Comments on: Mobile means wireless

By: Hoot69

Hoot69 — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:37:47 +0000

Based on how intent he is on the laptop, he sure isn’t security conscious…it would only tak 2 seconds to steal all of his carry-on.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:56:32 +0000

I must agree w/ everyone on the power issue… maybe he drained the battery working at breakfast or in the cab – who knows.

BUT the mouse is funny. Wired? OK but try travel size. I also use a mouse w/ my 1000HA for Diablo II but not at that crazy angle! I don’t care what he’s doing – where he has that mouse CAN’T be more comfortable/controllable than his trackpad. Do you think he knows what that little pad below the keyboard is for??

By: Pam T.

Pam T. — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:42:35 +0000

I’m also in the camp of using available power vs. battery draining, but I always end up near the outlets that don’t work!

By: MrD1sturbed

MrD1sturbed — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:43:08 +0000

I just flew out of PHL to ATL on Monday and in the terminal was a guy using a Gateway P7811FX to play what looked like a rousing game of Rome: Total War. He was all setup with his 230w power supply strewn across the terminal floor, his big headphones on and a wired gaming mouse (of which I am not sure the brand or model). I was amazed to see such an elaborate setup in the terminal. Mean while I sat there ever complacent with my Macbook and AT&T Quicksilver. To each his own I guess.

By: MD

MD — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:20:49 +0000

if your going to take secret voyeur cameraphone pics, couldnt it at least be of hot young girls instead?!

By: Oliver

Oliver — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:20:35 +0000

So I can’t really see much on the photo, but I have certainly tethered my iPhone to my laptop at times to either charge it or sync it. Before that, I had a PalmOS Treo, and while I could sync via BT, it would go much faster via cable.

And I haven’t seen any wireless charging stations for laptops at airports yet, so if you want to top off your battery before a flight, you gotta plug in. Depending on the length of the flight, I’d rather do that than to pull out the charger during the flight and plug in on the plane (it’s already cramped seating on domestic flights even in first class; wrapping myself in a charger cable while trying to juggle the laptop and whatever “food” they serve isn’t my idea of inflight entertainment.

So what other cables does this poor guy have? Wired mouse? You’d be shocked to hear that many companies don’t hand our wirelss mice to their employees. Don’t know why and I bought my own, since it’s all about preferences, but some people probably don’t feel they should have to spend $20-40 to buy their own equipment. That said, I’d certainly not pull out a mouse at all in an airport situation like that.

By: Scotty

Scotty — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:20:25 +0000

I’m down to zero cables but I must admit what I want is to fly James-Air: he always seems to have empty waiting areas.

Everyone makes fun of having a pocket for the Vaio P but my REI jacket has an inside pocket that fits a Samsung U1V so I’m pretty sure I’m set for one of those new hottnesses when I can get one.

By: nomo

nomo — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:00:15 +0000

I echo the comments from Amy Stewart. It’s pretty common to see people using the Airport AC power for pre-flight charging. Many corporate issue laptops use higher power CPUs/chipsets with only ~3 hours of battery life.

By: Amy Stewart

Amy Stewart — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:24:07 +0000

That’s the way I travel too– if I’ve got an outlet available at the airport, I’ll always plug in so I don’t drain the battery before my flight is over. I plug in my blackberry for a charge, and also tether the blackberry for wireless (if the airport doesn’t have free wifi or AT&T). And in place of a mouse, I plug in a Wacom Bamboo pad. So much more comfortable than using a mouse or trackpad.

So I, like this poor man in the photo, end up very “cabled” when I am at the airport.

By: cr0ft

cr0ft — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:23:52 +0000

Personally I think you’ll get to pry my Logitech NX50 mouse out of my cold dead hands before I give that one up. Batteries required for the mouse just means “¤”!#¤!! the batteries died again!”. To say nothing of the fact that a mouse with batteries weigh many times what the NX50 does.

Tethering the phone via USB, I agree there. Bluetooth or wifi-to-3g works.

By: James Kendrick

James Kendrick — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:58:11 +0000

Sorry it’s hard to see this photo. What I neglected to mention was his phone also tethered via USB. He’s got a mass of cables in the seat next to him.