Getting Rid of Office Desk Top Altogether: What to Buy?

[j222]

Ok, so here's my situation. I'm a licensed private investigator. I spend 14 hrs a day in my surveillance vehicle staring down roads, ect... When I get home, I'm force to go straight into the office to update word docs, excel sheets, and quick books accounting. I had a laptop at one time but it was broke in the process of moving it around the vehicle. I believe a tablet with the use off a bluetooth keyboard could solve that problem. 1. The tab could be mounted in a fixed location rather then setting a laptop on my lap in the drivers seat, which is how the first one got broke. I don't need the latest greatest tab ; or do I. I have the HTC design cellphone and use my gmail account to update my scheduling on the calender which is great. What o need to be able to do to lose the office tie-down is write reports on ms work using using a previous report template, excel to keep up on my file lists, and QUICKBOOKS with is where I think I'm going to run into the biggest problem and where I'm looking to you for help. Yes I could do just accounting in the office, but with expenses, invoicing, ect... I would still find myself in the office quite a bit. Any and all suggestions are invited. Note that a lot of locations I work in offer no internet connection, so accessing the information online would not be reliable enough.
Thank you

 

[J515OP]

Windows 8 Tablet is the way to go for you Windows RT almost works except for the Quickbooks issue. Really though a Windows tablet is going to be the closest thing you can get to a laptop that also has some of the benefits of being a tablet.

5 Windows 8 PCs Worth Waiting For - Slideshow from PCMag.com

 

[j222]

So far, I'm agreeing with you. The QB is causing the problem. I'm also researching an alternative for accounting but after 7 yrs, I'm pretty comfortable with its navigation.

 

[leeshor]

So far, I'm agreeing with you. The QB is causing the problem. I'm also researching an alternative for accounting but after 7 yrs, I'm pretty comfortable with its navigation.

Do keep in mind the storage limitations of the Windows 8 tablets. It may cause you to consider the on-line version of QB. (which you could use on Android), just sayin.

 

[J515OP]

What storage limitations? Surface RT comes in 32GB and 64GB and the Surface Pro comes in 64GB or 128GB. Both come with SDXC microSD card slot (up to 64GB officially supported but in reality might be much higher) and standard USB slots for memory stick or external drives. Show me any other tablet that outright beats that!

 

[leeshor]

What storage limitations? Surface RT comes in 32GB and 64GB and the Surface Pro comes in 64GB or 128GB. Both come with SDXC microSD card slot (up to 64GB officially supported but in reality might be much higher) and standard USB slots for memory stick or external drives. Show me any other tablet that outright beats that!

I agree, but the expectations may be a little high considering the amount of memory that Windows apps may require. Some of this may be an unknown but if you purchased a 64GB model I don't think you could swap out the internal memory for something larger and the applications would likely need to run from internal memory. Even 128GB may not be enough if one decides to add several memory hungry apps. I have several systems in my office and none are using less than 2GB just in the program folder and 2 are far larger than that. That doesn't even take into account the Windows and other system files. I know, it isn't the same as my desktops, but it may still be a concern.

I guess time will tell.

 

[J515OP]

Good points. That is going to be on Microsoft to make sure apps it offers through its store are compact and efficient since that is the main (and only way for RT) way they want you adding Windows 8 apps in the future. Still as far as tablets go it is on the higher end. If you do need more hard drive space for large programs like an autocad or something, chances are you will need a high end laptop or desktop to run it anyway.

If you can keep your media and docs in the cloud or on SD card and if you aren't installing lots of high end gaming apps which eat up a lot of storage space 64GB seems like a decent amount of system space even for a large suite of programs like the Adobe family, etc. As leeshor points out though it is something to consider.

 

[leeshor]

Yes, you are correct, (again), and Microsoft is trying their best to entice everyone to use the cloud for all their storage. Office 2013 and 365 are both geared toward that but if you always have a connection, no problem. Not so easy on a laptop or a tablet. If you own a lptop check on the total used space. At least with laptops you can upgrade the drive without a huge hassle.

 

[J515OP]

Yes, you are correct, (again), and Microsoft is trying their best to entice everyone to use the cloud for all their storage. Office 2013 and 365 are both geared toward that but if you always have a connection, no problem. Not so easy on a laptop or a tablet. If you own a lptop check on the total used space. At least with laptops you can upgrade the drive without a huge hassle.

You should * and say on some laptops. New MacBook Pro makes DIY upgrades and repairs tough - Technology on NBCNews.com

 

[leeshor]

You should * and say on some laptops. New MacBook Pro makes DIY upgrades and repairs tough - Technology on NBCNews.com

What did you expect from Apple?

 

[J515OP]

What did you expect from Apple?

Ha ha made you say the A word

 

[leeshor]

Ha ha made you say the A word

And I changed it twice before hitting submit.

 

[j222]

Thank you for all the input. I am wondering howmuch the surface 2 will be priced at. the are cheap version the are cheap version of Windows 8 looks to be around 499. The QuickBooks Online suggestion is a good 1, however without having internet connection it's not som it's not something I would want to be handcuffed by.