Summer is in full swing and along with it the travel season! You will likely be going on the road and taking your gadgets with you. We want to give you some suggestions for Summer Time Travel Tech. This installment will look at netbooks, MIDs (mobile Internet devices), and of course tablets.

Previously we showed you some good notebook computers to take along with you giving you some tips for what to look for in a summer notebook. Then we focused on what should you look for in a great summer camera.

Now you might want something to take up time while you are flying or driving to your destination. Additionally, you might want to have a tool to get online that is more mobile than a notebook PC.

We’ve already looked at some nice toys to keep you entertained in part one of this installment of Summer Travel Tech where we covered gaming devices and smart phones.

Netbooks

Netbooks are very popular today and with there being so many it really would be hard for us to just recommend one. The things to look for are screen size, hard drive space, battery life and keyboard quality. The size is important because if you are getting this primarily for a smaller person, then you can go with a 10.1-inch netbook and save some money. But for someone with large hands a smaller netbook is just not very satisfying. In that case, you should look at netbooks in the 12″ range.

Many netbooks are shipped with an SSD or solid state drive. These are faster, less susceptible to damage if jostled about, and will take less power giving you longer battery life. But they are also more expensive and are smaller so you won’t get as much storage space for the money. That is not going to be a big problem unless you plan to store a lot of content for use on the road such as videos, pictures and music. You should also consider how you will you get the content on to the netbook since most netbooks don’t have optical drives. If you want to take your media with you, you’ll have to have your movies and videos in a file that you can transfer either over a network, copied via USB drive or downloaded from sites like Amazon or iTunes.

My son has an Acer netbook and loves his. He watches Netflix streaming movies, YouTube videos, and videos we have downloaded from iTunes. Some Blu-ray movies come with a digital version bundled with it and he has watched some of those too. For the Fourth of July we traveled to see family and he had his netbook out much of the way home. For games, he primarily plays online games like Runscape or via Facebook. You are not going to play graphically intensive games on netbooks. Like media, keep in mind that without an optical drive you will have to install games either via downloaded file or through a service like Steam, which is a web site that lets you download and play games for a fee. Steam has some casual games that will work fine on a netbook.

Daniel and His Netbook from Kevin Purcell on Vimeo.

Getting online is simple if you use Wi-Fi or Ethernet, since most netbooks have both. Some also come with cellular broadband service from your wireless provider. If you think that you will use that, you might consider getting the netbook from your wireless carrier as they will subsidize the cost for you so that you will buy their data service. Over a two year period it will be expensive (as much as $1,440 just for the data package from Verizon for a 2-year contract). If you are going to get the built-in data service anyway you may as well let them pay for part of your netbook. Still, my advice would be to forgo built-in cellular and either get tethering data service where you can connect your cell phone to the computer or get a device like the MiFi from Verizon or Sprint.

Finally, while I personally would not want to do a lot of work on a netbook due to the keyboards being small and sometimes subpar, you can get work done better on these than almost any of the other solutions we have discussed in this installment. A netbook is easily more productive than a Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. They are more productive for document editing than a smart phone, although for email they are not that much better. And for things like GPS or mapping solutions, a smart phone or tablet will be better.

Battery life is also a key factor in a netbook. The ASUS Eee PC 1016P and 1018P are promising around 10 hours of battery life. They will not be available till later in July, but if your travel plans are in August, that would be a great solution for a 10-inch netbook.

If I were looking for a netbook, I think I would strongly consider the ASUS Eee PC 1201N. It is a 12.1 inch netbook with some other nice specs. However, you would need a backup battery or plans to charge more often as it has under 4 hours of battery life. If you want to look at an Acer and money is not a consideration then the TimelineX 1830t is a great option. It has more power and is not technically even a netbook. But at 11.6 inches it fits the mobility bill and has a longer battery life at nearly 6 hours. The TimelineX 1830t adds an Intel Core i5 ULV processor the offers power, but sips from the battery instead of sucking and costs around $700.

MIDs

While tablets and netbooks are all the rage, most ordinary people won’t even know what a MID is without spelling out that it is a mobile Internet device. Even then it will take some explaining. MIDs are smaller than netbooks but bigger than smart phones. They often have a keyboard but not necessarily. The usually have a touch screen of some kind but again, not necessarily. And their primary purpose is to get on the Internet easily and quickly.

One example of a MID is the Viliv line. If you want to see what they look like, check out this video from Chippy over at UMPC Portal linked to from our sister site at Gottabemobile. He shows you the Windows powered Viliv N5.

Chippy says that Viliv N5 will work for getting online and watching video. With a mini keyboard you could do some productivity work. It would even function as a GPS solution with a receiver attached. But the battery life is limiting at around 3 hours.

Another interesting MID Is the Android powered Dell Streak. Engadget did a review of the Dell Streak and it looks promising, but it is not yet available in the US. You will have to wait till later this summer. That may not help for a summer travel toy, but if your trip is very late this summer, it might be worth holding out for the Streak.

Photo from Engadget

My own personal view is that MIDs are just too middle of the ground. I would rather pay less and get a little more in a netbook or pay a little more and get a good tablet. If you are sold on these devices, then they can do some limited casual gaming, play videos, and get you online. You’ll even be able to get some work done if you have to.

If you want to know more about this category and the next, you really should follow Gottabemobile.com. They are the experts when it comes to tablets and MIDs.

Tablets

In our final category, we look at Tablets. I recently asked Sumocat over at Gottabemobile what Tablet PC he would get for summer time travel and he recommended a couple.

First, he recommended the Fujitsu Lifebook series. They have three options ranging from a smaller 8.9-inch tablet with an Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor up to a 13.3-inch model with an i5-520 processor. The P1630 is so small it is almost a MID while the T900 is larger and offers more power; the middle ground is taken by the T730. All of these are expensive at nearly $1900 direct from Fujitsu.

Sumocat’s other recommendation was an odd one, he admitted. He said a Motion Computing F5 would be a good summer computer. The main reason is that it is a rugged PC designed for the industrial and business world. But that would mean that it is very sturdy and would do well under extreme conditions. Similarly, I’ve seen the Mobile Demand Tablet PC in action as it handle drops on cement, being submersed in cold ice water and used in one of the most extreme conditions in all of sports auto racing. And it took all the punishment without showing a scratch.

A more reasonable option price wise is the Asus Eee PC T101MT. It is a 10.1-inch convertible tablet PC running Windows 7 and sporting a touch screen. You can get one at Amazon for less than $500. It has an Intel Atom N450 processor, can handle up to 2 GB of RAM and comes with a 250 GB hard drive. You will have to upgrade the Windows 7 Starter to Home Premium to get multi-touch, but it has that capability. I really think this is a better consumer option for someone who wants this to be an alternative to their main computer. If you want only one PC then the Fujitsu Lifebook is more reasonable. But remember, these are all notebook computers and have to be protected as such. They are mobile but I wouldn’t use them out in bright sun or at the beach or pool very much.

What most of our readers will really want is a simple tablet that can play games, get online and do a little work. For all of those tasks at a price that is right, I have to recommend the Apple iPad. If you want or need Windows for some reason, then go with one of the above solutions or install LogMeIn.

With a good protective case, the iPad is a durable solution and plays a lot of games, has a ton of apps for travel and finding entertainment while out and around. And with it you can watch plenty of content from iTunes downloads to Netflix streaming movies and ABC shows. Soon Hulu will have an app that will offer access to loads of content for only $10 a month. I have had no trouble getting through a whole day on a single charge. When taxing it I got more than 11 hours.

Conclusions

If I were to buy only one mobile entertainment device for summer time travel, I would go with either a really great smart phone like an Android based Incredible or EVO or an Apple iPhone. The other option is to keep your regular phone and go with an iPad which gives you most of the benefits of the iPhone, with its 100K plus apps and long battery life and mobility. It is not as good outdoors, but still works.

Summer Travel Tech: Entertainment Devices Part Two is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Buying a gift for a geek or gadget addict can be tough; not only are they likely to have already bought many of the mainstream gadgets but they also are apt to have strong preferences for particular brands like Apple or yes even Microsoft. So what’s left to get the geek in your life that will really leave them speechless this year? Why not get them a UMPC or MID.

An Ultra-Mobile-PC or a Mobile Internet Device is most often a compact computer, much smaller than a netbook, that can fit inside a pocket and runs a full version of Windows. These are the perfect gift for someone who constantly needs (or wants) to be connected to the Internet and can’t get everything done on an iPhone or smartphone. These fully functional compact systems make a great 3rd PC and the systems below will let your geek put a full Windows system in their pocket without looking like George Constanza.

Our UMPC/MID Gift Guide will focus on items from Dynamism. Dynamism is an online store that imports these hot little gadgets to the U.S. from Asia long before anyone else. The UMPC and MID devices we’ll look at start around $450 and thanks to the holidays some come with a bonus battery or accessory pack and free shipping.

UMPC and MID Holiday Gift Guide

Viliv S5 Premium-H - $599: One of the most popular or recognizable UMPC brands is Viliv, this specific model, the Viliv S5 Premium has GPS, 6 hours of video playback, 200 hours of standby time and a 4.8″ WSVGA display. It is powered by an Intel Atom 1.33GHz Z520 processor, 1 GB RAM, a 60 GB hard drive, Bluetooth and Windows XP Home edition. This little computer is just 6.0 x 3.3 x 0.96 inches and has a USB port, Audio jack and the ability to output video through a special cable. If you order right now you can get a free spare battery, car kit, and leather pouch valued at $135. Dynamism also sells other models of the Viliv S5 Premium that include solid state hard drives, 3G connectivity and Windows Vista.

Viliv X70 Express and Premium – Starts at $597:

If you need a larger screen to impress your geek this year, then why not check out the Viliv X70 series UMPC. This device ads a 7″ screen, 16 GB Solid State Drive and ditches the keyboard for an onscreen haptic feedback model. Even with the bigger screen the Viliv X70 is only 8.2 x 4.6 x 0.8 inches and weighs less than 1.5 pounds!

Asus Eee T91 – $499: The Asus Eee T91 isn’t as pocket-able as the other items in this gift guide and is technically a netbook — but the ability to swivel into a tablet and is just barely over 2 pounds makes it a great UMPC. The Eee T91 has an 8.9″ screen with 1024×600 resolution, 1.3 GHz Atom processor, 1 GB RAM, 16GB SSD local storage (and 20 GB online storage included) and 5 hour battery life. In addition to the ability to swivel quickly to tablet mode for on the go operation the T91 has a VGA connection which most of these devices leave out so you can connect it to projectors and monitors for more use. Even with these extras the Eee T91 is only pretty portable with measurements of 8.85″ (W) x 6.45″ (D) x 0.99 – 1.11″ (H).

Fujitsu Lifebook U820 – starts at $1299: If the T91 is too bulky for the geek in your life then you should check out the Fujitsu Lifebook U820. This incredibly tiny tablet doesn’t scrimp to stay under 1.32 pounds! The U820 is powered by a 1.6 GHz Atom processor, 1GB RAM, Vista Business, 120 GB of storage, up to 224 MB of shared video and it’s 5.6″ screen has an incredible 1280×800 resolution. The battery life is pegged at 7 hours and 20 minutes which means it might outlast a Macbook Pro! Throw in the fact that it’s only 6.73″(w) x 6.14″(d) x 1.16″/1.46″(h) and can be hooked up to an external monitor and you might not blink at the high price tag.

UMID mbook Pink – starts at $449: The mbook claims to be the world’s smallest PC and measuring just a little bigger than a Nintendo DS Lite it may be true. In addition to being the smallest this is one of the only MID’s in this gift guide targeted at the special geek gal in your life. In addition to the standard black the mbook comes in pink. Don’t let the paintjob fool you this isn’t an attempt to grab marketshare by slapping a pretty color on a gadget; the mbook weighs only .69 pounds and measures 6.3 x 3.7 x 0.7 inches. Inside you’ll find a 1.2 GHz Atom processor, 512MB RAM, 8GB NAND flash storage and on the outside a 4.8″ (1024×600) touchscreen and a hard keyboard. In addition to running Windows XP the mbook has an additional user interface called “UI The Pot” which makes selecting media as simple as swiping up or down.

More about UMPC and MID devices:

If you want to know more about how you or your geek could use a MID or UMPC check out MIDstories which not only shares how real people use these devices but more about their capabilities and accessories. You can also check out this video on how one person uses their MID n the go.

Gift Guide: For the Geek with everything, a UMPC or MID is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Last night I went to the Digital Summer party at Temple, a nightspot in San Francisco. It was a celebration of technology mixed with a fashion show. Liana Burtsava and Eliane Fiolet from Ubergizmo and Girls in Tech hosted the event. Intel, HP, Coveroo and Eye-Fi were all there showing off their wares and the place was packed.

Yes,  summers in this city can be cold, but at least there’s cool tech events like this to go to.

I brought along my Nikon D300, with an SB-800 flash and Gary Fong Lightsphere to take some pics. I used an Eye-Fi card to upload the pics via my Sprint MiFi 2200 3G card.

Intel was showing off its range of Mobile Internet Devices. As many bloggers pointed out last week it’s hard to get your hands on a MID at, but that wasn’t a problem at this event. The party-goers really seemed to enjoy playing with them and talked a lot about their touchscreens and size. It’s going to get easier to buy MIDs soon.

Here’s a Compal MID with a keyboard for on-screen keyboard haters.

The Viliv X70 is too big to put in your pocket, but the roomy touchscreen sure is nice.

UMID  mBook

Yes, they’re small enough to fit in your purse.

Intel had a mockup of a candy bar style MID that drew a lot of attention.

Several Eye-Fi employees were taking pics and showing them off on the projection screens around the club to demonstrate their Wi-Fi enabled SD cards. Ziv Gilat of Eye-Fi probably eats up more bandwidth on his 3G data plans than anyone else in the world. He’s constantly uploading on the go and I really hope he has an unlimited plan.

This is one of the screens that were displaying pics as the Eye-Fi crew uploaded them.

HP had its range of netbooks and the Touchsmart PC on display. I also got to play with the company’s new all-in-one printer that connects to the web so you can find and print tickets, directions and more. The touchscreen seemed responsive, but I question why anyone would want to complete transactions at their printer instead of their phone or PC. Maybe it’s one of those things that will become standard equipment in HP printers in the future if the initial product is warmly received.

There was more to see than just gadgets at the party. At the end of the event three local fashion designers displayed their merchandise on the runway.  I was hardly the only one with a DSLR shooting away.

The HP Mini Vivienne Tam Edition made an appearance on the runway.

I shut off the flash for the rest of the night and just shot with ambient light. I prefer capturing events as I see them whenever possible. People look more natural without strobe lighting and I concentrate more on other aspects of shooting.

Digital Summer Party in SF is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.

We bought several Viliv S5s for an upcoming project and I’ve really enjoyed using one for the past few days. I snapped some photos as I unboxed one of these Mobile Internet Devices and put together a quick photo gallery.

The Viliv S5s we ordered came with an accessory pack, which includes a leather case, second battery and car kit. I highly recommend buying the accessory pack since the included will help you get more out of  the device in your car and keep it protected. The S5 feels extremely solid and its screen is great.

We’ll be posting a lot more about the S5 and showing it in action soon.

Viliv S5 Unboxing Photos is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.