Tim Ferriss made me do it
I also had the opportunity to chat to Tim in person when he was in Sydney (here's a pic outside my office) and realised he's the real deal. I figured, if he can traipse around the world learning tango and running his business from cafes and wireless connections, so could I. The only difference is that I'm not that interested in a globetrotting lifestyle - I love my home too much! However, I do want the OPTION. In reality, I'm more likely to be traipsing around local cafes (I get some of my best ideas over a good latte with the whizz of the espresso machine in the background), en route to meetings and taking little Rambo to the doggie park. But the sentiment is still the same.
So that started my search for the ideal portable device - where I could receive emails, search the net and do some basic work. Pretty much everything that a regular notebook can do. I had one - my Macbook. But I tried carting that around for a few months and, while it did the job, it also gave me a backache and permanent indentation from the strap mark on my right shoulder!
Small is beautiful
I craved a small device that could do all of the above - in a neat little package. So I explored the likes of EEE PC, the Dell Mini 9 (picture here with my kitty Rocky - I now use it to attach to projectors for presentations) and the HP mini-note (I just fell in LOVE with the Vivienne Tam version but it didn't have the guts I needed - try running Office 2007 on it, or even just Outlook. Painful.). Unfortunately, the teeny screen sizes drove me nuts. They were cute and adorable - and I got just as many comments on the baby Dell than I did on my baby doggie when I was out - but these little devices were not functional for my purposes. So I realised that I couldn't have my cake and eat it too. I had to go for something bigger.
I began lusting after the Air. As my partner had one, I was able to sample his. And, I have to say, they are very seductive. Slim, shiny, and supporting all the same Mac software I have come to know and love. (Well, except for the slightly ridiculous fact that Office 2008 for Mac doesn't support macros in Excel. Why take away such a vital function? Idiots.)
I've been teetering on the edge of indulging in an Air for a while but every time I am about to succumb, I'm ejected from this hypnotic trance by my partner swearing at some bug or failure on his machine. Where there's smoke ...
My latest experiment
So that brings me to my latest experiment: the Dell Latitude Z. I've decided to give it a chance. Not least because my Macbook (not three years old) has actually developed leprosy and bits are falling off it. But switching to the Lat Z also means switching operating systems. So it's not the sort of thing I can review in a hurry. I have to work out whether I like the machine - and whether I can live with Windows 7 and other Microsoft quirks.
I'm discovering new things about the Lat Z (good, bad, quirky and indifferent) every week. So I thought I'd post some of my discoveries here as I go along - just in case anyone's interested. And also because I've received many requests via Twitter to post my opinion. There are all sorts of quirky features (fingerprint scanning anyone?) that I'm keen to explore. I'll let you know if they work!
In the first instance, it's skinny - and I love that. It's not exactly going to fit into my handbag but it's not going to cut the circulation off at my shoulder either. Also, I've had it for about three weeks now - and have yet to plug it into electricity because it sits on a wireless charging stand (like your toothbrush - cool, huh?). Rocky is next to it here. And, as geeky as this sounds, I never thought I'd be so happy to be able to use Excel macros again. (Yes, I realise that's a function of Windows, not Dell.)
Anyhow, I hope you find the updates useful. In the meantime, I'm off to the ... you guessed it ... cafe. With doggie and Dell in tow.
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