Gadgets. I can’t live without these small and beloved devices that do make mine — and yours — everyday life easier. Here’s a list of my favorite gadgets that help me a ton every day and  I can’t do without.

iPhone

The re-invention of the mobile phone. I finally, bought the iPhone 3GS in August 2009. At least, waiting two years for it did worth. I check and reply on mails on-the-fly, use it as an iPod, surf the web, twitter, take photos (since I do not have any standalone camera). It really worths the dough I am paying for it. And because of it, I was able to cover via live-tweeting-on-the-road the 2009 Riots in Greece about the murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos.

Turbo-X Topnote netbook

My main laptop. I use it as a desktop replacement and suits me the best — well, almost. Travelling, heavy use, office work and portability. I travel a lot, hence the plus here. Despite that I want to change it for a Macbook Air, it still rocks and I want to keep it too. The wow-factor is that I can multitask a lot, regardless the not-so-powerfull CPU it has. But always the key is to have the right software.

Toshiba S10 Camileo HD Videocamera

It is said, by Engadget to be the Flip killer. Whatever the bussiness plan for Toshiba are, I know that this little piece of technology rocks very hard. With just the size (and smaller) of my hand, the cost — which is about 130 Euros and the ability to record Full HD 1080p, make it the best price/performance HD videocamera out there. I use it for the Fight The Line project, a homemade ski movie with great friends.

Western Digital Elements Portable 320Gb, external HDD

I bought it last Christmas from Plaisio. At a price that I do not remember — but I do remember that was very good and affordable — something around 70 to 80 Euros. The disk goes along with the netbook and it’s plugged in it 24/7, carrying data that need to be with me when I’m out of or even at home. Music, movies, photos, office work, personal projects, etc. It fell off me, twice, but hopefully survived. Kudos, Western!

What are your favorite gadgets that you can’t live without? Feel free to comment and start the discussion.

As you may know, I love portability, because – especially in winter, I travel a lot. That’s why I bought a netbook last year. It did the job great. It is small, lightweight, portable, the battery lasts pretty much long and is comfortable to travel with. When I am at home, I plug it to a 19″ Samsung monitor and I feel like I’m using a normal desktop PC or just a more powerful laptop. But why did I change my mind now, almost a year after using and evangelizing netbooks?

Did you notice the word I used in the first paragraph? Powerful. Indeed, netbooks are ultralight, small and all that great stuff, but they miss something very important and since I was using one of them for a year, as a desktop replacement – it did all my work, let me tell you that. They miss power.

Power in both CPU and GPU.

Last week, my dad got a Macbook Air as a gift. Such a geek I am, I took it and tested it someway. The results are pretty much obvious for me now.

Lightweight & Ultraportable

Let’s face it. Macbook Air is the lightest and slimmest computer out there. It’s thin like an envelope and can travel with you everywhere, due to these two characteristics. Air may be not that small, like a netbook but the weight and portability provide a huge advantage.

OS

Mac OS X definitely owns Windows 7. Not only the GUI is better but also the backend. I’ve been using Windows XP and Windows 7 in my netbook and now Mac OS X and I can clearly see the differences. Speed, design, architecture. Every Mac is fully featured with a ton of greatful tools, like Finder and Airport – the greatest Wifi app I’ve ever used.

Battery life

4 hours. 4 hours of being of the cable. With the lightest laptop ever made. Priceless. And when you need it, the magnetic power cable is priceless, too. Boy, do I love this.

Power

By power, I mean both CPU and GPU power. I used my netbook for movie editing (doh!) for a little project called Fight The Line and it was laggy and slow as hell – in XP and 7. I wasn’t able to watch 720p HD movies in Youtube or Vimeo. That was a giant loss. Instead, in the Macbook Air everything runs smoothly. I can edit (and watch of course) even 1080p true HD video straight from my Toshiba S10 videocamera. 

Conclusion

I’m totally convinced now that netbooks are not anymore worth buying. Macbook Air wins them all. I prefer to give some money more, but to take back in quality, hardware, community, software and total user experience. I need power. Netbooks can’t give any power. On the other hand, they give portability, slimness, lightweight – all things ideal for traveling. But the Mac gives power too among all these factors. For sure I prefer the Mac.

Do you have and use or planning to buy netbook? If not, why? Or do you still prefer the big, classy laptops?

So why to a buy a netbook?

First of all, price. People with the current economic crisis, are afraid to spend much money, so the idea of getting a laptop with 300 euros/dollars is great. Secondly, portability. It’s great to have everywhere you go a small, lightweight computer that can do almost anything -just like a desktop or a laptop. On the other hand, a netbook will not replace your main laptop or desktop. It can serve as a second computer. As Paul mentioned,

The cycle of disconnecting/reconnecting and then readjusting windows on both displays has become such a burden I can hardly find the motivation to move to the couch much less take it out of my apartment.

The same applies to me, as my Gericom is always under my office. Now, I mostly use my netbook -even for Photoshopping. I take it everywhere with me and with a ~2 hours battery life it rocks! There is the the disadvantage of the too small screen, but I have compromised with it. It’s not a huge problem anyway.

Many people say that why to buy a netbook, better go buy an iPhone. It’s smaller, it is from everywhere connected to the internet and in general can do about the same things. But with a netbook you can do a hell of more things, because it runs a full OS and not a mobile one. Plus that it has a normal keyboard too.

What you should keep in mind

Search for netbooks that have a 10″ monitor. It’s a problem using a small monitor let alone a smaller than 10 inches. Be aware of the battery life, it should be around 2 hours and not below. People mention also the problem of the small keyboard. Personally, I didn’t had any. Be sure also what OS you want, because you can choose from Windows and Linux. Considering connectivity, I chose my own with a Windows Xp installation but I dual boot with Ubuntu. There are netbooks from 4Gb SSD HDD drive to 160Gb HDD drive (as mine is). SSD drives are far more fast but with low capacity, on the other hand most HDD drives in netbooks run at 5600rpm.

What do you prefer? A netbook or a laptop? Why? Are you into buying a netbook? Why or why not?