Sunday, January 29, 2012

Is Entertainment On the Go Real?

As I finish up packing for my flight to Calgary tomorrow, I wonder if entertainment is as portable as we all seem to think? Yes, of course I will be bringing iPhone, iPad, and laptop, but the question is; how much do they contribute to my entertainment once there is no connectivity?

While the pervasiveness of the Internet is certainly growing, with faster than ever wireless networks and comprehensive Wi-Fi deployments in major urban cities, there is definitely a significant number of 'dark spots' where finding suitable entertainment sends us back ten years.

My daily commute on Go Transit is an excellent example of unreliable connectivity. For some reason unbeknownst to humanity, wireless carriers decided not to cover the railway tracks along Lake Ontario from Toronto towards Hamilton, rendering mobile devices useless for most suburban commuters. The entertainment for commuters is conditioned to being prepared; meaning that if you happen to have installed the games you want to play, downloaded from Rdio or iTunes the music you want to hear, or purchased or rented the videos you want to watch, you are in for a pleasant ride; but if you happen to have forgotten, you are in for a very long journey.

At times I have found myself lost after turning the last page of my e-book, knowing that I won't be able to purchase something fresh from the Kindle store.

The same panic takes over me when preparing for a long flight. In-flight entertainment systems seem to have stalled between five to ten years ago. I am not sure what is worse, whether WestJet's always failing satellite television services or Air Canada's limited selection of On Demand content.

Preparation, however, is not always a flawless experience. Packing for my last trip to Vegas I decided to rent 'Troy' only to find out it would take hours to get the movie onto my iPad. Since I had plenty of time, I went ahead with the rental and let my iPad downloading for nearly half a day only to find I had ran out of disc space by the time I went to pick my things up. Makes you wonder why was available space not checked before beginning to download the file?

The future holds some advancements around connectivity with Wi-Fi coming to trains, planes, and even ferry services, but these services will likely come at a cost for consumers, so if the wallet is tight the advice is simple: prepare.

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