For moderns on the move

Three laptops: Traveling your career

February 8, 2001
Web posted at: 3:43 p.m. EST (2043 GMT)

In this story: PowerBook G4 IBM ThinkPad TransNote Sony VAIO Picturebook RELATED STORIES, SITES

With Ed Curran, Technogadgets

(CNN) -- At the risk of sounding like I'm not a productive human being, I need to make a confession.

QUICK VOTE So Ed has dangled these three laptop options in front of you here and gone right to sleep. Once you get your seatback tray into the full upright position for takeoff, tell us which one you want to take on your next flight. I'll take the Apple PowerBook G4. I'm a Mac person at any altitude. Throw me an order form for that ThinkPad TransNote. You can't have too many capital letters in the middle of hardware names. Pass me VAIO's Picturebook. I'm down with the compact thing, smaller is sometimes better. View Results     HE WAS AWAKE Technogadgets' Ed Curran talked laptops for us on CNN before he went to sleep on the plane. Pass the peanuts. (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

When I'm on an airplane I seldom do any work.

I work very hard nearly every day of the week, for many hours each day, and a jetliner is my place to relax. I get a window seat and look out frequently (I'm a meteorologist so I guess I'm, technically, working). Or I read things I purposely choose that are not weather-, gadget- or broadcasting-related.

Something like Coastal Living magazine or Popular Sheepdog. Or I sleep. And I can't understand those people who say they can never sleep on a plane. It's a perfect sleeping environment.

But for the rest of you who choose to illuminate the interior of a darkened cabin with the bluish glow of your computer screen, here are three hot, new portables that will make the miles fly by while I doze next to you.

PowerBook G4

Last week I wrote about Apple, and I mentioned their new PowerBook G4. What's not to like? A processor that hums along at up to 500 MHz (and Apple says it smokes an 850 MHz Pentium III portable); a widescreen display that measures over 15 inches; and that sexy titanium body.

This baby isn't just a computer. That widescreen does more than just let you view two browser windows side-by-side. It also delivers DVD motion pictures in a widescreen format. Fire this thing up on the next plane youíre on and you can forget the in-flight movie. Heck, you can entertain the whole cabin.

You can get into a PowerBook G4 for $2,600 bucks. But to build it the way I know you want it, $3,500.

IBM ThinkPad TransNote

Open the sleek portfolio you're carrying to reveal a computer on one side, and a pad of paper on the other. The computer screen flips up.

You can type, you can use the touch screen, you can use a pad of paper with a digital pen and automatically enter every note you've written down. It'll organize your handwritten to-do notes! This 5.5-pound package is a computer with a whole new look. It'll be available in late February for about $3,000.

Sony VAIO Picturebook

If you hate lugging the laptop with you, this is the little computer you need. Stripped down to just the basics, with all kinds of add-ons available, it gives you a great deal of power at a really great price.

This is the little computer with the built-in digital camera, a power-saving Crusoe processor running at 600 MHz and a 12-gig hard drive. If you can live with a smaller keyboard, and a screen that's less than 9 inches, you'll love this thing. It's a neat little 2.2-pound package that gets the job done without breaking your back. I've found it for well under $2,200.

So put down your tray table, boot up one of these babies on your next cross country jaunt, and get productive.

As for me, I'm going to adjust my neck pillow and try not to drool.

Ed Curran has covered the world of high-tech for more than a dozen years and is the publisher of Technogadgets® -- www.technogadgets.com. In addition to his weekly column here at CNN.com/career, watch for Curran's reports on CNN television.

Beyond AirPort: Looking forward to easier computing
January 31, 2001

Apple PowerBook G4
IBM ThinkPad TransNote
Sony VAIO C1 Picturebook

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.