Help with remote working tools.

[jonnyk]

I have been working from home for a little over a week now. So far so good. I have been evaluating my processes and I believe I could do my work in 4 hours a day instead of 8. The other 4 hours I will need to be available but I don't want to be tied to my home office. I was thinking of buying a new cell phone and possibly a tablet PC to help me when I am needed and away from the office. What are some suggestions for phones and/or tablet pcs? I would need the ability to respond to phone calls and emails and possibly give a powerpoint presentation through gotomeeting.com. I am implementing evoice and awayfind. Thanks in advance for the help.

[DaveCraige.com]

just get an iphone 4. it works great. I can do 90% of of my work from it. (i bought an ipad too, but i only use the iphone it seems)

[jonnyk]

Ok there is one for the iphone.....anyone got any other suggestions. Just want your thoughts and if you use something and like it....great....share the knowledge. Plus I don't want to dig through reviews!

[howtotraveler]

I love my iPad, but partly because I've had to adjust my expectations. The iPad is best for consuming content, but not necessarily for creating content (lack of actual keyboard, apps, reliance on WiFi for accessing/saving data). I'm not saying it can't be used to create content, but I'm just saying it's been design primarily as a consumption device (and beautifully so).

I'm currently traveling for 5 months and purchased a netbook (HP Mini 210) mid-way through my trip in Mumbai. I'm so glad that I purchased it. I am a bit tech heavy now, but it's made a huge difference (it's allowed me to launch my travel blogging project: http://www.howtotraveler.com).

A few other ideas:

1) If you haven't already done so, move your email/contact/calenders to a centrally hosted service like hosted Exchange or Google Apps. This will help keep this info sync'd between devices (laptop/iPad/iPhone/etc.)

2) Check out Dropbox -- I use this service to back up all of my files/data and also to sync my files between all of my devices. Really happy with it so far. If you use this link (http://db.tt/1oq6x4T), I'll get extra storage! :-)

3) Check out Google Voice as a possibility for managing your voicemail on your cell phone. Basically, you can use it to replace the VM system your carrier provides. The nice thing is that you can then receive VMs by email and/or listen to them using the Google Voice app on your iPhone. Can be handy when you're traveling outside the country (so you don't have to place a call to listen to a message).

4) If you are traveling internationally with your iPhone, here are two articles I've written that you might find helpful:


http://www.howtotraveler.com/2011/04/receiving-calls-is-easy-and-cheap-while-traveling/

http://www.howtotraveler.com/2011/03/use-the-iphone-maps-app-internationally-for-free/

Hope this helps!

Brad