Looks like I will be flying back and forth to China several times a year and working there for extended periods of time, so I am now in the market for a really tiny all-in-one notebook, and the TR seems perfect.

Obviously, a machine so small has some tradeoffs. Can anyone share their experiences using this machine for the creation of digital media? I am not so much worried about the size of the screen, but am particularly interested in performance and usability issues regarding such programs as:

Flash
Director
After Effects
Photoshop
Illustrator
Dreamweaver
and basic video editing (DV)

I have seen a few posts from people who use their machines for this type of work professionally and I would love to hear your experiences.

Also, is anyone using his or her TR for installation-based (or sensor-based) artwork? How about programming in the Processing language?

P.S. I am also considering a 12” powerbook, but understand that the schools I will be at are mostly PC-based.

Thanks

I’ve used my TR for some of the software that’s on your list. Specifically, I’ve used:

Flash
Photoshop
Illustrator
Dreamweaver
Premiere Pro

In all cases, the TR handles each very well. Of course, you’ll have to realize that there are some tradeoffs you’ll have to make. For the graphics programs, you’ll probably want/need a real input device. I love the touchpad but it’s lousy for doing graphics. I use a Wacom Tablet (4x5) with my TR and it works very well. A good mouse will suffice as well.

The screen is obviously going to be a bit small when working in Photoshop or Illustrator. If you have a good grasp of those programs then you can open/close the palette using the keyboard shortcuts when you need them to optimize the work area. The same applies to Premiere Pro.

For Dreamweaver, it’s also not an issue since you can customize the layout of the program to more efficiently use the space. I don’t use this as much as I prefer Homesite for direct editing.

In terms of DV capture and editing, the TR handles this pretty well. The biggest issue might be hard drive space. I don’t say speed because the TR is capable of capturing DV without dropping frames. You’ll still probably want to get an external Firewire or USB2 hard disk to do your DV editing on as you’ll have more space and you can get faster drives. With a DVD-R/RW model TR, you can also burn DVDs straight from the system without the need of carrying extra peripherals.

For the most part, none of these programs really stress the TR except for Premiere Pro. Of course, video editing is intensive on any system. Photoshop can sometimes be slow if you’re working on hundreds of MB digital images with complex filters. Again, that’s stressful on any system. If you are going to be doing these tasks I definitely suggest getting a TR with 1GB of RAM to ensure better performance.

I use Photoshop 7 and Dreamweaver MX often on my TR and they run fine. I’d suggest the model you get have 1 GB RAM or be upgraded to that. If you’re doing DV, you probably want to work with the data on an external FireWire HD, as the HD on the TR isn’t all that fast. The FW port on the TR is only 4-pin and won’t provide power to external hard drives.