My CompactFlash backup drive (a PD70X) gave up the ghost last year and I've been shopping for a replacement to use in the event that I have trouble with my laptop on a long trip.

There is no shortage of portable photo viewers, many of which are excellent. But the good ones are still several hundred dollars. So I got to thinking about netbooks...

For about $300 I can get a 160GB netbook with a nice screen and a USB port for a card reader. Sure it isn't a one piece solution for image backup (I'd have to load a sync program and use a USB card reader) but gee, for almost no money I'd get an entire small computer with Ethernet, Wireless and 1GB of RAM. Slightly larger of course, so not a solution for those needing to hang the backup off their belt.

Pretty cool. I haven't taken the plunge just yet (still evaluating alternative) but it is amazing the difference volume makes. Because there is large demand for the netbooks we can get an entire computer for the price of a hard drive + reader. --David

I have been using a netbook instead of my Hyperdrive for several months now. I have a GPS module and Microsoft Streets & Trips installed on my Netbook so when I travel, my netbook works as a navigation device complete with voice turn by turn driving instructions. Better than a Tom-Tom or Garmin because of a much bigger screen that is easier to see when driving. While downloading an 8GB CF card is not as fast as my desktop, it is slightly faster than my Hyperdrive. I also have Quickbooks Pro installed on my Netbook. I take care of all aspects of my business on my Netbook EXCEPT image processing. Image processing is reserved for my desktop which has 12GB of RAM and the neccessary processing horsepower to better handle such requirements.

David--That is an incredibly timely post for me. I'm about to take off for Africa for a few weeks leading a group there and was trying to work out what to bring as a backup for my laptop (I always want something as a backup just in case).

I was thinking of getting a fairly cheap one since (in theory) I'll have my notebook as a primary and in fact can use my same external drives for the images, so I'm not sure I even need much of a hard drive. I hadn't thought about the GPS option since I usually use my phone for that, but it would certainly be nice to have a larger screen option.

Thanks for the thoughts. Which netbook do you have and is there anything in particular you like/dislike about it? Thanks!--David

I have the Acer Aspire One with Win XP w/SP3, 2 GB RAM (it came with 1GB but I changed it to 2GB), 160 GB hard drive, 6 cell battery. I love it so much I bought another one for my wife for her birthday. I can plug in an external monitor when I think the 10" screen is too small. For next summer's photography season, I am replacing all the computers used for my viewing stations in my trailer with netbooks. I just wish they would put in a Gigabit ethernet instead of fast ethernet.

Very cool. I'm trying to convince myself that I'm not a complete nut to take a laptop, a smartphone, a satphone AND a netbook to Africa:-)

In my case the laptop is mandatory for teaching Photoshop & image workflow, but the netbook might actually be an interesting option for (say) the flight over where there is never much room.

Just what I need, another computer:-)

--David

I just bought a smartphone. Apple iPhone 3GS 32GB. I liked it better than anything else I looked at because the buttons are big enought to prevent me from hitting several buttons at once. I also like all the applications written for the iPhone.

No question iPhone is the best overall product out there right now. I have an HTC phone running WinMo partly out of habit and partly because at the time it was the only platform which supported TomTom (the GPS software I like). The phone itself is fairly nice (given that it is over 2 years old now) but WinMo is pretty bad by current standards.--David

David Ramey,

I second your thoughts about using the new or even refurbished netbooks as viewing stations for event work. A couple of the stations could have larger screens plugged in for better viewing. If you are like me you already own the monitors.

I've also noticed that the "all-in-one" PCs are getting cheaper. Might be even less cabling to worry about, but of course if any part of it breaks the whole thing goes down.

I recently purchased a refurbished Dell Inspiron 10" netbook with 160gig HD, 1 gig of RAM running XP home.

I'm a recent convert from a laptop as my main machine to a desktop.
But I travel quite a bit during the early spring-October months for softball tournaments with my two older daughters who play select softball, and I needed a laptop for travel use.

I've only had the mini for a month or so, but I really like it. I put XP Pro on it, and I've got an external CF reader that plugs into the USB port. I download from the card, burn to an external drive for secondary backup and I'm ready to go again.

Not good for previewing (I'd never delete something that I thought was *bad* after viewing on this machine because of the screen size), but for offloading photos, checking email, etc, it works quite well.

The machine itself, plus an external DVD drive (that is USB powered) it was about $350.

I can plug in an external monitor if I want, but for now, it's a great travel machine.

3 USB, one Ethernet (imperative for my usage) and built in 802.11b/g wireless.

Mike.

We've got 3 aspire ones's (with XP) at work now. I use it for photography sometimes to unload cards, and can make a couple JPGs out of nx2 if I'm patient. I can surf the Internet well, do presentations and documents with openoffice,

First, I bought an ASUS 1005HA thanks in large part to all the positive experiences you guys have posted here with netbooks. My plan is to have it as a backup for extended trips like Africa & Asia and then potentially for various other project uses where I can get away with a small computer and don't want to "risk" bringing my primary laptop.

Second, for those of you investing in bunches of netbooks I saw a somewhat stunning announcement this morning of a new Compaq notebook with a LightScribe DVD burner & 15.6" screen & Windows 7 for $399, shipping 10/22. Low power AMD processor. If this is the beginning of a trend then if you want netbooks strictly for price it seems you'll also have the option of cheapie notebooks. Of course if (like me) you also need small size and/or battery life, then netbooks will still be the way to go.

Thx for all the advice on netbooks. Mine will arrive with XP but I have a bootable USB Drive with Win 7 Pro ready to go and will try and put that on it first thing. I'll report my results.--David

Just a quick update on my experience so far with my ASUS 1005HA netbook. In general I really like it. It is full-featured and has been solid. It is of course slow compared to a full-fledged machine. But since it does so many things so well it's easy to forget that and start cursing under your breath that something is taking a long time.

The other thing which is bugging me more than I thought it might is the keyboard. I knew about the size of course (it fills the entire width of the case, so there aren't many options on that front), but it has a sort of bouncy feel that bugs me. I think some of the other netbooks have better keyboards but this one had the feature set I wanted and was the size I wanted, so I'm okay with my decision. Just something I'd look harder at if I bought another that I was thinking of doing a lot of email and writing on.--David