Wednesday 20 February 2008

A laptop for my travels...



The 1984 Mac commercial.

Mark asked me what my new Mac (the Macbook Air) is like.

Well, it is all very lovely - sleek, silver, thin and (relatively) lightweight.

It will fit inside an envelope, as seen in their ads, albeit a B4 envelope. I will be keeping it in an envelope when travelling. It has thin tapered edges and so when it is in the envelope it does not look bulky, or square, at all and hopefully it will just be one more defence.

After 25 years of using a mouse and a number pad to the right of the keyboard, it is taking a little while to adjust to the touch pad. But it works well and is fascinating how it gives different responses to one, two or three finger caresses. The pinching and rotating movements are easy to use on the touch pad as well. Others will no doubt be familiar with this sort of thing but it is all new to me.

The programs are ones I am familiar with, so nothing new there. It is just a matter of customising them for the road.

Finally, it is a child of the wireless generation (although I am taking an ethernet connector as a fall-back position!). There was something surreal yesterday to be sitting in a comfortable armchair, at a large shopping centre, wirelessly connected to the internet. I just need to figure out easy ways of finding out where wi-fi connection points are without having to start the computer and 'look' for networks.

Earlier yesterday morning our Scottish relatives called (via Skype) so I took the laptop into the bedroom and we both sat in bed doing a video call. Cute. Presumably I could take it to the gazebo and use it there. (I say presumably because it is raining at present. So many good things happening at once!)

So, I have 10 days to learn the ways of the machine. Haven't even named it yet. All my other Mac have had ladies names, largely due to Margaret declaring that they are my mistresses.

Next Monday I will cross over to using it for all my computing, blogging, email etc so that I am quite at home with it before I actually leave home.
...

12 comments:

  1. That is so cool. I plan to get myself a laptop too, as soon as my finances allows me to.

    After years of using the laptop I can't imagine myself having a bulky desktop at home, although admittedly it has its advantages.

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  2. ahh..gives us a look of your notebook please..its so tempting!

    U can have a gprs broadband mobile modem, now its getting popular, but dont know whether it works good in traveling.

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  3. Yay! thanks Lee! Now i wanna see pics of you with it in the gazebo.

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  4. Since it's female and about to go around the world, can I suggest Agnes - she was the wandering lady in an old Irish ballad (not a happy wanderer, though, so probably best to stick to someone more cheerful)

    And don't forget to get in touch when you're in the UK.

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  5. Awesome! I'm jealous. And happy that you'll be updating your blog throughout your journey.

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  6. Good luck with the new computer. You're a brave man! Apple hasn't had really great hardware lately - iMac's anyway, like mine, are beautiful but disappointing.

    We have 'lappie' a Sony Vaio and 'toshie' a Toshiba in the 'family' as well.

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  7. Ah, so you succumbed!
    I can't use a mouse at all, only a touchpad.
    Are you coming to this neck of the woods at all?

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  8. congratulations on your new baby - make that babe.
    I'm jealous it looks very cool. i have an old clunky version or i should say my son does; i only use it when we travel. Can't wait to get an IMac when my PC finally dies its slow death here.

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  9. Another modern days wonder! I wonder how log it will take for me to master all this new things..Skype and even wireless feature, I'm a bit slow on this. Well..we love the Mac since it'll make you blog!

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  10. Same here I love my little Dell laptop even though it's an oldie it's very small, my hubby got a Acer but his is much bigger than mine. I can easily slip mine into my backpack if I want too. I can sit outside to use it when little T plays in the garden but I find it quite hard on my eyes, might have to wear sunnier LOL.
    Glad to hear you'll stay in touch.

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  11. This must be your thinnest mistress of all.

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  12. I am soooo jealous....
    I want one too...
    I wished I could upgrade to than macbook air...
    I wished... I wished...

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