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.

Here's a powerful, lightweight laptop that's not a Mac: Slim, Fast ThinkPad Proves Big Things Come in Small Packages

Too pricey (eta: $1300) for Vortex, though.

Ultralights aren’t for everyone, but with the ThinkPad X220, Lenovo sure is doing its best to make the case that they can be.

This latest version of its super-slim executive standby is ThinkPad doing everything it does best. Still impossibly portable — at 3.3 pounds despite the bumped-up 12.1-inch, 1366 x 768-pixel display — Lenovo packs in everything a traveling professional (or just about anyone else) is likely to need.

The centerpiece is a new Core i5 Sandy Bridge processor, which upends the middling performance we usually expect from an ultralight. Benchmarks trounce just about everything we’ve tested of late — save for a few recent-vintage high-end machines — and they completely blow historical ultralight benchmarks out of the water, beating most machines with the last-generation chip by 30 to 40 percent.

Okay, so now I have an iTouch. I have a few questions which are probably pretty basic.

Can I synch to my Google contacts? I've set up the Gmail account, and the calendar is synched, but I don't see where I can get contacts.

Also, it says iPod in the top left corner. Can I make it not do that? I don't want it to do that. I know it's an iPod.

It's primarily for media consumption, but I downloaded Words With Friends, just because. Any other apps (that aren't Angry Birds or Plants and Zombies, just because, you know) that are nifty? I'm still leaning on my Android phone as my main pocket computing, but if I have the space and the price is right, why not?

ita, there's one called iBattery that I love because it tells me exactly how much battery I have left, instead of just trying to guess what the teeny battery icon in the top right corner is showing me. IIRC, it's a free app.

Honestly, the one I currently use far too much is Bejeweled ($2.99). Also the 99-cent skee-ball.

But I pretty much use mine for TV at the gym (and in the car; really, it's soothing to put on an episode of a show I've seen a million times before and let it play through the radio -- I don't need to see the video to enjoy it when it's something I've seen a million times before) and music in the car (and internet in bed).

Can I synch to my Google contacts? I've set up the Gmail account, and the calendar is synched, but I don't see where I can get contacts.

This might help: [link]

Oh my god, iTunes has an Adult Swim app: [link] I will never be productive again.

ita,

join the club: Pocket Frogs!

yes, you can sync google contacts:

[link]

I have a LOT of apps.

But start here:

[link]

I have some but not a ton of the ones le nubian links to. The others are...more random. Like a calorie and weight tracking one. Or the Couch-to-5K app. Or the "nextbus" app to find out when the bus is coming. Etc. Mint. Sunrise/Sunset (just because I'm curious), okcupid. Seattle Public Library.