MobileJoel Vacation -- Day 1

Prologue -- Day 1

(So the throwdown begins. Netbook vs. iPad. I'm at the Burbank Airport, touch typing on the virtual keyboard on my lap. Not awkward at all. Inp fact, much easier than the Netbook.)

The trip to the Northridge Apple store the other day wasn't that bad at all. No real lines, one family in the 'no reservations' line but that was about it. I had a reservation, so no wait at all. Anyhow, that was one of the fastest trips to the Apple store. Yet buying an iPad was a lot like buying a new car. (Taking off from BUR...)

(10,000 ft. BUR to OAK)


Moving on.... The salesperson apparently was trained earlier in the morning to sell options. Do you need case? AppleCare? MobileMe? So I got my case and AppleCare and got out of there in 7 minutes.

Had many chores on Saturday and I finally cracked the box open at 10pm. The iPad sets up like a every other i-Device. Connect iPad, turn on iTunes, and turn on iPad. One of the first things you notice is that the device says, 'Not Charging' by the battery icon. So I Googled this, and apparently this is normal. Most USB ports, including older Macs, and all PCs, do not supply enough voltage to power the iPad screen and charge the battery at same time. For you real techies, the iPad needs more than the standard 0.5 volts provided by the USB port. Wanna to charge your iPad while connected to a computer? Put it to sleep. However,p when it is connected to Computer, it does not drain the battery. (Landing at OAK.)

( Monday. 2:50pm. Interlude at 10,000 ft., en route to SEA. The fam & I just had a nasty connection in OAK. The BUR to OAK plane was 30 minutes late. We had to hightail it over and luckily we were able to find some seats together, albeit in the last row. Hope our luggage makes it.)

Overall, this iPad rocks. Why does it rock, you ask? In a nutshell, it's a device that light, intuitive, does all of the essential internet related tasks, the battery life is much longer than any battery powered laptop, and turns on/off much faster than any laptop. On a technical note, I've been using this thing for over an hour and I'm still at 91%. It has a 64GB flash drive, so no hard drive and it's inability to stay running while on a bumpy road. Sleep on/off button is instantaneous. It boots in 20 seconds. It doesn't run hot. The screen Is very clear--you can read a document very comfortably. For a person that spends 3 hours per working day on the bus, this device should prove to be very effective.

In any case, I brought most of the items mentioned on my last post, except for my backup DSLR -- it just wasn't fitting into my backpack well this morning. However, I did bring my wife's Netbook. My son is using my Bose headset to protect his hearing while he plays his Nintendo DS. Oh well, time to stop blogging...my son is getting bored...we'll play Scrabble on the iPad to pass the time..




-- Post From My iPad

Location:Yesler Way,Seattle,United States

The Ultimate MobileJoel Vacation

Hey folks! Starting Monday I will be on the ultimate Planes, Trains and Automobile vacation in the Pacific Northwest, including a jaunt through Canada. Coming on the road with me will be every piece of trendy Mobile Gear. This will include:
--an iPad
--a Dell Mini 9 Netbook running Windows 7
--an iphone
--a Verizon Mifi Personal Hotspot
--two Cameras with Eye-Fi Cards

The family and I will be taking every form of public transportation available, including:

--Airplane (Southwest, with layovers)
--Light Rail (Airport to Hotel)
--Heavy Rail (Seattle to Vancouver)
--Tour Bus
--Tour Bus on Ferry
--Taxi
--High Speed Passenger Ferry

This is going to be interesting. I'll keep you posted.

--Mobile Joel

Personal Accountability

It's 4 O'Clock in the Morning and my mind has been ruminating about recent events that have occurred in the past month.

It all started on March 4. I was waiting for the Commuter Bus at 7am when I got a text message from the Los Angeles Police Department. (I subscribe to a service that gives me alerts affecting both the neighborhood I live in as well as the one I work at.) Anyhow, the message stated that there's going to be a march/demonstration starting at UCLA and going through Westwood at 5:30pm.

Great! My Commuter Bus Route goes right through this mess! I'm going to have to make sure that I get out of work early to avoid being caught in traffic. What's this hubbub all about now? So I do what I normally do to figure out what's going on -- I google march 4 on my iPhone.

Turns out this is a super day of protest... a nationwide march 4 [insert your issue here]. Mainly, this was to protest the cutbacks in Education. OK, I got the message... there's lots of people that are unhappy with the idea that fees are increasing, but class availability is dropping. I understand and empathize the blight of the college student -- yeah, let's charge the poor student with more fees, reduce class size, thereby requiring the student to scramble for more funds, and delay this persons ability to get a job and be a productive contributor to our economy.

However, the media coverage of march 4 through yesterday, when New York Assembly Member Felix Ortiz proposed a prohibition on salt (yes, salt) got me thinking about the many blights that seem to plague our society today and a common theme emerged...personal accountability. I kept hearing those famous words, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." This thought is not new. In 1884,Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, in a Memorial Day address stated, "It is now the moment when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our national life and to rejoice in it, to recall what our country has done for each of us, and to ask ourselves what we can do for our country in return." To put is another way, instead of trying to force government to create a favorable outcome, ask yourselves, "What are you doing in your daily lives to create this outcome?" Issues and questions to follow in the next day or so....