Testing: (I’m updating this post during an experiment in wireless mobility as I am following a trend of turning ones blog into a gadget lab.) I’ve landed in Atlanta and am testing whether I can post something on this blog while being driven in a taxi at 75 miles per hour using my Mac and Treo 700-p with “mobile broadband.” Apparently, I can. Now I am testing whether or not I can survive this taxi ride all the way to Buckhead.
One of the problems I’ve had with the phone in other cities (this is my sixth or seventh) is the connection dropping. It doesn’t take much to reconnect, however, it’s still annoying. I stayed connected for a 8 solid minutes of reckless driving — very impressive — before dropping out briefly as we rocketed past downtown Atlanta.
I don’t know which impresses me more: that I stayed connected for all but once during the ride, or that we made it under ten minutes.
Update: I’m answering Jeff Jarvis who is expecting to receive a Treo 700p this week. Here are the good-to-bad things I’ve found in the first month of using the phone:
Good: I’m using bluetooth for the connection between phone and computer — look mom, no wires! And no cards sticking into the side of my computer.
Good: Connection speed (I’m not speaking scientifically, merely as it relates to my experience) is similar from going from dial up to ISDN (but not to cable or DSL).
Good: I’ve used my Mac to access the Internet via bluetooth via the phone in many major urban areas and it works standing still or moving at 85 miles per hour (which is what I unwillingly tested last night in the cab). Cities tested: Atlanta, Nashville, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Providence. I use the Sprint Vision-branded version of Ev-do (or, “mobile broadband” as the technology is being marketed to consumers).
Very Good: Because I travel so much and was forced to purchase wi-fi in airports and hotels, I have already come out ahead on monthly charges for wi-fi access charges. I especially enjoy not paying for accessing the pay wi-fi at the Nashville airport.
Bad: Every couple of days, I have to go through the Bluetooth set up process to get the phone to work with the computer. Either there’s a glitch or I’m not locking down the recognition between my phone and my computer.
Bad: If something is not up- or downloading, the connection times out quickly — this many be a preference or default setting. I haven’t figured out how to extend the time before the time-out occurs.
Bad: Random loss of connectivity. Again, this reminds me of the early days of dial up when the connection would drop and you’d have to dial back up. Although, the redial is a lot faster in this situation.
Bottomline: I love it. (And I haven’t even mentioned all of the other neat features of the phone.)
The Titans say they are blogging: The Titans website says they’ve assembled some big names to blog this year. However, it would help if they followed some blogging conventions. Like having a page that looks like a blog — with posts and headings and reverse chronology and RSS feeds and, maybe, comments. I can’t figure out where to go. Frankly, it looks like something the Tennessean would throw together and call a blog. That said, if the team they’ve assembled to blog were actually blogging, it would be a great thing. As we’re all in Nashville, I’ll give the Titans a local example of a company group blog they should learn from: Thomas Nelson’s. (Although I don’t see an RSS feed.) It aggregates and displays the posts of the individual employees who maintain blogs on any number of platforms. Also, they have a great “corporate blogging guideline” that has to be one of the most enlightened such documents around.
Technorati Tags: blogging, nashville, titans
The new normal: In a few hours I’ll be traveling on my first liquid-free carry-on flight. I thought I’d review the new prohibited items list on the TSA website. I saw also that they have a web-based tool that provides an estimate of the time it takes to get through security at a specific airport at a specific time and day. According to the website, I will have zero wait time to get through security when I’m traveling tonight. We’ll see.
Merchandising idea: I’ve wondered if airport retailers will lose money from the inability to sell water and drinks that passengers carry on board. However, they can more than make up for that if they start packaging together grab-bags for arriving passengers that include small versions of all the items one can’t carry onboard anymore. (I say this because I know I’ll have to swing by a drugstore with I land tonight.)
Update: The time through security was just as the TSA site predicted: zero wait time. Thumbs up TSA agents. Thumbs up TSA website meisters. However, I’m beginning to question my optimistic assumptions regarding the level of intelligence of the average TV watching American as the woman in front of me had a bag full of all sorts of liquids, pastes and gels confiscated — and she was dumbfounded as to why. I wanted to ask her about the rock under-which she resides, however, well it’s the south and I’m a gentleman and all. The security process was rather standard, except for the zealotry with which the TSA agents were seeking bottles and vials. However — and this is not a suggestion or recommendation and is especially not a confession, but just an observation of this guy I know — the security checkers don’t seem to be looking for a tiny bit — say about the amount that you’d find in a ketchup package at McDonald’s — of tooth paste or gel or lotion that is spread thinly and evenly inside little baggies and in, hypothetically speaking, a file folder in ones backpack.
Web 2.0 wheeling and dealing: Gee. I don’t know how PaidContent.org or TechCrunch missed this big Web 2.0 transaction: Web 2.0 portal site Yossi sold for $5,100.
Technorati Tags: web2.0
Hope springs anew: One of the great things about sports is there’s always next year. The “pre-season” of “next year” started last night for the team for whom I play fan. The 15-year-old and I were there (although when it comes to football, I also am 15) and gave a major thumbs up to Vince Young but were quite alarmed when he got hurt in the fourth quarter. Great quote, however, in this a.m.’s Tennessean: “‘Ankle’s good,’ Young said with a smile. ‘Tough quarterback. I’ll be all right.’” Here’s a photo I shot of Young and the sidelined-due-to-”an-altercation” Lendale White.
Another thing: The stadium formerly known as Adelphia Coliseum is now called LP Field. That’s great, whatever. But here’s some advice to the LP folks: the animated commerical on the jumbtoron needs some re-working. It’s perhaps the worst 60 seconds of animation ever created.
Technorati Tags: titans
