Gadget lust

[mdlbear]

So, if you're finished drooling over the pictures of the Macbook Air (seen here in comparison to four other laptops, which don't come off all that badly), you can start lusting after the Harlin eReader V9 (more specs here and here). Roughly the same size screen, 1/3 the weight, 1/2 the price, an eInk display, and Linux. They're different, of course; one's a stripped-down laptop, the other's a Kindle-killer.

But I already have a laptop. What I need is something to replace my bigger-than-laptop-sized songbook. I'll wait.

Comments

[phillip2637.livejournal.com]

As a big fan of things Macintosh, I have to confess that I don't get who the "Air" is supposed to be targeting. (Well, travelers I guess, but....)

I went to the Apple (Canada) store and configured a Macbook Air into what I'd consider a usable configuration and got a price of $2352. I then dumbed down a normal Macbook to match as closely as I could and the cost came out at $1414 -- with a faster processor and a faster disk drive.

[mdlbear]

The Air's good if you need a lightweight, thin system with good battery life for traveling. If I spent a lot of time in the air I'd be tempted. Otherwise...

I'm hoping my OLPC XO will work as a travel machine. If it ever gets here...

[ravan.livejournal.com]

FYI, the Kindle is Linux under the hood. The goal was a book reader about the size of a trade paperback. While they didn't put in everything I wanted, they did most of it. The Kindle can take an SD card with additional books on it, and not just from Amazon - it will handle stuff from Baen, just not grab it wirelessly. (I wanted it to take a USB key, but hey, SD is close.)

I was suppposed to be on the beta list for the Kindle, but they passed me over for higher rank people. Now I have to save up for one.

[mdlbear]

Figured it was, but it's definitely designed as a closed box. The fact that Harlin actually name their distribution suggests that it might be more developer friendly.