September 30, 2011

Let's get Technical, Technical. I Wanna Get Technical


Hello, my name is Andrea and I'm a technology addict.  

Not in the traditional sense however, as in I need to have all the latest gadgets and gizmos.  Oh no, nothing as interesting as that.  More that I hate to be without my necessities - phone, email, internet.  Although for the duration of this trip I'm going to try and reign in my addiction I'm certainly not ready to go cold turkey.  Here's what I found out trying my plan my techno hits. 

Mobile
Pay-As You-Go
I settled for changing my phone to a pay-as-you-go tariff.  Why?  I wanted to keep my number; I'm pretty lazy so didn't want to have to sign up to new networks, plans etc and also I really wasn't planning on using my phone that much.  Pay-as-you-go meant I'd have it there for letting Mum know we were safe and in case of emergency and could top up as I needed.  It would also encourage me to stay off data - aka operation internet shut down.

International SIM
These seem to be getting much more popular these days.  MaxRoam appear to have the best offerings, for Ireland anyway.  

Local SIM's
This was a recommendation from many people however, as we're not really staying anywhere for more than a few weeks, didn't think this would work as a main mobile solution.  However, local SIM's are cheap so we may pick them up when we're going to be in the region for long enough and we need them.

Laptop
I had a Sony Vaio which I totally hearted, however it was way too heavy to bring with me.  It was time to step over into the darkside and embrace an Apple.  I was torn between an iPad and Mac Book Air (11 inch).  Weighing up the options the Mac Book Air won out.   They weigh in and around the same weight but you have much more functionality with the MBA and it's oh so pretty.  Also, we were counting on using the laptop for downloading movies and watching DVD's and you can buy the Mac Book Air SuperDrive for the DVD functionality.  The iPad was winning for reading books on but given we were going to chase the sun, I was worried about its functionality in the sun.  Investing in a Hard Drive was also a winner for bringing a number of movies with us and for storing pics, music and films along the way.  We went with a 500GB LaCie hard drive in case you're wondering.

eReader
Not as straight forward as you think.  There are two types of readers - ones that replicate paper (eInk) or LCD which is backlit.  The benefits of the eInk ones are a longer battery life and they are easier to read in the sun.

I was all set to buy up the Amazon Kindle but on closer inspection (and direction from lovely Conor) you are bound to buying only with Amazon.  They are the greatest online book store for sure but subconsciously it gets my back up when these type of restrictions are forced upon you.  Sony has gorgeous little ones that range from the basic functionality all the way up to 3G and WiFi enabled (not necessary but nice).

Camera
Stuck with what I already had from the Dublin Streets days - the trusty Canon PowerShot G11.

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