Mobile Computing
* Winner of the Western Publications Association 2004 Maggie Award *
as Best Online Newsletter!
September 23rd, 2004
proudly presented by
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Technology Advice You Can Trust
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PC World Contributing Editor James A. Martin helps you make the most
of your computing on the go with tools, tips, and product
recommendations about handhelds and notebooks and more.
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September 23rd, 2004
In This Issue:
- Feature: Tips for Surviving Trade Shows
- Notebooks & Accessories: ThinkPad R51 Strikes the Right Balance;
Trace Your Notebook; Read Your Local Paper on the Road
- Gadgets & Services: Latest IPod and Zen Touch; Altec Lansing
Speakers for the IPod Mini; Streaming Media on Sprint Phones
* Feature: Tips for Surviving Trade Shows *
It's officially autumn. The nights are getting cooler; the election is
heating up; and you're probably heading to Las Vegas. Or Orlando. Or
someplace else where there's a convention or trade show.
With summer's end, the trade-show calendar begins to fill up.
Attending or exhibiting at trade shows can be extremely rewarding.
Where else can you meet so many other potentially valuable contacts in
your profession in one place? But when you have to haul a notebook,
PDA, mobile phone, and other gear, not to mention a few changes of
clothes, the experience can be draining.
Having attended Comdex, Seybold, and many other big computer
conventions, I know a thing or two about trade-show survival. Here are
some of my tips for making your trek as painless as possible. I'd love
to get yours, too; send e-mail to me at:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Planning Your Stay
If you'll be attending an out-of-town convention, get a list of the
hotels nearest to the event location. Usually the trade show's Web
site will offer this information. Then call your first-choice hotel;
tell the clerk you'll be attending the trade show; find out if they
have space left; and, most importantly, ask if they're offering
special rates for attendees. You could do this all online, of course,
but if you're getting close to the trade show's dates, you're better
off picking up the phone.
Other questions to ask hotel staff: Is there an in-room safe large
enough to accommodate a notebook? (Have the dimensions of your
notebook ready, in case the hotel clerk is unsure.) Do they offer
high-speed Internet access in the room? If so, is it wired or
wireless, and is it included in the room rate? And is there a
refrigerator or minibar in the room? After a long day of walking the
trade-show floor, you'll need one--if only to store an ice pack for
your throbbing tootsies.
You can search for hotels with broadband Internet access at
WiredHotels.com:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/228848/21421680/755320/0/
Wi-Fi-FreeSpot has list of hotels offering free Wi-Fi Internet access:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/228848/21421680/601295/0/
If you're like me, you want some quiet time after a long day at a
trade show. In that case, don't book a stay at the conference's
officially sanctioned hotels, because you're bound to run into other
conventioneers who want to gab, tell you about their product, or
worse, go out to dinner. For an added bonus, find a hotel beyond the
perimeter of the convention hall but still within walking
distance--that way, you can get exercise and some privacy.
Prepping Your Gear
Many trade-show attendees and exhibitors pack a notebook, a PDA, and a
mobile phone or smart phone. But will you need to carry everything to
the convention floor? If so, take a rolling notebook bag that's big
enough to accommodate all your gadgets, plus the inevitable press
kits, brochures, business cards, and trade-show trinkets you'll
accumulate. Don't have such a bag? Head to EBags.com, where you can
compare multiple bags side-by-side to help you pick the right one:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/228848/21421680/747/0/
Luggage Online is another good resource. Recently, I bought a
hard-shell Samsonite suitcase there and paid no taxes or shipping
fees, which made the total less than what I would have paid at EBags.
The site is at:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/228848/21421680/755321/0/
If you don't need all that gear at the show, leave your extra
equipment in the hotel. If there's no in-room safe large enough to
accommodate your notebook, you have a few options. Ask the front-desk
clerk if your notebook can be stored in the hotel's safe. Or put your
notebook in a large suitcase and lock it. Granted, these strategies
aren't foolproof, but they're better than leaving an unattended,
unsecured notebook in a hotel room.
Giving a presentation at the convention? Then I have three things to
tell you: Back it up, back it up, and back it up.
When I queried newsletter readers for their tips on giving
presentations on the road, nearly every tipster wrote about their
backup strategies to prevent presentation disasters. Check out their
tips at
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/228848/21421680/601127/0/
Are you planning to give product demos on your notebook in a
trade-show booth? Get to the booth as early as possible; the day
before the show opens is ideal. Set up your equipment and go through
your routine to make sure everything's working properly. Keep the
phone number of a techie colleague nearby in case something goes
wrong. And bring all the discs that came with your
computer--system-restore CDs, application-installation CDs, and so
on--in case of a hard drive crash or other disaster. Better yet, pack
an external portable hard drive that mirrors your notebook's internal
drive. Should your hard drive crash, you can boot from the external
drive and keep going. One such option is CMS's ABSPlus Portable; you
can read more details about it at the bottom of page 3 in "Better
Backups":
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/228848/21421680/755159/0/
Don't assume that the hotel, exhibit hall, or other area where you'll
be using your computer will have what you need. Pack an AC adapter, an
extra (fully charged) notebook battery in case there's no power plug
nearby, an ethernet cable, a USB cable--in short, anything you might
possibly need.
General To-Dos
* Manage Your Time. Plan in advance the booths you need to visit, the
people you must meet, and the conferences you should attend. If you
do, you may be able to complete the show in two instead of three or
more days.
* Bored With Your Job? A trade show is an excellent place to put your
face in front of some potential employers. Make sure you're dressed
well, and have your elevator pitch (about why you'd be an excellent
hire) memorized.
* Take Breaks. Step outside for fresh air, especially if it's sunny.
Spending too much time in a windowless convention center or meeting
room can quickly make you weary and, at least in my case, a tad
cranky.
* Restrain Yourself. Think twice before loading up on all the free
tchotchkes. Why lug all that junk around, only to throw most of it
away later?
* Keep Healthy. Drink plenty of water, and pack nutrition bars,
slivered almonds, or other healthy snacks in your trade-show bag. Wash
your hands frequently, to keep from getting cold germs. And for crying
out loud, wear comfortable business shoes. On a crowded trade-show
floor, few people will see your feet, so leave the Pradas at home.
A number of shoe makers produce conservative, business-like shoes with
excellent cushioning. Check out the men's and women's styles at Cole
Haan and Ecco--especially the models featuring Nike Air soles. They're
not terribly stylish, but they're comfy.
Cole Haan:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/228848/21421680/755322/0/
Ecco:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/228848/21421680/755323/0/
The Walking Company is a good place to shop for shoes. Its Web site is
under construction, but you can find store locations there:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/228848/21421680/755324/0/
* Notebooks & Accessories *
Review: ThinkPad R51 Strikes the Right Balance
The IBM ThinkPad R51 recently earned PC World's Best Buy for an
all-purpose notebook. It's slender, weighs 5.5 pounds, comes loaded
with features, has an excellent keyboard and long battery life, and is
extremely expandable. It's a bargain at $1700, even though it doesn't
include business software or a DVD burner and the sound is tinny. Read
Carla Thornton's review:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/228848/21421680/755325/0/
News: Trace Your Notebook
Absolute Software recently announced Computrace Personal, a service
designed to help you track down an AWOL notebook. The service works
through a software agent that regularly communicates, in stealth mode,
your portable's location to a centralized server when it's connected
to the Internet. If your notebook is stolen, Absolute Software's
recovery team works with local law-enforcement agencies to get it
back, according to the company. Absolute's service is backed by a
guarantee: The company pays $1000 for any notebook not recovered
within 30 days of its reported disappearance. The service costs $120
for three years. Details:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/228848/21421680/755326/0/
News: Read Your Local Paper on the Road
Sure, you can keep up with your town's news when traveling by visiting
the local newspaper's Web site. But PressDisplay.com, a new
subscription service, goes it one better, providing online versions of
select newspapers that retain the paper's actual layout and design. It
currently offers some 200 national and international newspapers. The
service works on notebooks, desktop systems, and Tablet PCs.
Newspapers offered include Die Zeit, Il Giornale, Los Angeles Times,
The Washington Post, USA Today, and others. Subscription rates range
from $10 to $30 per month. Details:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/228848/21421680/755327/0/
* Gadgets & Services *
Review: Latest IPod and Zen Touch
PC World's Eric Dahl finds that although Apple's updated IPods (20GB,
$299; 40GB, $399) offer some valuable improvements, such as easier
navigation and an improved battery life now rated at 12 hours, they're
not quite perfect. Music fans with WMA, Ogg Vorbis, or FLAC files are
out of luck, as the IPod doesn't support those formats.
In the same review, Eric looks at Creative Lab's newest hard drive
player, the 20GB Zen Touch ($270). It's smaller, and features an
easy-to-use touchpad control. But the inability to move songs around
within a playlist, as you could on previous Creative models, is one of
several disappointments. Details:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/228848/21421680/755328/0/
News: Altec Lansing Speakers for the IPod Mini
Altec Lansing's InMotion speaker set/docking cradle for regular-sized
IPods has become one of the hottest IPod accessories--with good
reason. For their size, the foldable, compact speakers produce great
sound. Now Altec Lansing has come out with an even smaller set of
portable speakers, designed especially for the IPod Minis ($130). The
IMmini speaker set provides clear sound and deep bass, according to
the company, in a foldable package that measures only 7 by 1 by 4.4
inches and weighs just 10 ounces. More details:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/228848/21421680/755329/0/
News: Streaming Media on Sprint Phones
Sprint recently announced a new 15-frames-per-second streaming video
service that runs on a Samsung MM-A700 mobile phone ($400 or $250
after rebate, with a two-year agreement).
The Sprint PCS Vision Multimedia Services, which includes streaming
audio and video, plays video clips faster than the 1-frame-per-second
offered by the Idetic MobiTV service that Sprint began offering last
year, according to a Sprint spokesperson. PCS Vision Multimedia
Services is a pure streaming service, while MobiTV requires you to
download the video to your phone before playing it. Tune in here for
more details:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/228848/21421680/755330/0/
* Pass It On *
Know someone who needs to stay current on the latest mobile computing
news, reviews, and tips? They can sign up for this newsletter at the
PC World newsletter subscriptions page:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/228848/21421680/99/0/
* Suggestion Box *
Is there a particularly cool mobile computing product or service I've
missed? Contact me at:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
* See James Martin's previous Mobile Computing Features at:
http://pcwnl.pcworld.com/t/228848/21421680/237304/0/
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