When in the name of all that is good and pure, is the United States going to completely allow this?  Now, as I’ve mentioned before, the allowance of mobile phone calls in-flight has a plethora of pro’s and more than its fair share of cons.  While it WOULD be rad to call whomever you want whenever you want while flying, it most certainly WOULD NOT be rad to hear everyone else yacking at the very same time.  Yikes.

That said, the U.K. has officially approved in-flight mobile phone calls, just not during take-off and landing, and only after the plane reaches at least 3,000 meters according to reports.  According to the Office of Communications in the U.K., “The safety of passengers is paramount and mobile systems on aircraft will only be installed when they have secured approval by the European Aviation Safety Agency and the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK.”  Well at least they’ve thought it out.

Apparently the calls will be routed to an on-board base station and then sent out accordingly.  So, knowing this, how much do you want a Bluetooth headset to at least not have to HOLD the phone during your long flights?  Lets just hope they pre-install soundproof curtains between every seat from now on because the thought of hearing 250 passengers talking to 250 OTHER people all at the same time in a closed-in cabin at 30,000 feet is just, well, terrifying.

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Wikipedia defines the Uncanny Valley as: “a hypothesis that when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost, but not entirely, like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers. The “valley” in question is a dip in a proposed graph of the positivity of human reaction as a function of a robot’s lifelikeness.”

Why am I bringing this up?  I don’t know, really just to link you to this site I found today that does more than freak me out.  Clearly I drove my car straight off the cliff and dove headfirst into the Uncanny Valley with this website visit, and I wanted you to as well.  In relation to technology, what does it all mean?  Simple really, it means we’re heading into a world where EVERYTHING is going to advance, Everything.  Already we are seeing new fuel opportunities arise, new ways of communicating, mice that fit INSIDE your computer and charge there…you name it, it’s either here, or on the way.

Head over, get properly freaked out, then head back to see how you can dip your baby toe into the future without all the “response of revulsion,” by getting your hands on one of your own aforementioned MoGo Mice.  How uncanny is your valley?  I guess time will tell.

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Even on the road, there are things mobile warriors can do to help Green the world and save the planet’s resources.

1) Don’t leave it on:

Many of us leave our laptops on so they can receive e-mail. However, that burns electricity. Simply powering down if you’re going to be away for more than 30 minutes will represent significant energy savings.

And even before you leave on a trip, a simple check that the home will be using as little power and heat as possible can go a long, long way over time.

2) Unplug it:

“Phantom Draw” is the power pulled by appliances that aren’t, actually, doing anything for you. And your cell phone charger is one of the biggest offenders.

How big? Up to 90% of ALL the electricity sucked in by that charger happens when your phone isn’t even plugged into it! Just pulling it from the outlet can be a major change in terms of energy consumption.

3. Don’t Print It:

Sure, we need to print boarding passes and the like. But thinking twice before printing the rest would be a great boon to the planet.

There are other ways to be paper-free: downloading podcasts instead of grabbing brochures (like iToors), emailing meeting agendas, and sending itinerary information to a PDA or SmartPhone. I noticed that once I started paying attention, I was coming home with about 40 fewer sheets of print-outs than I had before.

3. Rent Green:

Like many other mobile warriors, I used to get bumped to some very comfortable cars over the years. Ones that burned a lot more gas than what I drove at home, but I didn’t think twice about it.

Now that I do think about it, and so do car rental companies. Three of the major ones are now offering very Green cars for rent. Enterprise, Hertz and Avis all have a Green Collection of hybrids available.

4. Get Your Power For Free:

I never knew that a universal 75-watt car adapter, which plugs into a cigarette lighter, actually draws from the car’s alternator. That makes is “free power” since it pulls from the extra available while driving! Now I carry the adapter instead of all those specially-made car chargers when I travel and help save the planet.

5. Replace your battery:

If you find yourself charging more and more often, it may be time to replace your battery. You can also buy extenders that will help your current battery work longer.

A more efficient battery can make for major power savings - and besides helping the planet, can be a real time-saver on the road.

The knack of saving the planet while traveling comes simply from having the intention to do so. At the end of the day, every little bit does help, and we can each be part of the solution.

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Lets face it, if you’re a geek like my esteemed co-writer of this blog and I are, you probably get excited anytime anyone, anywhere posts photos of their unboxing of a new product.  Right?  Tell me it’s not just me.  That said, I just so happened to stumble upon a post over at Swedish Tech Report fresh from their unboxing of their new MoGo Mouse x54!

The bottom line is, they LOVE it.  How can they not?  Here’s a snippet of what they had to say about the ol x54:

“My first thought when starting to use it was this might be alittle akward, but I was wrong I had an excellent experience with it.  The buttons on it’s very easy to use and allows an easy way to carry it with you.  Im amazed by the fact that Mogo has allowed the creation of an version that allows you to have the portability that you need and have the features that you need. “

Right on Swedish Tech Report.  Stay tuned to see what else we come up with.  I promise you won’t be disappointed!

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When a company as big, powerful and influential as Google makes a new claim, 9 times out of 10, the best idea is to just listen.  I’m just listening this morning and you know what I heard? That’s right, Google announced that the era of Mobile Internet is officially at hand.

Does this signify a drastic shift in the way we access information?  Does this indicate a change in the “how” and the “Where” for the data, communications, and programs we’re using?  Absolutely it does, on all counts.  We’re becoming (as you, kind readers of this blog already know) a mobile generation of mobile warriors.  We’re on the go, on the rise and the home-based desktop computer is becoming so much more antiquated.  With Wi-Fi, SmartPhones, Bluetooth, MoGo Mice, and mobile Web, we’re able to be so much more mobile, ALL of the time.  Welcome, friends, to the Era of the Mobile Internet.

According to the article,

“We have very much hit a watershed moment in terms of mobile Internet usage,” Matt Waddell, a product manager for Google Mobile, said in an interview. “We are seeing that mobile Internet use is in fact accelerating.” 

It’s here, it’s now and it’s only going to increase more.  Hold onto your hats, who knows what is coming next.

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I can remember being told that “…in the year 2000, there will be flying cars!”

Hey, it’s 2008.

Where’s my flying car?

Seriously. I have spent about (roughly) a bazillion hours of my life either stuck in traffic or waiting for a plane to either load, taxi, land, or be something mysteriously called ‘de-iced’.

I know the best airports for WiFi, fish fry, souvenirs, tire exhibits, and a chilled cosmopolitan. (Grand Rapids, Boston/Logan, Paris/CDG, Detroit and the Ambassador’s Club in Raleigh, NC.)

I know from brutal experience the worst stretches of road for congestion. (94 coming out of Boston, Manhattan [all of it], 290 at 90/94 out of Chicago, 101 at the 405 in  L.A., The Bourne Bridge on a Saturday morning in the summer, the entire 85 in Atlanta, and all of Washington D.C. until you hit New Jersey.)

But all this knowledge could become happily useless if someone would just give me a flying car.

Well, check out what Milner Motors is up to!  It looks wonky, but do we really care? It’s a FLYING CAR.

Or, rather, it WILL be once they make it, uh, fly.

If you live in the New York area, you can check it out starting tomorrow (March 21) through the end of the month at the New York Auto Show.

And if you do - please take your laptop and MoGo mouse and tell us all about it!

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Just stumbled on another site this fine morning that has a pretty cool little post suggesting that all those in need of a rockin’ mouse that don’t want to have to deal with the pesky issue of “power.”

You know how it goes with most normal travel mice, they might be tiny and they might fit in your messenger bag or laptop case or briefcase, but then what inevitably happens is that you run out of juice, most often at the worst time, and most often lead to you frantically searching for batteries.  Not cool.  As all of you know by now, the MoGo Mouse line, all store inside your computer so you do not lose them, and the best part…it charges there too.  That’s right, need some juice?  Plug it in for 20 min.

Straight from their little article:

“Enter the ingenious MoGo Mouse BT, which operates wirelessly via Bluetooth and docks/recharges inside your notebook’s PC Card slot. How smart is that! Newegg.com has the MoGo Mouse BT for $29.99, plus $5.58 for shipping. That’s a pretty sweet deal, considering that most vendors sell it for around $70.” 

Man, I couldn’t agree more.  Get over, Get one.  Now.  Please.

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Software developers round the globe are probably sitting on cloud nine right now.  How many of them?  Somewhere in the ballpark of 100,000 according to my sources, as Apple iPhone’s new SDK development kit has been officially downloaded over 100,000 times since its release last week.  Wow.

Following in the same basic idea Facebook of letting all of you develop your own applications, Apple hopes that a whole slew of new, exciting, handy and helpful little apps start making their way around the planet.  Knowing it’s popularity, I don’t see how it won’t happen.

So, we know it’s good for a few reasons, but the bad news is, and this is very bad for a lot of reasons, there is also quite a few things that are “crippling” this SDK.  According to the article I just read,

“Third-party applications can’t run in the background which means they can’t multitask. Apple written application can run in the background. ‘The Apple SDK, as many have come to find, has arguably crippled much of the functionality that set the iPhone apart when first released. Even simple features like the ability to run a program in the background have been crippled in the Apple SDK…’ “

Bottom line is, there are some tweaks that need-a-tweakin’ if this thing is going to appease the masses.  They made some pretty drastic changes after the initial launch, don’t be surprised if they do it again.

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This, my friends, is from all of us at MoGo, to all of you out there…hopefully a lot of you are as Irish as I am (50% Irish/50% Scottish) and love this holiday as much as I do!

That said:

HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!!!

I hope you find the nearest pub, nearest friend, nearest parade, nearest leprechaun, nearest rainbow and whatever else you need to make it a fun holiday.  It’s not a big-one to a lot of people, but for us proud Irish, it sure is.

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Since the MoGo devices were originally geared towards the mobile warriors among us, we know that a lot of readers tend to be on the road at any given moment. So today I’m breaking with the hot!new! tech news and for you, a post with some humor and timely tips.

News: Did you know that if you want to keep using your driver’s license for ID to travel, you’ll need to get it updated in the next 6 or so years?  According to a new regulation published by Homeland Security in January (but passed back in 2005):

“The American public’s desire for greater identity protection is undeniable,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. “Americans understand today that the 9/11 hijackers obtained 30 drivers licenses and ID’s, and used 364 aliases. For an extra $8 per license, REAL ID will give law enforcement and security officials a powerful advantage against falsified documents, and it will bring some peace of mind to citizens wanting to protect their identity from theft by a criminal or illegal alien.”

Read the USA Today article to get all the details in plain speak.

News: Ever wonder when restaurants will finally make a to-go meal that fits in your cupholder? Well, wonder no more! BBQ Chicken, a fried chicken fast food chain in New York, New Jersey, and North Carolina has launched a new meal that is served entirely in…cups!

No, really. Check it out.  (Thanks to the Road Warrior Blog for the item.)

Funny:  Once upon a time, I used to collect hotel toiletries from my many travels and donate them to a local shelter. But my Marriott hunter/gatherer ways were nothing on my old man (also a road warrior). Notoriously thrifty, I once saw him pouring the contents of about 15 itty bity bottles of shampoo into the regular-sized bottle in the shower.

Like no one would notice.

The combination was a frightening shade of milky green and smelled something like a gas station rest room.

My mother, bless her, has a lively sense of humor. Perhaps in revenge, she sent me this via email a long time ago. Still cracks me up. The original hysterical tale of a traveler, a hotel maid, and a whole lot of hotel soap.

Funny:  Dave Barry. Wrote about airplane travel. Don’t try to read and eat at the same time, you could hurt yourself.

Funny:  You say you’re stuck at the airport again and ready to commit mayhem? Just sit back, point and click yourself here, and relive the witty goodness of those early West Wing years.

Here’s one for free, just because:

Josh: You’re going to be reading a bit today about your secret plan to fight inflation.
Bartlet: I have a secret plan to fight inflation?
Josh: No.
Bartlet: Why am I going to be reading that I do?
Josh: It was suggested in the press room that you do.
Bartlet: By who?
Josh: By me.
Bartlet: You told the press I have a secret plan to fight inflation?
Josh: No, I did not. Let me be absolutely clear, I did not do that. Except, yes, I did that… I denied it for half an hour, they wouldn’t take no for an answer!
Bartlet: You were clear?
Josh: I was crystal clear! They said, “Do you think that, if the President has a plan to fight inflation, it’s right that he keep it a secret?” I said, of course not!
Bartlet Are you telling me that not only did you invent a secret plan to fight inflation, but now you don’t support it?

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