After completing my Master of Distance Education in 2006, I wanted to publish and present my findings about mobile learning devices. I was accepted at a conference in Amman, Jordan and another in Mauritius. Since I was passing through Europe along the way, I decided to add a personal trip to London and Paris. Therefore, I knew the trip would be lengthy and I was troubled at the thought of lugging a laptop along. Then, I realized that this was my opportunity to truly test mobile computing in a practical sense. Is it really practical to leave the laptop behind? This first draft of this article was drafted on a Palm Treo 600 during flights and airport stopovers as well as in hotel rooms and during conference sessions. (Yes, I misbehave at conferences.)

Preparation is essential to achieving laptop emancipation. Before leaving Canada, I made sure that I had the latest version of a Palm product called Documents to Go. In theory, this program permits one to read and draft Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, and other electronic files. My first impression of this program was very positive. I was amazed at the compression logarithms. My entire PowerPoint presentation which was approximately 1.75 MB in size on my laptop was compressed to a mere 125 KB in Documents to Go. It was readable and editable. However, I was a little worried that I would not be able to transfer the presentation to another computer in order to project it during the presentations. I was hoping to be able to download the contents of my SD card to a laptop. Of course, I had contingencies—by way of CDs and USB jump drives with the same content. As it turned out, I loaded my presentations from the jump drives onto laptops provided for us at the conference venues. I have since seen others project their presentations directly from their PDAs using Ethernet cables. Smartphones are not far behind.

Already during the first flight over the ocean, I was able to verify hotel bookings and send email to the conference organizers in order to ensure airport pick-ups. Of course, one must wait to be told when to turn on communications devices during flights. Many flights do not permit it at all. Connecting to the ground is something difficult to do with a WiFi-only enabled laptop. The Treo, with its GSM technology allows truly anywhere, anytime contact.

Mobile device users will find themselves learning the new skill of skulking around and scoping-out plug-ins in airports and restaurants. While the devices may use less energy than a traditional laptop, wireless connections can result in batteries draining quickly. The requirement to recharge frequently, however, seems no worse than if one were using a laptop.

Connecting to an ISP in Frankfurt was very easy. My Treo was able to find available networks and connect to them. However, it is advisable to browse the lists and select carefully in order to avoid incurring unreasonably high data charges. Once connected, text messaging, cellular telephone calls, browsing the Internet, and sending email is perfectly normal. I did not detect any difference in upload or download times between Canadian and German networks. In fact, it may have even been faster in Frankfurt.

The Treo with its GPRS/GSM capabilities worked magnificently all through the Middle East—Jordan and the UAE, in particular. However, the telecom company in Mauritius did not provide data services. So, for the first time during the trip, I was reliant upon the expensive hotel access fees or taking taxis to hit-and-miss cybercafés. In fact, it cost $1 Canadian per minute for high-speed Internet access at my hotel. I spent most of my $60 contacting one of our astronomers for directions on how to find the Southern Cross constellation. Needless to say, after that one expensive hour, I chose to rely more heavily on text messaging. (I was able to find the Southern Cross.) I found text messaging to be very inexpensive, only a few cents per message from nearly anywhere in the world depending on the carrier. Of course, if I had brought a laptop, I would have had free WiFi access for the duration of the conference.

While in Mauritius, I was sent an editing test that I had to complete within a few days. I was able to download and read the documents—graphics included. However, I required the MS Word track-changes feature which the Documents to Go application did not offer. Also, when doing substantive editing, I really needed to see documents in their entirety. I needed to view and compare headings, layout, and organization. This was difficult to do on such a tiny screen. Furthermore, the conversion of the documents to the mobile Word on the Treo actually removed some of the original formatting, so I had difficulty in reviewing the documents in their entirety. So, I was forced to borrow a laptop from a colleague.

Then, I needed print-outs of the documents for the editing test, but I did not bring a converter for my Treo’s SD card. This was to be one of the first things that would I do upon my return to Canada. So, I had to locate an Internet café computer to access the Internet again and to attempt to store my documents on a USB memory stick. I managed to do all these things. It was amazingly difficult to locate a place in Mauritius where I could get print-outs, but that is not the fault of the mobile device.

Internet access without a cellular telephone standard of data exchange such as GPRS/GSM or CDMA was the root of most of my problems. Indeed it would be best to have a device that would offer multiple means of data exchange including WiFi, GSM (or CDMA), Infrared, and Bluetooth. It would have permitted me to transfer the contents of my SD card via the infrared port on the machine; however, I was not able to locate a machine in Mauritius that had an infrared port.

At approximately 11:00 am, I began the editing test. I finally finished it around 4:30, but did not successfully send it away until about 5:30 pm. So much for going to the beach! Then, I had all kinds of interesting problems with my webmail. It never rains, but it pours. I tried to send the zipped files though different webmail accounts, but I did not receive a confirmation message saying that the file was successfully sent. Then, I typed the email address incorrectly and forgot to carbon copy myself. Finally, I typed the correct email message and remembered to carbon copy myself. However, I had no way of knowing whether or not my test was received. Finally, I realized that I could text message a friend and ask her to check for me. Now, that was useful. Although I used a laptop to complete the test, I ended up using my Treo to achieve more instant communications. This suggests that the technologies are really very complementary.

In terms of security, using a small mobile device offers some advantages and disadvantages. Of course, it can be stolen quite easily from one's bags. Yet, it can be easily locked in a hotel safe or a room safe. It is easy to conceal in pockets and can, therefore, be protected: security through obscurity.  Although I have had difficulties sending and receiving email from Mauritius, I always had a cellular telephone connection enabling me to make telephone calls and send text messages.

I was not certain about the security of GPRS data transmissions, so I did not try to log into my bank accounts. The only password protected websites that I visited included webmail. I also limited my browsing to the CBC RSS feeds. Text messaging was by far the most successful part of my trip. From what I understand, my parents were delighted with each message. From all the places on my journey, the cost was the same: 20 cents per message. Although I could receive an unlimited number of text messages in return, no one actually sent me anything significant. I suspect this is because their cellular telephones required more cumbersome ways of punching in the numbers. While my Treo allowed the use of a thumb keyboard with all the letters of the alphabet as well as a handy fold-out keyboard, other simple phones, “dumbphones,” have a simple numeric keypad. It was a little disappointing on my side of the world.

After thirty-seven text messages, I finally coaxed my parents, brother and one friend into sending a message back. My friend sent: "MESSAGE RECEIVED SLOW THUMBS." My father and my brother both indicated that they were having trouble without a QWERTY keyboard; however, the messages they sent were quite well-formed and used real sentence structure. So, on my reply I used some numbers and half-slang to show them how to click fewer characters to say the same thing.

An instructional technology specialist from China told me that the young people there are starting to use our alphabetic characters to form a new type of slang: pictorial slang. For example, "orz" is used to represent someone bowing. The "o" is the head, the "r" is the back and butt, while the "z" represents tucked legs. Apparently, the kids type this when they want to say "wow" or to show that they are really impressed with something. It certainly would be interesting to follow the development of text-messaging slang around the world. It could be a new form of comparative literature: comparative texting? I wonder if anyone has started a compendium.

Overall, the Treo permitted me to keep in contact with my colleagues and friends while I was away. I noticed that the university webmail was somewhat slow during business hours, but that was my late afternoon and nighttime hours. In the morning in Paris, London, Mauritius, and Amman, it was very easy to download my email as there was no traffic at the university.

I used the PowerPoint feature mostly in the evenings before having to do presentations. It allowed me to practice and time the presentations. However, the slides were difficult to read in that particular mode. I did not update the slides on the Treo for fear that I would not be able to transfer the updated slide show to a laptop for the actual presentation. Of course, I would have been able to transfer the document through the Infrared port or by sending it through email. However, as became readily apparent to me, not all laptops are equipped with Infrared. 

After the conference circuit, I returned to more “normal” usage patterns: checking the news, sending email, and texting messages. But, get this, upon my return to Canada, I received my bills. I nearly keeled over when I saw the bills totaling more than $400 Canadian. The greatest cost was for reading email, surfing websites, and downloading documents. Of that, perhaps $20 to $40 Canadian was for text messages.

Would I do it again? Yes, but with some caveats. I suppose, in the end, I really appreciated the ability to travel light. But, when I had serious work to do, I missed the laptop’s large screen size, powerful programs, and the inexpensive means of connecting to the Internet, namely WiFi. If I were to travel with my smartphone again, I would rely more on text messaging rather than webmail and Internet access to limit expenses.

I am now eagerly awaiting the arrival of the iPhone in Canada. But . . . since the iPhone is not yet available, I have purchased an HTC TYTN 2. Well, this phone isn’t really available in Canada, either. It is equipped with WiFi. I am planning another trip to some faraway lands, and I will take the HTC. Look for a posting at the end of March or beginning of April for a blog posting called, “Hiking with an HTC: Leaving Your Laptop Behind (Part Two).”

My Treo 600 with leather case, keyboard, stylus and charger: