Yeah, Gud's link is smaller. Right now there aren't under 13" screens on the Sony refurb site, but there are from time to time.

Thanks, java. But I don't shop Amazon. I'll probably go back to the TV store where I got my Samsung last weekend. They were really nice, and had great prices. They're opposite a Best Buy, so I guess they need to work hard. But same day free delivery and installation? Oh, hells yes.

But same day free delivery and installation? Oh, hells yes.

Can't beat that!

They're generally adequate for web browsing, word processing, etc. If that's all you need it for, they're fine.

It's not so much that they are so bad, it's that regular ultraportable notebooks have really come down in price.

Can't beat that!

Yeah, at that point I didn't bother going across the street to see what the big box vendor had. I knew they couldn't deliver for a week, and the TV wouldn't fit in my car.

Yeah, I've seen those and have been intrigued. But when I really need to do stuff like that, I can do it on the laptop. I forgot to say that I also have a work laptop that I use every day. I just don't pull out the home laptop as often.

java, last month I got an 11" MBA and I don't whip out that external keyboard as much as I used to either. But I do use it quite a lot when I am grading papers on the ipad.

One thing I've been happy with is my netbook with XP. XP does great in 1 Gig of Ram with a slow processor. But I grabbed it when I saw it. Even broke a personal rule and bought it at Best Buy because I had not seen an XP netbook in months let alone for $174. But I would at least look for that.,

Computer repair folks. Does anyone know of a cable check that will test:

• Firewire 4 pin
  
• Firewire 6 pin
  
• Firewire 9 pin
  
• USB A
  
• USB B
  
• USB A mini
  
• USB B mini
  

The Paladin 1577 [link] is the closest, but it doesn't do FW800 9pin, and we really need that one. The mini USB I could do without, but not the 9pin FW.

Interestingly, Fry's sells stuff cheaper online than in its stores, but last time I asked them about it, they were very "So? What?" about it. Today when I went in for the iTouch, knowing it was $5 cheaper at Best Buy than online at Fry's, but not having considered Fry's meatspace prices, they hand me a flier saying they'll match anyone's online price.

Score. Took a bit of waiting around, but apparently it lopped $35 of the price.

I'm thinking the one with both wireless and phone network access is the way to go, but I'm not sure whether to go for the full 64GB or not. Thoughts? 64 would allow me to transfer pretty much my full iTunes over if I can figure out how to do that so I guess it makes sense.

I have the 64 3G and I need to be very very careful about not trying to put too much onto it. But I have music, some tv, movies (compressed to yuckiness, but I have them), a lot of books and then bunch of random other stuff.

And I just traveled for two and a half weeks with just the iPad. My phone isn't even really smart. I did get the Gembox keyboard case. I don't use it all of the time but when I am editing or doing a bunch of typing, it was a sanity saver. Not just because you could type on it but because it had directional arrows so you could move around in things you'd typed as well.

I had the iPad for nearly six months before I even got it a data plan because a lot of the time, wifi is just fine. BUT! When I was traveling, I used the 3G a bunch. Because you are moving around and there's not always accessible wifi.

It honestly worked. I mean, I was happy to get home and have a full-size keyboard with a shift key on each side, I won't lie. But it wasn't hard to not have a laptop with me except for the couple of times I'd like to have printed boarding passes. That said, if it had just been me traveling, I can do those right on the iPad. I just needed two in this case. So one printing job was done a hotel's "business center" printer.