Blog of a Long Distance Worker Tech

The blog about mobile tech

Tag Archives: Mobile Phone

Battery Life is a Feature

I do not always follow every iDevice rumour but the one I do hope would come true (and not just for iDevices) is extending battery life further.

High End Version of New iPads Get Extra Battery Life

Reports are coming in that Apple will be unveiling two versions of iPad3 this early 2012, one for the high-end segment and one for the mid-range segment. One rumored improvement of these new devices over their predecessor is longer battery span, which will be increased to 14,000mAH.

This rumour is probably absolute nonsense but I hope device designers out there really start to focus on battery life as a primary feature of a mobile device, and not as a secondary one. Devices need to be able to run through a heavy working day with some spare capacity without the need for me to carry my trusty recharger.

 

Perfect Traveller Mobile

After a poor discussion with mobile phone operator regarding upgrades to iPhone4 (no I will not pay £290 AND a 2 year contract for an upgrade), I decided to go elsewhere for a new mobile phone. I had to get a new one primarily because my iPhone3′s battery life was degrading at such a rate that I could not get through half the day before it had to be charged. Of course Apple had made that design decision early on that the battery was not a user changeable aspect of the phone.

This got me thinking about what makes the ideal mobile for the traveller, and I came up with the following list:

1. Smartphone, not ordinary phone – because you need to carry your entire address book with you and have email/web access at all times, because you never know when your itinerary changes and everything has to be at your fingertips
2. Unlocked – for switching in local Sims
3. Good all day battery life – because it has to work all day under normal usage
4. Standard charger – because you will forget or lose yours
5. USB charging – because your laptop is a great battery recharger
6. WiFi connectivity – because 3G data roaming costs a fortune
7. GPS – because you need a mapping application to figure out where you are and where you are going to

I used some of these ideas in finding my new phone (an Android 2.1 based middle of the range/budget device), but what makes your ideal phone?

Be Prepared…Working disconnected

I had recent cause to travel to a family party in Dorset. It was a really pleasant weekend but that is not why I am writing. Dorset suffers from an extremely problematic mobile reception problem. It is quite hilly and the population density can be low in places, leading to the masts being either ineffective or no-existent. This meant that for the majority of the time that weekend I had no mobile coverage, with one period being in excess of 17 hours.

This is a shock and horror! :-) What to do?

Well it did not really matter that weekend, but if I am travelling on work to a place or even a country that has this sort of spotty mobile coverage you really need to be prepared. This is some suggestions:

1. Have local cash to use public call boxes

2. Let people know contact numbers where you are going

3. Have voicemail setup so people can leave messages for you to return when you are back in range (special messages can be used for some)

4. Have VoIP like Skype on your laptop because sometimes you have Internet but not mobile service

5. Low signal areas will suck your mobile battery dry so have the charger with you at all times and recharge when you can

6. With the low signal level battery suck, in extreme cases use the Airplane mode

7. Check ahead on coverage maps and also map out where the WiFi/Internet connectivity will come from

8. Have alternatives to apps that use online access for accessing their data like … Google Maps doesn’t work very well offline :-)

9. In other words do what we used to have to do before mobiles …. Plan ahead