[pct-l] pocketmail setup (not)

[Brian Lewis]

I agree with Matt Thyer that if a smartphone of some sort makes sense for
you, it's a good option to combine various devices into one device ---
phone, camera, MP3, voice recorder, book reader, even GPS and internet (the
latter good for weather and trail reports among other things).   Last year I
put together some thoughts about picking a smartphone for a long trail,
here:
http://postholer.com/smartPhone.html

It's certainly not for everyone; the cost and learning curve can both be
relatively high, but it does combine a lot of functionality into one
"gadget".
Of course this won't serve as a SPOT replacement, though indeed I recall
reading that someone is working on a smartphone built around a satellite
phone.  I'd be concerned about expense there, but for some it might be nice.

SPOT is indeed pretty limited; the one time (a couple years ago) that I
needed to bail on a fairly long trip I walked a ways to get cell coverage
and then literally talked for about half an hour with my wife to nail down
details of where she would pick me up, when, best route for her to get
there, how I was doing, if there was anything I needed, etc etc.  SPOT of
course can't do that.   It certainly could be nice, however, for folks back
home to see your progress that way (I think postholer integrates with it now
too?), so long as they don't end up launching a full SAR incident the first
time you don't check in on time.


Brian Lewis / Gadget '08
http://postholer.com/brianle