An iPhone Owner's Travel Lessons Learned From Comic-Con
As iPhone owners may know, it's far from a perfect device, and its US carrier is far from perfect either. Heading out to one of the biggest celebrations of geek culture, the infamous San Diego Comic-Con, for the first time, I realized how much these issues will come to light when you're out and about with thousands of your closest fellow geeks, nerds, otaku, et cetera. I came back with 4 important things to remember the next time I or any other iPhone owner heads out to a big trip with their iPhone in tow.
1. Phones will die. Prepare accordingly.
Now, you'll want to make sure that your backup battery actually works. I had 2 batteries to help charge my iPhone, a 1900 mAh battery, and an 800 mAh battery that was small enough to carry around as a key fob. I hadn't charged my larger capacity backup battery in months, and a few days before I left, I decided to charge it up, only to discover that I hadn't used it in so long that it wouldn't hold a charge. Well, no matter, I still had my 800 mAh backup battery, which charges via mini USB, and I had a mini USB wall charger that I brought along with my camera. But the fool in me failed to make sure said wall charger would work with my backup battery. I sure regretted this when I discovered it wouldn't charge, and I had no mini USB cable with me as well, somehow. I was at the mercy of my 2 year old iPhone 3G's stock battery. It suffered at times, to say the least.
Of course, even if you can keep your phone alive, other people's phones won't be so lucky. Set up times and places to meet so that if you do lose contact with them, you won't be lost and wandering a strange city looking for people out amongst thousands and thousands of geeks.
2. Cellular data access will be spotty.
3. Wifi: More reliable, but only slightly.
While cellular data services are often interrupted, there's at least wifi available, right? Well, it depends. At the San Diego Convention Center, there were spots where the provided free wifi worked spectacularly, especially on the second floor and in certain areas of the show floor. Tweeting, checking email, and writing up reports on panels was reliable, and it worked well. But then there were times where wifi would be unavailable, or my iPad and iPhone would not connect to the networks at all. While it still trumped AT&T's reception at times, just remember whenever you see wifi networks around that any idiot can plug in a router and get it broadcasting a connection. Getting it to work properly is a bigger challenge, and one that many people apparently aren't set to accomplish.
Also, any network named "Free Public Wifi" isn't going to work. Just trust me on this one.
4. Bring a real camera.
If you keep these tips in mind, the only thing stopping you from having an enjoyable experience at the next San Diego Comic-Con or whatever trip you take will be whatever stupid things you or other people do. And of course, it's more opportunities to blame AT&T for making your life one huge first world problem. Take it and enjoy it, people.