If you’ve been doing an agenda for one of your friend visiting your city, you might remember how long and painful the process is. Plnnr is one of the most awesome mashup ever in the world of travel, by building your customized route and itinerary, depending on your style, your time. Perfect to share with friends. And the best part – your own customized route can be stored, saved, forwared to friends. Sweet.

At the moment, there is only a few big cities available. But no doubt that there is more incoming.

http://plnnr.com

Via the excellent makeuseof.com

Every once in a while a designer will come across somthing ugly and feel the need to do something about it. So it was with Squarespace Creative Director Tyler Thompson, who late last year found himself aesthetically offended by the mess that is a Delta Airlines boarding pass.

So I took out my Moleskine and started sketching. I tried to remember my previous trip through John F. Kennedy Airport and when and why I needed to reference my boarding pass. It seemed like I first needed to know which flight I was on. I put the gate right next to this, but made the flight number first because gates tend to change quite often. Next came my seat which I always look at a few times while boarding the plane. After that I put the zone, which is how they board the airplane initially and always seemed like the biggest cluster-fuck of people not knowing what zone they were in or how to find it on their pass. I also did something with the time I think might help, when it was a P.M. time, it was white text on a black box and when it was A.M. it was black text on a white box. Below is what I initially came up with.

Then came a colored variant:

What was fascinating was that other designers, upon reading Thompson’s entry, started to pile on with their own re-designs. Check ‘em out here.

Cars.com’s David Thomas speculates that the iPad could prove to be a serious problem for automakers that charge a ransom for rear entertainment systems.

The base iPad, Thomas notes, costs far less than most DVD options offered by automakers. Ford charges $1,995 for a dual-headrest-mounted DVD system in its Flex crossover. In the Acura MDX, its single-screen system, with three wireless headsets and a 9-inch screen, costs $1,900. At $500 a pop, giving two kids their own iPads would cost far less than what the automakers charge for an ICE system.

The Cars.com article mentions some of the advantages of ICE, including being weather-tested to work from -5 to 160 degrees F (-20 to 71 C), and being far less prone to breakage.

Alternatively, if you’re planning a long and unconfortable flight, discover how your iPad can Make Air Travel Considerably Less Terrible.

* * *

Source: Slashdot

Cars.com's David Thomas speculates that [0]the iPad could
prove to be a serious problem for automakers that charge a ransom for
rear entertainment systems. The base iPad, Thomas notes, costs far less
than most DVD options offered by automakers. Ford charges $1,995 for a
[1]dual-headrest-mounted DVD system in its Flex crossover. In the Acura
MDX, its [2] single-screen system, with three wireless headsets and a
9-inch screen, costs $1,900. At $500 a pop, giving two kids their own
iPads would cost far less than what the automakers charge for an ICE
system. The Cars.com article mentions some of the advantages of ICE,
including being weather-tested to work from -5 to 160 degrees F (-20 to
71 C), and being far less prone to breakage.

My nightmare finds myself stuck in the center seat on a 4-hour flight. To my right is a guy twice my size who decides that both armrests belong to him. He spends most of the flight fidgeting and complaining under his breath. Turns out he is a heavy breather; with a head cold. On my left is a middle-aged woman who is flying for the first time in years. The look on her face tells me that she would rather be going in for major surgery than sitting on the plane. She expresses her nervousness by talking; incessantly. For four hours I experience hell in stereo. There has to be a better way.

These are not guarantees, but here are some tips I have used with success in getting an empty seat next to me.

Book near the back of the plane. Usually tickets are first booked at the front and then fill toward the back. I always book near the back, where there is an empty seat next to the seat I want. Some travelers hate the back because it takes more time to get off the plane. For me, an additional 5 minutes deplaning is worth the possibility of an empty seat.

Book an aisle seat. This puts you in prime position to make the shuffle. What is “The Shuffle?” Read on.

The Shuffle. Once you are in your assigned aisle seat, look around for an open seat. As soon as you hear the flight attendants say that the doors have been locked and you sense that there are no more passengers boarding, unbuckle your seat belt and move. Do not wait to ask the flight attendants (they don’t care). Wait too long and someone else will take the empty. Strike as fast as you can.

Book non-reclining seats. Many travelers try to stay away from non-reclining seats. I would rather have an empty seat next to me than 4 inches of reclining seat.

Book an aisle and a window. If you are traveling with another person, book one aisle seat and one window (again, near the back of the plane). Do this only if there is an empty seat in between the seats you book. It is possible that someone will fill that seat, but the chances are slim. Most people who travel solo will look to take any seat except the one between you and your traveling partner. When you check in for your flight, double-check your seating. If your center seat is filled, find another with an empty and change your seat assignments. I have used this with success numerous times.

Be the last to board the plane. If you fly on a carrier that doesn’t have assigned seats, try to be the last person to board the plane. That way you can pick out a seat with nobody next to you without having to wait until the entire plane is full and then look around to see if there are open seats.

What have you used to make more room for you on a flight?

Revealed at The Gadget Show in Birmingham this week, the system connects over a 3G network, letting users create their own local wireless connection in the same way as 3′s MiFi device – indeed, it’s essentially a re-packaged version of that device with a car kit.

While drivers will hopefully steer away from using the web at the wheel, 3 predicts the mobile hotspot will let passengers entertain themselves with their iPods, netbooks or gaming consoles, as well as give access to traffic updates, email and music on the go.

David Kerrigan, head of internet services at 3, claimed a quarter of those surveyed by the company wanted internet-enabled cars, especially families and mobile workers.

“Mobile workers can check traffic information and email on route to a meeting and kids can social network or download tracks to an iPod Touch while on a road trip,” he said in a statement.

For £59.99 ($90), the In Car Wi-Fi kit comes with a Huawei MiFi modem, mains and in-car charger, and windscreen holder, as well as 1GB of data for a month. Buying a MiFi device from the company on a pay-as-you-go basis costs £69.9 ($110).

The price of “freedom”.

* * *

Source: IT Pro

I guess we all somehow experience the same feelings when we move for good to a new place we don’t know, a place we don’t speak the language and are not familiar yet with the culture.  A place we feel like a foreigner, though we now leave there. In her post Alison explains how to turn this, at first challenging, change into a wonderful adventure.

I’d like to dedicate this post to my friend Tanya, a wonderful Mexican expat who lives in Paris and meets with the same issues as Alison did when she started her new life in Brussels.

Hold on and keep faith amiga!

When I started blogging, I wasn’t trying to make money on-line or become famous. In fact, I never expected anyone other than my friends and family would read it. But now, I’m pretty sure that blogging saved my expat life.

I moved to Belgium five years ago as a trailing spouse. My husband and I decided together that we wanted to try living in Europe. The opportunity came up sooner than we expected, when his company offered to move us to Brussels. Legalities being what they are in Belgium, I was unable to get a work-permit as the trailing spouse, so my days were filled with getting our new life settled.

Back then, blogging wasn’t as ubiquitous as it is now, and I didn’t know much about it, but I got tired of writing the same things and answering the same questions in a dozen e-mails. I had learned basic web design and HTML in school so I decided to start a website to share stories and photos with my friends and family back home.

My blog posts were basically extended letters. I didn’t think much about grammar or structure. My posts didn’t have a topic other than what I had been up to since the last time I wrote. I never expected anyone that didn’t know me would bother much with my blog.

In those first few months, I wrote only about happy things – new places we travelled to, new discoveries we made, etc.

The shiny newness of expat life wore off pretty quickly though. The reality was I was mired in mountains of Belgian bureaucracy and red-tape. We had no support from my husband’s company; we didn’t speak the language; we knew no one and we lived in a small community with limited public transportation. I spent most of my days feeling isolated and depressed and wondering what the hell I had done.

I didn’t want to burden my family and friends with my woes. Honestly, I felt like a failure for being depressed in the first place. I mean, I was living in Europe after all. Something that is a dream for most people was my reality. Except most days it felt more like a nightmare.

I turned to the blogosphere for help. Although there weren’t many expat blogs based in Belgium at that time, I found some blogs written by expat women in other countries who were writing about the exact feelings I was having. Suddenly I didn’t feel so alone and it gave me the courage to write about what I was really experiencing.

It was scary to put my stress, struggles and depression out there, but instead of scorn for my whining, I started to get email and comments from other women in my situation. Some were already in Belgium, some were planning an expat move and all of them had similar fears and worries as me.

I was contacted by an expat news website in Belgium and asked to do a weekly column about my experiences in Belgium. Through that column, even more trailing spouses contacted me and encouraged me to keep writing and sharing.

It didn’t happen overnight, but gradually things got better. Because of my blog, I met people, I had an outlet for my stress and worry and I had a sense of purpose. Blogging and the support of my readers gave me the courage to pursue my career as a photographer.

Five years later, my blog and my life have changed dramatically. First of all, we have both moved out of isolation – me to the centre of Brussels and my blog to its own domain.

CheeseWeb is now much less focused on my day to day life and more on expat life in general. It covers a range of topics about life and travel in Belgium. I have guest posters on different topics from art to technology and I write about many different travel destinations around Europe.

Blogging opened so many doors for me in the early months of my expat life and continues to today. I honestly believe that blogging saved my expat life.

About the author:

Alison Cornford-Matheson is a garden and travel lifestyle photographer based in Brussels.  Her website, CheeseWeb has grown into a resource for expats in Belgium as well as a guide for interesting places to visit, eat and shop, but first and foremost it remains  personal journal of one expat wife, making her way in a foreign land.

Some time ago I wrote about this issue many of us unfortunately already faced once or regularly face when traveling by plane: the scarce number of electric plugs in airports.

As you might imagine, most airports were built long before we were all carrying around all kinds of electronic devices, and as such, finding a place to charge them up can turn today into a real challenge. I expect many of us have snooped around for the outlets the airport cleaners use or that operate vending machines (that’s bad!) so we can plug in and charge up our laptop or cellphone during a stopover. Some of us may eventually have ended-up charging their device in the bathroom. But that’s another story I guess…

So, unless airports management decide to undertake a costly reorganization of their infrastructure or implement a wireless power solution – which won’t be made available tomorrow to the many – , the problem may last some time.

The question is, “shall we cry on our cruel fate and accept that?”. I think we shall not!

Designer Ryan Klinger has identified this big flaw and has created the Empower Kinetic Rocking Chair which harnesses your body movements to provide power for your devices. A small box under the seat stores the generated power in a battery, which can then transfer into your devices using either a regular plug or USB. LED indicators on the box tell you how much of a charge the battery is holding.
So simple you wonder why nobody came up with this idea earlier.

[nggallery id=41]

The Empower Kinetic Rocking Chair is a finalist in this year’s Greener Gadgets Design Competition. Let’s hope it will win and start blooming everywhere we need to plug.

* * *

Greener Gadgets Design Competition, via Inhabitat.com

The pleasure and part of the fantasy of Up in the Air [...], is that it wafts us through a very different aerospace. This is a realm where all the officials treat “guests” with pearly-teethed gratitude, where queues are non-existent, and the seats recline just so. Up, up and away: to a retro-tinged zone free from the gravity and tedium that earth-bound drones have to endure.” – The Telegraph

If just like me you consider yourself a “World citizen”, not because you disapprove traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship (wikipedia) but because you’re actually travelling it, then you should go and watch this movie: Up in the Air.

I could of course make a thorough review of this movie, as they’re are many ways to do it – I guess everyone of us who has watched this movie has found something in it that reminds him or her of something individually experimented in their real life, should it be the rituals of their corporate life, this feeling of being at home while flying at 30,000 feet, the complexity of human relationships, or their quest for the most optimized trip through an airport. As for myself, I watched with delight the scene of the airport security control.

But that was not really the purpose of my post, and I’d rather leave this task to people who do that for their living (and do it good) and who’ll probably better explain why you should consider taking the time this evening or this week-end to go to your nearest theater to discover what’s in this mind-blowing movie.

And if today you’re too lazy to read, then just watch the trailer of Up in the Air. Within two minutes you’ll have a better idea of what I meant.

If you’re reading this blog, this might be because you are also sharing our philosophy of living the life of a Digital Nomad. Or not… but you’re at least interested in news about cool gizmos, mobility oriented design, hot news on mobility or travelling tips like the one of today.

Though at first I found this tip a little bit too extreme (maybe because of the fact that I’m a European who is not familiar with this kind of practice and the idea of owning a firearm – and less of carrying it with me in my suitcase!), I then realized after reading this article by Jason Fitzpatrick of Lifehacker, that this was not such a bad idea, all the more so as the word “weapon” extends to airguns, and STARTER PISTOL and that this is fully covered by the regulations of the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA), or better said, legal.

Until you’ve yourself experienced this pain in the neck situation of having your luggage lost by the airline you flew with, which is even worse when it happens to you on your way to your holiday destination (or can turn into a nightmare when you were planning to spend two weeks skiing in Vancouver or Vail…) you can’t understand why this tip is actually very helpful.

Personally I flew three times with Delta Airlines (twice to New York City, once to Mexico City), and I got my luggage lost every single time. Bad luck? I don’t know, but this makes me now believe that I have 100% chances to lose again my suitcase when I’ll fly with this Airline. So if I have a chance to make the risk drop to.. 0% I’ll take it!

Read the full article on how to take advantage of the TSA’s own security rules to prevent your bags from being lost or looted by airline/airport workers

If you want more crazy stories about bad ass airlines and if you can read Spanish (or at least use Google Translate, but as usual this may spoil the quality of the professional-like writing), you should read this story which happened to a friend of mine on his way back to Mexico. It’s really well written and worth the ride.

Size matters

Being mobile implies to deal with the size and the weight of objects the mobile worker would have to carry. And sometimes, being a mobile worker could be just really painful for your back (or your bag … or your pocket). For example, a cool and ultra new smartphone could be really a fantastic tool, yet not easy to fit in your pocket. Sometime, the latest gizmo isn’t the best solution.
Of course, laptops are probably the biggest concern regarding the size. Since the rise of netbooks, they now are a good answer with very compact size. If laptops and netbooks become really small these days, it’s not always the case for the charger, though … Something to keep in mind before packing your bag

Useful reading :

• The Ultimate Computer Case (made in Switzerland)
• Lifehacker laptop bags
• Travel light with one bag
• Your laptop on a USB key!
• The ultimate vertical bag
• The laptop bag group on Flickr

Energy management

Being mobile with all the gizmos modern worker have could be just a nightmare if you don’t have an energy source. We previously discussed the issue of the charger – a universal charger could be a good solution, avoiding dealing with plenty of them.
Once again, the latest gizmo could be really cool, but on the road, it’s important to go back to your basic needs. Sometimes, the previous gadget generation has the benefit of being optimized (latest firmware, etc – leading to better battery management). Or they simply consumes less energy (for example, smartphones are just burning battery so rapidly, while normal phones will be with you for the week.
Thin and light charger are definitely something to look for. Another solution that might be to consider at some point : solar charger.
Hopefully, the move of the European commission for universal charger will help at some point.

Useful reading :

• Small battery-powered USB charger
• USB Car Adapter Charges Any USB Device On-the-Go

Internet connection

We’re getting more and more used to unlimited and permanent internet connection – wifi access, 3G networks are getting always more popular and are weapons of choice for mobile workers. Learn to plan and map your trip with the closest wifi hotspots available (McDonalds, airports, cities, hotels, etc – for France, a Neuf, Fon or FreeWifi access is a big plus). A small wifi detector can also really help. But sometimes, there is just no internet, and you’ll have to deal with that.
Working offline can also be great opportunity to work differently, to focus on what matters and being more productive.
With a decent email client (ie. thunderbird), you can still read your email you’ve previously downloaded, answer to them offline (they’ll be sent next time you’ll connect). Also think to download your important documents (or the one you currently work on).
Offline period are also great moment for reading … tools such as readitlater allow you to mark internet page for later, and download them for an offline visualization.

Useful reading :

• Readitlater
• Free Wi-Fi Guide for Holiday Travelers

Adapt to your working environment

Finding a nice, quiet place to work is always the better option. And if the view or the place inspires you, you’re work will be more productive and creative. But sometimes, it’s just not possible to pick the perfect spot. Noise is often the no1 enemy – earplugs will be lifesaver in these situations. If you like working with music, a good headset will also be very helpful (Noise cancelling technology can be a plus).

Useful reading :

• Comfortable earplug for a silent environment

Working mindset

Working is all about routine. Working outside the office or on the road could be sometime disturbing or distracting. To be able to focus on what matters, it’s important to recreate a routine that will help you find your focus point. Drinks, lights, working space, specific music will help you to find standpoints and go back to work.

Useful reading

• Coffee break

Bonus : the 6th rule – with you wherever you go/are

Inspired by Nicolas who thought it could be a good idea to make reminder about the remote access solutions. Technology indeed offers us plenty of options for accessing our work capacities remotely. Drop.box remains definitely a strong asset, but during this year, a few other tools also came to help us.

One of the first one that will probably be pretty huge in the coming month : Mozilla Weave (disclaimer – I do work with Mozilla) will allow any firefox user to synchronize its data (bookmarks, navigation history, tabs opened, password, login, etc) between 2 firefox (for example, “home computer”, “work computer”, “laptop”) with the required level of security. Go and adopt it !

If you need to remotely (and simply) access to your computer, logmein also improved its offer during the year with a mobile edition. Yummy.

Useful reading

• More details about Mozilla Weave
• 10 useful tools and tips to help you (better) work remotely!

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