Entertainment and Technology Blog

I just got back from a business trip (2 nights, 3 countries, hotels etc..) and this time I decided to shock test my iPad by not bringing a laptop. (image from http://blog.dailyburn.com/) One word: Viable! I did run into some problems that I had to think outside the box a bit to solve:

• No Ethernet plug: Apparently there are some dongles coming out to address this. Ill wait until they are available to complain further. The floor of my hotel room had weak WiFi signal, so I asked to change rooms to one with a stronger signal and this solved the problem. I checked this before unpacking so the ordeal was not too inconvenient.
• No USB plug: I had a situation where I needed to copy some files off a thumb drive. Luckily they were small so I used dropbox to address the problem which worked seamlessly. Link to: Again, there is a dongle coming out that will null this problem.
• App-less software: For software with no iPad app (encryption, torrents, VM etc..), I used iTap VNC top remote into my Mac back home and run the software remotely. Obviously this is a problem for slow internet connections. The missing apps need to be addressed in another fashion (some are platform/hardware specific). I am working on it and will post in the future. Link to
• VPN: Tracking back to my post VPN on iPhone: Not yet ready, the OS on the iPad has the same lousy VPN support. I tried with multiple providers using different levels of security and servers in different locations around the globe, all had the same sorry results. Constant hangs, timeouts, and no redial support on connection drops. For traveling around and using multiple WiFi providers, solid VPN support is imperative to guard against sloppy data integrity and downright malicious MITM attacks from dubious access points. Hopefully Apple will address this soon.

But all in all I was functional and highly productive using only the iPad on this trip and I intend to start traveling like this from now on. Typing long documents can be a bit painstaking after awhile, but a BT keyboard or even the Apple dock with integrated keyboard will solve this. Granted that’s an additional unit to carry, so its a real tossup if you do need to write tomes will on your journey. Maybe the ol lappie will do the job better for the couple extra grams of weight.

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