Technology for World Travel

First month on the road with my MacBook Pro 13"

2011-05-03T06:07:00.003-04:00

Just last month I upgraded to a 2011 MacBook Pro 13" for work. (For the geeks, here are the specs: 2.3GHz Intel Dual-Core i5, 4GB RAM, 320GB Hard Drive). I'm documenting my experiences for my colleagues thinking of doing the same thing.

Set-up
My employer has let me do this on a self-service basis, so set up was all me.

First, security. Close the back door. Disable automatic login, and require a password when waking from screensaver. I could go further and put bars on the windows and so forth (file encryption, boot-level passwords, etc.), but my data is not THAT sensitive. Plus Israeli security downloaded the entire contents of my hard drive the last time I went through Tel Aviv airport a few months ago. Nothing to hide here.

This also meant installing some anti-virus protection. It's a myth that there aren't Mac viruses - they're far less common than PC viruses, but they still exist. I've run McAfee for Mac before and it's a resource pig so I decided on iAntiVirus, which is free and well-rated. I may run afoul of my employer's network admins so I may have to revert back to McAfee.

Second, compliance. Sort out copyrights and licensing. This meant uninstalling and de-authorising work-purchased software on my old machine (e.g Microsoft Office) and installing the original licenses on the new one. No sweat.

Third, mail. This was the most work. My employer uses Lotus Notes so to be work-ready I had to download a copy of Lotus Notes 8.5 for Mac from our intranet site. I copied all the Lotus Notes connection documents settings (by hand) and .ID file from my Dell. I entered the connection settings and downloaded my .ID file on a USB stick. (A critical step for those crossing over from a PC). I got replication going pretty quickly, and made a local copy of my mail file. Mail works fine. I'm still getting a few errors with To Do and Calendar entries, namely "Type mismatch on external name: CSEVENTNOTES" but I'm pretty sure this is an issue with my mail template, which was recently upgraded on our server. (This was a WebEx integration with Notes, and my awesome Lotus Notes support friends with my employer sorted this not long after the original post.)

Fourth, documents. I have all my files backed up to a cloud storage solution with SugarSync, so I just installed their software, and downloaded the right files to the right place, and then set it to sync continually.

Real world Usage
I've been to North America, Latin America, the UK, and East Asia since getting the new machine. The biggest difference I've noticed versus my old MacBook and my work-issued Dell D430 is the battery life. With all the radios off (WiFi, Bluetooth), the screen dimmed, and the keyboard backlight off, I seem to be able to eke out more than 9 hours of battery life. That is enough for a long-haul flight in economy where most airlines still don't offer laptop power (Thai Airways~~lines~~, British Airways, United, Delta, ....). On my last trip I actually forgot to pack my laptop's charger. Because another colleague also had a Mac, we were able to share his power supply and each go 6+ hours (presenting, using WiFi) throughout the day. I've also forgotten my charger at home a few times and still been able to get through a work day on a single charge. Impressive.

The i5 processor really flies through Lotus Notes. MS Office boots in about 5 seconds. Shut down time varies but if I haven't got Lotus Notes open, I can fully shut down usually in under 10 seconds, often as little as 4 seconds. Going to sleep mode (shutting the lid) parks the hard drive in about 6 seconds, depending on what programs are running.

Price

So all this Apple luxury costs more, right? Not really. I deliberately configured my Mac to closely mirror the specs on the Dell E4310 13-incher that my office offers. The Macbook (purchased online including delivery to my office in DC + taxes) was a $26 more than what our supplier charges for the Dell E4310. The Mac has 70GB more HD space and a longer battery life but is pretty much the same hardware, with the same global warranty coverage.

So, I'm efficient, compliant, productive, happy, and have done my best not to cost the organisation any more money.

Your tech world traveller...

What's the best laptop for world travels?

2011-03-21T15:42:00.000-04:00

Yes, I've blogged about this topic before, but it is one of the most popular questions I get from colleagues and friends. So I'll repeat my advice from the previous post: assess your real needs, choose a "Top 5" brand, peruse the reviews, and settle for less. I'm also adding another piece of advice - get your hands on them.

Here's a video review from CNET of their favourite 5, all of which are in in my "Top 5" global brands:

Here's how CNET's Top 5 give you a good idea of the variety of choices in the market right now:

MacBook Pro line (13", 15", or 17"). I'm a huge fan of the Mac hardware-software marriage. The Pro line just got a new, fast processor in March, and still has great battery life, and a back-lit keyboard. The trackpad is huge, and supports multi-touch. The design and capabilities of the MacBook Pro are first rate (and green), so even though you pay a slight penalty for the Mac brand, it's well worth it for those who prefer the Apple environment. Starts around $1,200.
Toshiba Portege R705, with a great balance of performance, design, and value. One feature I really like is that you can charge a phone via USB even when the laptop is off. I've just been on a trip where I only brought my phone's USB charger, and I had to leave my MacBook on all night to juice up my phone. I've found Toshibas to be quite capable of taking travel abuse in the past, and they also are quite green for their low use of toxic chemicals. The Portege gives you a very capable and attractive laptop at an attractive price, starting around $900.
MacBook Air 11" Apple took its super-thin laptop line to the next level a few months ago. The form factor is truly awe-inspiring, the screen is amazingly high resolution, and the instant-on power up is impressive. It's also a lot more affordable than the previous Air line. If you're mostly web-browsing and word-processing, this would be the barely-there Mac for you. But some will find it a little too lightweight in processing power and starting at $1,000 it's still not super-cheap.
HP Envy 17 HP's high-end laptop with a massive 17" screen, fast processor and humungous hard drive (1TB) is really for graphics professionals and/or heavy duty gamers. It also comes in a 3D capable version. It starts around $1300 but this thing weighs a ton and in travel laptops a 2-year warranty might not be enough.
HP Pavillion DM1 is a very capable Windows laptop that sells at netbook prices. For under $500 you get a decent dual-core processor with decent memory and a decent hard drive. It's very...well...decent. Again if you are mostly word-processing, web-browsing, and emailing, this would be the Windows laptop for you.

There are, of course, others. Lenovo and Dell make decent laptops that you can get serviced just about anywhere. Acer and Asus are OK too but not as reliable as the Top 5.

Most people over-buy computer power just like most people did not need SUVs in the 90s. You don't need a massive gas-guzzler if you only have one pack-the-car-to-the-ceiling trip per year. For the other 50 weeks a year you're carrying around waaaay too much car. Same thing on a laptop. Unless you're using Adobe Photoshop on a weekly basis, stick to the low end of the market. The sub-$500 laptops are probably fine for you.

You may want to re-visit which operating system you need. Laptop users really should not settle for anything other than Microsoft Windows 7 or Mac OSX, Apple's operating system. Yes, there's Google Chrome and Linux, but these are for having fun in a lab, not for getting help when your laptop won't boot and you're in a repair shop in Chennai's Ritchie Street. I say choose an operating system that won't drive you crazy. (Stay away from Windows XP and Vista.) I'm a Mac guy, but some people prefer the Microsoft universe, including my wife. I ain't a hater. I just don't like staring at an hourglass icon.

Last, the handling. Seriously. Pick it up in the store. Your body is going to be interacting with this laptop for about the next three years. Your fingers should be happy with the keyboard, your eyes should be happy with the screen, and the trackpad or tracking stick should be easy to use. It should weigh balanced in your hand, and it doesn't hurt if it looks nice to boot.

So off you go with your new laptop to the far-flung corners of the world.

Your tech world traveller...

Mashups I wish we could see in 2011

2011-01-05T13:42:00.000-05:00

Being a naturally lazy thinker, I'm a big fan of so-called "mashups", which combine the two cool technologies into one more awesome one, like peanut butter and jam. Zillow.com is a great example - it took real estate listings and plotted them on a map. While it seems totally intuitive to us now to browse properties from a map, it wasn't always like that. The clever people who left Microsoft to mash these together now see about 9 million visitors a month.

So here are some mashups of current web-services that I'd like to see this year:

Evernote and Sensobi Jot. For the uninitiated, Evernote is like an online scrapbook. It's a cloud-based service that allows you to store web-pages, notes, pictures, even recordings, and then tag them with key words. You can then access those pieces of scrap from a smartphone or any web-browser. Think of it as a fairly minimalist filing system for all those mental post-it notes you have. I've become a fan, though the Blackberry experience is still sub-par. SensobiJot is a clever little service that uses your email to capture notes after every business phone call and then organises them. I really do hope this could consign the sticky-note to the dustbin of history. Many of us still cling to our Moleskine notebooks to capture every thought, but my question is - do you ever read those notes? Can you search them, or share them easily? So here's hoping for EverJot or SensobiNote or something like that in 2011.
TripIt and GoogleMaps (or Bing maps). TripIt is fast becoming my favourite travel app, and I just upgraded to the Pro version which also keeps track of all my frequent flyer memberships in one clean and simple interface. I use GoogleMaps on my Blackberry all the time to make my way around an unfamiliar city. So if TripIt knows where I landed and how far apart my stops are, why couldn't the data be combined to show my journey plotted on a map? For that matter, GoogleMaps could really go a step further. If it knows (via the GPS in my phone) that I'm in Myanmar, why can't it set the default currency in my foreign exchange app (WorldMate or Oanda) to the Kyat? or when in Frankfurt to the Euro?
Yelp and GSMworld. Many of us use Yelp to see what other people say about restaurants in our area. Well why can't we do the same thing about cellphone networks? GSMworld's site has the only (that I know of) global listing of cellphone coverage in every country. Why not open it up for the social media approach, so people can comment on how good cellphone coverage is, by carrier, by country. What you might find for instance, is that in the United States, AT&T would be so dismally panned for their coverage, they might go out of business.
TripAdvisor and SeatGuru. TripAdvisor takes the same approach as Yelp to hotels, but takes it a step further, allowing users to post disgusting photos of filthy hotel bathrooms, or glowing accounts of outstanding service. After a while a pattern emerges - the great hotels get lots of good reviews, and the the not-so-great ones get ranked accordingly. SeatGuru, on the other hand, provides detailed information on the in-flight features of virtually every major airline in the world. TripIt (mentioned earlier) and SeatGuru in fact have done sort of a mash-up. With the TripIt Pro app, you can ask TripIt to recommend you a specific seat on your flight, based on SeatGuru's exhaustive catalogue of the different seat configurations of particular airlines on exact flight legs. But SeatGuru lacks any opinions about those airlines. Why not mash them up and allow TripAdvisor to let users rank airlines (including photos of raunchy airplane bathrooms)?

What's your idea of a tech mashup that could help world travellers?

Your tech world traveller...

The Christmas tech for travel buying advice - WAIT

2010-12-13T13:16:00.000-05:00

As you know, I often get asked for advice on which gadget to buy. My advice is: wait.

Yes, I believe this frenzied materialistic mad-dash for Holiday gifts is all a bit silly. It bears scant resemblance to the values of the person "Christmas" is apparently named after. But if generosity, simplicity and slowing down aren't compelling enough reasons to convince you world travellers to hold off on your gadget purchases, perhaps this is: your already amazing choices are going to get substantially better early next year.

In the world of technology for travel, three worlds are colliding. Gloriously. The laptop and the cellphone are competing (and even combining) for your gadget loyalty, and for the consumer, the results are positively delightful. Laptops are getting lighter and smaller. Phones are getting more computing power. And then, there are the tablets.

the barely-there laptops
Two years ago netbooks made all the waves. Slow processors limited you to word processing and web-browsing, but travellers loved how light they were and how long the battery lasted. Netbooks have now been taken over by laptops. There are plenty of Windows laptops under $500, with battery life over 6 hours, and screen sizes much bigger than the former 10 inch standard.

Then super-light laptops like Apple's latest Macbook Air are making the laptop hardware itself almost disappear. Google's CR-48 laptop (which is only available if you apply to Google's pilot program) makes the operating system disappear. The CR-48 (who came up with that name??) runs Google's Chrome Operating System, basically just an internet browser. Both the CR-48 and the MacBook Air go from fully off to full working readiness in well under 30 seconds. Shut down is virtually instant, as is wake from sleep. Try that on a Dell Latitude D430 running Windows XP. (Actually don't - it takes about 6 minutes to boot up, and about half that to shut down.) World travellers need instant boot-up to show a security screener that your laptop boots up. Or for that time when the flight attendant wants you to close your laptop for landing or take-off RIGHT NOW and you're still trying to save an important document.

the smartphones keep getting smarter

Smartphones have always been instant-on. And we are now officially approaching the handheld devices envisioned in science-fiction movies like the Star Trek tri-corder. Louis CK hilariously argued that everything is amazing and nobody is happy. But we have every reason to be happy. The iPhone is a truly amazing piece of technology packed into a tiny package. The Motorola Droid (aka Milestone) is amazing. The Blackbery Torch is amazing. The G2 is amazing. The Nexus S is... you get the point.

But it gets better. It's not just the hardware. The three major phone platforms by market share (Blackberry, Google's Android, and Apple's iOS) have developed amazing programs that are super-cheap, many even free. Google Goggles is amazing... OK I'll stop. On top of all that amazingness, they're all about to get a competitive jolt in 2011 from Microsoft. The elves of Redmond have finally made an operating system for phones that is...well....really good.

so if a laptop and a smartphone got married and had a baby...
...it would be a tablet. Tablets usually run a smartphone operating system (optimised for fingers), are very thin, turn on instantly, and have long battery life. Some of them access data over WiFi, others over the cellphone network, and some over both. Apple (again) led the way with the iPad, and many of the players mentioned above have decided to join the party. Outside of the Apple-sphere, Android seems to be the platform of choice for tablets. Devices like the ViewSonic ViewPad tablet, Samsung's Galaxy Tab, and the soon-to-be-released Motorola MotoPad are keeping the critics drooling. Microsoft won't be joining the tablet game soon - they're one of the few still trying to cram the bloated Windows operating system onto tablets, but it's not working. Most everyone else is going the other way - moving a phone operating system up to the larger screen of a tablet.

In February Blackberry is joining the party with its impressive-looking PlayBook tablet. And in April, Apple will start selling the second-generation iPad, which most analysts expect to have a front-facing camera, among other incremental innovations.

So everything is amazing, and you techy world travellers have every reason to be happy. Especially at Christmas. And even afterwards.

Your tech world traveller...

3 Travel Tech Sins

2010-11-07T17:32:00.000-05:00

Don't run Operating System updates or major installs just before leaving
Just before you leave for a trip you run Microsoft Update Version 127.0.357 and then when you turn your computer on at your destination you realize that your laptop has become a very heavy paperweight How many times has this happened to you? If you were at home with a backup drive and broadband, you could have restored your corrupted drive and downloaded a patch quickly. But that's hard when you're on the road with lmited bandwidth. So if it's not a critical security update, just say no until you return. That counts for phone operating systems too.

I backed up my Blackberry to my laptop just before leaving on this trip and found there was a new Blackberry OS update waiting for me. I *almost* yielded to temptation until I realised I would need to re-register with my enterprise server. (not something to try on the road if you don't have to) Just say no to any significant changes to your setup and configuration at the last-minute. By the way, if you're the tech guru in your home, the same goes for your home tech. Hell hath no fury like a wife - or husband - who's been left with a useless computer for 2 weeks because you ran some buggy update the day before you left. Not that I speak from experience or anything.
Don't Pack too much Tech

Apart from squishing your cables and mashing an imprint of your keys into the screen, you can also attract unwanted attention. While going through Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport last month, the very vigilant security people there questioned me why I needed so many cables and dongles and USB keys. I gave them a clear answer for each one, but they probably had good reason to ask why my carry-on was such a tangled mess of copper. Most of us tech addicts over-pack signficantly. You probably won't use that 15' Firewire cable on this trip. Or ever. Leave it.
Don't forget your M.E.L.s

Just like packing too much silicon can get you in trouble, so can under-doing it. Every aircraft has a "minimum equipment list" or MEL - things that you can't do without. You know, like wings, engines, jet fuel, tires. Pilots check this stuff off every time they fly - if the MEL is incomplete or one of the items on the list is not-functioning, the plane is grounded. The same should go for you and your gear, though you may have a few different configurations of your MEL. You know, for instance, that you always need your laptop and cell phone power supplies. You'll need plug adapters if you're going to a different continent. Or a USB flash memory drive if you're going to be working on a document with colleagues. Or a remote Presenter if you're going to be presenting to a large group. So come up with your 3-4 different M.E.L.s and then stick to them.

Checking my M.E.L. didn't help me when I left my laptop's power cord in Istanbul airport, of course. One pricey and after-hours trip to the Apple re-seller in Tbilisi, Georgia later, I was back in business. Thanks to a friend who convinced them to open up shop just for me!

Your tech world traveller...

Connectivity Case Study: Dubai Airport (UAE)

2010-09-01T06:11:00.000-04:00

So if United Arab Emirates is strictly observant about Ramadan, why are all the cafés and restaurants open in Dubai airport at high noon today? I was quite confused when one of the waitresses from a tapas restaurant tried to hustle me into her restauarant; only a few minutes earlier the cabin crew of our Emirates flight had told us that eating and drinking during daylight hours was strictly forbidden here during Ramadan. All kinds of respect goes out to my Muslim friends who are fasting right now. I'm trying to observe for the few hours I'm here. Hard.

For tech and connectivity, it's mostly what you'd expect in the United Arab Emirates. There are mobile charging stations scattered around the airport, though if you want to use a laptop you'll have to balance it on your lap. The free WiFi provided by maxspot (wireless.colubris.com) set off the security alarms in my browser, so instead I'm using the "EK Lounge" hotpost. Not super-fast, but painless connection. And it's filtered. No Flickr.

For wireless, my phone found the ETISALAT mobile network, and got consistently strong data speeds signal at EDGE speeds. I scanned for other networks, but didn't find any.

As for gadget shopping, I've always been under-impressed by Dubai DutyFree's selection on pricing. They have most of the 'greatest hits' in consumer electronics (very little in the way of Blackberry or Apple products) and then some very cheaply-made products, all vying for counter space together. Buyer beware: just because it's duty-free, that camera you want may not, in the end, be cheaper in Dubai. Compare with online prices.

As always, your tech world traveller...

Connectivity Case Study: Myanmar (or Burma)

2010-08-25T13:09:00.001-04:00

Photo: Ralf-André Lettau

Though it was a little surreal, my visit to Myanmar a few months ago yielded some valuable information for global travellers toting their tech - expect a struggle. The cellphone network (note the singular) is government-run, and doesn't allow roaming phones from outside Myanmar to either connect by voice or data. The network will show up as "MM900" if you turn on your mobile phone, but you won't be able to make or receive calls, or get data on it.

There are plenty of restaurants and hotels with free WiFi in the commerical capital, Yangon, but all content is filtered. I was able - occasionally - to connect my Blackberry to WiFi and successfully download my email. You can't get the BBC's website in Myanmar, though you can connect to Facebook without problems.

Secure connections (anything using https) to a corporate server outside Myanmar simply won't work. Speed varied wildly during my two weeks there. Many internet connections are satellite-based, so when it rained hard (as it did in June), the connections give up. Skype worked but the voice was very choppy, even over a wired Ethernet cable connection. You should also assume that all your web traffic (Skype chats) is being monitored.

You can apparently buy a disposable SIM card for about US$25, though my efforts to do so were unsuccessful. Locals told me that rates aren't published, there's no way of checking your balance, and you get charged for incoming calls. And when that $25 of credit runs out, you have to get a new card (and of course a new number).

Don't say I didn't warn you. :-)

Your tech world traveller...

p.s. I did actually see Shwedagon pagoda. It is as impressive as the pictures suggest. Must see.

How to buy a phone, Indian style

2010-05-22T13:17:00.000-04:00

My wife and I have been going to phone stores all over Chennai to buy an Android smartphone. We found a place that had the phone we wanted in the basement of a grungy low-rise shopping complex but they wanted too much and wouldn't bargain. I visited a few more places near my office: "No, we don't have that phone sir, but give us a deposit and we can get it tonight." Uh, no thanks.

So then last Friday - two months after our search began - my brilliant colleague who knows where to buy just about anything tells me he's found a place that has the phone I want. "He just called you," my colleague says. "Tell the guy you're Mr. Scott." I check my missed calls on my pokey old mobile and call 'the guy' back.

But it's a call-center woman who answers. "Yes, sir we sell you that phone at this price with insurance, and we'll deliver it to your home right now. Can I have your address please? Thank you. It'll be there shortly, sir." Click.

Then I realize no one's home and I'm still at work. I call the number back and am connected after a few questions with the same woman who served me. "OK sir, we'll deliver it in an hour and a half." Not five minutes later, a different unknown number rings, and a gruff male voice who doesn't identify himself asks me for directions to my house from a nearby landmark.

Soon after I arrive home my phone rings again. The delivery guy only remembered the first part of my directions, now he's asking for the last part. A few minutes later he rings again: "What's your house number?" He's just outside our gate. He pulls up his weathered motorcycle and retrieves two plastic bags hanging from the handlebars.

One plastic bag has the expensive phone I ordered, the other has the machine to process my credit card. After the customary cup of water is given to the guest he deposits the bags on the table and waits for me to turn the phone on to see that it works. (Almost every electronic store here in India does this - you turn the goods on in the store to make sure it works before you leave. Except the store is my living room in this case.) Then he asks if he can plug the credit card machine into our phone line. Nice touch. Awkwardly he puts the machine on the floor, swiping my card on his knees. The machine swiftly spits out a printed receipt but my invoice is hand written. On scrap paper. That I provide. Nice.

Delivery man is off - we'll get details of our insurance plan by email he assures us before zooming off on his Yamaha (they replace the phone no questions asked, in the first year). I could get very used to be served this way, even if it is a little odd to buy a phone in your own living room.

So what did we get? An unlocked Motorola Milestone, which is the GSM version of the wildly popular Motorola Droid that Verizon is selling like hotcakes in the US. Those of you who know me to be an on-and-off Apple fanboy may be surprised that we went with an Android phone rather than an iPhone but the combination of Motorola's hardware (the keyboard) and the very cool Google integration was a big draw. It mattered less that (ahem, Apple) the iPhone 3GS *still* is not available in India yet. By the time the iPhone 4 is out next month, the 3GS may be ready in India.

So if you see me blogging a fair bit about Android apps in the next few months, now you'll know why.

Your tech world traveller...

Review: Web Services for Global Travels

2010-05-17T14:58:00.000-04:00

It's been a hectic two months of travel since my last post. Three web services I've been very grateful for have helped me manage the travel and access to the info you need when you're on the road.

1. TripIt.com - How awesome is this? Forward your travel agent's confirmation to TripIt.com and this web-service automatically generates a very easy-to-read itinerary, notifies your friends, posts to your FB account (if you want), and syncs with your calendar? If you want to boast of your massive carbon footprint, you can even compare miles among friends. (I'm ashamed to admit, I'm winning. Guess I need to look into carbon credits or something). Gripe: I'd like to see a TripIt app for the Blackberry that doesn't require Blackberry version 4.3 or higher (I've got 4.2.2 and my employer's IT policies prevent me from upgrading).

2. GoogleSync for Blackberry - I was syncing my calendar and contacts between my work calendar and address client (LotusNotes) and my Google account. It was all going swimmingly - friends with the right permissions could see my calendar via Google, addresses were synced up.... Then all of a sudden I suspect something on the LotusNotes side of things started behaving like another sync client, so GoogleSync got all pouty and gave me the error "To avoid duplicates Google Sync will not keep these events up to date". Disappointing. Now I'll have to wait for a LotusNotes upgrade...

3. TripAdvisor.com - This has helped me prepare for the best...or worst. Normally I have to stay where my colleagues book me, like it or not. But it's nice to have a little warning. I was pleasantly surprised to see one of the places I was booked in Haiti was rated the #2 in the country. It was nice, considering the options, though mosquito-infested. And if I really don't like a place, it's sort of therapeutic to post a rant for other travelers to see.

What's your fav web-service for world travels?

Your tech world traveller...

Global Travels Road Test: Apple versus Dell

2010-03-20T01:48:00.000-04:00

I have promised this post for far too long. After nearly two years, both my laptops have amassed more frequent flyer miles than many people collect in a lifetime. I've given them both a beating, and the results are in (spoiler alert!): the Macbook won. I know what you Apple fanboys and fangirls out there are saying: "Like, duh!" So let me break it down for you very specifically in terms of the abuse these two laptops have suffered, which would probably even make a Panasonic Toughbook blush. (Ok, I might be exaggerating a little - though I've wanted to toss my Dell a few times, I'm not about to drop my laptops from six feet up, like the MIL-STD-810G specs call for.)

What my computers *have* seen is still pretty impressive: riding around in 4x4s on Ugandan roads with bus-sized craters; rendering video while travelling in a taxi at highway speed; multiple, massive and sudden voltage surges in 110V and 240V conditions; Sudanese desert dust and Indian tropical humidity; 12,000-foot altitude in the Bolivian Andes; hundreds of security X-ray scans; virus-laden networks; ant infestations inside the keyboard; and much, much more.

Amazingly, both are *still* functioning. I haven't (yet) had to replace a power supply on either, and the batteries both still hold their charge (though the Mac much more so). I did lose a hard drive suddenly on my Mac early on, though my AppleCare coverage ensured I got a new drive in less than 24 hours, and SugarSync ensured I got my data back the next day. My Dell's hard drive has been dying a slow death over the last few months. But they're both still working.

Let's start with...well...starting up. From pressing the Power button to full boot-up (all extensions are running, computer responds instantly), the Mac is usually 3-5 times faster than the Dell to load the full operating system. The same applies for waking these laptops from "sleep" (Mac) or "standby": about 3-5 times faster on the Mac, mostly because of software. When it comes to shutting down, or going to 'sleep' mode, both are wildly inconsistent, depending on what the computer was doing but Windows XP Pro is even slower on this test.

How about hardiness? I have to say the Dell won easily here. As you can see from these pics, the Macbook is a dirt and fingerprints magnet. My AppleCare Pro membership (for one year) entitled me to a free cleaning with (I'm not kidding) iClean fluid. But it takes a day or so to get marked up again. Somewhere in my travels I got two stains on the lid that won't go away. Even though I keep all my laptops in a padded sleeve, the corners of my Mac starting splintering. The Dell is totally intact after 2 years (my wife was not so lucky with her Dell - the fan vent covers started breaking off). Thank God for black duct tape - without it there's no telling what kind of gunk could get inside the Macbook innards! I've noticed this cracking on my friends' MacBooks too. The latest Macbooks have a unibody chassis and don't have this sharp edge, but on this generation it was quite annoying.

On ergonomics, again the Dell wins out here. I like the fact that the screen folds out to a full 180 degrees, and the platform to rest your hands while typing is about the rights size and comfortable. The Macbook's very limited foldout angle is a bit restrictive.

Heat-management is a close tie, though the Mac edges out the Dell. I've found that the Dell D430 gets very, very hot, and working in India and other hot places, this can sometimes cause the computer to malfunction. The Dell docking station also seems to go offline as a result of the heat - I have to turn on air conditioning in my home office as much to keep the computers happy. The Mac gets very hot too, but at least the fans seem to have a "high" setting that starts to cool things down. I use the iStat Pro widget on my Mac to keep an eye on the temps, and then let the fans do their thing when it gets too hot.

It's a tie when it comes to the laptops finding and accessing WiFi connections - both seem to have good range. I much prefer the Mac's fuss-free WiFi connection settings - on my Dell the built-in Windows WiFi manager and the Dell WiFi manager seem to compete. The former is more reliable but not very elegant, the Dell WiFi manager has more features but is more fussy and less predictable.

So in summary, with the exception of an occasionally flakey hard drive, the Dell has actually proved to be hardier than the Macbook, whose hard drive I've replaced already, and whose edges are splintering off. Compared to the latest offerings from both manufacturers of course, these are both old machines, but my rather harsh road test proves that both can stand a reasonable amount of scarring punishment. For me the superior user interface of the Mac wins the day - it might be a tighter contest with a Windows 7 machine but my organisation's computer policy is still XP Pro (and Office 2003, incredibly). I've tested a few Windows 7 machines and find more eye candy than good software, so for now I'm firmly a Mac guy.

What are you? Mac? Windows? Linux? What's your favourite travel laptop?

Your tech world traveller...

In Search of laptop power in airports

2010-03-05T06:50:00.000-05:00

Inspired by today's Gulliver post at The Economist, I posted my own experiences trying to locate power outlets in airports to juice up my laptop and other devices.

So far Heathrow's T2 has been the only place where a passing airport official stopped, told me to unplug my laptop, and then glared at me until I complied. Last week I was in Miami, where they have one of those sponsored plug-in spots, but as another commenter pointed out, there's no shelf on which to rest your laptop so passengers create a spider web of cords emanating out from the sockets. A bit of a fire hazard perhaps, and even a tripping hazard. It even had an amp limit on the charging station, but how many people know how many amps their own laptop draws, let alone how to do the math for everyone else plugged into the station. In this case, we must have maxed out the charging station, as only one outlet (out of 6) was actually "live" so the passengers good-naturedly took turns in sharing. I've blogged before about Paris Charles de Gaulle's elegant and thoughtful laptop charging consoles but unfortunately it's still the exception.

Onboard, there are still those airlines (flew American Airlines last week) who use the not-very-popular EmPower direct current ports on flights that require special adapters. The best airlines of course (stand up, Singapore Airlines, Northwest, and others) provide North American-pronged outlets for every seat in economy, which should be the standard. Until everyone is using wireless charging capabilities, tech world travellers will be scouring airport lounges everywhere, trying to spot the place where the janitors plug in their floor-waxers and vacuum cleaners...

What's been your experience?

Your tech world traveller...

Medley: Connectivity at Heathrow, Gadgets,

2010-02-27T03:33:00.000-05:00

Well tech world travellers, I'm glad to be heading home after a trip that included New Orleans, USA and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Heathrow
I continue to be surprised at the lack of high-speed data connections at London's Heathrow Airport. I've passed through Terminal 5 twice in the last few weeks. My Blackberry picks up four data networks here, and their coverage is mostly awful. T-Mobile gives me SOS service only. Orange and Vodafone only show GPRS speeds (too slow to browse the web, but adequate for email). O2-UK is the only one that gives me EDGE speeds. I had more choices for high-speed data in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. UK providers need to do a better job at covering the airport.

WiFi-wise, the news is quite a bit better. I'm using British Telecom's OpenZone WiFi right now to post this. BT OpenZone and a number of other Heathrow WiFi offerings are covered under iPass, a subscription-based WiFi service. That said, on this trip I've been quite disappointed that iPass-covered WiFi zones have not been available in Dallas, New Orleans, or Santo Domingo airports, nor in several hotels you might expect coverage in. And I'm disappointed to report that Hilton has set a new record price point for 24-hour Internet access - $18.95. There should be a list of shame for that. $10-$15 is usually the sweet spot for business travels, but in my view WiFi is a utility that business travelers have every right to expect in airports and decent hotels.

Gadget
One of my favourite travel gadgets *was* my Microsoft Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000. The name is a mouthful, and it's a compromised device, but in the quest to lighten my travel bag, it's nice to have a mouse and wireless presenter ("clicker") all in a compact package. I was attending a meeting of 50+ people this week. The presenters were doing the classic "next slide please" or walking over to their laptop to change slides. (See Edward Tufte's rant about that.) So I lent the conference team my wireless presenter mouse and the effectiveness of the presentations took a significant leap forward. Sometimes, it's the small things that make a big difference.

Your tech world traveller...

Future Gadget: AirMouse

2010-02-04T12:09:00.001-05:00

As an occasional carpal tunnel syndrom sufferer, this product looks quite appealing, especially as its small form factor is yet another way of making your tech world traveller's bag lighter.

Not to be confused with a very cool iPhone app of similar name, the DeanMark AirMouse is an ergonomic pointing device that allows the user to mouse and point at the same time. Even though it's a few years away from mass-produced retail, it impressed the judges of CBC's Dragon's Den enough to motivate them to invest C$75,000 in the company. Way to go, small-business! Let's see more ergonomic technology for the world travellers!

Your tech world traveller...

first thoughts on the iPad

2010-01-28T01:28:00.001-05:00

Just finished watching Steve Jobs' launch of the Apple iPad. (Promo video is here.) I have to say that I was skeptical about this new category, but was pleasantly though only mildly surprised. There are some magical things and some gripes that the tech mavens will complain about. For the international tech traveller, here's my pro & con list:

Pros
1. Price. At US$499 for the 16GB WiFi-only model, it is clearly taking aim at the netbook market, especially as Apple has made a very slick version of iWork (Apple's office suite) perform well on it. Tech world traveller is more of a fan of this category than Steve Jobs, though it's the software for me that holds back their potential. I expect that Apple's adapter cable to hook it up to a projector will cost about $35 based on historic pricing.
2. Data connection. The no-commitment pricing on the wireless data contract (US$15/month for 250MB, US$30 for unlimited) is very attractive. The 2-year commitment to US$65/month has been a deal-breaker for me and the iPhone. It will be interesting to see if they announce an international unlimited roaming rate - $40/mo would be the sweet spot for that.
3. eBooks. As predicted, the iTunes-style online store for buying ebooks on the iPad is going to give the Kindle and the Nook a serious run for their money. The book reading experience on the iPad really did seem amazing, and not much more expensive than the other eBook readers out there. I think tech world travellers will enjoy reading on long trips.
4. Support for iPhone apps. There are heaps of great international travel apps for the iPhone, and nearly all of them will work straight away on the iPad. Rejoice, tech world travellers!

Cons
1. iWork is not popular. The demo on iWork was great. But apart from Steve Jobs and Al Gore, who actually uses Keynote for presentations? Unfortunately MS PowerPoint is still the universal standard. Too much of our business content is stuck inside that format and it's a lot of work to get a PowerPoint file working properly in Keynote, and it's not easy to go between formats.
2. No camera. There was much speculation that the iPad would have a camera facing the user, to at least to do Skype or even just PhotoBooth. (Some even hoped the camera would do facial recognition to adapt to different users.) I expect that a camera will come in a second release, but it does stop short of an ideal do-it-all living room device. Because our tech world travel family is scattered across the world, Skype with video is a key app for us.
3. Form factor. It seems practical enough to leave on a coffee table in your living room if you don't have kids. You could prop in a stand at work as it doubles as an ePicture frame while charging. But world travellers are still going to have to pack a laptop to do real work, so even though it's slim and light, it's another thing with chargers and adapters to fit in the carry-on. I guess I'm still dreaming of foldable screens. That's my next wish - a device that's a smartphone until you unfold a big screen and then it becomes a tablet.

Your tech world traveller...

p.s. and here's what the rest of them say: Wall Stret Journal's Walt Mossberg, NY Times' David Pogue, CNET's Josh Lowensohn.

Tweeting Travels

2010-01-24T15:14:00.000-05:00

The Economist's Gulliver blog asks this week whether Twitter is useful for travel. At the risk of repeating myself for Gulliver fans, let me repeat what I posted there.

There are two ways that I find Twitter helps me when I travel.

My personal (closed) Twitter account tells friends and family where I am and what I'm seeing. I enjoy reading tweets from my family and friends who travel as well.
My techworldtravel tweet stream is the mini-version of this blog, chronicling my struggles with travel and tech. Check it out to see the streams I follow.

A smartphone with an all-inclusive international roaming data contract is really the best if you want to tweet while you travel. You don't want to be counting kilobytes while you're trying to subscribe to your airline's Twitter feed to see if your flight's been delayed.

If you've got data-to-go, there's plenty of free software that makes tweeting from your smartphone alot more intuitive (and cheaper) than using the original text message format Twitter was based on. On the Blackberry I've tried two: Twitterberry (now called OpenBeak) and übertwitter. Both have their limitations (they only support one twitter account at a time). Twitterberry has a relatively simpler interface, so it loads more quickly. übertwitter has more eye candy and slightly better features but then is a slower performer. If I fire up my laptop, I login to HootSuite as I can access all my Twitter accounts plus LinkedIn, Facebook and others all from one interface. You can 'broadcast' across all your channels, several, or just one.

Your tech world traveller...

World Traveller Thoughts on the Google Nexus One Phone

2010-01-05T22:43:00.000-05:00

After much fanfare, it's here! Google's second entry in the phone market is getting generally positive reviews. It's not an iPhone killer, but it will definitely carve out some significant market share. You can check out all its features at the YouTube channel that's dedicated to the phone: www.youtube.com/googlenexusone, and read some reviews (Engadget, Crave, TechCrunch, and Gizmodo). Voice quality (built-in noise cancellation), photo quality (excellent), and eye candy (3D and animated themes are gorgeous) are all getting raves.

Here's the tech world travel take.

Highlights

This is one of the few high-end smartphones that you can buy unlocked, and at an estimated US$530, it's about US$300 cheaper than an unlocked (and possibly insecure) iPhone. Unlocked phones + world travels = great savings (see post).
If you rely on Gmail, the NexusOne has some sweet contact synchronisation features in terms of contacts and calendaring, even with multiple accounts.
It runs Google Earth! On a mobile! For lots of you tech world travellers who are map geeks like me, this is better than any games you could download. It also runs Google Maps with voiceover directions - something that used to be a top-end feature. If you rent cars when you travel, this is potentially a life-saver.

Gripes

GoogleVoice is a great service, but is only enabled in the U.S. Boo for world travellers. Come on Google - fix this!
No multi-touch - no pinching to zoom, no swiping to scroll, etc. Just one finger on the screen at a time please. Apple's still got the gestures-on-a-mobile market sewn up.

So, let's hear from some of you Nexus One users who are road-testing this thing!

Your tech world traveller...

What worldphone should I get? The basics

2010-01-03T23:08:00.002-05:00

My friends constantly ask me what phone they should get. Last week one of my favourite journalists, NY Times' Nicholas Kristof, tweeted asking for advice. The answer is, it depends on your your work needs, travel habits, and personal preference. But there are some minimum standards to travel globally with a phone.

Hardware
First, the geek stuff. You'll need a quad-band GSM phone. GSM stands for Global System for Mobile, which is fairly descriptive. Outside of North America, most phones are GSM. Band means - like a radio - different frequencies, and of course quad-band referes to the four frequencies that telephone companies around the world generally use. You can geek out more on that here. A quad-band phone will pretty much work anywhere except Japan and South Korea. They use a separate, fifth frequency. Usually easiest to rent a phone if making a short trip there.

Unlock it

Once you've got a quad-band GSM phone, you should unlock it:

If your current phone is a quad-band GSM phone, you're in luck - cellphone providers have to unlock phones for their customers. But they don't make it easy, so call customer service, plan ahead and be prepared for delays. It sometimes depends on when you signed your current phone contract. They may give you an "unlock PUK code" or some such jargon - just be sure that you receive detailed instructions and follow them clearly. If you don't, you could 'brick' your phone.
If you think you're going to be travelling enough that you need a dedicated 'travel phone' in addition to your own phone, a lot of global travellers just buy a second, cheap unlocked GSM quad-band phone. Amazon's got a bunch to choose from and you shouldn't pay more than about US$70.

Get a local SIM card

Unless you unlock the phone, your home-country phone company will charge you their "roaming" rate to use the phone outside your home country. The "Roaming rate" is another way of saying the "brutally expensive rate". The difference is stark.

I've ranted here before about AT&T's rates, so let me use them as an example. If you make OR receive calls on your AT&T phone in India, AT&T will charge you between $2.30-$2.50/minute. But with an unlocked phone, you can use a local Indian SIM card in that same phone for pennies a minute. $20 gets you less than ten minutes of talk time using AT&T's India roaming rate. $20 on an Indian card will last you weeks of using the phone for hours a day.

So - that's why it's worth all the futzing and unlocking and GSM quad-band mumbo jumbo. You will save a fortune. Here's how to do it:

Turn the phone all the way off. (Sometimes you need to hold down the power button on your phone to do this. If you don't, you may lose all the stored numbers.)
Remove the SIM you don't need. The SIM is the thing that looks like a miniature credit card with one corner lopped off. It's usually stored behind the battery.
Insert the travel SIM card.
Turn the phone on. In some countries you may have to register the phone, but it shouldn't take more than a few minutes.
Purchase air-time credits using a pre-paid air time card. In most cases, you can buy these just about anywhere. Follow the instructions on the back of the card, but roughly you'll: a) scratch off a secret code on the back of the card, b) enter that code on your phone, c) watch your phone be instantly credited with talk time.

As for specific brands of phone, it all depends, of course, on your work needs, travel habits, and personal preferences. I'll say more about that after my next post, once Google launches their Nexus phone at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on 5 January 2010.

Your tech world traveller...

Connectivity Case Study: Singapore (Updated)

2009-12-30T01:12:00.001-05:00

Just back from another trip to Singapore (see earlier post), and yet another disappointment about the data connectivity here. Admittedly my Blackberry 8820 is not a 3G (the fastest common data standard) phone, only an EDGE-capable one. But most of the time out and about over the last two weeks I only got GPRS. I took a boat tour past Singapore's famous Merlion fountain, was on the metro, on Orchard Road... but data access was positively pokey. Whether using StarHub or SingTel's networks, it took achingly long for Facebook to refresh, or to send an email using Gmail. That said, coverage was pretty uniform - whether in a subway tunnel or nestled between concrete apartment blocks, the coverage was very good. In Chennai, India, where I live, coverage is less uniform but data speeds are higher.

If you're just visiting, buying a local SIM card will be cheaper than using your phone's roaming voice charges. But you may have to ask a locally-based friend or relative (with a Singapore ID) to get one for you, which is what I did. The ever-present 7-11 stores stock SIM cards as well as scratch-off top-up cards for most of the major carriers. But 7-11 only sells you the S$18 (approx US$12) top-up cards. Get off the beaten track to an HDB mall and you'll find stores stocking top-up cards in smaller increments - S$2 and S$5. S$18 got me about 2 hours of talk time (international and local calls).

So, all in all Singapore is moderately expensive (compared to Philippines, Thailand or India) and data speeds are slow. I would be happy to hear differently from those of you with 3G-capable phones if you've been able to get higher mobile data speeds.

Your tech world traveller...

Now blogging from India...

2009-12-05T23:38:00.000-05:00

Greetings from Chennai, India, where your loyal correspondent will be living for the next 2-3 years. So this post comes first as an apology; with two young kids and family responsibilities and the complications of a dual-country relocation (U.S. > Canada > India) it's been hard to find the time to blog during the last 5 months. I've been living out of a suitcase and learning lots of tech world travel lessons that I'm keen to blog about.

But I'm also writing to say that there's lots to post, and my New Year's Resolution is to post a lot more. You may have noticed that I regularly tweet, but in order to disaggregate my personal and tech tweets, so on this blog I'm changing my twitter stream from my personal stream matthewjoscott to techworldtravel. So, if you want to, you can keep following both, but if you want to follow my techtravel tweets, please follow me at the new address.

Your tech world traveller...

What's in a letter? We're running out

2009-09-10T11:05:00.000-04:00

Seriously, icon-designers! We're running out of letters. Take a look at your Blackberry or iPhone and notice the icons representing your different apps (or programs). Chances are the best alphabetical real-estate is fast-running out.

Whether you call it a logogram, logotype, graphical type, or whatever, the little icon that depicts applications like Google Sync, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo!, as simply one letter. Then there's P for AT&T's "Push To Talk" application for the Blackberry, which I don't use and can't get rid of. Then there's "C" for Concur Solution's expense manager, "R" for Rearden, a travel app. Blackberry uses a stylized "A" with a magnifying glass as its search application (mostly useless). So that's only 17 letters left, and you probably use an application that uses B,D,E,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,S,W,X or Z.

So icon-designers, get creative! It's not that hard! Gmail's icon is instantly recognizable, even though there are hundreds of email icons out there. Other elegant examples include SugarSync's icon, and just about any Apple-designed icon. Time to stop being lazy with letters, so my Blackberry doesn't start looking like alphabet soup.

Your tech world traveller...

Feedly: News Reader on Steroids

2009-05-12T23:28:00.000-04:00

I think my browser can read my mind. At least that's how I feel after using feedly.com's extension for my Firefox browser for several weeks.

You know that feeling of isolation you get when you're travelling across the world, staying in strange hotel rooms, waking up in the middle of the night with jet lag? Well one way to cope with this is to stay connected to the news of what's going in the world.

I know, I've gushed before about Google Reader as a way to speed-read the news. On the Blackberry, nothing beats Google Reader to quickly monitor all my favourite RSS news feeds in one simple and fast interface while on the go, even if I've got a slow connection. But if you're in an airport lounge with WiFi, or a hotel room and you've got time to open up your laptop, you must try out feedly.

The screen shot above shows just how elegant the interface is, and how it uses your own twitter and Google Reader logins to create a "magazine-like experience" (their words) that's amazingly compelling. Then I read the feedly blog entry about optimizing feedly. Even more awesome.

If you haven't played around with RSS feeds before, now is the time to start. There's no better way to stay informed while on the road. Feedly makes it all make sense. Thanks to my buddy David Sandey for tipping me off to feedly via Facebook.

Your tech world traveller...

Case Study: Davao and Manila

2009-04-26T05:43:00.000-04:00

At the end of a 10-day trip here in the Philippines, I'm surprised by connectivity in some places and lack of it in others.

First of all Manila. On arrival I purchased a SIM card from SMART and added around $5 of credit. So far I've been texting Filipino colleagues here quite a bit and haven't run out of credits yet. Calling was less than successful, but at least I can easily be reached and reach out to my counterparts. Most people use texting heavily here. With my AT&T SIM card in my phone I've been able to get emails downloaded but the data speeds aren't the greatest here in Makati City. I saw EDGE data speeds near the airport but for the most part it's GPRS (i.e. not practical for web-browsing but passable for getting emails on the Blackberry.) With all the swapping in and out of my SIM cards, I've been thinking either that Blackberry should have a dual-SIM card phone or that I should get a SIM card wallet. These little cards are so easy to drop or misplace. Thankfully my hotel has free wireline Internet in the rooms.

In Davao City, the coverage was more complicated. With my local Philippines telephone card in my phone, it showed EDGE data coverage on the SMART network. (But the pay-as-you-go packages don't normally include data.) But when I popped my AT&T SIM back in the phone it wouldn't connect to SMART at all, only to GLOBE, and only at GPRS speed.

Thankfully, my 3-star hotel in Davao City had WiFi, though at 600 pesos (US$12) for 24 hours it was a bit pricey. Many restaurants and small guest houses and hostels advertise WiFi. Broadband is widely available. Yesterday I was glad to see an iPass-enabled hotspot at Davao City Airport. That turned an otherwise miserable 4-hour flight delay into a relatively productive working afternoon. I would have preferred to be in an airline lounge as opposed to sitting on the floor next to the power outlet, but sometimes tech-travellers need to make sacrifices to connect. ;-)

Your tech world traveller...

Case Study: London

2009-04-14T02:52:00.000-04:00

As promised, three quick tidbits following a quick trip to London a few weeks ago:

1. High-speed wireless data coverage was only to be found above ground, and only in central London. In five days I was all over the underground and I managed to take northbound trains both to St. Alban's and to Milton Keynes. Wireless coverage on the underground was mostly non-existent. I expected more from a world-class city. (Verizon customers in Washington DC have long grown accustomed to using their mobiles on the Metro.) What really surprised me, though, was that outside of downtown London, data coverage is pretty much GPRS, even on high-traffic train arteries. My EDGE-capable Blackberry only found EDGE-speed data coverage spotty on the Heathrow Express into Paddington. I took northbound trains from Euston and from St.Pancras/Kings Cross and in both cases the EDGE signal petered out less than 20 minutes into the journey. I couldn't find EDGE speeds anywhere in St.Alban's but did find

2. You may think I'm crazy but I let my boss find me on Google Maps. Google Latitude is the new mobile app that uses GPS or mere cell tower coordinates to broadcast your mobile phone's location for certain approved 'friends' to find you on Google Maps. A word to the wise: suspend position-sharing while you're en route. But not for the reasons you might think. (It's a reciprocal arrangement, by the way, which comes in handy for the amount both of us travel - easier to calculate what time zone we're each in to exchange chat messages or call.)

Unfortunately Google hasn't worked out all the kinks. During the rare stretches when I actually zipped along the M1 in a cab at highway speed on my way to Heathrow, I noticed that my Blackberry took 30+ seconds just to open an email or flip to the calendar. I quickly realized the problem. My Blackberry was using up all its puny computing resources fixing my rapidly-changing position and broadcasting it to Latitude. Thankfully it's fairly easy to turn off in Latitude, and does notably improve performance. So if you're wondering why your Blackberry suddenly becomes unresponsive in a moving vehicle, now you know.

3. RSS Readers rock! Between the tube, trains, and taxis, I had time to catch up on the news on my Blackberry. With the low-speed data connections I encountered it would have been frustrating trying to use the Blackberry's lousy browser to go to all the sites I normally visit. Enter: RSS Reader. It's very easy to set up. Find the RSS feeds of your favourite web page, column or blog. With an RSS reader like Google Reader (the one I use) you can view tags (like "International" or "Tech&travel"), view subscriptions (e.g. The Economist's Gulliver or David Pogue's tech column) or see all those feeds mashed together in one long list. The best part is that all the picture junk is stripped out - all you get is the plain text of exactly the news you want to read. Especially handy on a mobile device.

So that's all for now - more news next week from the Philippines.

Your tech world traveller...

Skype Goes Mobile

2009-04-09T21:57:00.000-04:00

Yes, New York Times gadget dork, David Pogue, has reviewed Skype for the iPhone and found it works great, though only over WiFi. Download here.

A few days earlier, NYT's Brad Stone wrote that Skype is planning to release a Blackberry client in early May. And not a day too soon!

While I was in the UK last month I used iSkoot (reviewed here previously) on my Blackberry. It was fine for doing Skype chats with family, friends and colleagues. But even when dialled into a WiFi hotspot, when I tried to make a voice call, it started dialling a North American number to connect me to iSkoot's VoIP service!

Until the telephone companies come to their senses, I'm proposing a new acronym for what we all need - Voice over Mobile Internet Protocol. That's right - VoMIP. It sounds very close to vomit, which is what the gougin of Europe and North America cellphone companies makes me want to do.

Your tech world traveller...

Google Calendar Sync: Beautiful & Terrible

2009-03-18T20:54:00.000-04:00

Here's a classic problem: a friend calls your better half to see if you are both free for dinner. Your better half can't see your electronic calendar or you theirs. How can you have a social life when your calendar's locked inside your smartphone?

Enter Google Calendar Sync. This feature of Google's supports multiple devices including, of course, the iPhone, Blackberries, Windows Mobile, and few other mainstream devices.

Once it's configured, all your calendar events will sync to the Google Calendar of your choice as well as sync with your company or organization's calendaring server. So, if a friend sends you an invite in Gmail and you make a calendar item out of it, it will show up on your Google Calendar and sync across to your work calendar. Create an item on the mobile device and it will push it back to the work desktop calendar as well as your Google calendar.

But there is one *very* big catch. For reasons that only Google engineers can tell us, the default setting for weeks into the future is set for 4 weeks. I guess that's as far into the future as Google engineers plan their lives. You have to dig in the Google sync settings to change that, and the max is 24.

But it's worse than that. With my setup (Blackberry 8820 running Google Sync and my work calendaring client is IBM Lotus Notes), I have set my Google Sync to give the mobile device priority if there's a conflict. But whenever I create ANY event (on the desktop, Google Calendar or on the Blackberry) that is MORE than 4 weeks into the future. GoogleSync deletes that event on *ALL* devices. It's taken me several months to figure this out.

Here's hoping your life is foreseeable more than 4 weeks in advance...

Your tech world traveller...