Being a freelancer and entrepreneur allows the freedom to work from anywhere.
After 7 years, I have found that working outside my home office is both rejuvenating and more productive at times.
The trick is to find a suitable environment to work. My number one priority is internet access of course.
In the Raleigh-Durham area there are a number of options, ranging from free to rather costly.
Panera Bread (Free) - The most laptop and wifi friendly place in the area without a doubt. Free wifi, plenty of space and power jacks everywhere. Best of all the employees don’t give you a second look if you are there all day, and the food is good to boot.
Borders Books (T-Mobile) - Once again friendly, but not as many power jacks or food options. Being a book store it is a much quieter environment than Panera.
Starbucks (T-Mobile) - Again, friendly and the larger locations tend to have comfortable spaces to settle in for work.
Barnes & Noble (AT&T) - This is a last choice. AT&T is expensive and most locations have limited space to work, let alone find a power jack.
If you see a guy working on a black macbook at one of these locations, say hi!
VoIP on mobile devices is such killer app for mobile phones. Here in the states, the carriers seem petrified by the threat. But that is not stopping agile startups from making headway.
After getting the new Nokia N95, I spent some time loading different VoIP clients. The Nokia came with Gizmo, which I have used on the desktop with some success.
Research and testing lead me to Truphone and Fring.
Truphone is a complete VoIP solution offering slick integration with the N95. Fring is a hybrid solution combining proxy-like support for Skype, Google Talk or MSN, and true SIP functionality.
After 24 hours of playing, Truphone has the lead. The quality is great, integration with Nokia is smooth and the cost to get started is low, they even include a dial-in number to allow you to receive calls in the US and UK.
This week I am going to spend with Truphone to see how it performs on WIFI and the Cingular data network.
Next week I will pound on Fring, which also looks to be an excellent solution.
Why no Gizmo or Skype?
Gizmo got the boot for now due to reports of poor call quality when not using WIFI and problems receiving calls. Native Skype support is MIA, since Skype themselves have to build a useable client the S60 platform, which is rumored to be coming.
Luckily, I can access both Gizmo and Skype accounts through Fring.
Time to talk a bunch.
Technorati Tags:
iPhone, Nokia, N95, VoIP, Skype
Nice location, but don’t try using the free internet access.
As soon as you launch any application requiring sustained bandwidth (rss news reader, online game, etc.), it cuts off your access of a period of time.
At least this is how it has been functioning for the 2 days I have been here.
Totally lame.
