When one is about to embark on a longer business trip, he (or she) may start to think about today's possibilities to keep connected with the family (without paying a huge buck for international phone calls). Sure, there are social services like Facebook and IM services like Google Talk, but one excellent thing that comes to mind are Skype video calls.
I can't install Skype on my corporate laptop, but luckily I have two wonderful Linux machines that come with Skype pre-installed. Although neither one are brand new they are still fully working. My Asus eeePC 900 netbook has currently Crunchbang Linux, and my trusted Nokia N810 is running Maemo OS2008. Both machines have got WLAN connectivity. One major disadvantage in the N810 is that in can only do Skype voice calls for some reason.
A few more differences that matter for me: compared to the N810 the eee pc is still "quite big" to drag along, and the N810 gives way more operating time since its' battery can last up to seven hours (against two hours for the eeePC 900). Also, the N810 has got built-in GPS and a way better keyboard. If only it would do Skype video calls too!
But, to sum it up, I think I'm pretty well set for my business trip with either one of these machines. :)
That Skype video doesn't work on our N810's has always been a mystery to me (and others), given that it comes "Skype ready" and with that forward-facing camera especially for video conferencing use. I've seen it mentioned numerous times on various forums.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, all the best to you on your trip!
Wow, congratulations for being the first person to comment this blog (besides myself)! :D
ReplyDeleteSeems that I dragged those gadgets along just as "1.2 kg of unnecessary stuff".. My concerns were resolved by the simple fact that most of the time I did not have access to any free WLAN networks anyway.. so I kept in touch with the family using "traditional" methods such short phone calls and SMS messages. But for one week, that was enough..