Welcome to the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia.
Sunny one day, perfect the next! - Well that is their claim anyway. It is overcast and dreary so we will have to see what tomorrow holds.
The kids love flying, especially my son. I have a feeling he will want to become a pilot one day. Fingers crossed we can afford the lessons.
Leaving in the early hours of the morning for the Sydney domestic airport, I must admit a certain level of anxiety as to how an iPhone 4 and iPad mini would perform on my first day, let alone all eight.
Thankfully these concerns have already been minimized.
I have a perfect 3G signal delivering speeds that I normally wouldn't get at home. In fairness, our holiday destination is an international hotspot and as such I would be appalled if the speeds were less than advertised by the major cellular providers.
As a result of this perfect speed, for a 3G network, I was able to remotely login to my Mac at home to diagnose a problem my step son was experiencing. He kept telling me that a beeping sound was coming from my computer every five minutes.
We knew it wasn't something as basic as new emails or Twitter notifications, but what could be causing this beep. As it turned out, it was an old Motorola phone that I use for receiving annoying telemarketing calls. The idea is to sign up with that number, turn the phone on silent and ignore those Indian call centers when they come-a-calling. Unfortunately, when a message is left, it will beep every 5 minutes.
Regardless of this fact, I was able to use my iPhone 4, whilst having lunch, to log in and check out the settings of my Mac. It was a fluid and enjoyable experience. My stepson was also suitably amazed.
The application I use to achieve this functionality is Splashtop 2. I have used Splashtop for a number of years with much success. I feel it is reasonably priced and offers all the functionality I will personally need. There is no detailed setup to be undertaken. Simply install-and-play at its best.
I have also been able to monitor the going ons in my office/lounge room whilst I am on vacation. It is the coolest of security systems and instantly notifies me when motion is detected. The idea is to catch a thief in the act, but we really know it is to check on my stepson and make sure he is not entertaining his friends in my office/lounge room.
The app I am using to achieve this feat can be run on your Mac and iOS device. Believe it or not, the iOS app only costs AU$5.49. The Mac client is free. It is called iCam and was recommended to me by Glenn Künzler of mactrast.com.
The additional piece of mind this app offers me was well worth the purchase. It will pick up the slightest of movements and you have complete control over the sensitivity and recording options. Still images are captured that allow you to view what has transpired. Live video is also available.
On my first day I have been able to publish two articles for mac-fusion. My method with this kind of publishing is being able to write in Pages for iOS, use Adobe's Photoshop Touch app to edit photographs and then Blogsy to post. I could use the WordPress app, but as Blogsy supports SquareSpace (my chosen platform for this site). Learning the intrinsic issues with a single application is, in my opinion, far better than using multiple apps, especially if they don't offer additional and useful features.
Well that is all I have had time for today. So far my Apple technology has not let me down. Interestingly, and this may just be the holiday talking, I feel more productive using only my iOS devices.
Day 2, here we come...
Saturday, May 18, 2013 at 06:45AM 
