Buying a laptop to use the built-in mobile Broadband Modem may sound like a good idea, but in my case it’s not.
One of our sales guy got a laptop with a built-in VerizonWireless Broadband Modem. We initially didn’t plan on using that service. However when we realized the built-in Broadband chip was there, we signed up for 2 year contract as always do. He got to use it and liked it well enough. He didn’t have to hunt for wifi signal on the road. A few weeks later, he lost his laptop. We didn’t have a laptop with the built-in Broadband chip so we gave him a laptop without one. He still wanted the wireless Broadband capability.
When I called VerizonWireless to order the USB Broadband Modem, I was in for a shock. Because the laptop was not sold by VerizonWireless, it didn’t have any insurance. So I was going to have to purchase a USB Broadband Modem at retail price. To cancel the service contract that we couldn’t use anymore, I’d have to pay the usual penalty. So here I was stuck with a 2 year VerizonWireless contract that I had no way to actually utilize. I expressed my frustration and the rep offered to let us purchase a USB modem at 1 Year contract. Still not cheap but better than paying the full retail price.
I think getting 2 or even 1 year Data service contract for a Broadband Modem built-in a laptop is a bad idea. The kind of insurance/low-cost-replacement that used to work with cell phones doesn’t apply when it comes to laptops with built-in mobile Broadband Modem. It’s far better to purchase USB or even the Intelligent Mobile Hotspot option (MiFi). You can get the device insured by the cell service provider. You can share it easily with someone else when they are on the road. I really like MiFi option as you can leave the MiFi modem in your bag. With MiFi, you can simply take out your laptop and start browing via mobile Broadband, without having to plug in any USB cable or USB device.
If you decide to code html or something like it on Mac with TextEdit (text editor included in Mac), don’t do it with TextEdit. Get TextWrangler or some other text editor (some free) to do it. I wanted to create a simple text file on my Mac but TextEdit only allowed me to save the file in either RTF or some other format but not as a text file (.txt). You could force TextEdit to save in .txt format by turning off Rich Text mode (Shift + Command + T). But this obviously isn’t a good solution.
So if you want to learn html or do some other task on your Mac that requires editing a real text file (.txt), get TextWrangler or TextMate. I use TextMate which costs about $50. Well worth it. TextWrangler is free.
Also, you want to make sure to change the data/time if you are traveling to another time zone. Let’s say your family lives on the West Coast of USA and traveled to Hawaii for a family vacation. During the trip you take photos of your child still sleeping in bed at 7AM. However the time stamp on the photos will show 10AM, if you didn’t change the time on the digital camera. When you see the photos years later, you’d think that kid was pretty lazy. But of course the fact is that the photos were taken at 7AM local time, not 10AM.
Some people don’t pay much attention to the time stamp setting in their digital camera. However if you enjoy taking tons of digital photos but don’t enjoy wasting time trying to organize them, you should set correct time stamp on the digital camera. Having correct time stamp is the very basic foundation to managing photos easily.
Also, you want to make sure to change the data/time if you are traveling to a different time zone. Let’s say your family lives on the West Coast of USA and traveled to Hawaii for a family vacation. During the trip you take photos of your child still sleeping in bed at 7AM. However the time stamp on the photos will show 10AM, if you didn’t change the time on the digital camera. When you see the photos years later, you’d think that kid was pretty lazy. But of course the fact is that the photos were taken at 7AM local time, not 10AM.