Mac Air or Something completely different

[FL_Prius_Driver]

I am tired of seating myself to fit the computer's location and now want the computer to fit my location. I have quite a few things that I want to read as .pdf files (like my collection of Home Power on .pdf). However, I want to read them just like a book. I do not need computing power, I need light weight and long battery life. Ideas?

[Godiva]

Originally Posted by FL_Prius_Driver

I am tired of seating myself to fit the computer's location and now want the computer to fit my location. I have quite a few things that I want to read as .pdf files (like my collection of Home Power on .pdf). However, I want to read them just like a book. I do not need computing power, I need light weight and long battery life. Ideas?

You choose the tool for the job.

Read up on the Air. If it does what you need, it may be for you.

If you're just interested in reading PDF files...have you considered a Kindle? (Of course for double the $ you could have a MacAir.)

[Betelgeuse]

Originally Posted by FL_Prius_Driver

I am tired of seating myself to fit the computer's location and now want the computer to fit my location. I have quite a few things that I want to read as .pdf files (like my collection of Home Power on .pdf). However, I want to read them just like a book. I do not need computing power, I need light weight and long battery life. Ideas?

I was going to suggest the Amazon Kindle, but I just looked and it seems as if it can't look at PDFs. The Sony Reader is another well-publicized Ebook reader (even if it's a couple years old), but it seems that PDFs are the one format that looks quite bad on it. Actually, if you take a look at the following wiki, it provides some useful info on a number of the Ebook readers out there: MobileRead Wiki - E-book Reader Matrix . . . actually, that whole wiki may be of some interest to you.

I think a Mac Air is *complete* overkill if you just want to use this to read pdf books and, in fact, is probably a *worse* solution for reading ebooks than one of the ebook readers (which have screens that are amazingly good at displaying text and have phenomenal battery lives, compared to standard laptops).

[Betelgeuse]

Originally Posted by Godiva

You choose the tool for the job.
If you're just interested in reading PDF files...have you considered a Kindle? (Of course for double the $ you could have a MacAir.)

If you can point me to an $800 Mac Air, I'll buy one *today*.

Plus, the Mac Air (with its shiny screen) is actually worse for reading text than a lot of these e-Ink-based eBook readers.

[ceric]

Originally Posted by FL_Prius_Driver

I am tired of seating myself to fit the computer's location and now want the computer to fit my location. I have quite a few things that I want to read as .pdf files (like my collection of Home Power on .pdf). However, I want to read them just like a book. I do not need computing power, I need light weight and long battery life. Ideas?

I recommend you to look at Asus Eee PC.
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
7" screen. Light weight (2lb). Fair battery life (~3 hr)
$300-$400.
Same footprint as a book. Asus (a Taiwanese company) is not famous in US, but it is one of the best motherboard makers in the world.

Mac Air may be thin, but it is
- expensive
- big footprint (tho thin)

[AZPrius]

Nokia N800

[Godiva]

Originally Posted by Betelgeuse

If you can point me to an $800 Mac Air, I'll buy one *today*.

Plus, the Mac Air (with its shiny screen) is actually worse for reading text than a lot of these e-Ink-based eBook readers.

$800? No.

But you could probably buy a used iBook for that.

I had a chance to try out a Kindle (with the case). Very nice. Our head Librarian lent one out after a meeting and I had a chance to play with it for a bit. We're considering pushing it in lieu of future textbook purchases. A full set of textbooks is running almost $300 now so not much cheaper than a Kindle. Kindle is much lighter and more portable, you can take notes on it, and we won't have to wait ten years for a new print edition. And it uses cell phone connections, not WiFi.

"Kindle supports wireless delivery of unprotected Microsoft Word, HTML, TXT, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PRC and MOBI files.
PDF conversion is experimental. The experimental category represents the features we are working on to enhance the Kindle experience even further. You can email your PDFs wirelessly to your Kindle. Due to PDF’s fixed layout format, some complex PDF files might not format correctly on your Kindle."

It looks like it will do *some* PDFs but who knows how well?

Look on the bottom under personal files

Look on the bottom under personal files
Look on the bottom under personal files

[vtie]

Perhaps you may want to look at the rapidly growing market of UMPC's. They are small footprint devices that are positioned somewhere between a PDA and a laptop. They are typically operated like a PDA, using a touch screen, but have a larger (7inch or so), high resolution screen. Some of them also have a keyboard.

The weight typically is between 400g and 1kg. Some of them run Linux, some of them XP or Vista.

A few examples of such devices (some are announced):

Above-Net TopExec
Gigabyte U60
Raon Digital Everun Lite
WiBrain B1H
Pepper Pad 3
HTC SHIFT

[AZPrius]

Nokia N800

~$200

Built-in PDF support out-of-the-box. Free FBReader program to read ebooks.

Great screen resolution.

Holding it in one hand.

Long battery life.

I'm typing this post on one.

[FL_Prius_Driver]

Good, good, good. Keep the info coming. I am doing my homework now with a lot of time saved using the knowledge of the replies.