iPad – DellLaptop + iPod – Blackberry + iPhone + MacBookPro = iPerson

From my trip to San Francisco, Dreamforce 2010

Monday December 6th, 2010

So for this trip I took both my iPad and my laptop. I finally signed up and powered on the AT&T wireless cellular plan (the cheapest one) as I am sure 30,000 people on wifi may not really work all the time. I have every intention of trying to not really use the laptop (if I can) we shall see.

I am not loving the WordPress app on my iPad. Sitting here, 7 miles high tapping away, sharing my thoughts on a westbound AA flight to the San Francisco high-tech homeland to attend a “global gathering” feels so familiar, and yet so different. A simple finger brush off of the writing surface and my unsaved local draft has vanished (for the second time). Oh well, more time to kill while I retype it in. I guess it must be a feature of “airplane mode”.

On another note, i got this free book on my iPad and have been reading about quantum physics and reality, awesome stuff. No wonder I often feel lost in space.

Tuesday December 7th, 2010

So the conference is off In full swing and today I decide to carry both devices. Of corse, my bag is now extra heavy. Good thing I did a full workout this morning. All morning I use my iPad, writing, tweeting, chatting answering emails, using apps like clipboard (my new best friend). Connectivity is somewhat spotty. Sometimes I can get a signal, sometimes it fades and I switch to cellular (which also works 50/50). The only missing element is a camera. Ok I still carry a blackberry and it has one so a quick email and were in business. I wonder if I can pair the two using Bluetooth. Have to try that later.

Now it’s afternoon and I am listening to a session on what’s coming in the next version of chatter. The dude speaking is the primary developer so at this point I whip out my laptop and load up my dev environment so that I can make noted and code changes right here. Sorta glad I had the laptop cause typing code snippets on the iPad is a little painful. It is evident that if I am going to use this as mobile device I probably need to invest in some sorta keyboard.

Wednesday December 8th, 2010

Today I decide to leave the laptop in the hotel. This causes me issues on many fronts. First, I am paranoid and am always concerned about theft. So I feebly hide my laptop in some dirty clothes in my suitcase cause it make me feel better and I am off to the races. I get a good seat at the keynote and establish connectivity early. The keynote starts about 15 minutes late and guess what happens. People are tweeting about things that have not yet happened. Talk about great marketing, poorly executed. Not too many people really notice or if they do they don’t think its real important.

Later in the day, as Stevie Wonder and Bill Clinton speak having the iPad to watch the feeds in real time is awesome.

By the way as, even though I am a republican, I will always be a friend of Bill C.

Wednesday December 9th, 2010

Mornings uneventful, conference ends and I am off to the airport. Once again even though there is free wi-fi, it is not as available and clean as it is in NY. So here I sit in the plane home, tapping out this entry. Of corse since I eat with my hands the screen is getting a bit salty. All in all I am convinced, if your not writing code you can probably leave the laptop at home.

If any one has thought on this I would love to hear about it. In the meantime I think I’ll go back to reading “butterflies are free to fly” by Stephen Davis.

Peace 🙂