I had the opportunity to be a mobile warrior the other day. Yay! I had accepted an invitation to take a certification course for a business partnership. At the event, I wanted to be productive, brought my laptop, and backup materials.
I expected I’d be able to connect into the internet with my laptop to participate in training. It didn’t connect. Maybe you’ve experienced this before. I released and reset my IP address, to no avail. I rebooted the machine. Nothing. I asked the host if someone could help me. Nobody could help. There was no ‘network or system administrator’ available to troubleshoot my system. I believe many mobile users would be dead in the water at this point. Not a mobile warrior.
Have a backup device handy
My back up plan was to have my iPad available in case my laptop didn’t connect. I’m happy I brought it. Using my iPad, I connected and was fine participating in the required exercises, until I needed to download a particular spreadsheet file. I thought this problem was not unique to my situation, so I asked someone else in the room if they had a similar problem with their iPad. It didn’t work in my safari browser, nor my instructor’s iPad safari browser.
Have the applications to get the job done
This obstacle prompted me to use one of the applications that I’ve recommended in my video series. One called Ignition from LogMeIn Pro. There are others like Citrix GoToMyPC and TeamViewer with similar capabilities, but my point is that if you run an iPad and need to accomplish tasks normally requiring a desktop or laptop, then you must have this capability to access your desktop. When I used LogMeIn on my iPad, I accessed the same webpage with the download file link from my desktop at home. I loaded the file into my cloud platform application with no issues and continued with my assignment, all the while using my iPad.
Ask others for assistance
Another gotcha occurred when I noticed my battery power was draining rapidly. I asked to borrow an Apple iPad charger. The meeting host loaned me one, and although I never dropped below 65%, I quickly recharged the battery to get through the day, and the upcoming evening’s requirements.
When you’re a mobile device warrior, there are bound to be challenges while you’re attempting to complete necessary tasks. What separates the mobile device warrior from the everyday user is having a back-up plan, and the stick-to-it-tiveness to find a work around and get it done.
It’d be interesting to read some of your ‘work around’ stories on mobile devices and what strategies and resources you used to accomplish your task. Why not drop a note here, let me know what you did?
