lgpOnTheMove

Lifestyles of the Mobile Road Warrior - Staying Connected

EDITOR'S NOTE: For today's modern workforce, spending your 9-5 in a cubicle no longer makes practical sense. With the productivity and connectivity mobile tech provides, 1 in 5 workers are now able to make a living outside the traditional office environment. This new series of articles on lgpOnTheMove caters specifically to the hard-core mobile worker who is always on the go. You'll find tips, tricks, advice and proven, hands-on examples of how to not only stay useful while on the road, but create a no-compromise ultimate mobility solution.

Connectivity has become prime to providing an ideal mobile work environment. It doesn't matter if you provide lip service all day for clients on your cellphone, handle 100+ emails or need to video conference every morning half-way across the globe - it's your connectivity that will either make or break your day. With more ways now than ever to get both voice and data working for you, it's only fitting that I show how you too can hit the road without sacrificing anything when it comes to staying connected.

It's been close to a year since I first looked at Clearwire's 4G WiMax service and tested their first mobile hotspot. My unfortunate experience with their device and service, however, left me feeling extremely disappointed, especially when you understand my desire to not only enjoy unlimited mobile broadband, but make the dream of having internet everywhere a reality.

Fast forward 12 months to today, and I now have their newest mobile hotspot, the Apollo 4G, under my scrutiny. Does the newer hardware improve the user experience? And has Clear been able to take advantage of the last 12 months to make improvements to their wireless internet service? Read on to see how the company fares this time around!

Once again 2012 is set to bring a slew of exciting new hardware for mobile tech enthusiasts. CES 2012 already gave me a good indication of just some of the products due to hit shelves later this year. Look hard enough, though, and you can already find sprinklings of as-yet-unseen gadgets already appearing, or set to go on sale very soon.

Notebooks in particular are due for some major improvements this year thanks to the continued efforts of Intel, AMD and nVidia. If the arrival of mobile Sandy Bridge hasn't yet convinced you to upgrade that Core 2 Duo clunker you've been using since 2008, here's a few more reasons why you should seriously consider upgrading in 2012.

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On Location - CES 2012

Las Vegas saw plenty of action again as the Consumer Electronics Show went into full swing this week in the Nevada desert, with tons of new mobile gadgets and companies there to show off their wares for 2012. Eager to build on my first experience from last year, I spent considerable time covering the exhibit floor looking at devices and meeting with both manufacturers and vendors.

While not everything at the show was being "on show", I managed to get a good indication of what users will be seeing later on in the year, and in some cases as soon as a few weeks. Slates continue to be a major theme as they were last year, but there were just as many new notebooks to show off as well. Read on to see everything I was able to find!

Less than 1 week left before I get behind the wheel again for sin city. This year I'll be traveling light, taking merely my HP 210 Mini netbook, HTC Touch Pro 2 smartphone and Energizer XP8000 battery pack. New in my gear bag this year is the Apollo 4G mobile hotspot from Clear (review coming on lgpOnTheMove soon), giving me always-on connectivity wherever my feet happen to take me.

Housing all this gear will be my versatile Solo TCA511-4 netbook case. Considering how much smaller this is than the gear bag CES hands out to press attendees, I may actually walk the show floor with the Solo. I'll have no problems snapping photos with the Touch Pro 2. Blogging and posting images will be child's play with the 210 Mini. And with the XP8000 riding on my belt with plenty of juice on tap, I've got all-day power for running both my smartphone and fast 4G hotspot.

Off the Beaten Track - why Mobile Broadband in the U.S. Still Sucks

Nobody can deny that over the last 2-3 years, mobile tech has changed more dramatically than at any other time. The advent of slates flooding the consumer market along with the explosion of smartphone use has pushed mobile data demands into the mainstream. Now more than ever, data is king! It's no longer a matter of choosing how many minutes you need when shopping for a wireless plan, but how much data you get and how you want to use it.

Ideally, consumers welcome choice. But die-hard mobile data users, business users, enthusiasts and a large chunk of consumers who have previously enjoyed unlimited data are left out in the cold. For them, choice simply doesn't exist, facing either a monopoly of one carrier or going without service at all. Put simply, mobile broadband in the U.S. still sucks!

It's that special time of the year again where lgpOnTheMove is sharing the Christmas spirit. I would like to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful, safe, fun-filled happy holidays.

For those of you lucky enough to have a brand-new notebook sitting under the tree, I'm guessing your Christmas just got extra special.

Stay tuned for more great notebook news and reviews coming in 2012!