I’ve replaced my DVD drive with a bay battery. if I carried an extra 6-cell, that would give me a total of 12-13h.

unless you need a DVD drive, you can slip an ultrabay battery into that slot for 7+ hours of battery. or, just carry an extra battery as you do for your macbook and you’ll have 10 hours easy.

btw thanks for the tip about the booq boa xs. the closest thing they make these days is the booq boa “squeeze.” perfect size for a laptop plus a few printouts and so on.

Vectoring is a big problem and it is flat hard to use for inking for me. Hector?

Also, if your library doesn’t have many ebooks? Request them! Many librarians are reluctant to buy ebooks, thinking there won’t be much demand for them.

I am following your gear combination/selection postings with interest. I alternate in my thinking between the All-in-One and dedicated gear solutions. A gear minimalist at heart, I find that I am coming around to a position similar to yours: figure out your use tasks/circumstances, then find the minimum gear combination that best fits it. With that in mind, what size gear bag do you use for each scenario? Or do you use a different one depending on the gear combination chosen?

Thanks!

Thanks for the details, James. For me, working still means at least the option of inking, though I carry my Stowaway or the Apple bluetooth keyboard (and a Belkin portable bt mouse).

Anyway thanks for the recomendation, and as always your weekly column is one of my Friday highlights. Thanks!

I have an iCal entry with the 10-digit number (always different) and a 6 – 10 digit passcode to enter once the call connects.

However, if I’m using the phone function of the iPhone, I can’t see the iCal entry. I can (and sometime do) write the various numbers down on scrap paper and call in. But more often than not I’ll bring along the MacBook so I can ready the calendar entries while I dial.

I’d prefer to just tap the iCal entry on the iPhone and have it call the number, wait, and then enter the passcode. I’m told Blakberrys can do this if the numbers are in the header of the calendar entry.

Have you heard of any solutions for doing this on the iPhone?

- Jim

Here’s a slightly modified use case for scenario 5 that I am struggling with.

Often I take Fridays off in the summer to burn vacation time before I lose it at the end of the year. So, I’m running about and have no plans to work.

However, often someone schedules a conference call on one of these Fridays, and my experience is that I’d just as soon dial into the call instead of having to remember to catch up on it Monday.

On vacation Fridays I only carry my iPhone. No worries, as I can surf, email, podcast etc. But on vacation Fridays when a conference call is scheduled, I tote along the 13″ MacBook too so I can get all the call-in details.

Sure, I ensure the Notes work calendar is sync’d to the iPhone iCal app, but don’t want to have to write down all the details of the call and switch to phone mode to dial in.

Any thoughts on apps for the iPhone that would allow me let me dial conference call numbers, wait and enter the pass code numbers from a calendar entry? Or any suggestions for something I’m obviously overlooking that will let me only need the iPhone for this scenario?

I’m kinda thinking you may have a similar use case too, but since the Pre is your phone and you alway have the iPhone too, that would be your solution.

I know there must be a better solution than mine, but it escapes me at the moment. Thanks!

- Jim

It will be a good day when e-books are widely available at libraries for checkout. I hope the Sony deal with NYPL is the first step.