Technology for Travel: A Timeline of Connectivity

When you travel, do you use more or less technology?

For some it may be less, however, for me, it is much more. Having the right technology for travel is essential to many people and I'm no exception. To better understand how much technology was a part of my daily activities, I created a timeline of my usage during a one-night trip to Kentucky earlier this year:

Noon - Leaving the house and going to O’Hare airport, I streamed a couple songs via Spotify to make my short trip even more entertaining. The long-term parking lot at O’Hare is roughly the size of Rhode Island so I was sure to use Carrr Matey (yes that’s spelled correctly) to mark down via GPS where I parked the car.

12:10 - As I walked to the tram that takes you to the terminal, I received a motion alert via my Belkin Net Cam from the baby’s room, allowing me to watch the baby get put down for a nap from my smartphone. Sitting on the tram I had around 8 minutes of free time, so I played a game of Subway Surfers (almost have my magnet at max level) and checked the early baseball scores on Sports Tap.

12:30 – Unable to locate my ticket at the American Airlines terminal, I had to fire up Touchdown to check my Orbitz confirmation email, only to realize that I was flying United. While walking to the correct terminal, I listened to more music via Spotify via my wireless Beats headphones. While I may have been looking rather hip and/or current, my headphones hid the secret that I was listening to the Backstreet Boys.

12:50 - After a seamless check-in, I bid adieu to my checked bag, crossing my fingers we would meet again soon. Whisking through security, headphones back on, I picked up some food and settled in for a work conference call using Citrix on my tablet to remote into my virtual desktop.

1:26pm – Call is over and Bryce Harper just took Ricky Nolasco DEEP in his first at-bat of the year!! Stephen Strasburg mowed them down 1-2-3. Nothing beats streaming an MLB Game in full HD while eating a Cinnabon at gate F1A.

2:10pm - Everything closed up for boarding, I went technology free for a painful 14 minutes. Thankfully our plane leveled off quickly and I was able to fire up the Newsstand app on my tablet to get caught up on my Sports Illustrated reading, again while listening to my downloaded playlist on Spotify. Because the plane had no Wi-Fi, I had to stay strong and wait 87 minutes before refreshing my Yahoo Fantasy Baseball app and Sports Tap score tracker. By the time we landed, Harper had hit another HR! Touchdown on my phone allowed me to get caught up on work emails in a pinch until I got to the hotel and could break out the laptop.

3:50pm - After picking up my rental car and checking my voicemail, I used Google Search to find some information and returned a couple calls. While loading Google Maps for directions to my hotel, I streamed an assortment of Pandora songs to mix things up.

4:30pm - When I arrived at the hotel, it was time to light up the hotspot on my phone and connect my laptop to the web to get some work done. With MLB at Bat audio streaming in the background on the tablet, the day’s early games were ending and the afternoon Opening Day games began to kick off, providing a great soundtrack to my dinner break and some more laptop time .

5am – After my phone went off as my backup alarm clock, I started the day by checking mail, news and the weather while brushing my teeth. Runstar helped me record my morning jog, then after getting cleaned up used Google Maps to get me to my destination.

9am - Using my Droid DNA, I snapped some pictures and sent them to my coworkers so we could scout out a location for a future event. A quick video chat with the kids provided me the opportunity to check-in with them as they were on their way to school and I was quickly on my way to my last stop.

3pm - Using my Galaxy Camera, I filmed an interview with a couple Verizon customers in Kentucky and once again used Maps to find my way back to the airport.

That was my one night tech diary. Phones, tablets and accessories are so powerful it seems they are now an integral part of everything I do especially when on the road. I find that a variety of mobile solutions help me accomplish a lot on-the-go, providing additional time to tackle other projects (and spend time with my family). Hopefully some of the apps I used on my trip will help you get back a little more time in your own day to focus on your own passions, whatever they may be.