CB radio's a great way to call for backup, but not much good for sending email
If you’re going further afield, or if you’re in a remote area or country where wireless and mobile broadband isn’t really an option, you can always look into purchasing or leasing a mobile satellite broadband system. You can even get such a system to mount on your vehicle so that you’re always online while you drive. Thing is, although they have improved a lot over the years, reliability still isn’t always their strong point and the price of such equipment is also still quite high.
Whilst smart phones and tablet PCs are great innovations, when it comes to working on the move, you still need to have a laptop. They’re better to work on and type with, have much longer battery life and it’s much easier to show people things on the screen. With a laptop you can easily show people your product demonstrations or presentations either directly from the screen, or, if it’s a larger group of people, hooked up to a monitor or projector.
When choosing a laptop you’re much better off looking at higher end systems, rather than buying the cheapest ones you can find. It might cost a bit more, but it will be well worth it in the long run. So forget about Dells and eMachines and look at Acers, Toshibas, Samsungs or, if you prefer, Apples.
Breaker, Breaker
If the road you’re on is rocky, or if you’re going into situations where durability is key, you’ll want to look at getting a laptop that’s up to the task. One of the most popular of these is the Panasonic Toughbook. The Toughbook is the laptop of choice for army engineers, industrial engineers, telecom and electrical engineers, people who install satellite or internet linkups, or those working in remote and/or inhospitable environments – basically for pretty much any profession that requires a laptop that can take a serious battering and shrug it off. The Toughbook is by no means the only laptop built for such purposes, though it is the industry standard. It’s built to withstand all manner of knocks, shocks, spills, thrills, chills and kills – though, as you can well imagine, it doesn’t come cheap.
Of course there are still plenty of applications or situations where having a tablet PC presents a clear advantage over a laptop, so if, for whatever reason, you simply must have a tablet PC, there are also many tough Tablet PCs including several military grade Tablet PCs. Panasonic also have their own Toughbook brand to choose from plus an Android-based Toughpad in the pipeline.
Calling from the Road
For most people, however, all that’s really required is a regular laptop and/or smart phone. With smart phones, as with laptops, not all models are created equally. The brand shouldn’t matter much and really ought to be a matter of preference, be that your preference, or that of the company you work for. (For example I’ve heard of companies who prefer their staff use Blackberries rather than other smartphones because they don’t want them fiddling about so much with apps and social media.)
Since every morning I wake up it seems like there’s a new model of smartphone it would be pointless for me to recommend one, as the model would invariably be obsolete by the time you read this. Whichever phone you choose, however, you will need to ensure is that it has wireless capability and, of course, the longer the battery life the better. After all, you can buy the snazziest, most powerful and versatile smart phone in the world, but it’s useless if you end up having to charge it every hour. So if you’re thinking of buying a new smart phone make sure to check out lots of reviews online and pay particular attention to battery life.
Of course however smart (or dumb) your cellphone might be you’ll want to make sure it’s always charged. You might want to get one of those emergency charger kits to keep in your suitcase or laptop bag, just in case, but invariably the main source of power for your phone will come from your car’s cigarette lighter and that means you’ll also need to invest in a compatible in-car mobile phone system.
Driving whilst talking on the phone is a big no-no as it can cause accidents. Besides, if you’re battling traffic, trying to get from one meeting to the next, the last thing you need is to have traffic cops pull you over and fine you. One common solution to this is to buy one of those Bluetooth headsets though personally I don’t like them. Firstly I find them pretty goofy looking – I mean come on, right? Besides which, they’re not exactly comfortable things to have stuck in your ear for hours on end. For that reason I believe a hands-free system is better, something you can plug into, or feed into, your car radio, so you can just drive and talk.
Cars with internet access
Nowadays, of course, you can do a lot more in your car than drive around whilst people think you’re talking to yourself, there are also many different ways to use the web whilst driving. Internet-ready cars are already hitting the market and special, ready-to-install, in-car computers are also available, ranging from consumer devices designed to fit inside your dashboard to more rugged devices designed for law enforcement.
A car computer scene, meanwhile, has existed for many years now and if you look on Google you’ll find no shortage of DIY/hacker type solutions using everything from old PDAs to small form factor PCs. From a connection standpoint, as well as being able to use your smartphone or share its connection with another device, such as your laptop or tablet PC, there also lots of other connectivity options including special mobile internet hubs for your car.
Whilst the options available for in-car internet are practically endless, the level of in-car communications you enjoy will largely be based on your location. Not only will the quality and availability of services and infrastructure vary dramatically depending on where you are, local and national legislation will also dictate what you can or cannot do on the road. We all know how typing or texting whilst driving can be extremely dangerous, however many road safety advocates also consider voice calls to be equally dangerous and distracting and want to ban them too. This puts them directly at odds with emerging voice-activated computer systems such as the new Ford Sync and BMW iDrive products.
I personally find that both sides make compelling arguments as to whether voice-activated systems still constitute a significant distraction whilst driving. The only thing is, cars with internet access are an idea whose time has come and, given the current climate, governments are unlikely to over-regulate innovations which would provide a significant boost to the auto industry. Besides, in a couple of years we’ll all have Kitt-style self-driving cars if Google have their way (which they usually do), so the road warriors of the future won’t even notice the roads and simply spend their days puttering around in an office on wheels as their car’s inbuilt computer pilots them from one meeting to the next.
That’s the future. And it’s not quite as far off as we think.
Slowly but surely technology is starting to catch up with our imagination and it won’t be long until computer-driven cars are actually considered much safer than human drivers. In there here and now, however, you still need to drive your car yourself. Though once again, as we’ll see, technology has made the life of the road warrior much, much easier.
Next…
We’ve covered communication, next we’ll look at navigation – getting from one point to the next with ease. Computers might not be able to drive us all to our destination just yet, but we do have the next best thing…
