Need computer help!

[CTyankee]

Here's the problem. I'd like to get a laptop or a tablet that I can carry with me on a trip out of the country, take photos with my cellphone and send with text back to websites like DU. I confess I don't know where to turn. I don't have a laptop or a tablet and my cellphone is one of those Verizon basic cellphones for dummies.

What's the best option for folks like me who are tech impaired/ignorant, both in experience and in the technological lingo?

[Inkfreak]

1. Depends on how much $ you want to spend.

Laptop would require you buy a camera with a SanDisc to transfer files. However a smartphone or a tablet could do it all in one. They do make some cheaper smartphones other than the iPhone or Galaxy. Some around $140. But these may require contracts and service may not extend to country you're in. I love my iPad Mini. Takes great pics. And easy to use/surf the web. It's roughly $350.

[CTyankee]

2. I will research the iPad Mini more. My grandson has one.

So the iPad Mini is suitable for my project but also is like a basic reader tablet like a Kindle?

[Inkfreak]

3. Well, it's more akin to a laptop.

With the ability to be a reader like kindle. But imo, a kindle is far superior in that regard. You can still read your kindle books on it in addition to apples reader btw.

I'd say the appeal to the iPad is the ability to surf the Internet along with a wide variety of apps you can use for just about anything. It also includes things like FaceTime. Which allow you to talk to people like your grandson face to face. It's neat. I do it with my Mom a lot. She lives in another state.

Hope that helps.

[CTyankee]

4. I don't have a reader, but I'd like to have a tablet that can be all purpose, reader and do what the

iPad mini does. It seems to me that I shouldn't have to buy 2 different devices for both functions, but again, I am technologically challenged and ignorant.

[Inkfreak]

5. The iPad will do that for ya.

I just have a special fondness for my kindle reader. Really more about comfort and style for me. But that's not to say I dont use my iPad for books too. One thing I like about iPad, and its kinda silly I guess, is that it'll show the page turning as you swipe pages. And you can see faint lettering on the back side as you do. It's just kinda fun & neat lol. Apple makes a wonderful product.

[CTyankee]

6. Are there lots of externalities (I think that is the right word) that I have to futz around with?

Or can I just go to the Apple Store and have them walk me through what I want to do?

[JBoy]

12. The Apple store can show you the basics

Just tell them what you're looking to do and they can walk you through it.

But some advice: before you hit the road, practice it. Over and over. You want to get quite familiar with your tablet before travelling. A foreign hotel room isn't the time or place to learn how to do stuff. You don't want to be encountering anything more challenging than getting the hotel's wifi password.

[CTyankee]

13. thanks. I'll prolly be able to tell once I start going thru it with the Apple Store folks whether

I'm going to succeed at doing this.

thanks for underscoring this important point!

[JBoy]

10. I second the iPad mini recommendation.

You'll need a wifi connection to send or post the pictures, but it's an all-in-one solution.

Being able to get on the internet to look up travel info (plan the next day's activities) when you're on the road, and to check emails is invaluable.

Other tablets will do much of the same, but iPads are easiest to use, and the cameras are excellent.

[CTyankee]

15. It's funny, tho. I travel to Europe every year and I simply don't miss emails nor do I look up

travel info (I've done my research at home before I leave). I carry a paper notebook for taking notes in museums/cathedrals/etc and from any lectures I attend on the road. And I depend heavily on the locals and the hotel front desk staff, esp. if the hotel has a concierge (which isn't often the case since I go to pretty modest hotels). These folks are incredibly rich resources and get me to the right bus or train I need or recommending shops and restaurants.

There WAS one glaring exception to all this: I was in Lisbon traveling with five other women (we called ourselves the Six Broads Abroad) and to pass time while we waited for our rooms to be ready, we took one of Lisbon's famous trolleys the front desk told us would get us right back around to where we got on and we'd get to see the city. Great until we got about half way round and the driver got pissed off at something, stopped the trolley, pulled out the keys and ordered everybody off, then stormed off himself. We hadn't brought a map, none of us spoke a word of Portuguese and we had no idea where the hell we were. Mercifully, I had taken our itinerary with me so we could locate the name/address of our hotel and we were able to get a taxi back. I coulda used Google maps, for sure...

[winter is coming]

7. Are you sure it has to be a laptop?

If you're willing to wait to send the pictures after you get back, you could get a nice digital camera and some memory cards. We'll enjoy your pics whenever we get the travelogue.

[CTyankee]

8. I just thought it would be fun to send back a "running commentary" with a couple of pics as I travel

Not to bore you with this plan, but I am thinking about a trip on what is called the "Piero della Francesca Trail," which is a few towns and one city in the eastern part of Tuscany where this Renaissance master painted back in the 15th century. There is a hardy band of art lovers here at DU who might enjoy a brief ongoing travelogue with photos of the works I am seeing. Nothing real heavy, one or two pics and some text a day...

[winter is coming]

9. That would be fun, as long as we don't have to guess what they are!

I never get the Friday Art Challenge right.

[CTyankee]

11. I know, I get a little obscure sometimes but some folks really like to do art research...

Now I'm doing one each Friday afternoon at a bar here in my neighborhood. I don't go, but my husband meets a beer buddy there every Friday afternoon and has started to take copies of art work I print out for him. The guys at this place like to make guesses. I have to significantly reduce the difficulty of the challenge for them, but they like it a lot and always ask hubby "where's this week's art?" Oy.

[winter is coming]

14. LOL. I enjoy looking at them, even when I don't know what they are.

[CTyankee]

16. I'm glad you do. Too bad I can't make any money off of this but that's always the way,

isn't it?