Archive for the ‘Road Warrior’ Category

Is That 1TB in Your Pocket or Are You Just Happy To See Me?

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

I recently got the OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro 1TB (one terabyte) drive to test. Before this drive I was carrying TWO external hard drives with me when I traveled. One was a clone backup of my internal drive. I swear by having a clone backup because I want the ability to "boot" from the external if my drive dies right before or during a presentation. Mac OS X's Time Machine is great, but since it's not bootable, there's no time to do a restore if something happens while on stage. The other drive contains files and videos that I may use from time to time during a presentation, but don't need to tie up my internal drive with. I also use that other drive to backup photos onto from a photo shoot in my studio until I get home. 

 

The 1TB OWC Drive Replaces 2 of My External Drives

My goal for this drive was to use it to replace the two drives I'm currently carrying. I got the drive and partitioned it to 2 500GB partitions. The first partition I use to backup (clone) my internal drive via SuperDuper! The second 500GB partition is for those other misc files and temporary backups I travel with. Although I knew from a size perspective that the 1TB capacity would be exactly what I needed, I was concerned about the relatively slow speed of this drive. Most laptop 2.5" drives spin at either 7200 rpms or 5400 rpms. This drive spins at only 5200 rpms. Back in the day, some 2.5" drives were as slow as 4200 rpms. So while it's not the slowest drive on the planet, it is slower than the speeds regularly available in other capacities today. So for the choice was either carry two fast drives or one big slower drive. 

After I did my clone backup and loaded on all the files I wanted to carry via the other partition, I did a boot test from this drive while it was connected via Firewire 800. It worked. While I could tell that it was slower than my internal 7200 rpm drive, it was tolerable. Keeping in mind that I would only be booting from this drive in an emergency anyway, I can live with the speed if it means carrying one less drive 100% of the time. 

 

The Mercury On-The-Go Pro  3 in 1 enclosure

I've been a fan of this enclosure for years. Although there are certainly smaller, sleeker 2.5" drive enclosures out there, this enclosure has never failed me. I can connect via Firewire 800, 400 or USB 2. It's bus powered on all 3 ports and at a glance I can "see" exactly which drive is inside (make, model and capacity). I've had smaller enclosures overheat before and that's never been a problem for me with the Mercury On-The-Go Pro. The drive comes with all the cables you need, a carrying case and an Firewire 800-400 cable. 

The 1TB Mercury On-The-Go Pro drive goes for $260 and you can get it here.

I recommend this particular model for someone who needs to carry around a lot of data and speed is not the most important factor. If you want a faster drive, look at their other models here. The folks over at OWC are GREAT to deal with and I also buy my RAM from them too. Never had any issues buying from them. They stand behind what they sell.

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Posted in Backup, Gadgets, Peripherals, Road Warrior | 12 Comments »

Get a MiFi without the monthly data plan charges: Pay as you go!

Monday, July 12th, 2010

I love my MiFi! However, the minute I tell people about it they get turned off when they hear that it runs $60/month. Luckily for me this road warrior perk provided by my employer. Even though I couldn't think of going on a trip without it, I can certainly see how someone that doesn't travel as often as I do, wanting the convenience of a MiFi. It's easy for me to justify a MiFi for work: At $60/month I look at it as that's 6 nights worth of hotel internet at $9.99/night (and that's if you're lucky. Yes I know some hotels offer it free, but most don't). So if I use my MiFi at least 6 nights a month instead of hotel internet it's a wash. Let's say you don't travel much. However, when you do travel you want the freedom of having your own mobile hotspot without paying a monthly fee or the ridiculous tethering charges that AT&T and others charge to use your smartphone as a modem. 

 

Virgin Mobile Has the Right Idea

Pay as you go! Buy a MiFi from them for $150 (great price). Then only pay for it when you need to use it:

Even the 30 days/300MB at $20 option is probably more than most people would need for a two-four week trip. 

 

If I suddenly found myself having to pay for a MiFi out of my own pocket, I wouldn't think twice about going this route. I don't use it every day and this way I can buy the device once and use it/pay for it when I need it.

Check it out here.

Thanks goes out to Jim Nichols for the lead to this offering.

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Posted in 3g, Road Warrior, Travel, Wi-Fi, Wireless | 12 Comments »

Get a Snowflake for Podcasting on the Go

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

I recently spent a lot of time reviewing various desktop USB microphones for podcasting. Recently I've been traveling a lot for business and I'm not always able to use my favorite desktop mics on the go. Although I've had the Blue Snowflake mic for a while now, I've really been using it a lot lately and I'm reminded of just how great of a Mic this is. I recorded my last two episodes of the Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast with it while on the road right in my hotel room. As a matter of fact this Mic lives in my suitcase. That way I know I always have a great mic with me when I'm on the go. 

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Posted in Audio, Digital Video, Peripherals, Podcasting, Road Warrior | 2 Comments »

Airlines starting to move into the 21st century

Monday, March 8th, 2010

usbportinflight

I hear rumors that Airlines have started to have Wi-Fi on their flights. While I have yet to prove this, it's an interesting concept. Of course I'm joking about it being a rumor and yes airlines are working quickly (not quickly enough) to offer inflight Wi-Fi. I fly Delta (formally NWA) probably 99% of the time.Although Delta as a company has been offering Wi-Fi on several flights for months, I have yet to fly one of those flights. This is mostly due to the fact that although Delta has acquired NWA, the planes themselves are still the old NWA planes and will likely be the last ones in the fleet to be upgraded. 

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Posted in Road Warrior, Travel | 5 Comments »

My iPhone 3GS has become my Travel GPS

Monday, March 1st, 2010

When I travel I sometimes have to rent a car. Although in the past I had been simply adding on the Hertz Neverlost option (or as my buddy Scott refers to it as Everlost), I stopped doing that once the portable GPS units became good enough. My first one was the Garmin Nuvi 350, then the 360, then the 400 series and finally a Nuvi 765t that I love. I also briefly used the Navigon 2100. They are all great units and I really didn't have any complaints with them. The 765t has performed perfectly for me and never misses a beat/turn. Nonetheless, I was still very intrigued when Apple announced the iPhone 3.0 OS update and that it would allow 3rd party apps to have turn-by-turn navigation abilities. The first one that I tried was Navigon. It certainly had promise, but the 1.0 version was missing key features such as text-to-speech. TomTom also came out with their app and it was also missing many of the same key features in its 1.0 version. This kept me from wanting to go solo with just an iPhone GPS app. Well a lot has changed since then!

 

The iPhone 3G/3GS and even iPod touch GPS Navigation Apps are ready for prime time

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Posted in Car, GPS, Road Warrior, Travel, iPhone | 21 Comments »

Shorter cables are better for travel

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

short usb

As a frequent traveler, one of the things I'm constantly trying to do is to reduce the amount of time it takes to get through airport security. One of those ways is to either reduce the amount of electronics I travel with (not likely to happen) or make them more TSA friendly.

If you have a cable mess in your bag it's going to be harder to xray therefore likely yield you a "bag check" so that they can take a closer look.

 

Three Cables I Can't Live Without
 

I've narrowed my cable usage down to 3-4 cables that I can't live without. One is a Firewire 800 cable and the other two are a USB Mini Cable and a USB Micro cable. There is actually a 4th cable and that's an iPhone/iPod sync cable, but I haven't found a short one that I really like yet. However, I was able to find all 3 shorter cables (in most cases 6 inches or less) at usbfirewire.com
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Posted in Gadgets, Peripherals, Road Warrior, Travel | 6 Comments »

My recent trip to Europe: What worked and what didn’t?

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

paris

Nothing beats real-world testing and during my last international trip it was like having a mobile testing lab to actually put all of the things I've been writing about over the past year to the test. I visited Germany, London, and Paris over the course of two weeks. In many cases I was only in a given city for one night. So there were multiple trips to the airport, and multiple hotel stays as well as getting around on the ground in places that I've never been before. So I thought I'd spend a few moments highlighting the gear and gadgets that I depended on during this trip and talk about the ones that came up short.

 

What worked?

I would have to say that just about everything "worked". There weren't really any pieces of technology that totally failed me. Of course I took my MacBook Pro, my iPhone 3GS, my Nikon D5000 DSLR, my Kodak Zi8 HD Video camera,  a multitude of cables and accessories as well as the necessary luggage to carry it all.  So with the understanding that nothing really failed me miserably, let's talk about the devices that really made a difference:

The iPhone 3GS was the star of the trip

Now granted my MacBook Pro was really the tool that I depended on to get my work done, but the iPhone was actually the gadget that made the most impact on this trip. I can't believe how much I depended on it throughout the day. I used it for just about everything, including keeping my flights and schedule together. I used it as my GPS for getting around. I used it of course to make calls, but more importantly I used it to make very low cost VoIP calls. I used it to snap photos and of course instantly share those photos with friends and family. I even used it for language translations. While I'm sure other smartphones do a great job too, I just couldn't imagine travel without my iPhone, especially internationally. There is an App for just about everything! For a list of the Top 10 Travel Apps that I used and that totally rocked, go here. 

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Posted in Electronics, Gadgets, Road Warrior, Travel | 21 Comments »

GorillaMobile 3G/3GS holds your iPhone

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

gorillamobile3g3gs

I remember when I first saw the GorillaMobile when it was announced and I kinda mentally dismissed it. Don't get me wrong, I love the GorillaPod line of products. It's just that this wasn't what I was looking for in terms of a "holder" for my iPhone to watch videos on the plane. I was looking for something smaller. I never really found the "right" solution. Most were either too bulky to travel with or didn't allow me to lean the iPhone back far enough for a comfortable viewing angle. 

 

I see the light now

I didn't look at the GorillaMobile again until Joby released their FREE Gorillacam App (which I've reviewed here today). I'm very excited about what the app offers in terms of features and of course many of the features can only be realized if you have a way of holding your iPhone still long enough. For example, doing time lapse photography isn't going to be very exciting holding it by hand. This is when I wanted to look at the GorillaMobile again. So I got one and had a ball using it to take pictures. Once I was done playing with the app for the day I started just playing with the positioning of the GorillaMobile itself and realized that THIS IS the holder I've been looking for! It ships with a case for your iPhone 3G/3GS that has a cutout on the back to place it right on the GorillaMobile. This way you don't have "stick" anything on the back of your iPhone.

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Posted in Digital Photography, Gadgets, Road Warrior, iPhone, iPhone App of the Week | 5 Comments »

Best of 2009: Terry’s Top 10 Gadget Picks

Monday, January 4th, 2010

Happy New Year! It's that time once again to take a quick look at my favorite gadgets of last year. The gadgets I've chosen were the ones that I used the most and that had the most positive impact on my day-to-day life. These gadgets were either introduced in 2009 or had significant updates in 2009. These are the gadgets that I would recommend to a friend without hesitation. So let's get to it…

 

iPhone 3GS

iPhone 3GS

Anyone that knows me knows that the iPhone 3GS is my communications device of choice. The 3GS made my life easier this year with more memory, a faster processor, and graphics to run apps that I never dreamed of right from the palm of my hand. I use my iPhone quite a bit in my day to day routine. I actually get a ton of work/communications done with this device.  I get both work and personal email, SMS and MMS messaging, productivity and business apps, and yes even the ability to make calls. This is the one gadget that I now couldn't imagine being without. See my original iPhone 3GS review here. Learn more about the iPhone 3GS here.

See my Must Have iPhone Apps here.

See my favorite iPhone and iPod touch accessories here.

 

Logitech Harmony One Universal Remote

When I am at home and not producing content, I enjoy my home entertainment systems and home theater. The one remote that has worked for me better than any other remote I've tried is the Logitech Harmony One. This remote is configured from your computer to do exactly what you want. Anyone with more than a couple of entertainment components should do themselves a favor and check out the Harmony One. See my original review here. Get the Harmony One Remote here.

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Posted in Adobe, Apple, Apple TV, Electronics, Entertainment, GPS, Gadgets, HDTV, MacBook Pro, Road Warrior, TiVo, Wireless, iPhone | 18 Comments »

Last day to get the Navigon GPS iPhone app for $69.99

Monday, August 31st, 2009

Attention Shoppers! I just wanted to remind you that today (August 31, 2009) is the last day to save $30 on the Navigon Turn-by-Turn GPS app for the iPhone. Today it’s $69.99. After today the price goes up to $99.99 (according to Navigon). The Navigon GPS App is available here from the App Store.

UPDATE: The Navigon app did go up, but only to $89.99. I guess they still want to be cheaper than TomTom.

You can see my Navigon App Review here. Also here is my Tom Tom App Review in case you missed it. Also the Vent Mount that I use to mount my iPhone 3GS is reviewed here.

 

A Nice Comparison of 4 GPS Apps for the iPhone

I thought Mike over at Insanely Great Mac did a nice job in telling you about his likes and dislikes comparing the 4 most popular GPS apps (AT&T, Navigon, Tom Tom and G-Map) for the iPhone. See his video comparison below:

 

 

Posted in Car, Deals, GPS, Road Warrior, iPhone App of the Week | 3 Comments »