Well I made it to the frigid arctic! Anyone wonder how well a MacBook Pro slides down a snowy hill? To bad… I’m not trying it, LOL. The weather isn’t bad for this time of year. The snow is beginning to melt and spring is right around the corner. As promised, I wrote up a little article about my traveling experiences. Hopefully this will help anyone else who’s planing on taking their MacBook Pro on their first trip. Enjoy!
Pre-Travel Preparation
I had a plan going into my first flight with my MBP. Being the Mac geek that I am I wanted to have lots of Apple news to read on the plane. So I stopped reading my RSS subscriptions in NetNewsWire for a day or two before my flight. Feeds that offer full articles are good for this. Buy building up a few hundred unread articles I gave myself lots to read on the plane :) I also tried loading Firefox up with a bunch of tabs before leaving home. However, Firefox’s CPU usage gets pretty high when you open a bunch of tabs.
Packing
While its nice to have all your gadgets with you, most of them won’t be needed during your flight. It’s sort of a waste to put them in your carry on, but its better than risking them *disappearing* from your checked baggage. I’ve heard to many stories of people getting electronics stolen out of their checked baggage to trust my stuff in there. If you are using a backpack instead of a dedicated computer case, make sure that you have nice protective cases for your accessories.
Security
While I love my Marware Sportfolio sleeve it was sort of a pain when going through security. I shouldn’t blame the sleeve since it was more the TSA’s rules that were the pain. The TSA requires that your laptop be out of its case when it goes through the X-Ray machine. To comply I had to pull the case out of my backpack, then unsheathe my MacBook Pro. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, but trying to accomplish this while taking off my shoes, my watch, and emptying my pockets sort of sucked. Even worse, there were no seats or tables after going through security to repack everything. The experience made me envious of everyone who had those over the shoulder cases or a backpack with the padded laptop slots. I think sleeve type cases are great for daily traveling and provide some decent protection, but there are better options for air travel.
Battery Life
Make sure that you’re all charged up. A full battery is a necessity. There couldn’t be anything more annoying than running out of juice half way through your flight. At this point I’m about an hour and a half into the flight and have 60% charge left. Edit: At the end of the 3 hour flight (2.5 hour computer usage) I have 25% battery life left. This was with iTunes playing the entire time. If you want to use your computer for longer than 3 hours on a plane I’d recommend a second battery. Here’s what I did to get the most out of my battery during the flight.
- Close any applications that do a bunch of behind the scenes work.
- Dim your screen to half brightness or less. The lower the better.
- Use a program like Activity Monitor to keep track of CPU usage. High CPU usage means lower batter life. By monitoring your usage you can quit an application before it eats half your battery. I used GeekTool and the terminal command Top to accomplish this. Warning, don’t use Top by itself! Top will chew up about 10% CPU usage on its own. When I finish up my GeekTool article I’ll show you how to easily monitor your usage without putting a strain on your CPU.
- Turn off Bluetooth
- Turn off AirPort
On Plane Experience
If your like me, you’re probably floating around near the back of the plane in coach/economy class. Someday I’ll be a Techno Tycoon flying in style in first class. Till then its cramped seats with no arm/leg room. I found that using the pull down tray built into the seat in front of me wasn’t very comfortable. In order to keep the screen at an angle that was still readable my MacBook Pro could only be about half way on the tray. Which was not very comfortable. To fix this I decided to forgo the tray and set the computer right on my lap. I was much happier with this. If you use your lap instead of the tray make sure you unfasten your seatbelt. The metal fastener will easily scratch the bottom of your computer.
Conclusion
All in all I think that your traveling experience with your Apple portable depends on preparation. If you board the plane with none of your accessories and a half charged battery you’re going to be in for a disappointing few hours. I had a very enjoyable plane trip with my MacBook Pro. Everything went smoothly and I was actually surprised how long my battery lasted. Security was a pain, but when is it not? If you pack accordingly and travel light (if you can) you’ll enjoy your trip.
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Article Series - MacBook Pro's Maiden Voyage
- My MacBook Pro Takes Its Maiden Voyage
- Turbulence + Laptop = LOL
- My MacBook Pro's Maiden Voyage Take Two
A few suggestions for your next trip.
1. Get a roll aboard. Any size will do. There is a reason why every flight crew member uses one. It doesn’t matter what size it is. For most trips you can eliminate the check in baggage. If not you will have emergency clothes and essentials should the airline lose your checked in bag. But the real reason to use a roll aboard is it is the perfect place to hang your computer bag. They all have a hook of some kind just for this. Remember that you are allowed a carryon plus a briefcase or purse. Your computer bag counts as a briefcase. Since you are no longer carrying your computer bag on your back what you pack into is no longer an issue. Pack it to the gills and you will never know the difference. Just hook it to your roll aboard and it follows happily along behind you.
2. Get and Airline Power Adapter. More and more aircraft, especially those used for cross country flights, have power in every seat including coach. Don’t leave home without it. Check under your seat or ask the flight attendant. They are a round receptacle usually with a green light glowing next to it. You can get a second battery, but I have not had one for some time now. Usually the short flights that do not have power in the seats are short enough and a quick charge between flights keeps me going for each legs.
4. Get a LaptopDesk…
http://www.laptopdesk.net/laptopdesk-ultralitef.html
I recently got one of these and it really does help alleviate some of the pain involved in trying to use your computer in a cramped coach seat. And it fits nicely in your computer bag… see #1 above.
John
EmPower… that’s the built in power standard for planes.. Unforunately, my experiences clearly show most planes are NOT equipped with this system in coach.. I highly recomment the second battery. If you are desperate for a couple extra minutes, haul your laptop and charger into the bathroom and lock the door. Many of them have 120V outlets in there.. meant for shaving, but what the heck.. if you have to go and it takes you a while, why not use your laptop while you’re at it? ;) btw, I’ve never done that, but I was tempted once. >:}
As far as delta goes, if the aircraft has them at all they are in all seats. My point is that they are not that expensive and if you include an adapter in your bag, you will at least have it available when you do get on an aircraft that has it. The airlines are moving towards equipping all of their aircraft with power in in the seats and more.
You know, I’ve seen those airplane power adapters before but never seen the outlet for them. But then again I never really looked for one. If its under the seat then its no wonder why I’ve never seen one, lol. Had I known that there were ‘fairly’ commonly equipped on planes I would have boughten one.
I got a good kick out of the charging in the bathroom idea. I’d never thought of that. While normally I’d never do something like that, desperate times call for desperate measures :)