Warning: techie geeky nerd-like dweebie content ahead.

One of the things I’ve been needing to complete my mobile blogging arsenal is a way to extend the life of my cell phone while I was out in the field. I use my iPod Touch for all things Internet via wifi tethering on my Verizon phone, but enabling wifi sucks the battery juice like a vampire on a hot babe. Usually I get only 2-3 hours usage before the battery dies completely. What I’ve wanted to do to address this issue was get a battery operated charger that I could attach to the cell, enable wifi and then toss the whole thing in my backpack while I’m out scouting the city or geocaching. That could extend the life of my cell phone’s wifi for as long as I’d need it, giving both my iPod and my laptop Internet access anywhere in the country, even out in the wilderness. Who’s awesome? I’m awesome.

So I did some researching, and researching, and researching. As it turns out, there’s only ONE battery charger suitable for my cell phone with the right connector (because these cell phone makers, they just wubs to make their own nonstandard ports to set their cell phones apart from the rest and make it speeeciaaal, doncha know?) The charger is made by Energizer and is powered by two AA batteries. Awesome.

But wait, they recommend lithium batteries, their own brand of course. The idea of swapping expensive lithium batteries on a daily basis to keep my charger going seems well, weapons grade STOOOPID. So I researched some more to see if there were rechargeable batteries out there that would have enough juice to power this thing. Turns out one does, Rayovac Hybrid batteries. Awesome.

But wait, their charger to put it bluntly, sucks the crap stick. It’s a dumb charger that simply charges for x amount of hours and turns off, regardless of whether it properly charged the batteries or not. I needed a smart charger that would turn on and off according to how much charge a battery needed and not wreck the cells in the process. So I did some more research, and as it turns out, the best charger for it is made by Duracell. As an added bonus, the Duracell charger also doubles as a battery operated USB charger, so it can also charge my iPod too. Awesome!

So after much hair tearing, the solution turned out to be an Energizer charger, powered by Rayovac batteries, which are recharged with a Duracell charger.

As a friend of mine commented, the solution I came up with here seemed to suit me: difficult and full of irony.

Ah well. I should have a chance to give this a trial run later this week to see how long I can keep my cell phone’s wifi going, just in time before I take my trip to Boston. The prospect of being able to walk everywhere in the city with my iPod fully powered for blogging and geocaching gives me ooovas!

Tags: batteries, battery, battery charger, blogging, cell phone, city, Duracell, Energizer, geocaching, internet access, ipod touch, laptop, mobile, Rayovac, verizon, wifi
Categories: Gone Mobile
 
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I’m on the last leg of my vacation trip, and finally have some time to sit down and reflect on my experiences so far, especially when it comes to blogging about it all.

Rather than use an iPhone (which are not hearing aid compatible and relies on the crappy AT&T network), I went with the next best thing, an iPod Touch that I tether to my PDA Phone using Verizon’s Broadband Connect. This way I have the advantage of using a faux iPhone on the Verizon network, as well as access to the Internet wherever I had a signal. I didn’t have to worry about motels or restaurants not offering wifi for my laptop either, since I could tether my laptop to my phone instead.

As far as connections go, Verizon gets an A here. There were times when I completely lost the signal, but I was so far high up in the mountains that it was to be expected. If I had to guess, I’d say I had a signal and access to the Internet virtually 99 percent of the time. Total WIN there. It makes liveblogging or livetweeting my experiences as they happen as easy as pie. Mmmmmm, pie…

Many of the apps on my iPod relies on geolocation to work ideally, especially Google Maps, and as long as I was in New York this wasn’t a problem. It was amazingly accurate in pegging my location, despite the fact that the iPod had no GPS chip.

That is, until I wound up in Massachusetts. Then the iPod went from thinking I was in Martha’s Vineyard, to thinking I was in Seattle.

Despite being unable to track me, I could still use Google Maps manually instead of having to rely on paper maps, except that it incessantly flashed popups telling me it could not locate me, even though I was not using the geolocation feature, and I couldn’t find any way to disable it either. I already know you can’t locate me, there’s no need to tell me that a hundred times a minute. Yeesh.

The net result of all this was a ton of wrong turns, missed exits, and complete absurdity when I came across a street in Google maps that simply did not exist in real life. FAIL

So it looks like I will have to supplement my iPod with a bonafide GPS device now. The TomTom is working on an iPod dock for the future, though I don’t know how reliable it will be, and I hear Garmin is better for the USA. A speakerphone would also be a bonus, as it would negate the need to get a headset (I’ve been thinking about getting one, but the only time I would really need it is for when I’m driving.) Something to research for the future, for sure. In the meantime, if any of you use GPS devices, I could use some advice on what you think worked the best.

Other than that, the iPod was very useful for finding points of interest, though it tended to be a hit or miss thing. Some things worth checking out wouldn’t be listed, so I always had the feeling that I was missing something right under my nose. As far as locating highly rated hotels in the area, the Simultravel app I was using for that gets an F for EPIC FAIL. It only listed a fraction of the hotels within the area I was in, making the effort of locating a good place to stay for the night on the fly a monumentally hair tearing experience. I ended up going back and forth from using Google Local to surfing TripAdvisor all on my iPod’s Safari browser, and since TripAdvisor is a slow and bloated site to begin with, just trying to find a place to stay on the go proved to be more ridiculously frustrating than it should have been. It wasn’t until I stumbled upon Hotels.com’s tailored made site for the iPhone that finding a place to stay finally became more of a pleasure than a horror. It’s how I found Best Western in Ticonderoga, New York, easily the best hotel I’ve stayed at by far, and while chatting with a friend on Google Talk on lodging ideas and checking my email, I booked a reservation there while I was pulled off the road somewhere south of Burlington, Vermont, doing it all on my iPod. Technology can be truly beautiful sometimes.

As for finding points of interest and dining, I used a combination of Yelp!, Where to? and Google Local to find places worthy of checking out. It made such an impromptu vacation as mine all the more pleasurable and easier to manage.

Finally, I noticed when entering a dining establishment that the first thing I would check for was an electrical outlet to plug my laptop in. LOL My laptop’s battery gives out after only 40 minutes, so it certainly does create a handicap when I’m lugging it around. That MacBook with its 7 hour long battery life can’t come soon enough for me.

As far as the digital/internet side of my vacation goes, I certainly learned a few things that will better prepare me for next time. Another thing I need to get a handle on is how to manage my blogging/social media time. I noticed I spent far too much time responding to tweets and comments when I should have been driving and getting to wherever I was getting. And once the day was spent, I found myself too exhausted to blog about the day’s events while it was still fresh on my mind. Ironically, when I finally had time to recap my vacation experiences so far, I ended up blogging about my third day of vacation, rather than the first day, so my chronology was all out of sorts. I was also using BrightKite to tweet/blog my latest movements, but I only used it intermittently, and there were times when it didn’t go through at all. It made for a disjointed way of getting the crux of my vacation experiences out there for all to read, but since this is all new to me, I’m sure I’ll eventually find my mojo and liveblog my experiences in a more consistent manner.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go light my fireplace.

Tags: battery, blogging, browser, driving, experiences, geolocation, google, google maps, gps, hotels, internet, iphone, ipod touch, laptop, new york, PDA, phone, social media, technology, travel, tweet, vacation, verizon, wifi
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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Occasionally I break out my laptop at home to test a few things on my blog, or if I just want to surf the net while I’m cooking something in the kitchen. Lately though I noticed my wi-fi access wasn’t moving as quick as I’d like. I was using a Linksys router, and my signal was excellent, so I wasn’t sure what the problem was. But since I wasn’t using the laptop very often I didn’t think too much of it. However, one day it finally irritated me enough that I opened up my laptop’s wireless settings to check the signal’s strength. Signal was green and everything was gravy, except it was connected to a neighbor’s wi-fi.

Whoops!

Apparently I’ve been surfing on my neighbor’s wi-fi for the better part of a week, and I hadn’t even realized it until now. My own wi-fi is encrypted, so I should have known something was amiss when my laptop connected without giving me an error message, even though it was preset to connect to open wireless connections at Panera Bread.

Thank goodness I use wireless encryption! I mean I knew it would be relatively easy to connect to a neighbor’s open wireless network, but I had no idea it could be THIS easy. When I checked my settings again, I noticed that there were over 5 wireless networks in range, and only ONE of them was encrypted. Amazing.

Hmmm, wonder if I should take this opportunity to do some snooping around? No, no, that would be wrong.

Tags: blog, encryption, error message, goodness, gravy, internet access, laptop, neighbor, security, whoops, wi fi, wifi, wireless network, wireless networks
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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