Wow! Got a new iPad

The summer is so busy and the family is so big now that it is difficult to remember all the family birthdays that happen all summer long.  That is why the Jennings family gets together one day in the summer for the Jennings Everything Party when we celebrate all the birthdays at once.  This year it was hosted at Sam and Dave's so everyone could enjoy the sun and the pool.

I am the worst person in the world to buy a present for.  I buy every piece of technology I want and I don't use tools.  This year was a great surprise for me - all my children (that didn't work for RIM) (now adults of course) got together and bought me something I actually wanted and needed to help with the computer seminars I teach - a New iPad. 

I do like my Sony Tablet and it is MY first go to device but the folks that I help with technology like to buy things that are more intuitive and easy to run so, I usually recommend that they purchase an iPad.  Until now I have been unable to help them with specific apps and services.  That will all change.

I've spent the last few days getting new apps - checking out the kinds of things the RV community need and want.  I have now integrated Calibre and the iPad so books can be loaded on and read.  All in all it was a great present.  Thank you very much everyone.

Frustration with Rogers Hotspot

As you all know I have been a big fan of the Telus hotspot device as are many of my RVing friends.  Over the weekend and into this week I have had a chance to look at and experiment with the Rogers equivalent - The Rocket Mobile Hotspot.

My daughter lives in Tyrone, ON and for years has had difficulty getting a good internet solution.  For the past year or so, the her family has been using a wireless hub which promised 1Mbps download and about .3Mbps upload but hasn't been able to get close to those speeds.  This is a family with lots of technology, 5 Laptops, 3 tablets and a few iPods they have grown well beyond the service the Rogers hub is providing.

In a previous post, I outlined what has turned out to be a great solution.  We installed it in her home and ran it for about a week with virtually no problems.  The connection was 4G (not LTE).  Speedtests showed speeds of 8Mbps down and 1.25Mbps up.  MagicJack worked well.

Because the family had a contract with Rogers which expires in September and they weren't worried about travelling and having to cancel their plan as we RVers do, they decided to try out the Rogers Hotspot equivalent to the Telus.  They have 15 days to try it and return it if it doesn't work.

Yesterday they brought it home.  We inserted the SIM card and the battery and powered it up.  We were excited when, in a few seconds, it connected to the Rogers cellular network and and showed 4G with 5 bars.  The laptop connected wirelessly to the hotsot and the first we did was go to speedtest.net anticipating the same great results we got with Telus.

We couldn't believe the speeds we actually got.  Connected with 4G and 5 bars showing, we actually got a very disappointing numbers -  1/2 Mbps down and .6Mbps up.  As many times as we tried, we couldn't get speeds anywhere near 1Mbps let alone the 4G speeds that the device indicated.

It's a good thing that the contract with Rogers expires in September!