Looking for suggestions

[Scott (formerly Digga)]

My current laptop is dying.  In December it'll be 4 years old and it's started overheating and randomly shutting down at the most inopportune times.  Looking inside there are some burns and melted transistors that would be more trouble replacing than it's worth. 

So the question is do I look into another laptop like an ultrabook?  Or do I try going to something like a tablet with a bluetooth keyboard?  I have a main desktop that I keep at home and use the laptop only for work and when traveling.  If I'm going with a laptop it'll be a PC - this isn't meant for a discussion between PC vs Mac.  If it's a tablet - it'd probably be an iPad (only because I already have an iPhone and don't want to add a 3rd OS with Android).  What do some of you use? 

[babens]

Personally, I feel that if I did have a desktop at home then going with just a tablet would be possible for rehearsals.  If you are going with an iPad, what kind of desktop do you have at home?  I've found that the Pages and Numbers apps for the iPad integrate fairly well with their desktop versions, but still far from perfect.  The couple of apps I've used as Microsoft Office replacements (there is still no native app for the iPad) were very unsatisfactory in the ways in which they worked with the desktop versions of the Office suite when sending files back and forth.  There are rumors that Microsoft may finally be releasing iPad versions of the Office programs this fall, but so far it's just rumors. 

[Scott (formerly Digga)]

I run a Windows Desktop at home and would probably use Evernote as my syncing application for notes and what not.  I currently use it on my laptop and phone anyway when typing up performance reports during shows.  I've heard the same thing about the Office Apps though - as far as not being up to snuff.

[nick_tochelli]

I don't know that I could ever transition out of having a laptop and going with just a tablet. I brought my tablet along to rehearsals and would actually hand it to my assistant and have them work on the show database when I was working on the same file on my laptop...but the idea of not having a full computer with me kinda sends a shiver up my spine.

Now..in terms of ultrabook/laptop....can't really say. I think the biggest draw to keeping the lappy in rehearsal is the full keyboard. I understand an ultrabook has a full QWERTY keyboard, but its scrunched. And I have big hands. And Big hands hate small things. Just ask Lenny's hands from Of Mice and Men......that's a crap joke.

But if you are comfortable with an ultra book, I don't see any reason to not go that route and save some money. For the record, I agree with your no android OS. Boo on droid and it's splintered platform!

[MatthewShiner]

I don't have a desktop, and just the lop top.

I need the bigger keyboard (also big hands . . . you know what they say about a SM with big hands . . . ), but also crave the power . . .

[Scott (formerly Digga)]

Yeah I'm leaning more and more toward a laptop - whether I go with an Ultrabook or a regular laptop is still TBD.  I like the lightness when traveling but having the ability to read and burn DVDs without having to carry another piece of equipment is nice.  Then again, the more I work with sound designers, the more they upload files to the cloud and have me download them off of their servers so I'm not actually reading discs too much anymore.  And since most of my movies and tv shows are on hard drives, I don't really need the drive for that either.

Thankfully, I'm a small person and have small hands - so the keyboard size shouldn't be too much of a problem.  I'll have to play around with some in the stores to get a feel though.  The thing I always miss is the number pad and most laptops don't have that anyway.

[PSMKay]

Didn't I recently see that you were planning on relocating between now and the end of the year? Maybe wait and see what the demands of your new job are before changing technology as well? I find that if I've switched to a new system right before I switch to a new job, it makes adapting to both far more complicated than it needs to be. I wind up picking up bad habits on both sides that I would have otherwise ferreted out immediately.

[babens]

Most of the laptops that are being branded as "ultrabooks" do tend to have full size keyboards (they are essentially the PC versions of the Macbook Air).  It's the "netbooks" (those tiny laptops that are usually around an 8" or so screen size) that have the teeny tiny keyboards, and those do indeed seem to be disappearing from stores as tablets become more and more prominent.

[pyromnt]

I use my iPad as my sole device as SM and it works very well. If you get one, message me and I can tell you what apps would be the most useful

You might want to get a MacBook FAQ you can have access to Qlab, but an iPad is better

[KMC]

For work-related purposes I'd still have to recommend a laptop for an SM.  While tablets are an excellent supplement to a laptop, they're not quite robust enough to make a laptop obsolete - especially for the duties of anyone on an SM team.  If your primary reason for getting a tablet was reading and referencing documents or media on the go and writing some basic emails, then yes - a tablet would cover thoses tasks effortlessly.  However, SMs are almost always the document creators.  How many reports, spreadsheets, word documents, etc.. are created or modified on a daily basis?  For me a tablet would just not cover that (especially as anally retentive as we are  ). 

But - at the end of the day, "how long is a piece of string?"  There are a million answers and this will ultimately boil down to your personal preference.  That said, hope the opinions of all here are helpful in making your decision!

[MarcieA]

(also big hands . . . you know what they say about a SM with big hands . . . )

Big work gloves?

[Scott (formerly Digga)]

Didn't I recently see that you were planning on relocating between now and the end of the year? Maybe wait and see what the demands of your new job are before changing technology as well? I find that if I've switched to a new system right before I switch to a new job, it makes adapting to both far more complicated than it needs to be. I wind up picking up bad habits on both sides that I would have otherwise ferreted out immediately.

Yes I am relocating but I won't really be learning anything too new.  I've been working on PCs for decades and the iPad isn't much different from the iPhone except for the larger screen size.  The biggest obstacle I'm seeing now is cost.  Ultrabooks (and no I wouldn't get a Netbook) are nice and light but if you want anything that's halfway decent it costs a pretty penny.  And as KMC said - I do create a lot of documents and I don't think that'll be very easy on an iPad.  Even worse would be editing documents created on a computer and then trying to edit it on the tablet I think. 

In the end I'm going to end up going with a new laptop at some point.  And as Kay pointed out, I'm relocating, so I think I'm going to just try and work my current one to it's eventual death and then be stuck with no choice but to upgrade.  But I shouldn't buy one just yet as I need to save money for the move and expected unemployment.

Thanks all for the suggestions though!