The free Pandora app for iPhone saves the day on a road trip with my teenage son.

My 19 year old son and I were on a road trip from Orange County, California to Denver, Colorado. It was a 16 hour drive, split up into 2 days.

At nearly the midpoint in Flagstaff, Arizona, at the beginning of our second day it became apparent that there was a lot of tension through the first half of the trip since we couldn't agree on what music to listen to. Both of us wanted to figure something out to fix this.

Typically I listen to Christian Praise and Worship, or sometimes the news, or even classical. But when I'm on a road trip I want something totally out of the ordinary: I might scan to a radio station that plays 70's or 80's music that often times brings back memories from an old song from my youth or other years.

Or I might scan to a country station when on a road trip since I don't normally listen to country even though I like it, and there are a ton of country stations to be found when driving through the West. I might listen to a Christian station for a bit, but am ready to move to something else quickly since generally it doesn't suit my road trip mood. For me, loosing connection to a station and having to scan to something else is half the fun since you don't know what you're going to get.

I especially like to hear the radio stations that are local to the areas that I'm driving through, with their quirky commercials and sometimes funky DJ's. And the main point is that this is totally out of character of what I would listen to at home on my iPod, my CD collection, the radio, or Pandora (more about Pandora in a minute).

My son likes Christian Praise and Worship some too, but what he listens to the most is techno; something I can't stand because of the driving beat that gives me a headache within 2 minutes, and the repetitiveness, repetitiveness, repetitiveness.

So we basically argued every time he would put one of his techno CD's in, or when I would scan to a new radio station.

Suddenly he asked for my iPhone, which he does sometimes in order to play games that I have downloaded. He then realized I had downloaded the Pandora app onto my iPhone. I introduced him to Pandora a couple of months ago. He and I now each have our own play lists created within Pandora on our PC's and iMac at home.

We were both surprised to find that I had a strong 3G connection while driving in remote areas of the West...

He launched Pandora on my iPhone. We were both surprised to find that I had a strong 3G connection while driving in remote areas of the West, and that he was able to bring up my playlist since we had a 3G connection and Pandora remembered my login. He wasn't interested in my playlist, so he quickly created a new playlist by typing in a song name or two from his techno stuff. He was able to listen to music on my iPhone using the earphones that came with the iPhone while the iPhone remained fully charged using $30 a car charger that I keep in the car. And I was able to listen to the radio at the same time.


So for the rest of our trip we both listened to our own music while we drove through the rest of Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. To our surprise we had a good connection on the iPhone with Pandora the entire way. We were both much happier since now I could listen to my music on the radio and he could listen to his on the iPhone.

Yet another reason why I won't travel without my handy iPhone.

My only complaint about Pandora is that it does seem to repeat the same songs quite a bit. This may have something to do with the way I am using it. Maybe I haven't set it up properly. I often have to select the option that says "Don't play this song for another month.". I think the algorithm Pandora uses needs more interaction from me to tell it what I like or don't like, so I get repeat songs until it receives my input. This is my best guess anyway, but I still really like Pandora. I find myself using my iPod a lot less at home since Pandora is always right at my fingertips at the computer.

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Jeff Kemp, MileHighTechGuy (Golden, CO), www.jeff-kemp.com.

For more info: 

Jeff Kemp's website:  http://www.jeff-kemp.com

Email Jeff, MileHighTechGuy: jeff@milehightechguy.com

Having an iPhone comes in handy during a blackout.

We live at 7500ft elevation in the foothills of the Rockies in Genesee, a community within Golden, Colorado. On Friday April 17th at 10:30pm our power went out due to the recent 3ft of heavy wet snow we had received over a period of a couple of days.

 

The power remained out for over 27 hours, which meant that all through Saturday until 1am Saturday morning we had no lights, no heat (except for our gas fireplaces), no stove (ours is electric), no refrigeration, no TV, and no land line phone. I'm sure though that the folks at Xcel Energy did their best to get everyone's power back on as quickly as possible.

Amazingly my iPhone not only had a good 3G connection so I could use it for phone calls to alert my family about the power outage, but I was also able to keep up with my email, Facebook, and LinkedIn updates throughout the weekend without skipping a beat.

With my iPhone, even though we had no power and we're buried in 3ft of snow, I was able to keep connected to the world.

An added bonus is that the iPhone gives off a good amount of light,

so I sometimes use it to get around the house instead of a flashlight since it is always at my side in it's handy holster.  In extreme cases when I really need more light I use a free iPhone application that I downloaded from iTunes some months ago aptly called 'Flashlight' that is a very simple full screen of just white that gives off an optimum amount of light, more than say, if you were looking at your email for instance. 'Flashlight' is really handy for giving you the light you need for getting your key into the door at night, or for helping you find something you dropped in the parking lot in the dark.

I didn't worry too much about running down the battery of my iPhone even though our power was out since I knew that if the battery ran too low that I could plug it into my car charger for a bit and it would be good as new. I happen to have a cigarette lighter type plug in my Nissan Xterra that works without requiring to turn on the car's engine.

Another nice feature native to the iPhone is the alarm clock. That comes in handy too when the power is out.

Okay, now that my iPhone and I can't be separated during even a blackout, I'm ready to make one of stupid those commercials where the person says: "I'm an iPhone". Oh, right, that's Microsoft's stupid commercial where they say: "I'm a PC". But you get the gist. Me and my iPhone are becoming 'one'. It's getting kind of scary.

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Jeff Kemp (Golden, CO), www.jeff-kemp.com.

For more info: 

Jeff Kemp's website:  http://www.jeff-kemp.com

Email Jeff: jeff@milehightechguy.com

How Panasonic's X marks the spot - Runway Girl

How Panasonic's X marks the spot - Runway Girl:

"One curious reader asks: 'So, does this mean regular USB - or other non proprietary interfaces - will be supported as well? Is this another apple marketing scheme, or an honest attempt from the aviation industry to integrate personal entertainment?'

It's a good question, deserving of a worthy answer. So I asked Panasonic director, product line management Marshal Perlman to break things down for us (who loves ya, baby?).

Perlman says: 'Our IFE system supports a number of interfaces and the eXport jack only complements USB. In the case of Singapore Airlines, they offer both USB and eXport on their aircraft. This is something that we encourage all our customers to do and our system is easily able to support eXport and USB interfaces simultaneously if so desired by the airline.

'The goal of Panasonic Avionics Corporation in creating the eXport jack was to provide airlines passengers with an easy to use solution for integrating personal entertainment devices with our IFE systems. The alternative to eXport would be an 'octopus' type cable that is less than elegant. The eXport initiative launched by Panasonic Avionics Corporation's R&D team and it is just the one of the many technology advancements that Panasonic plans on introducing."

Photo from Panasonic USB Media Player data sheet.

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Jeff Kemp (Golden, CO), www.jeff-kemp.com.

Airliners Becoming Authorized iPod Accessories || The iPod Observer - Now Playing

Airliners Becoming Authorized iPod Accessories || The iPod Observer - Now Playing

"Singapore Airlines claims to be the first airline to offer passengers iPod connectivity to their inflight entertainment system (IFE), according to Flight International on Thursday. Other airlines aren't far behind.

Airbus A340-500s operating from Singapore to Newark will have the connections in all the business class seats.

A spokesperson for the carrier confirmed that SIA is the first airline to allow passengers to play music and view video content using their own iPhone or iPod through the airline's IFE system using an integrated cable."

Jeff Kemp (Golden, CO), www.jeff-kemp.com.

Singapore Airlines offers iPod-friendly skies | Crave, the gadget blog - CNET

Singapore Airlines offers iPod-friendly skies | Crave, the gadget blog - CNET

A day after iPass said it would provide in-flight Wi-Fi roaming, Singapore Airlines announced that it is now offering connectivity for iPods and iPhones on its "KrisWorld" in-flight entertainment system on its Airbus A340-500 planes, according to iLounge. That means you can plug the devices into the system with a standard 30-pin connector and then watch your own video on a personal 15.4-inch widescreen LCD (there's one at each seat in the section) or listen to your playlist on its noise-cancellation headphones, which will break in to tell you when you have to shut it off, presumably.




Other airlines have offered this kind of system, such as United, but they're still relatively rare.

See the Press Release on Singapore Airline's website.

Jeff Kemp (Golden, CO), www.jeff-kemp.com.