My morning started bad enough to require me to go home and recover from mildew-induced migraine. When I woke up, my wife invited me to join her go shopping. Of course I said yes, as any supportive husband would. I know that doing so would give me some downtime, due to the waiting part (Women are very patient when shopping so they take their time to get the best).
During these times, I’m thankful that I have my mobile office with me.
I found an available seat in a row of benches in front of one shop. I set up office, bringing out my Asus EEE Pad Transformer 3G with Dock. Good thing too that I have my Smartbro SIM card in the tablet.
I soon started shooting office emails. After catching up on my emails, I checked my Facebook account. Several comments and private messages later, I was done.
Looking at my watch, I knew I still had some time to maximize. One thing I enjoy doing during downtimes is online shopping. So, I launched my Ebay and Amazon apps, then my XE currency converter app.
Having satisfied my online shopping needs, I closed the Transformer. A couple of minutes later, my wife returned: it was time for us to go home.
Another good example of how mobile computing can make our lives better. 
FINALLY, after months of waiting, I now have Plants vs. Zombies in my Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0.
My mobile life gets better everyday.
The first thing I would do come January is clean up my home work station.
I am a multi-tasker, a workalcoholic, and an information junky. With Smart’s products and services, I can be all three, easily.
I need to be connected all the time. Whether it’s through my laptop or through my mobile phone, I depend on Smart’s dependable products to support my business requirements and my personal communication needs.
Through Smart’s Smartbro products I get connected to the internet almost anywhere. With my Smart Gold data plan I get dependable call, text, and mobile data service everywhere.
My story with Smart started when they gave me broadband internet connection through Smart broadband Canopy, even though we were out of service coverage by the other networks. In fact, we were the first in our neighborhood to get broadband internet connection.
Having confidence in Smart’s broadband services, I got myself a Smartbro plug-it postpaid plan. This allowed me to become a true digital nomad with offices anywhere I want. This became very helpful when I had to work between the office, my house and the hospital when my mother became sick. I was able to attend to all my responsibilities as an employee, business owner, and as a son.
Smart’s widest coverage has also helped me connect with others in some of the remotest areas of the country. An example was when I was shooting in the middle of a rice field somewhere in Tarlac. I got a text message from a prospective client asking for my portfolio. I took a 5-minute break from the shoot, pull out my laptop, connected my Smartbro plug-it and logged on to the internet. I sent my portfolio, shut my laptop off, and resumed shooting within 5 minutes. The extraordinary thing was my other phones with non-Smart SIMs couldn’t even get a signal. Amazing!
Again, through my Smart Gold data plan and my tablet, I can be productive even during my 2-hour commute to and from the office. I check my mail, respond to blog comments, chat with family and friends, check my Facebook News Feed, and respond to Twitter friends.
When I’m in the office working my 8-5 job, and need to do some work for my photography business, I just go out for lunch, find a comfortable spot in the cafe, power on my laptop and do my stuff. I can make calls, send emails, and edit some photos and send them to clients, easily and within my one-hour break, thanks to Smart’s good call and internet service.
Although I use Smart’s fast internet access, courtesy of SmartBro, generally for work and business, I have also used it to make my relationship with my family better.
By the time I go home, I’ve done all the things I need. I have the rest of the day for my wife, my family, and friends.
When my family, here and abroad, wants to share videos and photos of their latest activities, it doesn’t take us a day just to see their latest home videos or vacation photos. When we feel the need to talk, we just fire up our favorite messaging software and voila! Long hours of catching up and talking, without the expensive international calls. Smart’s services have made us closer, bridging the distance between continents.
Everyone strives to have work-life balance; With Smart, you can.
Hi I’m Russel, I’m a gadget addict. I like to have electronic devices that make my life more enjoyable, more efficient, and more convenient — or so I thought.
As I tried more devices, I got more and more obsessed with getting the latest and the greatest. I became addicted to upgrades. Eventually, when financial resources started to run out, I decided to cure this addiction.
Now I can confidently say that I’m no longer a gadget addict. I am now reformed.
Because of my experience, I have resolved to help others kick their gadget addiction and start living near normal lives.
This blog will now be directed towards that quest of providing practical advise for those with the addiction and to those who have to live with people with the addiction. This site is for you.
Being mobile means most of the time you are away from the power outlet. You must have a power supply that can last as long as you are out in the field.
Unfortunately, battery life isn’t always the best feature of our mobile devices like smartphones. We either need to buy expensive long life batteries or stay in places that have available power outlets.
Fortunately, Kodak came out with a very useful and affordable alternative power source for us, the Kodak Portable Charger KP100-C+2 kit.
The kit is a combination of an AC Charging Base and an external Power Pack. If your device can be charged from a USB port, then you can use the Kodak Portable Charger KP100-C+2 Power Pack as power supply.
Here’s a list of included items in the kit:
- AC Charging base – this charges your device through a USB and it also charges the Power Pack. This charging base needs to be connected to the power outlet.
- Power Pack – this is the external battery. It can charge your devices from its USB port.
- Two Rechargeable AA batteries – each rated at 2400mAh.
- Power Cord
- User guide
Advantages
Portable - this unit is small enough to fit in you laptop bag. If you just take the Power Pack it becomes smaller.
Reusable - the fact that it uses rechargeable batteries makes it reusable again and again.
Replaceable batteries – unlike some external battery packs with built-in batteries, the Kodak Portable Charger KP100-C+2 uses rechargeable AA batteries that you can replace anytime.
Affordable - at USD11.50, this unit only cost as much as 4 cups of Frappuccino in Starbucks.
Real-life Performance
The packaging of the kit claims being able to give up to an additional 40 hours of charge for your devices. That would mean almost 2 days of additional power to your device.
I tested this with my Motorola Milestone Android smartphone. To get a base reading of how long my smartphone usually lasts, I fully charged it, used 3G Internet only (no wifi), watched a couple of movies, and listened to music till the battery emptied.
I then connected it to the Power Pack and turned it on. Again I used the phone and timed how long it will survive with the Power Pack.
And here are the results:
Motorola Milestone with default battery: 7 hours 40minutes
Motorola Milestone with Power Pack: 10 hours and 38 minutes.
More than 10 hours of additional power is not bad. And, this is from when the phone’s battery was empty. The phone was continuously being charged until the Power Pack emptied. What’s nice about this is if I wanted to continue charging the phone, I can just replace the batteries with freshly charged ones.
Personal Practical Uses
I’ve been using the Kodak Portable Charger for a couple of weeks now. Here are some of the ways I use it:
- I use my Android 2.2 phone as Wife hotspot, and the Kodak Portable Charger KP100-C+2 gives the phone extra power to last longer. This is very important since using 3G drains the battery fast.
- When I want longer MP3 playback outdoors, this kit is a good solution.
- I use the Power Pack as additional backup battery for my Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera
.
- I use the Power Pack to charge my mobile phones. I have USB Power Tips
that let me charge my 2 Myphone dual SIM phones and Android phone.
Conclusion
As we become more mobile with our electronic gadgets, we face the “battery empty” problem more often.
The Kodak Portable Charger KP100-C+2 is an affordable and practical solution for that problem. With its price, there’s no longer an excuse not to get one even if you already have one. In fact I’m ordering one these kits again.
I don’t know where to get it here in the Philippines, but I got mine from Amazon.com. To know how I got it shipped fast and affordable, read my article here.
Do you think this kit will be helpful to you? Le me know what you think by commenting below.
Photos of the product
One of the best benefits of mobile computing is the option to work anywhere. But sometimes we take this benefit for granted and abuse it unknowingly. A good example is text messaging and mobile emailing. Due to these two activities a lot of people have strained thumbs and hand joints requiring therapy. Another good example is how men unknowingly roast their private parts with their laptops.
In a recent study done at the State University of New York, researchers has concluded that using your laptop on your lap can raise the temperature around the scrotum area. This increase in temperature can cause sperm production to be lowered.
Dr. Yefim Sheynkin, a urologist at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, led the new study.
The test was done by attaching heat sensors on the scrotum of the test subject and temperature data was collected. After an hour of using laptops on their laps, the temperature in men’s testicles has increased by 2.5 degrees Celsius, which was beyond what experts consider safe.
You may think that this research is hilarious. Any man in his right mind would know that if you put something hot on top of your crotch, it won’t be good. That was my initial reaction too. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.
The increase in temperature is not instant but is gradual which means it won’t feel that hot first. As you use your laptop on your lap longer, you adjust to the heat. By the time you realize it’s hot, you’d been roasting the family jewels for quite some time already.
Lap pads can keep your laptops cool and lessen the heat being transferred to your skin, but they do not help lessen the general temperature of your testicles.
Here are some tips to prevent cooking your testicles with your laptop:
- Avoid putting your laptop on your lap.
- If you’re going to put the laptop on your lap, put something between your lap and the laptop, preferably something thick, like a cushion or a pillow.
- Work on a table.
- Work on a table.
- Work on a table.
With proper prevention and retraining, we can make working with laptops on the table a habit. Mobile computing can be a productive and safe experience if exercise correct working habits and avoid practices that eventually will burn us.
Read a full article at http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6A457320101108.
It’s not what you think. I’m pertaining to the fact that my wife and I like to use our laptops on the bed.
After spending hours seating, it’s a relaxing change of work area to bring your laptop to bed, put your favorite pillow behind you and just lean back and read emails, the news, do facebook, etc. That’s what I call mobile computing.
Go ahead, try it out!
Posted from WordPress for Android
We went to Ever Gotesco grocery and saw this chicharon stand and its very informative banner. I just felt more at ease eating chicharon because it’s rich in protein.
Posted from WordPress for Android
We’re currently being hammered by typhoon Basyang’s winds. Power went out an hour ago and we’re back to using candles. I took out the sim on my Smartbro plug-it modem and put it in my Motorola Milestone to have internet and twitter access.
After 2 years in Singapore without typhoons, this evening is bringing back my Emergency Preparedness training.
This will be a long night.
Posted from my Motorola Milestone
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