[Pan-users] Re: Advice on other lists

[Duncan]

Rob posted on Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:50:39 -0400 as excerpted:

> I've thought about a netbook as an mp3 player too, but compared to the 3
> by 5 inch Archos, even the 7" Eee was too bulky.  It had to fit into my
> jacket pocket.  But the netbooks may be my only choice now that SSD has
> taken over the mp3 player market and the generic 2.5" player-enclosures
> I expected to see haven't materialized (though it's still tempting to
> get something like this and duct tape a portable TV to it for the
> display: http://xrl.us/bfeb9u ).  On the plus side, I certainly could
> write my own interface on a netbook and make it really car-friendly.

That's what really had me buying in, the extra flexibility of having a 
"real", if small and limited performance, computer, full keyboard that 
may be a bit cramped for fingers, but my hands aren't as big as many 
men's hands, and at 1024x800, a reasonably usable if small display, as 
well.  The 7" EEE's display, at 800x480 IIRC, was going to present UI 
issues for a standard computer interface, that 1024 width just doesn't 
need to worry about.  And as I mentioned in the previous reply, the 
standard SATA storage interface very quickly became non-negotiable for 
comparisons once I realized it was available.

Yes, it's not as small as the small MP3 players, but the extra 
flexibility I decided was worth it.

Plus, I could always get an iPod Nano or similar, or a Sansa, which has 
excellent rockbox compatibility, and use the AA1 as a kind of mother ship 
for the tiny MP3 player, thus having effectively my whole music 
collection on the AA1, while being able to swap out songs on the Sansa/
Nano as needed, even if I'm half way across the country on vacation when 
I get a hankerin' for that album I haven't heard in two years!  Again, 
I'm thinking sneaker-net refills here, as a year's mobile broadband buys 
a **LOT** of storage these days -- or somewhat less storage but a new 
netbook every year, for less than I'd spend on a mobile broadband 
subscription!

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman