Hi Carl,
Thanks for taking the time to post such an informative reply.
For your situation, this seems to be a key point:
Quote:
Originally Posted by pricecw
It could have been done on my laptop, but I actually hate carrying it to meetings, too big, and too little use normally.
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Now that all devices are getting lighter and more powerful it does seem to be coming down to what size you prefer. Looking at the picture, and reading your comment about laptop size, I had wrongly assumed that the Edge was smaller than it actually is - perhaps petite enough to fit into a jacket pocket. But after reading the specs I see it’s almost A4 in size - not so pokey after all.
So I can certainly see how useful that would be to have two reasonable sized documents open at the same time, for the work that you do.
I sometimes want extreme portability (i.e something I can slip in a trouser pocket and hardly notice it - because I don't wear jackets). So the iTouch is perfect for that, as it provides music, books for quick reading while I'm waiting somewhere, plus an address book and an app for occasional note jotting. Anything bigger would tend to get left at home. But it's way too small for the jobs you describe.
However, my main uses only require medium portability - i.e. ease of carrying round the house, comfortable weight on lap, and fitting into small briefcase style carry case if needed. So my 12" tablet style computer is perfect for that. It has all the internet surfing ability I want ( at a good size that displays tricky formatting accurately and readably), the screen layout allows several documents to be open at once (although at smaller sizes than the Edge’s two screens would allow), the touch screen has pen and eraser input (with handwriting recognition that can convert to text and insert to a document) and so on. I don't have any eye issues with reading on regular screens (I've been doing it every day for over 20 years) and being able to instal a range of software is a big plus. The annoying format restrictions on most book e-readers are are major turn-off for me.
The main advantages seem to be the size saving for carrying something that gives that much screen coverage (not really much of a drawcard for me at this stage) and the e-ink (which, again, I don’t need). It also sounds like it doesn’t have quite the software versatility that the Windows based tablets have. However the price looks like a winner.
There seem to be a lot of options being tried at the moment so it will be interesting to see which ones survive the next 5 years. As notebook style devices get lighter and more powerful it does seem to be coming down to a matter of what's your preferred screen size.
Cheers,
Chris