So I’m sitting in the US Airways (I know I know) terminal at LaGuardia right now. And guess how I got online? Yep, I paid $7.95 to a company called Boingo, which supplies the wireless connection.
But now that I’m online, I just found a great little trick that lets you save that $7.95 and get free wireless Internet at any airport. Here’s all you have to do:
Add “?.jpg” after any website address. That’s it. For instance, if you want Google, just type in www.google.com/search?.jpg/.
Enjoy!
When I travel, the weight of my books and magazines is more than the weight of all the rest of my stuff put together. I’ve stopped carrying guidebooks (why do they make them so fat and heavy!?), I just photocopy the relevant pages; but what about my books?
I’m currently reading Shantaram. It’s an A5, 1140 page book, so heavy that I refuse to lug it around on the metro, let alone a trip. If not for the size, I would have finished it by now.
The solution to that? Maybe Kindle — the latest wireless e-reader on the market. Produced by Amazon, although bigger and more expensive than the Sony e-reader, on it you can buy from a choice of 90,000 books (Sony allows 20,000) — without the need of a computer or Internet connection; you can read national and international newspapers, and can subscribe to 250 of the top blogs for $1 a month per blog. It holds up to 200 titles, the battery lasts 3-weeks and is recharged in 2-hours.
I’m not very tech savvy, but if it will help me not compromise on my reading material when I travel, I’m willing to invest. Reading a book with it physically in your hands has it’s own glory, but that’s what I said about newspapers too — now I only read them online, it’s just a matter of getting used to I suppose.
But, I still have a problem: Kindle was sold out in 5 1/2 hours of its release (November 2007). Now there is a waiting list but they will not ship outside the US. Darn!
To update you on the story that Erik posted earlier, it has been confirmed that JetBlue is launching its wireless product on (one of) their airplanes next week.
But with a hitch.
Due to marketing partnerships that the company has forged with Yahoo and Blackberry, fliers will only be able to check their Yahoo mail wirelessly. They can also use one of two approved Blackberry models to get onto the Jetblue network and check personal and work email, but only on those two models.
My preliminary data indicate that this should make about 7% of Jetblue fliers happy while pissing off the other 93% who don’t use Yahoo mail or a crackberry.
Apparently, general surfing is still not allowed; they haven’t got the bandwidth yet to cover it. Not to worry though — most forward thinking airlines including Alaska Air, Soutwest and Virgin America have plans to integrate wireless in the next year or so. I think that sooner or later Jetblue will open up their bandwidth as well.
Via MSNBC
So much of my travel time in an automobile is spent fiddling with the radio dial looking for some audio entertainment. Or, if a get a phone call, chatting on my cell.
As everyone knows, such activities are hardly conducive to good driving. And yet, we continue doing them. Why? Because there are very few hands-free alternatives in today’s automobile.
This is all about to change, however.
Ford has just announced that it will be installing a new system in many of its automobiles that finally solves this problem. Sync is hands-free based software that syncs with all your electronic doo-dads in a manner in which you can keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road.
Sync, priced as a very reasonable $395 option in the States, not only communicates with your Bluetooth-enabled cell phone, allowing you to talk hands free, but it also reads text messages to you. In addition, you can tell the onboard computer which songs (or even which genre of songs) you want played from your digital music player.
Now, if it will only drive for me as well, I just might consider buying a Ford.
Although internet cafes are quite popular in Europe, there really aren’t too many of them in the United States. Unfortunately, this doesn’t make things very easy for travelers wanting to jump online while visiting the USA.
If you happen to be in Los Angeles, however, there is a very convenient way to get online: visit one of the city’s public libraries.
The Los Angeles Public Library system offers free WiFi connection to anyone who walks in through their front door. And with 72 locations throughout Los Angeles, there’s a good chance there’s one near your hotel. Click here to find it.
