Looking for a summer connection

[Bob Makela]

Fellow Road Dog,

I am taking a 100-day road trip around America this summer that is being financed by an entertainment website. During the trip I'll be posting daily video, photo and text reports. The only problem is, I'm far from cyber savvy. In fact, I don't even own a cell phone and I've never used a pager, Palm Pilot or practically any other hi-tech item, save for a laptop.

My question is: can you recommend a good resource where I can go to find out as much information as possible about what gadgets I'll need--which computer would be the best for what I want to do? what DV camera should I get? who makes the best cellular phone for my purposes? etc...

I'm leaving in about two months, so I have some time to learn as much as I can about this stuff.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers.

Bob Makela

[Mark Sedenquist]

Road Greetings Bob,

There are several good options for reviewing costs of equipment once you know what you want. www.cnet.com being one of the best, since they work hard at being "un-biased."

This is a very heady time for dashboarders and others, like yourself, who need reliable, timely information about wireless options and equipment. The manufacturers and service providers are clamoring for attention about their new "killer application," My e-mail box is over-flowing with hot, new news...

In the next three weeks I will be testing or speaking with the purveyors of a bunch of these "new" wireless devices and services. Since you have some time, I would recommend checking in periodically with the "Road Wirer" columns or this Forum as I attempt to distill the nuggets from the hype.

One thing that would be helpful would be parameters about the range of budget you have, the resolution quality requirements and the file sizes you anticipate using.

RW

[Mark Sedenquist]

A recent e-mail from a fellow dashboader got me thinking. He is a professional photographer who works "in the bush" quite far from any land-line. He uses the Nera WP satellite phone. This unit uses the Inmarstat Geo-stationary Mini-M service and he can access near ISDN service. It is pricey at a rental of $1500 per month and high connection speed at $12.50 per minute, (lower speeds at $3.75 per minute) but it might work for your application.

Check out www.gmpcs-us.com for more information. Let me know what you think.

RW