Off on my travels again...

OK, so Macworld 2010 has now been dispatched so it's time to look to the future. 

As you may be aware, I've been lucky enough to be invited to present on recent MacMania cruises. These are geek cruises specifically for Mac enthusiasts,  organised by Insight Cruises. The cruises are regular scheduled passenger cruises but Insight make a block reservation for MacMania and whilst the ship is at sea, put on Mac related seminars and talks for the MacMania attendees. When the ship arrives at a port, we all pile off and go on the excursions just like the regular passengers.

The MacMania regulars are a great bunch of people and I've made a ton of good friends from both MacMania 8 and MacMania 9 as well as touring the Mediterranean, China, Japan and South Korea.

It's hard work but someone's got to do it!

The next MacMania cruise is MacMania 10 due to sail to Bermuda in May. Unfortunately, I won't be one that one seeing as I've been on the previous two cruises. Ho Hum ;-(

However, I was delighted to receive an invite from Neil Bauman to put together some sessions for MacMania 11 in February 2011. My sessions have been approved and I'm confirmed as a speaker for MacMania 11.

This time, we're headed off to Patagonia (South America) taking in Argentina, Uruguay, Falkland Islands and Chile, with an optional trip to Antarctica.

I'll be working like a trojan with a total of eight 90 minute sessions to prepare and deliver on the 12 day cruise. Other speakers include Dan Lyons (Fake Steve), Leo Laporte, Sal Soghoian, Wendy & Wally Cherwinski, Jan Jackson and Thomas Grollman. There's also talk of another big name speaker potentially joining the cruise, but that's to be confirmed.

The scheduling of MacMania 11 is interesting in that it follows just a few short days after Macworld 2011.

The probability is that if I attend Macworld next year, which is pretty much certain, myself and others will need to go straight from Macworld to South America. Given that Macworld itself is a pretty draining experience, it will be interesting to see how we cope with a 12 day cruise plus travelling directly after Macworld, not that I'm complaining.

One thing I have promised myself though, all of the sessions, including any that I'm giving at Macworld, will be completed and rehearsed well before I step on a plane this time. The last thing I want to do at Macworld 2011 is to be spending time finishing off presentations.

At least I've got 12 months to prepare this time.

You can find out more about MacMania11 over at Insight Cruises.

YTC023 - Macworld, iPad & MiFi

Back from Macworld 2010...

....and just starting to get back into the swing.

Will probably start my regular daily blog posting and video comments next week to allow me some time to get this weeks show in the can and published.

In the meantime, my good friend Chuck Joiner has just published the audio and video to the live macRoundtable we did at Macworld 2010.

Check it out here:

Live MacRoundtable Session

Thanks Chuck!

MiFi USA

Just a quick update on the MiFi as described in the earlier post, now that I'm in the USA.

The Virgin Mobile plan I'm on in the UK, does include provision for Data services abroad, the only issue is that it's £5 per MB or something like that.

The 02 data plan for my iPhone is £6 per MB (although you can buy a 1 month 50MB bolt on package for £50) besides which, the iPhone SIM would not work in my MiFi.

So the master plan was to arrive in the US and visit a local AT&T store (along with @patmahon who is in the same situation) and see if we could buy a Pay as You Go SIM with data to pop into the MiFi.

To cut a long story short, we were successful!

We were able to buy a "Pay As You Go Simple Rate" plan which was SIM only. It cost $25 for Voice and $19.99 for 100MB data. That's $44.99 or £28 in real money! The great thing is that if we use up the 100MB of data, the $25 set aside for voice calls (which we'll never se) goes towards the data plan so we get an additional 50MB or so data.

As far as installation was concerned, I just popped out the Virgin Mobile SIM and popped in the activated AT&T SIM and boom - it just worked! No configuration required.

So now, my laptop and my iPhone have WiFi connectivity wherever I go, provided I remember to take the MiFi with me (and a spare charged battery!)

Result! 

Macworld Schedule

Well I promised a quick update about my Macworld schedule so here it is:

Tuesday 9th & Wednesday 10th

Nothing official planned so I'll be generally mooching around and attending some of the sessions. And putting the final touches to my sessions for later in the week.

Thursday 11th 

Morning: Expo Floor Opens - Around the show floor

15:00 User Conference Session: US927: Taking Accessibility to the Next Level in Snow Leopard

18:00 NosillaCastaways Meetup

Friday 12th

10:00 User Conference Session: US941: Mac Productivity Bootcamp

13:00 User Conference Session: US981: ScreenCasting 101

18:30 Twit Meetup: Marriott on 4th Street

Saturday 13th

10:30 MacRoundtable Podcast

There are several "keynote" type sessions from David Pogue, Leo Laporte, John Gruber et al so I'll probably turn up for some of those. Of course, there's also the obligatory "Networking events" in the evenings I'll probably go along to as well. 

If you're at Macworld this week, be sure to say hello!

Update on Wednesday, February 10, 2010 at 1:37PM by Don McAllister

Of course, you do realise that any mistakes in dates are, in fact, deliberate to make sure you're paying attention. I've altered the deliberate mistakes due to the diligent commenters. Thanks!