But let’s face it, we could still get more nasty weather before the winter is over. Personally, I think inclement weather means that it’s time to stay home, stay warm and take time off with family. But if you must work, then you might as well be prepared. I’ve collected some resources that may be helpful to those of us who work remotely.

Power

A couple of my clients have been affected by the unusually cold weather causing power outages in places like Texas.

If you’re using a desktop, you’ll want to get an uninterruptable power supply (UPS). But don’t expect too much. Reasonably-priced UPSes are intended to give you enough time to save your work and shut down gracefully. They won’t let you continue working for a long time; the ones I’ve tried don’t last more than an hour or so.

Of course, you can use a laptop, and rely on its battery for however long it will last. And you might be able to use backup power sources like the ZAGGSparq for smaller devices.

Internet connection

Even if your power stays on, your Internet connection might not. My primary Internet service comes from a cable modem, but if it goes down, it’s nice to be able to tether my smartphone to my laptop, use a mobile hotspot, or use a phone with hotspot capability built in.

If you don’t want to spend the extra money for the above on a regular basis, and you live in an area with 4G coverage, you might want to invest in the Rover Puck from Clear. This device, which I’ve written about previously, is reasonably cheap and lets you buy 4G connectivity on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Communicate

Assuming you have power and an Internet connection, you can use the communication and conferencing options that Simon collected last spring. Also, check out this updated list of web conferencing alternatives.

Of course, you’ll want to let clients and colleagues know what you are doing, something that’s even easier now then when I last wrote about the subject a couple of years ago.

Travel

If you feel you must travel during bad weather, Nancy put together a great list of iOS apps for surviving air travel. If you get stranded, check out Stuck at the Airport, which includes some of the unexpected services that can be found at airports worldwide.

Stay warm

While you’re out there in the weather, you might as well stay warm and connected. If you need pockets for your gear, check out the SCOTTEVEST hoodie that I’ve written about before. And use your touch-screen gear without freezing your fingers with conductive gloves from Agloves. The Agloves folks sent me some to try, and they’re surprisingly light and warm, and yes, I can use the touchscreen on my HTC Evo or iPod touch while wearing them.

Let’s hope that darn groundhog is right, and we’re in for an early spring. But in the meantime, I hope you can stay productive when “the weather outside is frightful.”

How do you keep working in extreme winter weather?

Image courtesy Rob Gutro, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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Today’s smartphones can become complete messaging systems that keep the worker up to date and in touch with clients and coworkers.  The Blackberry has long been considered one of the most complete messaging tools available and they have recently made great inroads into the marketplace as a result.

The newest Blackberry to come along is the Storm and a unique smartphone it is without even a keyboard to get in the way.  Will the Blackberry Storm fill the needs of the average web worker or is it just fluff?

Let’s take a look at what it offers and kick the tires.

The Storm is a phone with a big screen that is all touchy-feely like the iPhone and foregoes a keyboard.

At the heart of the phone is the core Blackberry feature set which is probably the best messaging platform on the market. It’s important to not overlook that the Storm is a Blackberry at its core even though it is a nice bright shiny gadget like the iPhone.  The messaging system works flawlessly as you would expect from a Blackberry and the web worker will soon fall in love with that system.  The messaging encompasses email and there is a full IM offering on board that makes it a joy to keep in touch with team members.

It doesn’t matter if you use Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, Blackberry Messenger or Windows Live Messenger, the Storm has you covered.  The notification system is ingrained into the Blackberry platform so if you get a message from a contact on any of these IM platforms the Storm will show an indication just like email.  This makes sure you are never out of touch when you need to be there.

How does messaging work without a keyboard?

RIM has incorporated technology they call SurePress that provides an on-screen keyboard that provides tactile feedback.  It’s not quite the same as typing on a phsyical phone keyboard but it’s pretty darn close and that’s where the magic comes into play.  It feels so natural to type an email out on this tactile keyboard that you quickly forget you’re not pressing real keys because they feel real.  In our evaluation we find that we create far more detailed email messages because the typing experience is so good.

When you use the Storm in horizontal orientation you get a full QWERTY keyboard with all the keys where you expect them.  Type a message while holding the Storm vertically and you are presented with the Blackberry SureType keyboard which puts two letters on each key.  This works surprisingly well as the Blackberry uses a predictive system that is uncanny in producing the correct word.  We found we could quickly use this keyboard one-handed like any other phone.

The Blackberry Storm comes equipped with software from Dataviz which makes it possible to work with Office documents right on the phone. We all know how common an occurrence it is to get an email with a Word document attachment for example and with this software you can not only review Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents but you can edit them right on the phone.  This makes the Storm a full work platform right out of the box.

Many web workers do a fair bit of traveling and the Blackberry Storm being released by Verizon is a full global communications device.  Verizon includes a SIM in the box that provides voice and data capability while traveling abroad.  You will never be out of touch with the Storm in your pocket.

The one area that Storm falls short for some is the lack of WiFi. RIM made a decision to not include the ability to work in WiFi hotspots and that may be a factor for some.  The phone uses the excellent Verizon 3G network to forego the lack of WiFi but for those who work out of the coverage area it might not be enough.  In our evaluation of the Storm in urban areas with 3G coverage the lack of WiFi has not been an issue but it’s something that each of us will have to consider.

We would have to say that the Blackberry Storm will certainly be a good communications solution for most web workers, based on our hands-on evaluation.  It provides a full web browsing experience that almost rivals that of the iPhone and we find that pretty darn good.  When you couple that with the Blackberry messaging capability we find the Storm to be a great solution for the professional.

The phone will run $199 with a two-year contract with Verizon when it’s released in the next day or so.

For a more thorough look at the Storm check out our review complete with video coverage of the phone over on jkOnTheRun.

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