Observations from a recent trip

[realitydigg]

I just got back from 7 days away using the Thunderbolt and a Xoom as my primary devices. I was in a 4G zone (Las Vegas - on business before you ask) and was using the pair to demo a webapp, email, entertainment, messaging to keep the team coordinated etc.

1. On the flight over from Boston and on the flight back the Thunderbolt / Xoom combination gave me the abiliy to work in the airports with no concern about connecting to airport WiFi etc.
   
2. Calendaring was - as expected - an issue to take care of. I needed to move my appointments ahead 3 hours from EST to make them line up locally
   
3. 4G at home, at the airport and at my desitination was great!
   
4. Using the Hotspot in the hotel saved me time and money. Using it around town was great -in cabs, etc. The only trouble I ran into was on the convention floor where the phone had good signal, but the hotspot wa not reliable. I think the sheer number of networks were overwhelming the phone's signal and I could not connect reliably.
   
5. Charging ... My big concern was getting through the day. I carried the phone charger with me and found lots of places where I could top off. Charging stations at the airport and at the convention center. All and all I was burning about 5-6% an hour of the charge with light use, and a bit more when i was on the phone or hotspot. The charger is easy to carry around which helped. While I could get through a workday - I couldn't get it to last 'till the end of the day (say 11p or midnight) but it was workable. Also, clearly I wasnt alone. There were a lot of other smartphone users lined up at the charging stations making this the new normal...

All and all I found the trip with the new gadgets a success. Some additional management of power on my end with a lot of additional functionality over my Blackberry storm / Laptop combo in return.

One anecdote - Sitting in a hotel with a group of people someone said hey who's version of that song is that? iPhone and my Thunderbolt come out at the same time. iPhone user opens shazam samples and waits. I had it in the marketplace, but not installed. So i install it, open it sample the song and get the results back faster than the iPhone.... we all agreed that was the commercial! just no one captured it....

 

[FrankXS]

Thanks for sharing your real-world experience. I think some of us get so caught up in "playing" with the phone that we forget what it was really designed for.

-Frank

 

[lippstuh]

lol nice story. 4g speeds are just insane ESPECIALLY in vegas. I did a speedtest when i was there and got 25-30 up/down.

i love vegas

 

[Chrisy]

I got my first Android when I was out of state on a trip. The Thunderbolt was so handy! Used Kayak travel widget, Google Navigator, Poynt, Trip Advisor and the internet a lot.

Does much more than my BlackBerry!

 

[Astrodroid]

[*]Calendaring was - as expected - an issue to take care of. I needed to move my appointments ahead 3 hours from EST to make them line up locally

Wait, why did you have to do this? Why didn't it recognize what time zone you were in and adjust on its own?

 

[mclarryjr]

Wait, why did you have to do this? Why didn't it recognize what time zone you were in and adjust on its own?

the time will adjust knowing where your at but if you set up an appointment on eastern time zone it will adjust to your current location/time. I noticed the same thing last month when I went to Veges for work. I even had to purchase the TB there on launch date fearing they would see out on day one.

 

[realitydigg]

Wait, why did you have to do this? Why didn't it recognize what time zone you were in and adjust on its own?

As mentioned above - yes the phone adjusts and the appointments are presented relative to the time zone you entered them in. This is standard behavior, just a pain. So if you say meet you at 1p and put it in your calendar at 1p EST as i do, then when you get to vegas it shows up as 10am. I have a habit of putting the intended local time in text in the title so I can make sure that i havent missed anything.

I also used the dual clock widget to keep me in better tune with what time it was back home. Camera and video along the way. Our own app to publish to Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. Google voice and SMS via Google voice.

I gave up on the offical AIM app and used MobileIM, but just switched to Trillian (Amzon free app of the day recently) which seems to be much gentler on the battery. A little use of maps and urbanspoon. All good!

 

[FrankXS]

I have a habit of putting the intended local time in text in the title...

Me too. I adopted this practice years ago due to this time zone fiasco. Much easier that way. And you always know what you "meant", not necessarily just what time slot you used.

-Frank