Posts Tagged: travel

Zoom ReInvented: The Day Before

Posted by & filed under moleskine to mobile, photos + text from the road.

Nokia 808 Pureview: Just before Dawn at LAX Nokia 808 Pureview: Somewhere over Texas Nokia 808 Pureview: Looking down at the repainted gate lines at DFW Nokia Lumia 925: Hanging out with Jimmy Lee near Times Square Nokia Lumia 925: Clinton Jeff and Mark Guim Nokia Lumia 925: Jason! Nokia Lumia 925: Jay and his screen glow Nokia Lumia 925: The Lenny! Nokia 808 PureView: Afterwards on the edge of Times' Square

Photos by Ms. Jen, click on photo for caption & camera phone.

Wed 07.10.13 – Today was the big travel day of transporting myself and my bags from LAX to DFW to LGA (La Guardia in New York City) for Nokia’s Zoom ReInvented event. While the whole of the day was taken up with travel, the evening was meeting up with friends, fellow bloggers, and Nokians at the R Lounge on the edge of Times’ Square.
It was good fun to catch up, hear what folks have been up to and what they are excited for / about in the world of mobile, as well as be enveloped in the warm almost sauna-like temperatures of NYC in the summer.
Tomorrow is the big day!

A Travel Day

Posted by & filed under photos + text from the road.

Walking conveyor belt between LHR Terminal 3 and the Heathrow Express Station
8-something A.M., Mon 9/24/12 - Hello LAX! 9-something A.M., Mon 9/24/12 - American plane to Chicago delayed due to pre-strike pilot agitation. 10 or 11 something AM, Mon 9/24/12 - Sitting in the plane in the hot LA sun waiting to leave 5-something PM, Mon 9/24/12 - Hello Chicago!!! 6-something PM, Mon 9/24/12 - Golden hour at ORD, while waiting for American to find a pilot for our plane to London. 9 or 10 something PM, Mon 9/24/12 - Waiting for American to update crew list with TSA/FCC so we can depart 2.5 hours late. 11-something AM, Tues 9/25/12 - Hello London Heathrow! 1-something PM, Tues 9/25/12 - Hello London Paddington! 2-something PM, Tues 9/25/12 - Hello Princes Square!

All photos taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia 808 PureView.

Tues 09.25.12 – American Airlines and their pilots seem to be in a pre-strike contract negotiation show down with passive aggressive behaviors on both sides that directly affect passengers. Thus, my trip from LAX to London via Chicago did not go smoothly. I was pretty laid back through all of the shenanigans of delayed flights, missing pilots, crew changes, etc, as I was just danged happy to be escaping the late summer / early fall blast furnace known as Los Angeles and on my way to London where cooler temps prevail.
But when I arrived in London and found that my big bag with all of my clothes, most of my toiletries, my shoes, several programming books, rain coat and umbrella did not follow me but had been last scanned in LA and never scanned in Chicago, I was a bit upset. Luckily the lost luggage agent for American in London was very kind and helpful.
As of this writing, 12 hours since leaving Heathrow, my bag still has not been found or even seen in LA or Chicago. Bugger.
Still danged happy to be visiting London, even if I only have one change of clothes…
;o)

Goodbye Hyderabad, Back to Chennai!

Posted by & filed under photos + text from the road.

Goodbye Hyderabad and the Salai
Getting ready to leave for the airport Attempting to arrange rides Enroute from Hyderabad to Chennai, Desh sleeping Luggage going up at the Chennai Airport Dunnish welcomes folks back home Prepping lunch Hello Madras Club, I love you. Dinner at Kryptos in Chennai

All photos taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N8 cameraphone.

Thurs. 06.09.11 – Today we got up nice bright and early to get to the Hyderabad airport in time for a morning flight back to Chennai. Once in Chennai, we had lunch at Abhi’s family’s house before going back to the lovely Madras club for a good rest and then to dinner at Kryptos, a Greek restaurant. A lovely bridge day.

Off to Visit Ovi in Berlin

Posted by & filed under moleskine to mobile.

This spring has been travel crazy here at Black Phoebe and one of the ways that I have been able to keep within the parameters of my AT&T International data plan is to use Ovi Maps when I was in London and Amsterdam, as you can download the maps before you go and those maps also have all of the most current place information that one would want.
When I was in London, I switched off between using Google Maps on my Nokia N8 and using Ovi Maps. I noticed that Google Maps is quite the data hog using it online and Ovi Maps set to ‘offline’ was much easier on my data usage.
When I was in Amsterdam, I was surprised how thorough and good that Ovi Map’s offline offering was. I was to meet up with friends for dinner, but trying to find them was a moving target as they did not know where they were going and I was about 10-15 minutes behind them. One friend texted me the name of restaurant that they had decided on and without going online, I was able to use Ovi Maps to get the address of the restaurant and the map of how to walk there. It was on the fly with no data usage.
At the beginning of May, Surya Nair, Ovi Maps community manager, invited me to attend a workshop this week in Berlin on Ovi Maps and a few other applications. I am looking forward to meeting the team behind Ovi Maps and to talk with them and other workshop participants about the mobile maps/location/etc.
Off I go to Berlin this evening, volcano willing.

Simplicity, Moving, and The Joys of a Window Seat

Posted by & filed under mobile ux, tidbits.

Yes, I have a few blog posts about the Ethics of Leaks, the just announced delicious Nokia N8, and my thoughts on Resources for Developing Mobile Apps, but these three blog posts may have to wait for the weekend, as I have been a bit buried in work.
In the meantime, may I direct you to a few good | interesting links:
52 Weeks of UX on Simplicity isn’t that Simple:

“John Maeda’s First Law of Simplicity states: The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction. Refinement that is thoughtful, calculated, and whenever possible and appropriate, based on data is one of the fundamental tools of any designer.”

Jan Chipchase, the master of many travels and more than a few international relocations gives some of his tried & true tips on 10 Tips for International Relocation, of which I find #8 to be my experience as it was darned difficult to get a bank account set up in Ireland when I lived there in 2005-2006:

“8. Maintain at least one bank account in the country you’re leaving, because frankly its a bitch to open accounts when you’re ‘abroad’ and at some point you. will. need. it. The exception to the its-a-bitch-to-open rule are the premium banking services offered by the larger banks geared up to service international clients – allowing you to set up an account prior to departure and pick up your new, local cards on arrival. (I use and am reasonably happy with HSBC Premier)”

And speaking of travel, the NY Times’ Travel Section on Joys of the Window Seat, a visual feast of photos in a fun, but hard to scroll interface.

Cities, 2009

Posted by & filed under photos + text from the road.

Here is the yearly meme list of cities I visited in 2009:
A wide variety of cities in the greater LA metro area, including:
Los Angeles, Santa Monica, The Valley, various places in OC and the SVG.
San Diego, CA
Las Vegas, NV
Mammoth Lakes, CA
Bishop, CA
Phoenix, AZ
Parker, AZ
Quartzsite, AZ
Austin, TX
Honolulu, HI
San Francsco, CA (and surrounds, the Silicon Valley, Marin, and Peninsula surrounds)
Aalen & Oberkochen, Germany
Stuttgart, Germany
London, UK
Oxford, UK
Ojai, CA
Brighton, UK
Seattle, WA
2008, 2007, and 2006.

A Few Tidbits from the Tuesday after Labor Day

Posted by & filed under ideas + opinions, tidbits.

Tidbit #1: I don’t have any photos from today because I only took one and it was of Scruffy. I think y’all get enough Scruffy photos.
Tidbit #2: Why no photos? Gasp! Shock! Horror! What ever have you been up to?
Work.
Yep. I am trying to work real hard real fast so that I can free up two weeks at the end of this month to go to London for the Moo Party, London Design Festival, Over the Air, and FOWA. I am registered for FOWA (Future of Web Apps) but I would really like to be able to be in London the week before.
Tidbit #3: Lauren has been Redeemed.
Tidbit #4: I am perversely considering buying a Nokia N86 in London rather than one here. Why in London?
a. I am sick of the US being the place of last mobile delivery and I don’t want to reward companies that wait 2-3 or 4-5 or never months to release good mobile devices in the US.
b. The 3G sucks on AT&T due to the large number of iPhones on the network, so if one is going to be stuck (at least in LA) on Edge-like speeds why not buy a device that is Euro 3G – at least it will be fast when I am on holiday.
c. If I buy an Euro Nokia N86 online in the US, I won’t have a warranty. My June of 2007 bricking experience of my online bought N80 taught me that no warranty is BAD. If I buy the N86 in London, then I will have a warranty in the UK. It is still a warranty.
d. I want to within the year get a job in Europe, so it would be better to get a Euro 3G phone.
I know…rationalizations. rationalizations. rationalizations for my anger at NokiaUSA for being S-L-O-W or getting their container ships lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
Tidbit #5: Hey, have I mentioned lately that I would love to get a job in mobile in London? Know of any positions for a bright creator|ideator|project manager sort? Let me know.
Hopping back on the hamster wheel.