WHILE riding in the back of a Cadillac Escalade recently, I made a video call to a friend (“Hey, guess where I’m calling from!”). Then I checked my ranking in an online football pool. And then I sent e-mail messages to my editors, explaining my tardiness in filing this article. I was still testing mobile high-speed Internet access to show how to get the Web on wheels.
And while I discovered that the mobile route to the information superhighway has some potholes and detours, surfing the Web as a passenger in a car may someday become second nature.
Certainly BlackBerry and iPhone adherents can get basic online access while perched in the passenger seat. However, smartphones like the BlackBerry were designed to deal primarily with e-mail, and the iPhone uses a slow connection to the Internet, so you can’t make video calls with it or quickly jump from Web site to Web site. To do that you need a high-speed wireless data service, like those offered by AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel.
For my Web rides, I used a laptop and a wireless data PC card that slides into the side of a laptop to get high-speed Internet access. The three major cellphone carriers offer unlimited monthly subscriptions for about $60, including a compatible PC card with a two-year contract. All three also offer similar maximum data speeds ”” speeds of about 600 to 1,400 kilobits per second (Kbps) to download and speeds of about 500 to 800 Kbps to upload. It’s not quite as snappy as some broadband cable or DSL services, but it’s close.
For example, I was able to make video phone calls using a Webcam and the Skype Internet calling software on Verizon and AT&T. However, the picture quality didn’t match that of a broadband cable connection, delivering a grainier image and choppier motion. Nevertheless, the experience of jumping from news to sports sites or even playing N.F.L. video clips was usually comparable to that of a home high-speed Internet connection. And all three wireless services are certainly reliable enough to shuffle through e-mail so that you can make excuses to the boss.
This technology is now my primary means of internet access. Besides surfing from the car, I find that it even gives me access at quite a number of remote campsites in the wilderness.
The is what we need more of, a babbler. This is called multitasking, which means applying Parkinsons Law, that work expands to fill the space available for it, to matters of no consequence. LM