Laptop or Tablet when travelling

[LJs GU]

We have internet dongle thing and you can load it with how much you want from c/c and I not sure about them all but ours what is loaded lasts a month but you can check what you have left etc

How much is it Nay-DMAX?
I checked Telstra's pre-paid dongles and they seem pretty expensive.  They have 3G & 4G types, differnet Gb amounts.  For the money they wanted, I think I'll stick with the mobile plan we're on and use the data allowance in that. (I'll be paying it regardless while we're away as it's still in contract.)
LJ

[LJs GU]

I too use my iPhone for connecting to iPad and laptop for mobile Internet. I get 3 gb a month, so trick loads for normal browsing. As for back up I would buy a couple of say 32gb USB sticks and put one in car one in camper. Much more resistant to vibration than a hard drive. Always remember to properly stop any USB device before unplugging it. I know it's rare they die from stopping them but it does happen
Shane

I thought that 'safe to remove' procedure was only for powered usb connections (like external hard drives).  I've always just yanked the sticks out!
LJ

[Nay-DMAX]

How much is it Nay-DMAX?
I checked Telstra's pre-paid dongles and they seem pretty expensive.  They have 3G & 4G types, differnet Gb amounts.  For the money they wanted, I think I'll stick with the mobile plan we're on and use the data allowance in that. (I'll be paying it regardless while we're away as it's still in contract.)
LJ

We have had ours for quite a while before we had internet on mobile phones etc think initial purchase was around $150 but it did what we needed.  Then if we have the need to use it usually load $20 on it and it does what we need and can load more.  It is 3G has reasonable coverage.  My phone plan is 1.5G and I have never gone over that but dont use it alot and have not used it really for tethering if we do more travelling would have to look into it more.  We travelled 2 weeks in March had the internet or phone on it's own.  Our laptop has built in tv tuner so when it rained for 3 days we used laptop to watch tv and plus there was cricket on whilst we were away and could watch dvd's but when weather was good didnt use it.

[Symon]

4 months... but don't forget that's 1.5Gb/500 photos per month.  For back up I was planning on loading the photos to USB stick.

Remember that your wireless upload speed is not going to be flash, so it will take some time to upload hi-res photos to a web host.

I personally do not trust mechanical drives for storage of important data, this includes the portable USB disks that you get.  I have had way too many of those things fail on me over the years to trust them.  When travelling I carry a heap of 8GB and 16GB SD memory cards.  When at camp I copy the photos out of the camera onto my laptop, and onto another SD card.  I also leave the photos on the original card that was in the camera.  So in short they are stored in three places - 2 x SD card, and the laptop internal hard drive.

Yes I've had SD cards and USB sticks fail on me in the past, but not as often as portable hard disks....

[LJs GU]

Remember that your wireless upload speed is not going to be flash, so it will take some time to upload hi-res photos to a web host.

Bugger forgot about that... think I'll resort to taking a few courier pidgeons with us!

[SteveandViv]

I make my staff bye the 180 - 365 day plan. All others have an expiry of less or equal to three Months. I know it sounds a lot bit over a year it isn't much at all. I just can't stand loosing credit because you did use in 1-3 Months..

Anyway, works well for my team through out the Kimberly.

[jeb1900]

iPads are not a one product does all. 

A laptop will do everything, maybe some things not as well as the Ipad. 

If you're concerned with power, just buy one of these Waeco Canverters.  I have used it many times in the car to power my laptop.  It's perfect and easy. 

http://tentworld.com.au/products/power/item/Waeco-150W-Can-Size-Inverter.aspx

[Eureka]

MacDs internet connection is pretty abysmal every time I have tried to use it. Ok for a quick email check, but any thing else is too pain ful to use.

I woudl stick to the telstra mobile plan you have, and use the phone for the internet connection.  Telstra plans are garbage, their main strength is the coverage Telstra have out Black Stump way. Also ask any locals or other bush trekkers if theu know of any 'telephone hills' on your way.
As you wrote, you are paying for the data part of your plan any way, and 1.5Gb seems to fit your needs OK. 
Many caravan parks and motels have inetrnet connection available for a few dollars ( on long trips, a motel/caravan park for a night or two is a good thng for the relations ship - long , hot shower, no cooking/cleaning for your selves etc) that for a big 'memory dump' are the way to go. Get yourself a 'cloud' photosaving account ( hp and canon include one with their printers and cameras) as a backup, just wind the privacy settings to most restrictive you can.

[r0ssrg]

Laptop DC Chargers.  Saves converting DC to AC then back to DC.

http://www.aussie-battery.com/laptop_auto(dc)_adapter/

Was worried about backups for our trip as well.  Love some of the ideas here and will certainly research the SD card backup idea.  Although I was thinking of one of those rugged, unpowered USB drives.

For what its worth, I was planning on taking my laptop and 2 tablets.  Have 2 kids.  ;-)    I'm not really an Apple fan.  Too much hype for me and I don't like their attitude.  While that would normally leave me with just Android to chose from, I plan on waiting until early next year so I can see what will happen with Windows 8 and the new tablets that will run it.

For internet I currently use my Samsung Galaxy II's ability to setup a WIFI hotspot.  Works really well.  That plus the additional 1Gb data pack on my Telstra SIM.  I don't believe I will use all of this.  I'll probably just get Picasa to upload only the starred photo's so should reduce my usage.

Rossco

[Rural]

In July we did 6500km / central australia and back, plenty of 1 nighters etc.

We took an iPad and my daughter took a laptop.

I used the laptop for general Internet browsing, email, weather, MySwag....

Whilst the iPad can import photos, we took some 1700 photos and the laptop was better for photo download and then manipulation of photos.n my daughter did a travel blog which included some photos and this was much easier on the laptop.  With the laptop we had more flexibility in totally transferring photos from the SD card to manage the SD card capacity.

With the iPad we also rented one movie before we left, it gave 30days to view and then another 48hrs post pressing play and this was quite good on the iPad for something different on one of the nights.  Actually watched The Good, Bad & The Ugly.......

If we did not have to manage the photos and my daughters blog, which could be done post trip if needed, I would be happy travelling with the iPad only.

Rural

Sent from my iPad

[ozbogwam]

Friends use blogsy for blogging on the iPad, they say it works really well

http://blogsyapp.com/

[fuji]

Last year we did nearly 20k around Oz. we had a netbook with a Telsra dongle for internet when we could get it. Our daughter had her DVD player with usb. We took twenty dvds for her and she had some shows on a memory stick. We used our netbook for mapping with Oziexplorer software and for the internet. I now have an ipad and will take it with us for mapping when OziE brings out new software for ipads.  H now has a tablet and Will download her shows etc for her entertainment. I wont take a laptop as it is a bit  more fiddly. I can download photos onto the ipad with the connecter I bought. I have a biggish sd card in the camera so I dont download too many photos. My tuppence worth

[Sixtys Guy]

I use a Asus EEEpc. I think it is 9" screen and had a solid state hard drive. I run Oziexplorer on it for mapping. I also use it to transfer my photos from the camera to a 500Gb external shock proof hard drive. I access the internet by tethering it to my mobile phone. We have an Ipad at home, but the kids use it much more than we do. I think the net book is a lot more flexible than the Ipad.