Traveling With A Netbook, Part I

Sadly it has been about two months since I last posted to this blog. Hopefully the next two weeks will see a flurry of activity as I blog about my impressions of traveling with a netbook. I am spending my Christmas break traveling around China with my family.

Despite my best efforts, I’m sure that I’ve packed too much for the trip. However, one way that I tried to lighten my load was to pack my Acer AspireOne (10.1” screen) netbook for my computing needs rather than the MacBook Pro that I usually use. The next couple of posts will combine some highlights of my trip along with a list of the tasks that I try to accomplish on the netbook and how successful I feel that the netbook completed the tasks. During my trip I will have to get reacquainted with the Windows Operating System as this netbook runs Windows XP.

download Layer Cake

Unfortunately (or fortunately for the sake of my wireless bill) the netbook that I am traveling with does not have a built-in broadband card. Thus, I will be very dependent upon finding wireless hotspots to get the maximum benefit of the netbook. As I waited at the gate prior to my flight I was easily able to connect to the wireless network.

Prior to boarding my flight, I also fired up Audacity to try editing a podcast on a netbook-sized screen, keyboard, and mouse. I did not notice a slower response time using Audacity on the netbook for either importing or editing audio, but it did seem a bit slower than I was accustomed to at generating the final MP3 file. Also, there were some errors with opening saved Audacity projects that required a couple of program restarts.

Due to my long flight, I really appreciated the long battery life of the netbook (the standard battery for the AspireOne lasted over five hours) as I continued editing podcasts and using the word processor. The other netbook feature that I really appreciated was its size and footprint on the seatback table. Even when the person in front of me pushed their chair back, I was able to work on the netbook with the screen fully open. Although I had a scary moment when a drink on the same tray spilled, which makes the option of a spill-proof keyboard a great idea if airline travel will be one of your main venues for using your netbook.