Category: The Daily Mobile
There is a serious design flaw with travel power adapters. The engineers who design them don’t seem to comprehend that the things that will be plugged into them (mobile phone chargers, camera battery chargers, etc…) will have weight to them.
Add to this the fact that all the outlets in Morocco are installed at least one foot above any surface that could be used to support the weight of an adapter/charger combination, and keeping it physically plugged into the wall becomes nearly impossible.
I managed to jury-rig this ‘support’ system for our mini-powerbar with a Mr. Noodles and a can of Clamato I snagged from the KLM lounge at Pearson – both of which and made it all around Morocco and back to Canada without being consumed.
After an 8 hours drive across the Moroccan desert – through
road-construction dust-storms in a car without air conditioning, my girlfriend and I finally arrived in Essaouira (ESSA-we’re-ah) to the cooling breeze of the Atlantic. We were welcomed by the friendly staff of the Madada Mogador with a pot of mint tea and a seat on their rooftop patio.
In my opinion, the introduction of the in-seat TV screen is the greatest thing to happen to flying since escape hatches.
Finally, we are in control of what we want to watch.
However, the sight of a hundred or so people tightly packed next to each other wearing headphones and intenty staring at their own personal screen definitely diminishes any sense of flying as a shared experience.
Flying used to be an adventure. Now it’s an inconvenience. Security measures in our post-9/11 world have a lot to do with that, but a general malaise towards the engineering marvel that is scheduled mass passenger flight already exsisted before our ‘war-on-terror’ reality.
Heaven help us if the entertainment system were to go down. We may have to read, or introduce ourselves to our elbow neighbour, or stare out the window at a sight that human eyes had never seen a scant century ago.
This is by far the coolest hand dryer I have ever used. You stick your hand into it to start it, and once you do a super powerful thin ‘blade’ of air cuts across the opening to dry your hands extremely quickly and efficiently.
Perhaps others will not see the humour I see in this warning sticker, but I think it’s hilarious.
I feel this is an area where a written warming may be more effective. Call me crazy, but I think a sign that says “DON’T STAY IN HERE TOO LONG WITH THE DOOR CLOSED OR YOU WILL DIE!” would do more to instill fear of CO??? exposure than a rag-doll stick-figure taking a nap inside a triangle.
Here’s another Daily Mobile first, the first post with an image taken on a Blackberry.
While between phones last year (see previous post) I was in a photoshoot on a charter fishing boat out of Port Credit on Lake Ontario. My friend Jessica graciously lent me her beloved BB so I could take this shot of my office view to share with my girlfriend.
This image is the first iPhone photo I have ever posted to The Daily Mobile. Up to this point all the images on this blog (older,
non-Posterous posts can be viewed at http://twitpic.com/photos/TheDailyMobile ) were taken with a Nokia 6265i.
I think Nokia makes great handsets. My 6265i was a great handset – until it died. But, it got fixed and it was still a great handset. Then it died again; this time for good.
Apparently this was a common problem with the model, which was somewhat of an unwanted step-child for Nokia.
Nokia had long ago decided that GSM was the way of the future and CDMA would eventually die out. To that end, they essentially stopped making CDMA handsets. However, the size of the CDMA market in North America – particularly in Canada where number portability was not yet a reality, caused them to keep getting pulled back in. Albeit, with only half of their R&D ass in tow. Hence the 6265i: a handset with all the awesome
features of a regular Nokia product but with none of the stability or support.
It was my sheer love of the Nokia interface and features that made me revive the damn thing once and desperately attempt to do so a second time. Ultimately, it was not to be.
With my (finally) portable number, and the bright lights of the
smartphone world beckoning, I decided to take the plunge and get an iPhone.
Many months had passed between my Nokia dying and getting my iPhone, yet interestingly enough the dates almost perfectly coincided with two separate visits to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).
So it is that The Daily Mobile climbed Frank Gehry’s stairs with Nokia and descends them with Apple.
This will not be the last time an image from my 6265i will be posted here but for the most part from now on The Daily Mobile has joined the ranks of the iPhonographer army.
I’ve got one word for you: synergy
Despite the naysayers Yonge & Dundas Square has become a vibrant part of the Toronto cityscape. Some may deride it for its massive billboards and say it’s trying (unsuccessfully) to be Times Square, but regardless people still flock there. All kinds of people.
The Lord Dufferin Apartments is an unsightly building at the western border of the recently minted and continually expanding Liberty Village.
Its decaying and junk-strewen balcony fa??ade dominates the skyline – I am sure much to the chagrin of the village’s residents and condo developers.
One day while exploring the building’s perimeter I came across this cable box. It looks like something out of a third-world country and it’s obvious that Rogers long-ago gave up any hope of controlling this rampant signal stealing.
Here’s to DIY ingenuity!