The Road goes ever on and on; Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the Road has gone; And I must follow, if I can;
Pursuing it with eager feet; Until it joins some larger way;
Where many paths and errands met; And whither then? I cannot say.

[JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings]

Wednesday 12 March 2008

Mobile Blogging

Right back from when the LEJOG plan was formed I said that I would Blog it as I went. I didn't know how I was going to do that but I was sure that there was a way.

The first plan was rather simplistic, involving a Psion, memory cards, Royal Mail, a willing helper at home and a time delay.

I knew that there were other solutions out there but none of them seemed to meet all of my requirements, which were:
1) a touch typeable keyboard. I can type very fast indeed so didn't want to be fiddling around with little keys;
2) very light weight, which put the PDA with fold out keyboard down low on my list;
3) good battery life as the tent doesn't come with a convenient power point;
4) cheap to buy and run - I don't have a contract phone and didn't want to have to sign up for a lengthy contract just so I could cover a 3 month walk.

I looked at various options but none seemed to tick all of my boxes. Then I saw that Judy Armstrong (http://www.alpinechallenge.info) had selected the Pocketmail for her Very Big Walk.

I looked at it online a few times and it seemed ideal, but I wanted to check a few things out before I bought.

A quick email to Judy brought me all of the information that I wanted and also the news that she had no further user for her device. So, after a brief exchange of emails, her Pocketmail arrived on my doorstep.

A quick call to Pocketmail and it was reactivated in my name and ready to go.

And what a fantastic device it is! All of my boxes are ticked. Okay, so I can't type as fast and as accurately as on a full size keyboard, but it is definitely touch typeable. It weighs 230g with batteries and as those batteries are AAs I never need find a power point nor carry a charger. The promised batttery life is good as the LCD screen doesn't need a backlight unless you're trying to use it in really poor light.

It's definitely a simple device, but it does what I need and that's what is important.

So that's the Blogging issue sorted {and the Pocketmail that already travelled extensively in the Alps gets to have another adventure too!}.

The only downside seems to be that when I send an email it adds a silly footer on and I can't find a way to stop it, but hopefully you'll be able to tune out that last line of each mobile post!

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Allow us to help those in need, sell back your spare PocketMail and make some extra pocket money.

6 comments:

  1. Footer? What footer is that then?
    ;-)

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  2. Good to see that you've tuned it out already!

    What really gets me about it is that it asks you to sell back your used Pocketmail without giving any contact information to allow you to do so in the very unlikely event that you just happened to have a spare one in your cupboard...

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  3. Sounds brilliant Gayle - I had half a ton of equipment - PDA (plus charger) Fold out keyboard, Phone (plus charger), Camera (plus charger) plus box to put it all in!

    Not long now.....

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unfortunately, I've not come up with a way to do without the phone charger (although I have found a really light one!) nor the camera charger. At least that weight is offset by the light blogging device.

    Not long indeed. Only a tiny smidge over a month to go - which will of course pass by in a flash.

    ReplyDelete
  5. *WANTS, WANTS, WANTS*

    Did it work well for you? I'm beginning to think about a portable blogging device, so maybe I should look at these...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Peewiglet,

    I found myself writing a rather long-winded answer to the seemingly simple 'did it work well' question, so I've posted it as a separate blog entry. Hope it answers your question!

    ReplyDelete