In The Bag

Gear

I’ve seen a lot of people on the net share both their desktop workspaces and what is in their bags. Over the years I have whittled down and secured only the essentials needed for portable computing. I’ve waited for technology to give me what I needed.

Today I am sharing my minimalist setup in the bag.

The Chromebook- I’ve already documented what a simple and effortless device this is. It weighs next to nothing and syncs everything.

The Nexus 7 tablet- This is my portable library. I also stream music, videos. If the mood strikes I’ll play games on it and more.

Galaxy S3 Phone- Wake me up when the iPhone is ready to compete, will you?

Bluetooth Mouse- Operates all 3 devices if I desired.

Moleskine Notebook- In case my thoughts go analog instead of digital. This also doubles as my mousepad. Sharpie pen is thin and doesn’t bleed through the pages.

Timbuk2 Bag – Excellent size, light and very well padded. One compartment for the chromebook and another for the rest.

All together the contents are equal to a hardback book in weight, and all three device’s data are synchronized.

This blows me away

Chromebook: For Me

The Samsung Chromebook is a fantastic browser with a keyboard. It weighs less than  3 pounds with an 11.6” screen. The 16GB solid state drive is quiet and fast. Boot time is exactly 8 seconds to power on and go. True, 16GB is not much but it does come with an integrated 100 GB of free storage space in Google Drive!

Google documents and mobile photos do not count against your free storage space. So how in the hell would you be able to use it all? Wait, how will I even fill up my 16 GB of hard drive space? Music files? Please. Google Music gives me up to 20,000 song space, again, free.

Speaking of integrated and Google, it gives me immediate access to it’s ecosystem of apps. Apps like Docs, Gmail, Reader, G+, Picasa, webcam, Music and more.

Wifi, HDMI, 3 USB ports, Bluetooth (for my mouse) and SD card slot round out the features. No, it doesn’t have an optical drive.

Inexpensive at $249, lighter, faster, portable and entirely cloud-based. Welcome to the future.

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