Notepad computers for Cruising........

[pmenefee]

Don't second guess yourself. :)

 

I wanted the smallest and lightest weight. That pound and 1"+ makes a difference to me.

 

 

Seems like with electronics, what ever you buy, whenever you buy it......it's out of date, and there's something better if you'd just waited etc. etc.

 

Enjoy what you've got, and be glad you're not lugging that extra weight around. If they don't watch it they'll "improve" netbooks to the size and weight of a regular notebook.

 

Pete

[mamaofami]

Don't second guess yourself. :)

 

I wanted the smallest and lightest weight. That pound and 1"+ makes a difference to me.

 

 

You are right. I also wanted the lightest. AND, it was here when I came back from a lunch date. Sorry to say, I will have to open the instruction book and hope I can figure out how to turn the thing on. It's so cute.

[sail7seas]

Mine also arrived and DH will have his Techie friends set it up for me tomorrow, hopefully. These are the nicest guys who do these favors for us..... :) they like my DH. :D

I absolutely LOVE it.

 

 

[marle7]

That's all I had to do in Boston and again in Fort Lauderdale recently.

 

I've never been asked to turn my computer on, (and I travel with a mammoth Acer Aspire (the 18.4 inch screen one), although they can ask you to do so. I have been asked to turn my cell phone on and off a couple of times.

[sail7seas]

Groan...... I've never traveled with a computer before because my laptops were big. I wouldn't lug any of them around. That is why I bought this little beauty. It is Fabulous and will be a pleasure bring on cruises. You should think about down-sizing. :)

 

[mamaofami]

I figured out how to plug it in, secure the battery, register the thing, etc. Now, it's running a security check and will be ready to go to the internet but I have to leave the house. I also have someone who set up our home computers, but I think I might try to do this on my ow...with DH's help , of course. It's so cute. I really like it and it came with a mini mouse too..not a wireless one, but a mini one all the same. Yippee!

[sail7seas]

DH just called to tell me his Techie Friend is coming to our house tomorrow to set it up with me. :) He usually brings my computers to them but they want to set it up with my wi fi /router.

[marle7]

Groan...... I've never traveled with a computer before because my laptops were big. I wouldn't lug any of them around. That is why I bought this little beauty. It is Fabulous and will be a pleasure bring on cruises. You should think about down-sizing. :)

 

 

 

I know. I've thought about getting the aspire 16 for travelling.:D But then I have to make sure I have the data on both computers and they are both always up to date. I run my website from the big computer and my business. My son also uses this one when we travel for watching DVDs because it has dolby home theatre in it and suround sound. Because my website is also so photo intensive, I need a really high resolution screen for viewing. I"m not saying those couldn't be had in the small versions though.

 

My son got a Dell XPS gaming laptop for his 16th birthday. You think this one is big? His weighs 10 lbs!

[HeatherInFlorida]

Now I'm wondering if I should have ordered the 10 inch acer instead of the 8.9? THe larger one weighs 3 pounds and the smaller one is 2 pounds. Not a big difference there, but maybe the screen size in the larger one would be better. HMMM.

 

This is what I'm debating, Carol (whether to get the 10" 3 lb instead). I weighed my laptop the other day and it's 5.4 lbs I think. So 3 would be considerably less and I'm worried about that keyboard and the small screen. I often work with several windows open. Also concerned that if I want to type in my lap it will bounce around.

 

So all of you lucky new Acer owners let us know, please, how the weight feels on an uneven surface and how the keyboard feels ... particularly if you're are basically a qwerty typist. Thanks! :)

[mamaofami]

Heather, the key board feels fine and basically I'm not a touch typist. I was really surprised that I could move the little built in mouse keypad around because I HATE the one on DH's laptop and can't use it. I've called my tech person to help install the programs because I'm admitting to being out of my element. I never use more than one window at a time. I think you have to find some store that carries it so you can try out the keyboard. I have small hands so I'm OK. Someone else might find it hard. On the computer I'm using now, I have a split keyboard which I love sine I can just relax my hands and keep them on the built in handrest. Can't put the new one in my lap yet since I haven't laoded in anything and don't even know if I can get on the internet. Think I'll go try. It's been charging all afternoon.

[GmaPajama]

I agree with the others here - you absolutely need to try out the keyboard before buying this little 8.9 inch Acer. Having said that, I'll state again how much I love mine. It really DOES fit in my purse, and it's more than workable for all my travel needs.

 

I would suggest getting Outlook Express set up, since it makes reading and composing emails offline very easy. When we're paying Ships' Prices for internet access, it's nice to be connected just long enough to "send and receive".

 

We have intentionally NOT installed a lot of our regular programs because we wanted to keep this little guy as clean as possible. We loaded Picasa3 for photo editing and OpenOffice for word processing, etc. Free programs, with everything we need. On the off chance it's lost or stolen, there won't be much of "us" gone with it.

 

And, I'll say it again - WE LOVE THIS LITTLE GUY! :)

[mamaofami]

Believe it or not, I"m typing from my acer. I got this far and am now connected to a wireless connection. The keyboard is smaller of course, but it's very responsive. This is the first thing I've done on here. Yippee!

[pmenefee]

Believe it or not, I"m typing from my acer. I got this far and am now connected to a wireless connection. The keyboard is smaller of course, but it's very responsive. This is the first thing I've done on here. Yippee!

 

Way to go Carol. On the internet............connected by wireless..........I'd say you're doing great.

 

Pete

[vbmom87]

So, I'm all for wandering down to Best Buy and "playing" with whatever they have.....then going to Tiger Direct on line, and seeing if they can beat the price.

 

And then how will the Best Buys of this country afford to stay in business if we all use them to browse and then buy elsewhere?

[mamaofami]

Way to go Carol. On the internet............connected by wireless..........I'd say you're doing great.

 

Pete

 

In the last year, you guys taught me how to upload my pictures to the computer and then to the net, how to edit them in Picasa, how to buy lightweight luggage, how to use an ipod and now the mini computer. This CC site is great. Thanks everyone for all the info.

[innlady1]

This is what I'm debating, Carol (whether to get the 10" 3 lb instead). I weighed my laptop the other day and it's 5.4 lbs I think. So 3 would be considerably less and I'm worried about that keyboard and the small screen. I often work with several windows open. Also concerned that if I want to type in my lap it will bounce around.

 

So all of you lucky new Acer owners let us know, please, how the weight feels on an uneven surface and how the keyboard feels ... particularly if you're are basically a qwerty typist. Thanks! :)

 

I have the HP Mini, and the screen is 10". The computer weighs in at 2 lbs. I love it! Before we left for our cruise, I loaded on my Eudora email program, but I may just give Outlook a try. Not sure which photo program I will use...perhaps the one that HAL taught in the Digital Workshop.

 

Does the Acer have a CD drive? If so, that would be one plus for the Acer. I had to buy an external drive. Not a problem because how often does one really use it. And it has a slot for a media card from my camera.

[marle7]

For some reason, I have problems with Outlook when travelling. I can receive but not send. I now use gmail for traveling and forward my outlook to it.

[innlady1]

For some reason, I have problems with Outlook when travelling. I can receive but not send. I now use gmail for traveling and forward my outlook to it.

 

I ended up using my yahoo email address this past cruise because it took so long to download all of the emails sent to my inn and personal accounts. So, I told our dog sitter and kids to email me at yahoo.

[GmaPajama]

Believe it or not, I"m typing from my acer. I got this far and am now connected to a wireless connection. The keyboard is smaller of course, but it's very responsive. This is the first thing I've done on here. Yippee!

I see you have your priorities straight. Cruise Critic first - everything else later. Good Job!

[sail7seas]

And then how will the Best Buys of this country afford to stay in business if we all use them to browse and then buy elsewhere?

 

 

Their own fault!

 

I went to Best Buy to try out the Acer and planned to buy it there if I liked it as I expected to love it.

 

They didn't have any 6 cell Acers in stock and told me they had no plans to get one.

 

So, bye bye Best Buy. Hello Amazon.

If they don't stock it, I can't buy it. :)

[sail7seas]

Innlady.......

 

Acer does not have a CD drive.

 

[HeatherInFlorida]

Carol, Donna, Sheila .... thanks so much for this info!!! I think you're all right. I have to go try them out somewhere and get the feel of it. I know for sure I could never use one of those little keyboards on a Blackberry!!! LOL!

 

Carol, you're getting to be quite a techie!!!:D

 

Sheila, thanks for the thought about the HP. I'll look at that as well. Is the battery a 3 cell or 6 cell? The 10" would be nice, but as Donna and Carol said their's are so small you can really grab 'n' go!

 

Donna, isn't Picasa 3 the best??? I just learned to absolutely remove a trash can from a picture that was otherwise magnificent. Love it and it's free ... doesn't get better than that!

 

Again, thank you everyone for all this valuable information! I'm getting itchy for one of these although this laptop is pretty darned nice! Just the weight is a problem.

[jtl513]

For some reason, I have problems with Outlook when travelling. I can receive but not send. I now use gmail for traveling and forward my outlook to it.

You must change your outgoing SMTP server IP address to the ship's 172.31.0.2. Since I'm sure you won't remember that, ask the Internet Manager for the wireless connection info sheet and look at the bottom on the back where it says "POP client users (Mail, Entourage, etc.)"

 

Be sure you make a note of what it is before you change it, and know how to change it back when you get home!

[chloes nana]

And then how will the Best Buys of this country afford to stay in business if we all use them to browse and then buy elsewhere?

I went to Best Buy to purchase my Acer, they were all sold out and waiting for the new shipment to come in. The computer dept supervisor asked if he could help me, I explained what I wanted and he said we could order it online and wave the delivery charges. great!! So he goes to the teminal and rings up the copper colored Acer for me and the terminal crashes at the end, so no invoice or confirmation printed. He said the transaction didn't go through and my debit card wasn't charged. He re-rang it on another terminal and luckily my debit card company was smart enough to decline the duplicate charge. So I gave him my checking account debit card, a different one, and had him use that one. Well he rang it up and forgot to waive the delivery charge so he ran, (literally) to the front desk to see if he could redo this transaction. Okay at this point I have over $650 in charges and still not a correct one yet. He comes back 15 minutes later and says he "thinks" he has it all cleared up and done correctly. Well, there is another charge now for $312 for the little netbook I want. SO I walk out of the store last Thursday owing Best Buy close to $1000 for a $299 netbook, as of today I have two computers coming but nothing in my hands or bank account, I am now responsible to return the computer based on there mistake. Oh! best part, when I called the next day and asked for the store manager some guy got on the phone and pretended to be the manager named Brian, when I called back to speak to the store manager, they said there wasn't a store manager at this store named Brian. :mad: So really, Best Buys of this world can all go brankrupt in my books!!!

[mamaofami]

That's an awful story about Best Buy. Mine didn't have any in the store to look at. Neither did Walmart or 2 of the 3 Costcos I tried.

 

Typed from my new acer.