You knew that as soon as I got the Verizon MiFi in my hot little hands that I had to head out to take it on the road. There is a Target Superstore two blocks from my house with a Starbucks (sort of) inside, so here I sit. It’s a good test for the MiFi as there’s no Wi-Fi available, other than my own personal Wi-Fi bubble provided by the MiFi. In this photo I have the Viliv S5 and the iPhone 3G connected to my own Wi-Fi hotspot. This thing absolutely rocks for ease of use.

Viliv S5 UMPC, Verizon MiFi 2200

I had a doctor’s appointment today and I knew I was going to be stopping somewhere afterwards to get some work done so I brought along my “serious” rig with me. It’s obvious from some comments to the coffee break I shared where I used the Viliv S5 that some less frequent visitors don’t understand the whys behind my different tool kits.

On days like today, when I know I’m going to be working outside my office and probably for extended periods, I bring my serious kit with me. It’s simply the MacBook, an extra battery and the Verizon 3G modem. That’s it, although I have my phone with me, of course.

I simply grab a small bag with the UMPC if I’m just out running errands or such and don’t really plan on work sessions. If work time crops up I have this with me to get something done. If not, I haven’t wasted any effort carrying much with me. This is the crux of my system and it works well for me.

I decided to make an unexpected stop at the local Panera Bread for some quality java and a comfy workspace. I had the brand-spanking new Fossil bag, along with the Viliv S5, keyboard and mouse nestled snugly inside.  Life is good (so’s the coffee).

Isn't that bag manly?

When I was packing up to leave Panera the guy who was sitting at the table behind me to the left came over. He said he’d watched me unpack when I arrived and thought my setup was as goofy as could be given the little tiny computer and the folding keyboard. He wanted to tell me that he no longer thought that after watching me work for an hour. He could see everything I did and realized quickly that I was doing a lot of work while he watched. He said this setup was the most impressive thing he’d seen for a long time.

I am feeling very sad and out of sorts today, so I decided to head out for some good java and to get some work done. To keep things easy I just brought this with me, and it’s working great, XP and all (if the iPhone 3G could shoot video I could have shown you how well):

Just a reminder that I will be hanging out at Coffee Groundz today from around 2 – 4 pm. Drop by and say hi if you are in the area, who knows what cool gear you’ll see. Here’s what you’ll almost certainly see in person:

• Viliv S5 Premium
• Sony VAIO P
• Intel Classmate Convertible
• Lenovo w700ds (if I can figure out how to get this behemoth there)

Coffee Groundz has free WiFi and is located at:

2503 Bagby, Houston, TX, 77006

Hope to see you there!

Not smaller than this:

I am having a great time sitting outside the local Starbucks using the Sony VAIO P computer. I am amazed at how well I can touch-type on this little thing which is a tribute to Sony for making this as small as possible without being too small. The high-res screen is usable quite easily in Firefox after zooming in with the CTRL-+ keys. One of the first things I did in Vista was change the window properties to use a bigger font in menus and enlarged the close box. That is really the only adjustment I’ve had to make so far. I will report more on the VAIO P as time progresses.

My most favorite things about the VAIO P so far (size aside):

• Middle mouse button that provides smooth scrolling with the nubbin trackstick
• Two programmable launcher buttons (bottom of photo above)
• Dead silent operation
• Fast SSD
• Drop-dead gorgeous screen (even outside in shade)

Least favorite things so far:

• Right shift key is too small (keep hitting the Up Arrow key)
• Slower than my MacBook (faster than most netbooks)
• Vista (needs Windows 7)
• Battery life (2.5 hours with standard battery, estimated only)

I am working in the local Panera Bread this afternoon for a change of scenery but that scenery is making it hard for me to concentrate on my work.  I walked into the “computer” area and as I was setting up to get busy I looked back and what did I see?

Sitting in front of a guy in the middle of a meeting is an HP tc1100!  I can’t remember the last time I saw one of these beauties in the wild, and it fired up feelings of nostalgia. I still believe that the hybrid design of the tc1100 with the detachable keyboard and full slate design has not been touched by any design before or since.

An under 2-pound slate of 10-inches is the perfect size for a slate, and the tc1100 gave up very few compromises to make that happen. The hardware components are still in use today; at least some of them are.  What makes this rare sighting so appropriate is that I was thinking just this weekend that I needed to try and get my old friend going again.

I used the heck out of that tc1100 in my daily work for so long, and when it was time to move on I gave it to my step-daughter to use for schoolwork.  She used that for a few years until we got her a big laptop for college but the tc1100 never faltered in all that time.  I noticed it was sitting unused on a table this weekend and thought to myself I should get it going again.  I mean, the form factor has not been touched by anyone else, not even close.  That Linux-based netbook from Always Innovative comes closest.  What a trip down memory lane.  I wish I could have taken a photo of the tc1100 in use, but I couldn’t for privacy reasons.

I have worked hard in my office all week but the beautiful weather today enticed me out from behind the desk and down to the neighborhood coffee shop.  I’ve been here for a while but sadly the experience hasn’t been as good nor as productive as usual.  It seems it’s phone (call) day at the local haunt and frankly it’s made it hard to concentrate on getting work done.

Two of the 10 folks working away here are salesmen, and there’s no doubt that’s what they are because they have both been on their phones for over an hour.  One phone call after another, making sales pitches and setting up meetings for next week.  They’re loud enough that we can all hear everything they say and could even tell you the names of some of those they’ve called.  Needless to say it gets pretty darn annoying after a while and it points out that getting work done in the coffee shop is not a given.

Do you run into this often?  I admit I don’t but I am not in a bustling area of town where this could easily be the norm.  What do you do when confronted with the overly loud coffee shop and you need to get some work done?  I have to admit I threw my laptop in a bag and headed out and found I don’t have any earplugs or headphones with me.  Ouch.

Our GigaOM mail is using GMail and normally everything works just fine.  I can either interact with the mail using the standard web interface or with Apple Mail under IMAP.  The iPhone can interact with the mail using IMAP too and everything is hunky-dory.  When it works.  The past two days everything works as advertised when I’m in my home office but as soon as I leave my cocoon of happy WiFi things start going bad.  I can connect to an external hotspot via WiFi and everything works as expected except the IMAP portion of GMail.  I can interact with my mail using the web interface just fine which is good enough but Apple Mail cannot connect to the GMail IMAP server.  That means the iPhone can’t connect to it either meaning no email for me without the laptop.

It’s not any particular hotspot as I’ve had the same results in two different ones.  When I figured out that IMAP wasn’t connecting I turned WiFi off on the MacBook and plugged in the Verizon EVDO modem.  Guess what?  Same results, which is darn strange.  No IMAP for me since yesterday unless I am in my home WiFi network.  What could that be?  I’ve seen commentary on TWITTER that indicates others are having GMail problems too.  It’s a royal pain, especially not getting GMail on the iPhone away from home.  Did Google change something yesterday?