Thursday 8 November 2007

Mobile working

Well I am seeing more and more now about how mobile devices are taking off and people are talking about how easy it is to work while on the move.

I have seen recent success stories, and other not so successfuly stories.

This is at the front of my mind at the moment because I have just finished writing a project for Windows Mobile 2003 and Windows Mobile 5 Devices.
I have always liked the Microsoft Compact Framework, right back from when I was working with Windows Mobile 2002, and leaps forward with some of the frameworks communications tools and GUI controls have made recent projects very impressive for the end users. The latest application I have written is to tie in with a Server application written by us so that it can go out in the field and gather data.
It connects to the network either by a Cradle to PC connection, or a CF card with a SIM card connected to a networks GPRS, or with WiFi hotspots.

Thinking about 2 of these 3 ways of connecting (GPRS and WiFi) I thought I would write a little something down about my experiences with working mobile a couple of years back and what are the differences now.
2 years ago I went travelling with my girlfriend. We ripped the seats out of a Landrover 110 and fitted a double bed, fridge, power points and an auxhilliary battery, so I essentially had a mobile home / office that could off road to some beautiful spots for a few days at a time.
Firstly we took it round the UK for a couple of months because there is always loads on your doorstep that you never appreciate, and back then people were getting into WiFi. A lot of houses had never even heard of encryption and WEP and WPA and it was quite easy to pull up on a roadside, link into a network and send work in and get the next assignment. Hotspots were a little more expensive in that I remember up in Glasgow I wanted to link into the BT hotspot at McDonalds. It was 10 pounds for 24 hours access which wasnt too bad, but when you moved around it was quite difficult to find parking within range of these spots. More often than not I was having to sit in cafes and public places and work which wasnt the plan, I wanted to be sitting on a beach working. I can remember one time up in the Highlands I had no WiFi hotspots nearby and had to rely on my GPRS to work with. Back then it cost £1 per MegaByte. I was working on a flash project which was a 7MB file, so cost £7 to download it, £7 to upload the new one, and I invariably then got comments from the customer to say "Oooh can you just tweak this or change this text". Simple changes, but always cost me another £7 to get the update to them. So back then GPRS was very expensive, and WiFi was too few and far between to be able to rely on it and keep customers happy that they can always get hold of you and get files to and from you.

NOW however I still have my Landy kitted out, and were thinking of heading off again. Only 4 weeks this time, but it is a little too long to leave work totally, so I will be expecting to work on the road again.
With setting up GPRS for my latest project I saw that the deals now are £1 per day (15 MB maximum content) which is fantastic because you can get GPRS coverage from the beach. I have also signed up for a new deal with BT where I allow part of my BT broadband to be used by anyone (public access) and in return when I travel around I should then have access to other peoples broadband that have made this same pledge. The scheme is young at the moment, but the final intention would obviously be to WiFi the whole of Britan so that you can get free access wherever you may be. These 2 things combined (GPRS cheaper price and BT WiFi sharing scheme) makes it extremely attractive to try and go travelling around now and carry on working. Perhaps I was a little premature in trying it out 2 years ago, but I did learn a lot, and with these 2 tools to help out next summer I think that I should be able to set up my office somewhere on a beach in the sunshine and carry on as normal.

Well I'll write more here about that as I get closer to the trip, but theoretically we wouldnt be too far away from a PC in a rucksack, a roll up keyboard, and a Z800 headset to allow you to sit down wherever you may be, pop the headset on, roll out the keyboard, and fit in a couple of hours work wherever you may be.

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