One of these:
and one of these:
So from the top, that's a Sony e-Reader, an Asus netbook, and an HTC Desire Smartphone. I've long been an advocate of keeping my various electronic devices separate, on the basis that hardware failure spells disaster and I'd rather not lose all of my important files/data etc. However, the growth of cloud computing and data storage means that I'm more willing to invest in these little bits of technical wizardry.
As a student, I hope that these will make my life easier, particularly given the huge amount of books and photocopies that I used to carry around. This isn't an advocation of any one particular product, but rather the approach as a whole. While the past 5-6 years of studenthood have left me with a dodgy back after carrying one too many textbooks around with me, I'm now able to ditch my previous reliance on printouts of .pdf files and hard copies for a satchel loaded with snazzy (and significantly lighter) electronic gadgets.
Even more important is that documents now synchronize themselves across the devices - My essays are automatically converted and loaded onto all 3 devices at the touch of a button, and monitor-induced headaches are avoided by the use of the reader's paper-like screen. Even more exciting is the fact that at 8am every morning, my bedroom becomes a firework display of electronic life, as my phone downloads any new emails or text messages, and the laptop updates the reader with various rss feeds from news sources across the world. The essays on the laptop automatically synch with those in my dropbox account, and the radio kicks in to wake me up.
There are limits to how far I'm willing to take this, of course. For instance, I sold my digital photography equipment in an attempt to use film more, and I still record music on an isolated machine. But still, it should be an interesting experiment, and there's always the snooze button if I decided 8am is too early...
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