Well, I am finally back from my ten day road trip that took me from Tacoma, WA to Las Vegas, NV, through Los Angeles, and back up to Tacoma. It was a fun trip, saw a lot of cool things, and definitely learned a lot about the tech that I have and the tech that I don’t have. I wanted to share with you a little about what I learned about my tech in the hopes of that it will give you some insight on how to use your tech the next time you go on a road trip, or trip in general.
The biggest thing I learned about was connectivity. I had hoped to stay connected to the world through email, Twitter, Facebook, reading the news, etc. Basically being on line as much as I could. As I found out, being online was going to be few and far between. To give you an idea of the tech that I had, I traveled with my iPad and my iPhone. I was planning on relying on the WIFI from the camping sites we were staying at as well as the WIFI in Vegas. Man, was I wrong about that. The wifi in the camping sites we stayed in were free, but it was very spotty at best. And being that this was my first time in Vegas, I didn’t realize you had to pay close to $15 per day for wifi access!! Sorry, but that was a little too expensive for me. So being that wifi was out of the picture most of the time, I had to rely on my iPhone and its 3G signal.
So what did I learn on this trip because of this? Well, first off, I learned that if I wanted to constantly have online access, I needed a different solution. There are a few that are out there. The first was to get a device that I could get wifi access from. These are called mifi’s. Basically these are wireless modems that take the signal through cell phone towers and lets you access the 3G or 4G network, depending on the cell phone company. Most of the cell phone companies sell some version of the mifi. My other option was to obviously have a 3G iPad, but I don’t know if that would help. More on this in a minute. My 3rd option, which I will be trying on a short trip I am taking this weekend, is to have a VNC installed on my computer. VNC stands for Virtual Network Connection. Basically what you can do is that I can log into my computer from anywhere and access my computer and its programs as like I was actually using my computer.
My other lesson here is learning that AT&T really does not have a good 3G network. As much as I love my iPhone and what it can do, I kept wondering to myself, “What if my iPhone was on Verizon’s network?” Now, I cannot make any comparisons as I didn’t have a Verizon phone to compare the signal, but from what I have seen the in past, I am sure that a Verizon phone would have gotten better 3G reception. This is a bittersweet lesson, as I know I am sacrificing cell phone service to get a great phone. Call me an Apple snob, but I just love my iPhone and will sacrifice coverage for it. But at the same time, it had me wishing more for a Verizon iPhone. Some day…….
The last lesson I learned is that not all cables are the same. Let me explain. I knew we were going to have to charge both my wife’s and my iPad, as well as our iPhones. We were going to just try and charge them in the car with a car charger. I had a Griffin one from a couple years ago that I had been using for my iPhone 3G. Thinking that it would work with all my devices I didn’t bother even checking. Well, little did I know that it wouldn’t charge our iPads, only our iPhone 4′s. Why do chargers and docks do this? I wish they could be made so they can work with technology all the time and you don’t have to keep buying new chargers just because you have a new iPhone or iPad.
In a nutshell, the big lesson here is that knowing that I wanted to try to stay connected as possible, I should have done my research a little better before I had gone out. Or at least go out better prepared. A part of me would have loved to get a MIFI, but cannot justify paying the monthly contract for as little traveling as I do. Overall, though, I did love the fact that I could travel with my iPad and iPhone and still somewhat get by without bringing the laptop. Are there any tips you have for traveling with your tech? Would love to hear them.
