“Hey, how’d you do that?”
I get asked this question a lot from friends, family and travelers who want to know more about the camera apps and processing tricks I use to capture, edit and share iPhone photographs.
I’m enamored with every aspect of mobile photography - the creative apps, the shoot-and-share convenience, the pocket size ease - and it’s changing the way I shoot, edit and deliver images, both personally and professionally, on a daily basis.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Barking dogs, tolling church bells, blaring music, parading bands, exploding fireworks, police whistles, sirens, and crowing roosters are among the many noises that make up the soundtrack of life in Latin America, our home-away-from-home for nearly two years now.
Like many visitors, we have a love/hate relationship with the auditory vibrancy of the Latin American lifestyle. Most of the time, the crazy cacophony charms and amuses us. At 3AM, not so much.
Not to worry: There’s an app for that.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Say goodbye to hefty monthly contracts and global roaming fees with a $199 Apple iPod Touch.
When my husband and I made the decision to put our life in New Mexico on hold and set off for an extended romp through Latin America, it wasn’t where we’d live, how we’d get there, or even what we’d take that worried me. The Internet, vacation rentals, hotels, airplanes, and local shops offered easy solutions to those problems.
What did present a challenge, however, was a question on the minds of many Americans traveling abroad: How can I avoid the global roaming fees of my U.S. based mobile phone provider and still stay connected?
Nearly eighteen months into the adventure, we’ve said goodbye to hefty monthly contracts and global roaming fees, in large part thanks to the simple convenience of a $199 Apple iPod Touch.
Basically an iPhone without a monthly contract, the iPod Touch is proving to be an essential pocket-sized travel tool and budget-friendly communications alternative.
Here are 3 key ways I use the iPod Touch in lieu of a global smartphone.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
I was flying back from Boston recently when I spotted my seatmate tapping and flipping his way around a touchscreen smartphone that at first glance looked like an iPhone - until I spotted the Verizon logo. If you’re a Verizon user, like me, you’re all too aware that Verizon doesn’t have an iPhone (or didn’t at the time of this review). Was this the answer to my prayers? I had to know more.
Verizon HTC Droid IncredibleSo I did what any gadget girl would do, I peered over the poor guy’s shoulder long enough to break his concentration and compel him to ask if there was something he could help me with.
Thankfully, he proved to be as big a geek as I am and couldn’t wait to show me around his newest toy - Verizon’s HTC Droid Incredible. We talked travel tech the rest of the flight home.
I love my BlackBerry, I do. But I was enchanted enough by the Incredible’s spacious screen and iPhone-like behavior to take it for a 30-day test drive.
I found plenty to love about the Incredible, including blazing fast performance, a 3.7-inch touchscreen, eye-pleasing graphics and a super sleek design.
In side-by-side web searches and site uploads, its Google powered Android 2.2 operating system left my BlackBerry at the curb. And surfing the Net felt as easy and fast on the Incredible as it does on the computer. But I wasn’t nearly as comfortable navigating the Droid’s virtual QWERTY keyboard as I am when using the BlackBerry’s real deal.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Start Your Engines Gadget Girls!
This just in…
BLACKBERRY TAKES THE WORLD BY STORM WITH VERIZON WIRELESS AND VODAFONE
BlackBerry
Storm Delivers the Full Power of the BlackBerry Platform on the World’s
Leading Networks with the World’s First “Clickable” Touch-Screen
Smartphone
Verizon Wireless, Vodafone Group (NYSE and LSE: VOD)
and Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced
that the BlackBerry® Storm™ will be available later this fall,
exclusively to Verizon Wireless customers in the U.S. and Vodafone
customers in Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand.
Designed
to satisfy the needs of both consumers and business customers, the
BlackBerry Storm smartphone combines the powerful communications
features, global connectivity and personal productivity advantages of
the BlackBerry® platform with a revolutionary touch-screen technology
that dramatically enhances the touch interface and enables easy and
precise typing. The world’s first “clickable” touch-screen responds
much like a physical keyboard and also supports single-touch,
multi-touch and gestures for intuitive and efficient application
navigation.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Blackberry Tour 9630Once upon a time my basic needs were simple: food, water, travel… Now, I can’t live without my Verizon BlackBerry 9630? What the heck happened?
24/7 wireless e-mail connectivity, worldwide voice and data coverage, GPS navigation − THAT’S what happened. They don’t call it CrackBerry for nothing.
I used to snicker at the corporate drones tethered by their techy-umbilical cords to bosses and work, while I, the foot-loose freelancer, jetted off to some remote destination with a flippant “catch-you-when-I-get-back” e-mail auto-response and phone message.
That was pre-BlackBerry. Today, you’ll find me right there with the corporate schmucks, checking e-mail and thumbing back responses before the plane has even pulled up to the jetway. I hardly recognize myself.
But just when I’m ready to go cold turkey, I’ll need to Google a hotel phone number, e-mail the airport shuttle with delayed flight details, find my way to an important meeting with audible turn-by-turn directions, or score a dream assignment from the beach in Rio just because I was able to dash off a quick “I’ll do it!” on the BlackBerry, and I’m hooked all over again.
Sound familiar? To keep the scales tipped to technical god-send rather than compulsive addiction, follow these simple Rules to Blackberry By at Forbes.com.
FOR TRAVELERS ON THE GO - BUY A NEW BLACKBERRY SMARTPHONE AND EARN 4,000 AADVANTAGE MILES FROM AMERICAN AIRLINES.
If you can’t do without your BlackBerry(R) smartphone and just have to have those American Airlines AAdvantage(R) miles, then now you can have the best of both worlds. Now, you can earn AAdvantage miles when you purchase and activate a BlackBerry smartphone on any of the nation’s major service providers.
Earn 4,000 AAdvantage miles with activation of a new wireless rate plan.
Earn 4,000 AAdvantage miles when you upgrade your existing rate plan, and upgrade to a new device.
Contact Information:
To earn AAdvantage miles, your BlackBerry smartphone must be purchased through this link www.blackberry.com/aa* or by calling 1-877-337-0136.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
The other day my house cleaner panicked when her cell phone accidentally fell off her belt clip and into the Cloroxed bubbling abyss of our toilet. Another friend returned from Key West with a ruined, salt-encrusted mobile after he put it in the drink sea kayaking. Then, I drenched mine in coffee.
Too bad we didn’t have Verizon’s submersible, travel-tough G’zOne cell phone. Drop it, scratch it, shake it, bake it, the indomitable 5.3-ounce phone can handle just about anything you throw its way. Tougher than you are, the military-tested mobile is built to withstand exposure to temperatures in excess of 140ºF, extreme vibration, solar radiation, conditions set to simulate storm conditions of two inches of rainfall per hour with high winds and submersion in one meter of water.
You don’t need a 007-lifestyle, however, to want this phone. Thanks to industrial-grade seals and enhanced shock resistance with the G’zOne you can snap underwater pictures, talk in the shower and run over it with your shopping cart and we’ll still be able to hear you now.
To learn more, click HERE.
Certified to MIL–Standard 810F For:
- Water Resistance, Humidity
- Shock
- Dust
Camera/Video
- Built–In 300K CMOS Camera with Flash & Digital Zoom
- Camcorder
Services
- Mobile Web 2.0 Capable
- Email, Mobile IM, & Chat Capable
- VZ Navigatorsm Capable
- Chaperonesm Parent/Child
- Get It Now® Capable
- Picture & Video Messaging
- Text Messaging
- Voice Mail
Tools
- Address book with up to 500 Contacts & Picture Caller ID
- Calendar, Alarm Clock, World Clock
- Calculator, Notepad
- Countdown Timer, Stopwatch
- Speed Dialing
- Push to Talk Capable with other Verizon Wireless Push to Talk Capable Phones
- Polyphonic ringer and sound capability
- Speakerphone
- Voice Activated Dialing
General
- Bluetooth® Capable for the following profiles: Headset (HSP), Hands–free (HFP), Serial Port (SPP) and Dial–Up Networking (DUN); it does not support Bluetooth Object Transfer OBEX Profiles
- Dual Mode (800/1900 MHz CDMA) 1XRTT
- Dimensions: 3.8” (H) x 2.0” (W) x 1.1” (D)
- 8 Lines of Text
- Weight: 5.1 ounces
- Main Display: 1.8” 65K Color TFT (176 x 220)
- Sub Display: 1.3” Black & White STN (96 x 96)
- Hearing Aid Compatibility = M4
- TTY Compatible
- SAR: Head –1.07 / Body –0.413
- Battery: 1050 mAh Li–Ion
- Usage Time: Up to 203 Minutes OR
- Standby Time: Up to 170 Hours
- Handset Insurance is Available
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".