's still easier to enter number, insert document, hit start than any equivalent solution with the PC. At least right now.

/email isn't "legally acceptable", the document could be tampered with en route
//and fax is!?
///jackiechan.jpg

Yeah, I get that part. I don't live in the legal world so that doesn't matter to me. Also of relevance, here to dial long distance we need to dial * then some numbers, then a code, then 9 then the area code then the number. It's kinda a pain to remember it all and on a fax machine I have to add in pauses. So instead I throw a stack of papers on the copy machine, hit scan, press my preset email number and poof, I'm set. I only use fax when the archaic companies I deal with only take that. Bastards.

I agree the fax machine isn't going away any day soon. But I'll be joining the celebration when it finally does.

algrant33: OhioUGrad: TsukasaK: OhioUGrad: but paying to have access to something you own store something you own on somebody else's server which therefore makes it accessible from anywhere?

FTFY. You're not paying to access your stuff, you're paying to store your stuff somewhere else where it will be backed up and managed and you don't have to fark with it anymore. Power, disk space, and IT people aren't free.

/don't understand all the cloud hate

And when you are nickle and dimed for bandwidth to access that content you own, when you could store it and back it up yourself?

It's kinda like this: My company owns 2 vehicles (at this office) outright, but still manages to pay a monthly payment on them. They pay a fleet maintenance company to manage the fleet fuel card, periodic maintenance contract, and other stuff. Yeah we can give everybody a company credit card, and budget it ourselves, but this way it actually gets done.

Convenience, man.

lol well BAH HUMBUG to you! I'm still not interested! I'm an earlier adopter on most tech. but I'm going to be sitting out a lot of things (smartphones, cloud) until I'm forced into it =)

farkeruk: 100 Watt Walrus: I wish someone would make an Android or WebOS alternative to the iPod Touch.

http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxyswifi/

Bigger and about 2/3rds of the price of an iPod Touch in the UK. 8GB, but expandable with MicroSD.

Well, that's getting close, and I'm very glad to see it. But "bigger" is the problem. The iTouch is pocket-sized. And while it looks like there's a 3.6 model (screen size, I assume) of the Galaxy S- roughly comparable - it's not for sale in the US.

The 4.0 model is $224 (by the time you throw in the MicroSD, you're within $10 of the lowest retail price of the iTouch - and that's fine, but it's not 2/3 the price), it's almost an inch longer, and 40% thicker.

Not bad. If I hadn't already bought an iTouch because I couldn't find anything like this, I might have considered it. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.