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If connectivity is important, cellular is a must!

I’ve recently changed up what’s in my bag a little bit. As I work with AI and endeavor to learn more about that, I’m working a lot more with Copilot and also Apple Intelligence. To that end, I’ve sidelined the delightful old 2019 16″ i7 MacBook Pro in favor of a 13″ M3 MacBook Air, and have shelved the old 5th gen iPad Air for an M4 11″ iPad Pro which is a dazzling device in it’s own right but this post isn’t a product review… the catalyst for these changes was to play with Apple Intelligence and so I have been. Also I’ve been working more with Copilot on Microsoft Edge on my Mac devices, and M365 Copilot, and while this post isn’t a detailed review of either of those (which I hope will come later) Copilot seems more impressive to me at the moment, although Apple Intelligence is much newer and not completely out of o the gate yet.

What this post is about is connectivity. Or being a mobilist.

Recently, I was in a hospital waiting room for a period of time. I thought it would be an awesome opportunity to try out the aforementioned dazzling MacBook and iPad and was thrilled for the opportunity.

After carefully setting up the equipment, I was struck with an unpleasant realization: no connectivity! I’ve got to be honest, I felt like I was in a Ferrari looking down a gravel road full of ruts and potholes and other obstacles that made the road impassable.

Fortunately, I’m not your average paranoid geek. I’m always leery when I’m trying out new technology so I’d thrown my trusty old 6th gen iPad mini in my bag, which, like all my devices is cellular. And I don’t mind paying Verizon for unlimited cell service on my watch, phone, and two iPads, so Mighty Mini came to the rescue and I was able to tether both M3 MacBook and M4 iPad of my silly little under powered iPad.

This made me first think of the old joke among photographers about what the best camera is. The punchline of course, is “the one you have with you!”

But then I thought a little more about the situation I’d found myself in and why I’m so enraptured with my tired, beloved 6th gen iPad mini. It’s far and away my device of choice. It’s the one I grab when I leave my desk at work, it’s in the car with me (the screen is pure bliss when you’re using it for navigation!) I use it to look at menus in dark restaurants and it’s really just a joy to carry and use. In the bag with it, is a Logitech Keys To Go, and an Anker 474 battery which will charge the little mini I think 4 or 5 times. It’s really quite a traveling set when it’s all traveling together, but it’s greatest asset, even without keyboard or battery, is that it’s a cellular iPad, so connectivity isn’t an issue for me.

So at the end of it all, the high end gear is cool and all, much like that Ferrari I mentioned, but if you don’t have a road to open it up on and blow your hair back, it’s not good for much but looking cool.

Relying on other peoples WiFi (hotel hotspots, restaurants, trade shows and the like) can really hinder your performance. If connectivity is critical, cellular can be a real life saver!

February 25, 2025
Why I advocate for M365

Microsoft has always been innovative, you can’t take that away from them. Sometimes I haven’t cared for what they’ve been innovating or the direction hasn’t seemed clear to me but they never stop.

Just lately they’ve been getting a lot of things right. It started around the time they introduced Azure and M365. Since they’ve been doing things in the cloud, they’ve really been pulling it together. Part of that has to do with the infrastructure. When everything is in the cloud, no one cares how you access it. Whether you use Windows, a Mac, an iPad, all you need is a browser. And the cool thing is, browsers are standard enough these days that it all looks and acts very much the same regardless of what platform you’re on.

I’ve recently been learning about Sway, which is like a next gen version of PowerPoint. It’s really pretty astonishing and very well worth the look if you do any presenting.

What I love about M365 is how tight the integration is from one app to the other and how well they all work together. If you log into M365 from the web, it’s easy to lose track of which app you’re using the integration is so seamless. And of course, it’s accessible from wherever you are if you’ve got an internet connection, which appeals greatly to the mobilist in me.

Consistency and standardization are becoming hallmarks of M365. They’ve long been a leader in the enterprise with Windows and Microsoft Office. As Apple gains a foothold I think some people were expecting that might change, but the way they’ve embraced the cloud technology just seem to cement their position, even if Windows market share isn’t what it has been in years past. The more I use the Microsoft products and the more I learn about them the better they get, even on non Microsoft platforms like Mac and Linux.

It’s worth committing to.

February 12, 2025
How good is Copilot really?

Recently I’ve gotten a pro license for Copilot and while I haven’t had as much time as I’d like at work to dig into it because I have four hungry cats to feed, I did go through the three and a half hour LinkedIn Learning course on getting started today.

And while I’m just beginning to scratch the surface of what Copilot is capable of the versioning I find confusing. There are things you can or can’t do based on whether you’re using a personal account or a business account, and whether the apps you’re using are PC or web based.

But something strange happened to me as I was watching the course on LinkedIn. If you me well, you know that I like to use Microsoft products with Microsoft operating systems, and Apple products with Apple operating systems (browsers, word processors, spreadsheets and so on). So as Copilot is a Microsoft product, I was using Edge (because there are features that aren’t supported in non Microsoft browers) and I found myself wanting a Windows PC instead of my trusty old Mac.

But so I don’t feel like my title is click bait, at first blush, it’s a really cool digital assistant, but to be fair I haven’t gotten into Copilot with Teams, Outlook, Loop and those apps. The other thing is I don’t have a lot to compare it to yet as i havn’t gotten into Apple Intelligence much either.

But I’m interested enough to want learn more… 😊

February 1, 2025
What does 2025 look like?
2025 is going to be an interesting year to watch. It’s becoming increasingly more difficult for me to try and guess what’s coming technologically, so instead, I’ll focus on a couple of things I’d like.

I’d like to think that the rift with Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine could get resolved amicably. With Meta laying off its fact checkers and with the political climate being what it is, things on line are about to be vaulted into the next era of web. (LOL). Personally, I’m an advocate for governance and I wish there were a way it could be moderated fairly, but I’m afraid the extreme opinions are going to dominate, and whoever is screaming the loudest is going to get the attention, which is truly unfortunate. When things happen like the legal battle between Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine, it just seems to undermine the whole foundation and makes an already sketchy, largely unfiltered platform seem that much less stable to me. So I’d like to see that go away, so if the internet is going crazy, the platform that drives an enormous part of it can at least be on solid footing.

Something that would delight me personally is something I was hoping for last fall when Apple did its hardware announcement. I’d like to see an M series powered iPad Mini, even if it’s only an M1 in these days of M4 powered iPad Pros. I think that would make the popularity of that little platform soar. Especially with all of the Apple Intelligence stuff going on.

In a newsletter I subscribe to the author supposed that this would be the year that Apple focuses on it’s home series of products like smart speakers and set top boxes and really expands it’s lineup that way as the commuter innovation seems to have plateaued a little bit and the Apple Car is officially off the table.

Could this be the year that “just tech support” comes into its own? I hear company after company and person after person talking about how their startups missed the mark by not emphasizing tech support earlier than they did. And if you follow business news on LinkedIn, it seems like companies are having a renewed interest in live, personal tech support. I’d get on board with that.

So there you have it, although a week or two late to the dance, these are issues I’d love to see get some industry attention in 2025. For simplicity’s sake, here they are in bullet points:
- Some resolution with the WP situation
- An M series iPad Mini
- Support being legitimized as a career
I’d enjoy hearing what you anticipate or would like to see technologically in 2025.
January 20, 2025
The right gear for the task

I recently had a protracted conversation with someone on LinkedIn about mobility, and being to practice my craft from wherever I am. Regular readers will notice a couple of themes emerging in my posting, customer service and mobility among them. It’s very cool to me when they intersect because when it’s done right, it comes off a smooth as silk.

Like any artisan (and I’m going to stretch here and say that customer service is an art form and that not everyone who does it does it well, or even knows how to do for that matter) the craft has it’s tools. Like with any tools, to be able to use them skillfully in situations where you need them, you need to be practices with them.

For me, the remote tools that I use generally include an iPad mini and a Bluetooth keyboard, That isn’t necessarily the right gear for every mobilist, but that covers me in a lot of circumstances. When the time comes to provide that customer service on the fly, it isn’t going to be any good and won’t inspire any confidence if I’m fumbling around with things and trying to establish connections.

You’ve got to be practiced with your tools so you can use them almost without thinking.

As I was trying to describe this for the person I was having the conversation with, I was reminded of a time many years ago when I was a paramedic. We had to know every piece of gear on that ambulance so we were ready for what ever we might roll into. We had to be able to use that gear like it was second nature.

That’s how it’s go to be for the mobilist as well. What ever tools they use they need to know them like the back of their hand so they can install confidence in the customer.

Aside from that, the other thing that occurred to me is that if you take a paramedic out of his ambulance, where he doesn’t have the gear and the medications and the things to do his job, you’ve effectively got a really good first aider. The gear makes a big difference in how effectively the job gets done!

It isn’t any difference with mobilists. If you take away our gear, we’re basically a sympathetic ear, but won’t be much good at helping out if you need us. This is why so many IT guys run around with back packs that look like they could live on a small island for three days with them, by the way. 😊

December 12, 2024