Working Anywhere

Swisscom Rolls Out WiFi Voice Calling In Hotels

I've personally experienced Swisscom powered hotels in Barcelona, Paris and even in the USA for the initial eComm event and two years of Office 2.0 in San Francisco, and can without fear express how well their technology deployments of WiFi will work in a hotel setting.

Well now they've rolled out WiFi calling at their hotels in Europe. And they use the same types of smartphones as Truphone plus a few others. While they haven't disclosed who developed their softclient, judging by the line up, it's Mailvision out of Israel.

Basically, you bring your own device and they provide information on how to install an application that works with their networks.

Addressless Sending of Packages

Did you ever want to send a package to someone and not know their "physical" address. It could be someone on your aging AOL buddy list, or even a Twitter Pal. It may be the person who you "met" using Match.com or one of the "social dating sites." Regardless of how you "know" them or how "intimate" you may be with them, if you don't have their address you can't easily send them a present.

Well that's changing. A service out of the UK, dubbed SendSocial, has all that licked.

Basically, SendSocial acts as the middleman on the transaction, the same way Jangl wanted to be with anonymous telephone calling.

Right now the service is limited to the UK, but I expect that wave to catch on here in the USA, as soon as they can "hook up" with a USA based package delivery service. I mean, do you really think the US Postal Service would embrace address less delivery anytime soon?

While it could be the key to their salvation, as slow as our mail industry moves here, what's sent would be passe.

The Importance of Proper Audio Accessories in VoIP

Pal Alec Saunders has written a very complete review of the Yamaha Sound Gadget which is available on the Skype Store for $199.00 here in the USA and is available around the globe.

The reason I bring this up, is that now more than ever, the expression of GIGO-Garbage In, Garbage Out, could never be more apropos. Using inferior headsets, video cameras and speakerphones makes for a lousy sounding/viewing experience on the other end. This is no different than using one of the so called "free conference" calling services vs. client HiDefConferencing where after one call, you clearly hear the difference as fellow disruptor, Pat Phelan, pointed out some time ago.

For some time I've been a heavy user of the Polycom Comunicator, a device that is always in my travel bag and which allows my Mac to sound like it's a full size Polycom Starfish like speakerphone. Like the PolyCom, the Yamaha Soundgadget is a delight to carry, and I've turned it, along with any one of a series of my Mid and Netbooks, like the Viliv X70, Viliv S7 or my Asus EEE PC's such as the 1008 HA, into a complete traveling communications hub. The Viliv's give incredible video and when connected to the Verizon MiFi (or even the unlocked one I use that works on GSM) I can pretty much hold a conference call anywhere, even where WiFi isn't in full sound. The lightness of both devices, which pal Jim Courtney points out, is a key, so now, in a very small shoulder bag, I'm carrying all I need to be in business from virtually anywhere.

Personally, I've become a heavy user of two headsets. From client Freetalk, the Everyman headset may be the best value around. Priced at less than $23.00, the headset embeds inline a DSP (digital signal processor) that also has the Skype codec embedded inside. No other headset for the price sounds as good-it's so good it passes the Rutkowski Test when we record the World Technology Roundup together for KenRadio. That and the very stylish, and $200 dollar Bang & Olufsen Ear Set 3, a combination headset and microphone that works with Macs as well as the iPod Touch and iPhone are my voice input/output accessories of choice. I use the B&O Ear Set with my iPod touch and either client Truphone's iPod touch or iPhone app, as well as with Skype on both. Sound is clear and as others tell me, just like a mobile phone. For the untethered crowd the FreeTalk Wireless Stereo Headset is another headset that's great to use as it's range is far better than the usual Bluetooth headset.

So here's the net net on audio from where I sit:

Fast and Sleek-The Bang & Olufsen Ear Set is what you will want for XMas. The sacrifice for Skype users is the lack of SILK grade processing, but it works on the iPhone/iPod and your Mac (PC users, most PC's require separate input and outputs so the headset/mic combo is of less value)

Best Full Featured Headset for Windows and Mac Users Who Want to Be Alone is the FreeTalk Wireless Stereo Headset

Best Value for the computer calling type Skype, Gizmo and Counterpath XLite/Eyebeam or Bria softphone user is the Freetalk Everyman as dollar for dollar, nothing on the market comes close.

Best Speakerphone for The Road Warrior (Cross platform) is the PolyCom Communicator but the only reason it bests the Yamaha is the Yamaha lacks Mac Support under the Snow Leopard operating system as Jim Courtney pointed out.

By the way. These all make for great holiday gifts and by giving any of them to the people you love to talk with, you're giving yourself a better calling experience too.

There's WiFi In the Air

My all time favorite Travel Critic of All Time, the venerable Joe Brancatelli, who pulls no punches, and always calls them like he see's them, has a two page story in Portfolio Magazine about WiFi in the Sky.

In the story, Joe basically says that the flying public is cheap, and to his credit, he's right. Most passengers don't need to "stay connected." But for those of us who do, we don't mind the added costs of WiFi.

On Sunday I flew up to Seattle, via Alaska because it was a non-stop. I would rather have flown on Virgin America which has a full fleet of WiFi equipped planes. United is hit or miss, and only on the coast to coast flights, and Southwest hasn't rolled it out yet. That said, when I landed the first thing I did was check email, and then make a call that was pressing.

Had I had WiFi, I would have been able to read the message via Google Voice, and sent back a text to answer the question.

Once business travel rebounds, in flight WiFi will have better days. But for now, the sponsored model is a very good step in the right direction.

P.S. American Airlines is making it easy to discover if the flight will have WiFi with a web page that helps deliver that information.

My T-Mobile UMA Experience and My CDMA Data Experience

Traveling to Seoul Korea meant that being savvy and frugal with my mobile usage. I took along a battery of phones, but really at the end of the day ended up using my RIM Blackberries to stay connected most of the time.

Sure I used the Nokia E71 with Truphone, but I wanted to put the RIM Blackberry Curve through its paces with UMA in a part of the world where broadband is like water and air. And when I say broadband, I mean blazing fast, no latency broadband, where WiFi is one of the standard ways of staying connected.

The RIM Blackberry Curve with UMA via T-Mobile performed like a champ. The connectivity was super fast, and the call quality better than what I get back in the USA. Given the fact that this is a route around roaming charges, the approach couldn't be beat, as the minutes fall under my "unlimited" plan from T-Mobile in the USA.

For email though I had to use the RIM Worldphone that has Verizon as the carrier. Being CDMA it was an easy connection to whatever network was available, and while the Curve was great on WiFi, without any GSM to latch onto, when out and about, it was not much help. The Worldphone was though and I never missed an email.

The bottom line is simply this. With some planning you can stay very connected, without a lot of hassle.

Traveling Lighter

As a true road warrior I'm always keen to find tips from others like me. One of my favorite travel industry writers to read is Joe Brancatelli who besides his must read JoeSentMe.com newsletter, also authors a business travel column for Portfolio Magazine.

In the most recent issue JB shares what he considers his "essentials" for staying connected on the road.

Over the past month I've been in London (twice), Barcelona, Amsterdam, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles and Seoul, Korea. I've used two different Macs (a 13" Mac Book Pro and my Mac Book Air), the Asus eee PC 1008 HA, a Viliv V7 Mid, as my laptop, my Nokia E71, an Apple iPhone, RIM Blackberry Curve, RIM Blackberry Worldphone, an iPod Touch and even a Skype Phone. I've also spent time both on audio and video calls via Skype, made phone calls over Truphone (a client), used the UMA calling from T-Mobile on the Curve as well as calls via Skype on the Skypephone from INQ when in London.

I've swapped SIMs in the UK, Spain and Amsterdam, used my 3G Dongles in those countries and even pulled out the MiFi from Novatel to be data and voice connected.

At the end of the day, Truphone and Skype have been my most used services for voice while the Microsoft Exchange server kept me in sync regardless of which device I was using for email. Services like Basecamp and Dropbox remain essential for me as I can freely switch between computers and have all of what i need, wherever I may be.

Joe's list is worth a read, but like any topic, being a true road warrior means getting the technology and services you need and like to work best for you. It's a personal thing so figure out what you need before you travel and you'll enjoy your travels more.