Saturday, April 24, 2010

Modern Times

So, I've been away from my computer (home computer) a lot lately. That has seriously put a kink in my writing time. What I've been doing is taking a lot of notes on my smartphone. I even have an app that will let me write using MS Word and update my submission schedule in MS Excel. It's like a itty bitty laptop in my pocket. I have to say that's just super cool.

However, there is a downside (isn't there always?). It's a small screen and the keyboard is miniscule. Yeah, I can type on it and I do a pretty good job of it too, but it's not a computer (well, it is, but it's not a full size computer with a keyboard, etc.). For example, I've been known to write some of my blog entries from my phone and submit them to draft. Because of the screen size, I can't format them, so I have to come home, turn on the computer and format my entry there. 

Wouldn't it be great if I could both write and format with one fell swoop while on the go? Furthermore, wouldn't it be great to actually start writing when the ideas start flowing, no matter where I am, instead of just jotting down ideas for later?

Well, isn't it great that we live in modern times then?  Because the solution is right in front of me.  Literally. I'm in the store right this minute typing away on a netbook. Yes, a netbook.  Not a laptop, but a netbook (really just a smaller laptop with less features, but also cheaper).

Now, I'll be able to just get into the writing that's going through my head as it goes through instead of just taking notes on my phone and hoping I remember all the ideas and nuances that passed through. And on top of that, the battery life is much higher than a standard laptop, so no getting interupted with pesky low power notifications.  Well, not as many anyway.

The downside is that it has a much smaller screen (still bigger than my phone) and comes with Windows 7 Starter. Supposedly it's upgradeable, but what happens to the powermanagement and how sluggish does it get then?

How many others out there use such devices? In this day and age of computers on our phones and so portable, how many writers out there actually use this technology?

2 comments:

Charmaine Clancy said...

We have a notebook, laptop and desktop computer in our home and I find they are all great for different things. If you want to focus on typing your story and you want it portable then the smaller notebook (netbook?) is the best option. When I'm at home I prefer to be on the Mac desktop because it's much more powerful, but have to admit it offers a lot of distractions to actual writing as well.

Elisabeth said...

Yeah, I got it home and have played with the netbook a bit and it's a lot easier to type on the go. My problem is that I get really creative in the middle of the day while at work and I'll go out for lunch and jot down all my ideas. Now I can actually type them up while at lunch. I'm very happy so far.

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