EUROTRIP

illustration by Tania Kaufmann

06-22-10

How we are blogging while in Europe

My family & Andrew generously bought me an iPad for my birthday, a 3 month early birthday present, so we’d be able to take it on our trip. Andrew and I were pondering buying a cheap netbook to take with us as it would be increasingly frustrating to try to use the iphone as a computer. Having the iPad will be just as good if not better than a computer.

We are taking our iPhones, but only using them in wifi hotspots. We can also call family on really great rates through Skype for the iPhone (which is also available for the iPad as well).

My plan for blogging will be to take photos using my iPhone, where I will try not overuse the retro camera apps (but no guarantees!). Then use Dropbox or Transfer to get the photos quickly and easily to my iPad by wifi (wayyyy faster than email). I think Transfer will fit my needs better. You have to have each program installed on your iPhone and iPad.

Dropbox has a 2GB limit and is good for sharing documents and photos. It feels like an FTP, allowing you upload a document through the app. Also like an FTP, you can make folders for all the files to keep it organized. It also let’s you view everything in the dropbox individually. So if you need to read PDFs on the fly or see what the file looks like. There is also an option to open documents using a certain app installed on the iPad, say a Keynote or Numbers file.

Transfer is super simple and only for photos. You select the photos in your iPhone photo gallery, hit copy, then go the app and “transfer”. The app automatically puts the photos in the iPad photo gallery. You can transfer photos back and forth between each.

You guys are going to have to wait until we get back to get the real photo deal since there isn’t a way to link my memory card to the iPad (as far as I know). But I hope my iPhone photos will satisfy you until then.

Now for how I’m writing the posts:
Read more…

06-22-10

Hanselminutes podcast: World Airplane Travel Tips with James Senior

Scott Hanselman hosts a really great podcast, usually covering timely technology and computer programming. I’m a big fan of Scott, he’s a great speaker and his show is often entertaining and informative.

In this show, Scott discusses travel trips with James Senior. Here are some of the highlights:

Carry-on. Travel light. Don’t overpack. If you forget something, it can usually be purchased.
Check in for flights online, or use computer kiosks at the airport, if possible.
Look for ways to avoid taking a taxi to save money (i.e. trains, buses, etc.)
Take a picture of *everything* (where you parked, wifi pass codes, hotel rooms, etc.) Use Evernote to collect and tag these photos, and sync with the cloud.
Use TripIt to handle your itinerary. You can forward travel documents to plans@tripit.com - they will parse it and build an itinerary for you!
If you have a health condition (i.e. asthma, diabetes) learn how to tell people about it in various languages.
Take advantage of the isolation on an airplane to get work done.
Use SeatGuru to find the best seats for various airplane/airlines.
Scott & James both recommend the Starwood program. You can collect points with purchases you make using an SPG American Express card.
It pays to stick with one rewards program. Know which airlines have a hub in your home city, and try to use them exclusively.

http://www.hanselminutes.com/default.aspx?showID=233

06-14-10

Global Map of Languages Typically Used on Twitter

The people at TrendsMap, a real-time Twitter mashup mapping of Twitter trends across the world, have posted a really neat visualization showing some of the languages typically used on Twitter.

I expect to see more of these sorts of visualizations possible as more web content is geocoded.