GIbsonian! Yes, that screamed Neuromancer when I saw it.
Sigh. I was being hyperbolic. Though, using Apple’s product catalog as the sole reference on what is achievable is begging the question. They choose to use decadent materials like glass and aluminum, and high-spec energy-hungry ICs, and backlit displays, and then get it as light as they can given those constraints. And in particular, they (like everyone else) choose to increase all the other specs when they increase screen size; there’s never been a 15" MacBook which otherwise has the specs of the lowest-end iPhone.
If their product range included a disposable plastic full-size laptop with a tolerable (LED-backlit) display and a puny CPU, then I would accept the argument that it couldn’t be much lighter than they made it. But it’d be pretty light. And while I still wouldn’t buy one, I suspect it would be a much more attractive answer to something like the Hemingwrite.
Extremely portable full feature, (within limits) is all I want for fucking Christmas. I don’t care about screen size. All I want is a document generator. I have a Kindle with a keyboard, but it’s terrible for getting literally anything done because it’s a walled garden. I don’t care that it’s small, mostly it’s just unusable and I’m stuck with a crap browser. Same for Chromebooks-- Google Docs is fine, unless I want to get certain kinds of things done. I use relatively low-CPU usage stat and plotting software that I can’t run on a Chromebook.
I’m not asking to run simulations or computationally intensive stuff. I literally just need something a touch above Excel-clones and a chrome browser. I don’t want to pay through the nose for it either. I’ve even considered a homebrew. The problem being that I could root this or hack that… but I have shit to do and just want to buy something off the shelf. Save the project time for projects I’ll enjoy, y’know?
The internet is full of people with completely unrealistic ideas of what is possible in terms of engineering computing devices (and even more unrealistic ideas of what is economical). It’s gotten so I can’t tell the ignoramuses from people being deliberately over the top. Sorry.
Good for you, but time and again I’ve shown myself that I need a certain amount of real estate to see what I’m typing. I’ve always been someone to edit as I write, which is a bad habit…maybe? So, I think a certain size screen is essential.
I have yet to find my perfect on-the-go writing tool, but my Chromebook is pretty close. It has a nice keyboard, great battery life and a usable trackpad (I feel it is really tough to find a decent trackpad on a low-end laptop) and it only cost me $99 new. It weighs nothing. But web browsing and writing is all that it is good for, I’m afraid.
I’m saying that this option sounds promising for me. I believe there is room in the world for more than one kind of gadget suited to more than one kind of purpose.
Why do all of these discussions seem to come down to, “This bad, other thing good?”
It’s laptops, not religion.
Emacs, on the other hand…
That wasn’t meant as sarcasm. I really mean, good for you. I wished that worked for me. I love the fact that we have some many cheap gadgets that we can use to clunk our way through with What Works Best For Me.
Cheers, then. Emacs though… seriously.
If it were good for anything else, it wouldn’t be good for writing. At least for me, I find the fewer things I can do (especially at one time) the better for my concentration.
In my experience, if you want a small machine for writing, you want it engineered to perfection. I tried all sorts of Netbooks and they all suffered from being a bit to squeaky, clicking and with mushy keyboards. My two favourite machines for carrying everywhere were either my original Sony VAIO 505 - the beautiful little blue/lilac magnesium model, or the MacBook Retina. But that sort of engineering comes at a hefty price.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to get good work done on an iPad running Scrivener with a Bluetooth keyboard (in my case a spare Apple keyboard I had lying around). It’s light, you can bash in serious amounts of text on a decent keyboard and the battery life isn’t appalling.
I’ve been doing all my writing on a computer since 1980 or so (Magic Wand on a Zenith Z-90), and for anything more demanding than answering an e-mail, I require a keyboard that doesn’t cramp up my fingers, a screen that holds at least a half-page of copy and that I can read from 20-24" away, and transferrable/backup-able data storage. An internet connection would be pretty useful, too, since my work is journalistic rather than “creative.”
I recently picked up a Samsung 9.7" tablet that has a pretty readable screen (and my 8" tablet is tolerable), and the smallest usable Bluetooth keyboard I’ve found is a bit over 10" wide. That pairing with a decent basic editor might serve. It would be fairly inexpensive, even after adding a folio/cover to keep the combo together and easily deployable. Nevertheless, if I had to do serious work away from home, I’d lug my trusty ThinkPad X31, which can hold all my research materials and run my usual work environment without any compromises. (Apple users apparently have similar standard-tech solutions available.)
Tiny tech is great fun, but there are ergonomic limits beyond which the products look like stunts rather than tools.
I LURV that except for the stickers-over-grill. UGH!
I mean, it shouldn’t really be red, either, if we get right down to it. Case doesn’t really seem like the sticker type.
I also wish it had a proper mechanical keyboard, too.
But as a proof of concept? Ace.
Case didn’t have stickers IIRC, but Count Zero had a number of holographic ones.
As a result, I plastered my dorm-room ancienne AT&T PC 6300 with stickers and had a plant named “Visual Interference Overdrive” as a result.
I had a Toshiba like that. When the tendonitis in my wrist was at its worst, that thumb-run trackball saved my sanity.
Too bad the butterfly keyboard didn’t really pan out.
