Connectivity Strategies For CES 2010

Posted on 06 January 2010 by


So here we are at CES 2010. We are working to update as many of the images, videos and news posts as we can as quickly as possible. Larry, Judie and I are all using iPhones and discovering how truly great they are for mobile posting. We are able to grab a picture, use the app Polarock to add a caption and then upload it to the flash plugin on the right of the screen using iPicasa. We are able to grab video, add our intro and post to Vimio’s flash plug in on the site with ease.

The entire process can takes mere seconds. Or at least it should… unfortunately the combination of the iPhone and AT&T’s network is turning out to be a bit… shall we say… weak.

Seriously, the ability to connect to the net using our iPhones is hit or miss. And when we are in an event and numerous people are on their iPhones you can all but forget about being able to do much of anything. In part it is the iPhone’s less than stellar receptivity. In part it may well be one more example of AT&T’s rather anemic network. Most of the issue, I suspect is the fact that there are just so many phones using AT&T’s network here that, no matter how good the network might be, there is no way it would keep. There are a few strategies we have been employing to work around this annoying, and limiting, issue.

Strategy 1- Turn off 3G.

By turning off 3G we seem to be finding that our iPhones are connecting far better. It doesn’t help when trying to upload photos or video, however, but for shooting off emails t the site’s other writers so that they can post for us (a huge thanks to everyone but especially Carly, Travis, and Francis!!). It helps but it is far from ideal.

Strategy 2- Thank Judie’s mom!

Judie’s mom got her the best gift this past Christmas… a Verizon MiFi. Judie was super excited to get it. Now we are all super excited she has one. We have all put the MiFi’s password information into our iPhones and, so long as we are near Judie, uploads are fast!! Better still, Mike Temporale from Mobilejaw.com was headed out to Freemont Street with us, and was using Judie’s MiFi from the OTHER cab as he followed us. Awesome!

Strategy 3- Thomas’ BlackBerry Bold

Thomas’ BlackBerry Bold 9700 runs on T-Mobile. While T-Mobile doesn’t work when I am home it does get a signal here. Thomas sent it to me for use when I am in Mexico next week since his plan gives him unlimited world-wide data for pennies a day but I am already finding it to be useful here. Since there is such a comparatively small number of T-Mobile users here it is, I suspect, going to be a bit better in the connectivity department over the next few days.

Strategy 4- If all else fails… cry.

This post was written by:

- who has written 2795 posts on Gear Diary.

Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him. +Dan Cohen

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  • markntravis

    Surely you knew that AT&T service in LV would be hit or miss at best but you still counted on it working for you?

  • Dan Cohen

    I’m not sure what the point of such a short, relatively snide comment is to be honest. This wasn’t about the fact that we came to Las Vegas for the conference planning and depending upon our AT&T phones. We happened each own an iPhone and the iPhone happens to be on AT&T and therefore the logical thing for us was to use our iPhones. Obviously it doesn’t work and obviously we’ve experienced issues throughout the country with the network.
    That is why we came here with additional systems like the MiFi and the t-mobile bold. The point of the post was to share the experience not to say that we came here relying on AT&T. Please feel free to add anything constructive to the conversation in the future however.

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  • http://www.mobilitysite.com breley

    It is ironic that Dan and team had to anticipate such connectivity issues, but like my father used to say, “Prior Planning Prevents P**-Poor Performance”, and it sounds like you’ve got a workable solution. Good job, team! :)

    With regard to the first two posts, I think perhaps “verbal” context here might be the issue, so that the way a poster meant to sound might not always be so easily read from text. Offshore with heavy lenses, markntravis’s comment (one of GD’s top commenters at present, btw) to me comes across as more tongue-in-check than snide. However, I do think Dan’s response would have been better with his first and last two sentences omitted. It would have corrected markntravis’s misapprehensions without coming across as a tad antagonistic.