Must-Have Upgrades and Accessories

Since taking delivery of my M1300 a couple of weeks ago, I've added some upgrades and accessories and am planning on a few more. Here's what I've found most useful, and what I'm most lacking.

First, the Motion Executive Portfolio is a huge win. I take my tablet to work and back home with me every day, and the difference between carrying a 4-pound leather portfolio and a 25-pound Tumi laptop bag is huge. It's like a weight has been lifted. In fact, it has! Only two minor issues: it doesn't have room for an AC adapter, which I'll talk about below, and the zipper isn't very well made, which could be a serious problem if it breaks.

Second, I've added some RAM, bringing the system up to 768MB, which seems like more than enough. Man, RAM is cheap. Back in the day, I charged people $1,000 to solder 1MB of RAM into their Macintoshes. Now it's $100 for a 512MB module. (The Crucial site doesn't list modules for the M1400, only the M1300, but they take the same memory and I've sent Crucial a note asking them to update their compatibility list.)

I've also added a CF adapter PC Card and a Bluetooth CF module. I hope to use my Bluetooth GPS with Streets & Trips on my next trip out of town. I'm a bit of a travel technology geek, you see.

So what else could I need? My most pressing issue is power. I hate carrying my AC adapter back and forth to work, since it doesn't fit in my case. I know I should probably have a dock at home and one at work, and I'll probably do that once I can find a reeeeally good deal on a FlexDock or two, but that doesn't do anything for me when I'm travelling. So my next purchase is going to be an iGo Juice power adapter. It will do AC, air, and car, and power all of my stuff: tablet, PDA, and phone. Apparently, the iGo Tip #3 works with both the M1300 and M1400.

Finally, like I said, I'll probably buy a dock or two. But I need to find a really good deal. If anyone has an extra dock they'd be willing to part with, please let me know. :-)