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Hello DU technophiles - I need some advice about what kind of portable computer to purchase. I'm going to be travelling abroad next summer and would like a portable computer/pocket PC with which to record text data, and possibly store photos from my digital camera. My critera are the following:
1) Has to have a keyboard - I intend to be typing a lot and I have no patience for poking out text one letter at a time with those silly wands.
2) Lightweight and compact - something that will fit comfortably into a backpack.
3) Cheap! I'm going places where it's not unlikely that a consumer electronics item might walk off, so if it disappears I don't want to lament having spent a lot of money on it. I'm thinking US$250 or less.
4) Reasonably durable - In my backpack it should be able to survive me falling ass-over-teakettle down a mountain for a few hundred feet.
5) It would be nice if it had a USB port so I can transfer pictures from my digital camera. Or if not that then a modem. I assume that most everything manufactured within the last 5 years has one or both - ideally I would be able to get data transferred from it to an email account quickly.
6) Doesn't have to be very fancy - I don't need to run applications like Excel, Powerpoint, Photoshop, or store/listen to MP3s. I have no need for games or other cutesy nonsense - strictly utilitarian. However, if whatever software/operating system it came with had foreign language character capability, that would be great, although not essential.
7) Easy to charge and/or long-lived when fully charged, or runs on batteries of a type easy to obtain developing countries
Discontinued models/products are fine if they are cheap.
Thanks for any suggestions!!!! I'm not sure that anything fits these criteria perfectly. I was looking into HPs' Jornada line, which they seem to have discontinued. Or maybe a cheap PalmOne handheld with the portable keyboard.
-SM, being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century
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