With all the cool stuff that comes through Mobile Tech Manor on a regular basis I change gear like some people change socks. It’s a great way to work as I am constantly considering what gadget would make a good difference in my work style and I can easily try out new things. For that reason it’s time for another "Day in the Life" articles that details a typical day I spent recently and what I used to get through it.
This particular day my schedule was a bit lighter than most with morning meetings the call of the day and an afternoon devoted to writing. This is my favorite schedule because it means I don’t have to wake up until 5:30, a full hour later than many days believe it or not. I rose with the alarm and headed downstairs to get some java and connect to the interwebs for the first time of the day. I picked up the Fujitsu P1620 out of its dock and turned it on so it could resume and finish the typical Vista disk thrashing while I poured my coffee and settled in front of the morning news. I have to check the news for any traffic situations that might affect my running around later.
I used the Fuji in portrait slate mode as usual for this and fired up Google Reader to check my feeds. Only 300 items were waiting for me this morning, a light overnight activity. I used the Fuji’s scroll arrows on the side of the screen and was able to go through my feeds quickly. I tap on the Star icon for any items I wanted to save to read later and as I paged down Google Reader dutifully marked passed items as read. I love this system for checking so many feeds, it’s the bomb. When I had emptied my feed basket I went to the starred items and began reading them individually. When I finished an item if it was not something I wanted to write about later I unstarred it to drop it from my basket and moved on to the next one. I wanted to post a couple of quick items for jkOTR so I swiveled the screen around to laptop mode and wrote away. I always use a keyboard when I write stuff as it lets me concentrate on the writing and not the mechanism of trying to ink it with the TIP. Once that was done I headed to the shower to get ready for the day.
Once I was properly showered and ready to begin the day I headed to the study and fired up the HP 2710p. I had already decided to take the HP with me today as it is such a great Tablet PC but also has that full-sized keyboard should I have a few minutes to steal between meetings writing articles. I might not need to but the great thing about having so many devices to choose from means I can do so. I got the HP fired up and let Outlook sync with my Exchange Server so it would be ready to go when I pulled it out of the bag at my first meeting. While Outlook was syncing up I popped in the Kingston MobileLite 9-in-1 card reader that is my most heavily used accessory. This little USB card reader is small and light and accepts every type of card I use in my various devices, making it a breeze to transfer files from device to device. I keep my Patriot 16 GB SD card in the proper slot in the MobileLite so it’s always ready to go as I use it to keep my documents in sync from device to device.
I use Karen’s Replicator to do this as it’s free and offers the fastest sync process I’ve seen. Since I had carried the Fuji with me the day before it meant that my OneNote files and my time billing files were up-to-date on that device so I’d need to sync them with the HP before heading out. I popped the MobileLite into the USB port on the Fuji and ran my predefined sync job with Karen’s Replicator and in two minutes it had synced yesterday’s changes to the MobileLite. I then popped it into the HP and ran that job and in a minute the HP files were up to the minute good. I put the 2710p into Sleep mode and dropped it into my bag and headed out the door.
I arrived 10 minutes early to my first meeting across town and needed to wait for my colleague to arrive so I popped the Verizon AirCard, the v740, into the ExpressCard slot and tapped into the 3G network. I caught up with my email while waiting and responded to a few and when it was time to head upstairs my inbox was empty, a very nice place to be. Once in the meeting I pulled the HP out and fired up OneNote to take notes at the meeting and all was right in the world. I was able to use the OneNote searching to find previously inked notes about this project as needed and refer to various maps and PDFs I had printed into OneNote using the Send to OneNote feature of the program. This made the meeting very productive and kept it moving along as I was able to find stuff in seconds to keep the discussion flowing. When the meeting ended after an hour it was time to head out to meeting #2 at a different location.
I drove to the next meeting and was able to check email again in the lobby while waiting for colleagues. I then spent five minutes checking my RSS feeds to get up-to-date in that area too, using the same method from earlier in the morning. I tagged several items with stars to come back to later as I always do. I then put the HP into Sleep mode and headed up to the meeting. This meeting was relatively short as it was mainly a status update and when it was over it was time to get some lunch.
I headed to a nearby restaurant to refuel and once I had ordered I pulled out the HTC Advantage and opened it into mini-laptop mode. While I ate a nice lunch I read my current ebook using eReader and it was a pleasant lunch. Using the Advantage in laptop mode this way means I don’t have to hold the device while I eat and I can simply turn pages by pressing the arrow key on the little keyboard. Nice and simple and very enjoyable I might add. When I finished eating I tagged the current page with a bookmark and opened Messaging on the HTC and caught up with my email. I responded to a couple that needed a quick response and then I opened up Opera Mobile and hit Google Reader again, like I do many times a day. I quickly spun through a lot of headlines and tagged a few for later referral (sound familiar?) and when I was ready to go both my email inbox and my RSS feed bin were both empty. So nice. :)
My work meetings done, it was now time for my favorite part of the day, writing about tech. I decided to head to my home office and drop off the HP into its dock so it would charge up. I picked up my latest toy tool, the Lenovo IdeaPad U110 and dropped it into the bag before heading out to the local coffee shop. I really like writing on the Lenovo as I find the keyboard to allow me to type with blazing speed and very high accuracy. I attribute this to the oversized key caps which lets me hit the right key even if I’m off-center a little bit. One thing I have been accused of before is that I am off-center, so this works just fine for me.
When I arrive at the coffee shop and get my beverage of choice I sit down at the work table and pull the Lenovo out of the bag to get to work. I often have to spend 5 or 10 minutes answering questions about the U110 as it attracts attention from the other regulars and this day was no different. The first thing I do when someone expresses an interest in the IdeaPad is to hand it to them and that always elicits an excited response. I appreciate their response because even though I’ve been using the Lenovo for a few weeks now I am still blown away how thin and light it is, even with the 7-cell battery attached like it usually is. I get 4-5 hours of battery life with it and still the form is so thin and light and this never fails to amaze those I hand it to. Once the excitement dies down I am able to get down to the actual work at hand and I connect to the hotspot and get to work.
I do a lot of web research in this session and start two articles using that information. I find that while working with the Lenovo U110 that it is so well designed for actual usage that I don’t even think about the device while I am working away. This is wonderful as it means my entire small brain is focused on the writing I am doing and not futzing with the gadget at all. This is priceless to me and why I love using the IdeaPad so much. This is rarely the case with most devices as I find they have some compromises to achieve good mobility and those get in my way from time to time. There are no compromises with the U110 and why I love using it for my work. The fact that it is a fast performer is icing on the cake and lets me steamroll through my work in the shortest amount of time possible. So I have a very productive work session in the coffee shop, even with occasional stoppages due to interested bystanders. It’s a very good afternoon for me with my time very well spent.
All too soon it’s time to head home which is only five minutes away. I drive past the major HP complex on my way home and like I always I am in wonder just how big this facility it. It’s the original Compaq world headquarters and it occupies blocks and probably a couple dozen buildings. I drive past and when I get home I plop the Lenovo onto the work desk and plug it in to charge. If you haven’t noticed by now I never, and I mean never, carry an AC adapter with me during the day. I do not ever think about finding an outlet nor pay much attention to my remaining battery life because I always have a second battery for every device I carry. This is pure joy to work without worrying about it and I absolutely always order a second battery when I buy a device. It’s another thing I like about the Lenovo, it ships with both a standard and extended battery in the box so when I headed out I just threw the little standard battery in my bag. It was unlikely I would kill off the extended battery while working but for redundancy sake it’s good to have the other in the bag. It would have supplied me with another 3 hours had I needed it, and I probably could have gotten away with just using it but the extended battery was already on the U110 anyway. Plus like I said it’s still thin and light with that battery attached so frankly I just leave it on the device.
Well, that’s it for my work day. It’s been a pretty boring day for you to read about but a pretty typical day for me. It accentuates to me how lucky I am that I have access to all of the many mobile devices I get to use and I realize how unique it is to be able to have to decide which one to take with me on a given outing. It’s good to be me in this regard. :)
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