Lighten your laptop load

Ever since I wrote about the unbearable burden of “portable” computing I’ve gotten a lot of offers to help lighten my load.

First I heard from travelers who weighed in on the heavy dilemma of either hauling technology or turning Luddite.

Then a number of suppliers chimed in with their opinions. Many of the products they pitched were of limited value and didn’t merit another column. However, two offerings have impressed me enough to revisit the subject.

Before I get to them, though, a brief reminder of the problem.

About one-third of all business travelers take a laptop computer with them on trips of one night or more, according to research by Norwalk, Conn., market intelligence firm Inteco Corp. An inventory of the most commonly-used devices and peripherals suggests that the carry-ons routinely weigh more than 30 pounds — enough to seriously damage your back under some circumstances.

Gateway’s alternative is a lighter, faster portable. Although the box that its FireAnt 3100XL ships in is deceptively massive, the actual unit, at 4.6 pounds, is featherlight. The 12-inch active matrix color display is a real complement to the built-in DVD player, which will come in handy on long plane flights (if your cabin crew lets you use it) to watch your own movies. Plus, the FireAnt is a screamer: at 366 Mhz with a 256K full-speed L2 cache, it didn’t to anything slowly.

Now for my disclaimer.

I haven’t fully road-tested the FireAnt yet, and so I feel it’s only fair to wait until I travel a few times with the unit before I render a final judgement. I still need to load up all of my applications before determining how it handles the multitasking mess I subject my computers to. At first take, though, I’m not thrilled with its ‘EZ’ pointing device — a button wedged between the “G” “H” and “B” keys. My arrow missed the target so often that I reverted to the arrow keys whenever possible. The $3,199 retail price doesn’t exactly make it a bargain either.

The trouble with the FireAnt is that even with its slight dimensions, it’s still a potential weight challenge. Once I add the adapter, an extra Lithium-Ion battery, a peripheral disk drive, the standard headset, the phone connectors, not to mention the obligatory collection of movies (sorry folks, Titanic isn’t available on DVD) the 3100XL is a feather no more. It’s better than most, but that’s not saying a whole lot.

Which brings us to the other solution: leave your laptop at home.

That’s the promise of Web-based products such as HotOffice. David Miles says the $13-a-month application keeps him from having to lug his portable everywhere he goes.

“I seldom have the time to connect through a laptop and modem in the hotel room. All the wires and plugs are really painful,” the president Alexander Consulting Inc. in Issaquah, Wash., told me. “I find that by using HotOffice I can jump on any machine with a browser, I can access e-mail, schedule meetings, share documents with the office. And I don’t have to do much to get to it.”

Indeed, getting on to HotOffice is easy, and using it is a snap. I’ve talked with many frequent travelers who swear by the HotOffices of this world because in many cases, the programs emancipate them from their old portables.

But not in every case.

George Barto, a senior research analyst at Inteco Corp., says the communications programs won’t catch on until every office everywhere is more or less wired. “What if you don’t have a PC with Internet access when you’re at a hotel or at the client’s office?” he asks. “Those things are logistically difficult today. In the future they may not be.”

Until then, travelers will probably continue to carry their portables with them. Miles doesn’t leave his laptop at home altogether – particularly when he needs to access a database from his hard disk – but HotOffice has helped him cut down the number of short trips he’s needed to make with a computer.

“Hopefully,” he says, “I’ll get to the point one day where I’ll have one less thing to put in the overhead bin.”

Ah, wouldn’t that be nice? But for every reader who swears by HotOffice, or Changepoint’s involv.net or Netscape’s Virtual Office from Concentric, there’s probably another who is concerned enough about privacy to not swear by it.

Accessing e-mail from an open Internet kiosk raises a whole set of issues that make dragging a portable seem preferable. Just go to a kiosk and watch someone pulling his messages up on a Web browser to see what I mean. Look at how he casts a nervous glance over his shoulder, fearful that someone will read something they shouldn’t.

When you avoid a backache only to succumb to an anxiety attack, that’s not a solution. That’s trading one set of problems for another.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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