Allow me to elaborate for a moment on the fact that I am a Computer Engineer married to a woman with a Masters degree in Computer Science. We are going on a road trip soon, and the following is our natural solution:
We are running three Android devices, one tablet, and two phones, as our mobile (in more than one sense) computing system.
My phone is the hub of the system, it provides a wireless hot spot (when needed ) for the other devices while in the car, and sits near the dash as my head's up, turn-by-turn, GPS navigation system. It also interfaces with our car's sound system, and uses our Rdio account to provide a flexible playlist as we drive. The stalwart choices, though, are the Pixar Cars soundtrack, the Vinyl Cafe series by Stewart McClean (http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/), and a playlist inspired by one created by Veronica McKinnon for a joint road trip long ago (http://www.rdio.com/people/Jonathanepp/playlists/329226/Road_Trip/).
Sara's phone provides her entertainment, small games (Triple Town), plus eBooks downloaded from our local library. However, it also serves as the co-pilot computer, looking for local hotel deals via Hotwire, and nearby Tim's and play places for the kids via apps. She also uses it to text our current ETA to people we're meeting up with.
The tablet provides kid's apps, self reading kid's books, and kid's movies, for... well, the kids while in the car. When in hotels, it serves as our Netflix provider, and with the keyboard dock, a long form email and Google+ post writing device. The SD card reader allows us to easily see the photos our SLR took on a bigger screen and post them if desired.
The funny thing is, we didn't really plan any of this out, we certainly didn't purchase any of the devices or apps with a road trip in mind, it just that our (and the public's at large) "computer" usage has become so mobile in the last couple of years that this naturally happens.
http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/
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6 comments:
Vinyl Cafe is the way to go for road trips.
Oh Jonathan, I would love to mention your post at my conference next month. I'm really advocating for mobile as the go to device to design for going forward (as I think a lot of people are). In my research, mobile devices provide infinitely more productivity, in ways we haven't even imagined yet, and for people that have never even see a desktop computer before. Its such an interesting space.
I have no issues with you mentioning it.
On the topic of mobile computing I helped 'kickstart' (can I verb that) the pebble (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-e-paper-watch-for-iphone-and-android). So I should be taking it to another level shortly.
And on another note, Project Glass is obviously very drool worthy from a geek perspective. Eventually, we'll all have buffered image recording (a la BBC's Planet Earth shark jump capturing) and instead of doing double takes, we'll just press a button a relive it.
Oh, one more thing that "mobile" computing is great for, and this might seem silly, until your trying to communicate while holding a sleeping baby, communicating while in the same house.
ahh texting... the new spelling in front of the children!
I LOVE it! interesting insights and useages! My three nephews all under 7, have better tablet and iphone access than I do when we go to Mom and Dad's - the youngest plays piano, the one does brain training games, and the other can catch a movie :)
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