On my last trip i carried a 12" Mac powerbook...it was indespensible! Music, video editing, photo's, wireless, etc. Internet cafe's usually suck because their computers are much too old and slow. The Mac is small and lightweight, only a few kilo's, and takes up very little space. The aluminum body is very durable and will dent or bend instead of shattering your internals. It never skipped a beat, and i dropped it twice!
Dave Smith mentioned he can't take a laptop because his bike is only six volts. Truth is, the only way to charge a laptop on a bike is with an inverter, and is absolutely unnesesary, there's places to plug in everywhere you go. Due to Garmin being a bunch os asses, i've up-graded to a new 15" Macbook pro and loaded Windows (Ughhhh!!) onto a partition so i can download my maps. I built my websight on the road and archived all my photo's and video. Most internet cafe's will let you plug in, i was only refused once in four months. Once you try a good laptop and use it, you'll always travell with one. If you only want e-mail or are a Luddite, stick with the internet cafe's.
BTW...i never run ANY antivirus software on ANY of my Macs. So far, so good :)

At the start of Easy Rider is a great piece of Symbolism, they have just done the drugs deal and about to set off on the road trip to Marti Gras. Fonda takes off his watch and throws it away and they ride off. Brilliantly encapsulates the freedom of a motorcycle and the open road.
If they remade the movie today he would have to throw away the Laptop, PDA, GPS, mobile phone, Satellite phone, radar detector, bike to bike communicators, MP3 player, digital camera and all the various chargers, wires and batteries. Then he would have to adjust the suspension because of the weight loss and then ride off.

You got to laugh.

Our temptation is load up like James bond after a visit to Q.

Steve

Arghhhhhh! You can't throw that lot away how could we possibly survive on the road without access to email, my complete iTunes library, skype, newsgroups, latest information from HUBB... arghhhhhh!

You're giving me nightmares!

m

I've got hundreds of books in zip files on my laptop even just a few would be more bulky than the computer. Trouble is it's a vaio and I don't know how tough it would be. It's fine for road based trips in it's neoprene case but I guess it would fall apart off road. I've heard of U3 pen drives has anyone actually used one ? Carrying your desktop and other programs with you sounds like a good idea and it takes up no room. Also you can cut and paste your passwords onto the web so no keystrokes get copied. It sounds great.

SPVs
 

I've used my old battered Orange SPV E200 Smartphone on cycling trips (yeah I kept the watch but chucked out the motor). I use it with an Elektex flexible keyboard and it's been fine. Sure the screen's a little small for serious web-browsing, and watching Casino Royale on it was a novelty of strained eyes, but for e-mailling, blogging, facebooking, MP3ing, and even updating my website it was fine. A couple of 2Gb SD cards provided storage and I use the same cards in my digicam. I even used it for short video-diaries which I could upload to YouTube. It's got bluetooth and I found European i-cafés either had bluetooth anyway, or would let me plug in my bluetooth dongle to transfer files.

http://www.hizone.info/data/2003/05/...eyboard_01.jpg

The whole thing packs up nice and small, and of course you've always got your mobile with you if you want to call. Depending on your phone plan you might even get decent data transfer plans, which means you can e-mail directly using GPRS, rather than stocking them till you find the nearest i-café.

I'm now looking at a newer phone, using Windows Mobile 6, hopefully the newer OS will provide a few more bells and whistles, and a lot of them come with WiFi, which is even better.

For South and Central America, no need, plenty of internet cafes.

For north America, probably, mainly because all you'll find are Wi-Fi connections and very few internet cafes.

"...how could we possibly survive on the road without access to email, my complete iTunes library, skype, newsgroups, latest information from HUBB... arghhhhhh!"

I think the bigger question is, what kind of trip are you wanting? What do you want your time away to look like? I see so many travelers spending soooo much time staring in front of a screen, all in a row with other travelers who are also spending much time in front of a screen. A computer/internet is like an umbilical cord. But once you cut the cord, ah, the freedom! OK, I'll shut up now, I've said my piece. (And yes, I'm as guilty as the next person, I just do all my writing in private.)

And I must strongly disagree about being able to connect anywhere with your own laptop. Yes, in touristy places, but certainly NOT in little towns.
Lorraine

Lorraine - you're making me feel bad :-( I can't go cutting the essential connection to the world.... I can't go a day without going online for most of it!

Perhaps that's my 'adventure'! at last... I've found the answer !

m

Maybe the question should be 'Do I REALLY WANT' a laptop:thumbup1:
No one really needs one:nono:
Gadgets, love em :rofl:

Trophymick

Iv had ANOTHER change of heart LOL..

Im taking my travel guitar with me of which I use my PC for all my tabulature and music files.

Im also taking my PSP which I need a PC to upload games and videos etc.

My MP3 player also needs a PC to upload and download music.

I hate being this connected to technology but its the world I grew up in !!!


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:confused1:

"On my last trip i carried a 12" Mac powerbook..." Mr. Ron
 

Mr. Ron-
I like the idea of taking my Mac but have been worried about the constant vibration and what it might do. I'm riding a thumper- How do you pack your Mac and what are you riding?
Tom

BTW- according to the current issue of MacWorld Magazine... "Garmin claims that it will have a client out by the end of the year (for the Mac)." See complete article on the Mac and GPS at http://www.macworld.com/2007/08/secr...emac/index.php

ya know, I really am surprised that there arn't more female overlanders :rolleyes2:

Very good, Ted- that's probably why I've always liked BRitish humor so much...

oh dear, oh dear... :innocent: