But even though technological advancements are happening all over the world there are some cities that can be considered as ahead of the curve in terms of technological acceptance and immersion. These are the cities that have made technology one of the building blocks of its growth both economically and culturally. These cities have incorporated technology to such a degree that it is beginning to define itself in terms of how it has melded itself to the digital age.

Seoul

The South Korean capital is probably the most technologically integrated in the world. Seoul boasts of having one of the fastest commercially available broadband speeds on the planet. And the level of immersion in households is also among the highest – with four of five households getting broadband internet of up to 100Mbps for just $40 a month. Even mobile communications is tops in Seoul with nine out of ten people owning mobile phones. Leading technological advancements are also being developed and released in Seoul mainly because Samsung and LG, two of the top consumer electronics makers in the world, are headquartered there. This means Koreans are probably getting these advanced technologies first.

Seoul is also leading the world in terms of convergence. It is the first city to fully explore digital mobile TV broadcasting. This technology was launched way back in 2005 and at present more than two million Koreans are now subscribed to the service – watching TV on their phones at practically any place they want.

Seoul is a great city to visit, there are many Seoul hotels to choose from – from economy to luxury hotels.

Tokyo

If technology is the subject, Tokyo is probably the first city that any person will think of first. And for good reason. Tokyo is one of the most advanced cities in the world and probably the first truly technology driven city way before these new technologies were developed. Even before the advent of the internet, Tokyo has gained a worldwide reputation for being the source of new technologies. It is often said that if you want to find out hat kind of technology will be popular in a few years, go to Tokyo and look at what the people there are using and what the stores are selling.

It will be interesting to note that the current 3G mobile technology that the rest of the world is enjoying for the last couple of years has been used in Japan during the early years of the decade. Japan turned the phone into a real multimedia convergence device that can practically do anything. The fact that you can buy from vending machines using mobile phones is just the kind of ubiquitous application of technology that not many countries have done.

Technological advancements in Tokyo is also helped by the number of leading electronics manufacturers based in Tokyo and in other parts of Japan. It’s the reason they get a taste of the first deliveries of gaming consoles, mobile phones, electronics equipment and even down to the mundane everyday items that you wouldn’t even give second thoughts to – for example, electronic toilet bowls that warm the seat and give a gentle stream of water to wash your bottom. Only in Japan, indeed.

Technology is also well integrated when you visit Tokyo and stay in any one of the hotels in the city. A Tokyo hotel will usually have a number of high tech facilities.

Stockholm

The European city of Stockholm in Sweden has also distinguished itself as a technological city. The impact of technology in Sweden in general and Stockholm in particular has resulted in a big shift in educational priorities in Sweden’s youth. A significant majority of kids in Sweden now want to become engineers instead of doctors or lawyers. Science and technology has firmly taken hold of the whole country.

Sweden is one of the top countries in Europe in terms of broadband speed and penetration. And this has significantly impacted on the way technology is new being used in the city. For example, convergence efforts has now resulted in a unique application of broadband speeds, the internet, mobile telephony and e-commerce. Shoppers can now buy groceries using their mobile phones. Each item in the grocery has an RFID tag. A shopper will just have to scan all of the tags in his shopping cart and after this is done a unique ID number is given. The shopper will only need to SMS the ID number to a phone number and the groceries are automatically charged to the phone bill.

Stockholm officials are hard at work in making Stockholm one of the leading ICT capitals in the European region. And they are succeeding in that task. A growing number of IT companies are now holding office in the city and the list is growing. Government officials are hard at work in ensuring the necessary infrastructure is in place to make the city more attractive for tech companies.

Stockholm is a great place to visit since it is a great jump off point when visiting the rest of Scandinavia. There are a number of great hotels in Stockholm that you can stay in.

Tallinn

Among the cities in the world that is slowly making its presence felt as a technological capital is the city of Tallinn in Estonia. Tallinn’s proximity to other progressive cities in Scandinavia has benefitted in tremendously in establishing its IT roots. In fact, Tallinn boasts of being one of the most wired cities in the region. The Tallinn residents are quite pampered in terms of connectivity since practically every place – whether it be the park, bars, pubs or hotels – have free WiFi. In fact, it is quite common to see road signs that indicate the nearest free WiFi hotspots in the area.

Tallinn has also earned the distinction as being the first city in the world to hold elections online. Voters merely swiped their smartcard on a card reader attached to their computer and then voted securely on a website. The same smartcard also allows residents to view any data the government may have on them. Taxes in Tallinn are now paid in the same way and because the whole system is linked to banks and other public institutions, any deductible amounts are automatically made.

Tallinn is already being marketed as a Silicon Valley of the Scandinavian region. And it is gaining a lot of success and recognition for its efforts. In fact, Skype is one of the most successful start-ups to originate in Tallinn.

Tallinn hotels are quite numerous and because of the city’s initiatives practically all of them have free WiFi.

Songdong City

If you are on the lookout for a true, built-from-the-ground-up technology city then all you need to remember is Songdong City. This new city is being developed 60 kilometers from Seoul on a vast 600 hectares of land reclaimed from the sea. If we’re talking about technologically advanced Songdong may just take the cake. It is the first city that will have its residential, medical and business sectors linked.

The key to everything would be a smartcard. The smartcard will be used as a housekey but can also be used in accessing the subway, paying for parking, buying movie tickets or even borrowing free public bicycles. The whole city will be pollution-free because conventional gas powered cars will not be allowed inside. Instead, visitors and residents will use the aforementioned bicycles and also electric smart cars and public transports. Over 10,000 such cars will be plying the routes of the city.

Fixed line fiber optics will be wired into all homes as well as high speed wireless in all other areas of Songdong. In one of the more inspired aspects of the city, the government’s IT infrastructure will be tied to the home networks of residents, which means residents can have access to their files wherever they are. These files can be accessed through their computers, mobile phones and other portable devices. It can also be accessed through government provided city kiosks and public screens. Even the garbage will be electronically advanced in Songdong. Sensors in garbage can will automatically alert garbage collection teams to empty the trash, while RFID can be used to credit residents if they help in recycling efforts.

With Songdong due to be completed in 2010, the future is truly just around the corner. You can already check on the progress of Songdong when you visit Seoul since it is just a short drive away. You can stay in one of the many hotels in Seoul that will fit your budget and needs.

LG now has an answer to this need with its new LG Display, a new 14.1 inch panel that has a viewing-angle image control feature.

The VIC feature allows you to change the viewing angle of the screen on both sides to 60 degrees by just touching the display. The VIC is actually a fourth sub-pixel added to the usual red, blue and green sub-pixels.

Expect to see this new display in a few months as production will begin this October.

A few days ago, someone emailed me and asked me to check out geckogo.com. As a somewhat jaded blogger and net surfer, I was thinking that this was going to be some uninspired clone of Travelocity—a site that only offers a convenient way of booking your flights and take advantage of discounts in package tours.

Boy, was I wrong.

GeckoGo-Hotel and Travel Guide is a relatively refreshing way of looking at travel. According to the site, GeckoGo is a “collaborative travel planning resource for independent travelers”. They’ve really got the description down pat, what the website is, is a wonderful series of resources on different places and countries as “reported” by travelers who have actually been there. The site caters to travelers who eschew the package tours and established itineraries that are commonly visited by the everyday, unimaginative tourist. This site is for those who want to wander off the beaten path.
Although you get the usual travel book descriptions of each country in the site, the real gem here are the personal accounts of travelers. You get tips on travel essentials for each country, what to expect, the places to see and even different accommodations in the country. The tips alone are worth checking out as I have always maintained that you can never get enough information about a country. For all you know that one tip can actually save you a lot of trouble. The hotels and accommodations cited in GeckoGo are also rated so it’s a great way of checking out which ones will offer good value for money and which ones are just plain crap and not worth a penny.

GeckoGo also offers a small community answering forum that is similar to Yahoo! Answers. Basically, a visitor can ask a question that can be answered by other people. Again, this is a convenient and highly useful feature that really brings up the value of the web site. I have a quibble about the site in terms of its technical aspects though. When I used Mozilla Firefox, I kept getting this error every time I go to a new page. It was a minor thing but at some point it was starting to get annoying.

Although the fundamentals of this site are quite solid, I have to say that it does suffer from the relatively low number of visitors. There just aren’t enough reviews at the moment for the more exotic countries in Europe, and most especially in Asia. But this is a small criticism for an overall very promising travel site. I’m pretty sure that with a more aggressive marketing effort, GeckoGo will attract that magic number of visitors that will bulk up the valuable information that it offers to non-traditional travelers.

So it was with great excitement when I saw the Logitech KINETIX backpack. The ergonomic looking bag looks quite hip with its black and orange contrasting colors. It’s slightly curved back frame means that air will flow at the back, which effectively prevents the sweaty back stains that all backpack users experience. The great thing here is that the sturdy frame has many pockets and compartments that are easily accessible. The laptop compartment can fit up to a 15.4 inch notebook, which is quite awesome.

The Logitech KINETIX may be THE backpack to use for lappie users. I’ll definitely have this on my buy list this year.

It’s a good thing Matias announced a Folding Keyboard for people like me. This new gadget is the usual PC keyboard with one unique feature — it actually folds. This reduces its length to half of its original size making it easier store in your laptop bag. Folded, the keyboard measures just 10.8 by 5 by 1.18 inches and only weighs a little over 15 ounces. The keyboard is connected to the USB port and, just like a full sized keyboard, has a complete number pad, function keys and volume controls. The Matias Folding Keyboard is Windows and Mac compatible and costs $59.95.

No, I do not mean slushies or smoothies. I am referring to the constant need for electricity to power up their laptops wherever they go. Let’s face it, even with 8-cell batteries, at some point in the day you will have to look for an electrical outlet to charge your laptop if you are a heavy user. Unfortunately, free outlets could be hard to come by especially if you are always on the go. Because of this, most laptop users look for alternative power sources for their gizmos. One of the first popular alternatives was the Solio Charger, which was not only functional — it actually looked good, too. But even with a successful design, a product still needs to evolve to capture a larger share of the market, and this is where the Hybrid1000 comes in. This product is a more rugged version of the Solio Charger — and it really takes its outdoors look seriously. It comes with a weatherproof case and is said to withstand hard drops (but, really, does anyone really test if an expensive product is “drop-proof”?).

The airline company has recently announced that it will begin tests for the deployment of inflight broadband internet access by 2008. The tests will initially be conducted on American Airlines’ transcontinental routes. The service is going to be fee based and will also block video conferencing and VOIP services so that these internet tasks will not disrupt ground to air communications. Also, this particular service will only be available in US flights because of the nature of the technology being used.

1. Checkoff
Checkoff is great for me because I’m totally disorganized without it. It’s a great way to make a simple list that I will actually use. It’s like an offline Tada List.

2. Skype
What’s not to love about Skype. it’s a great way to stay in touch with my closest business allies. Without them and it I’d be lost.

3. OpenOffice
I still like to have a copy of my documents offline. And I’m not going to pay for a Microsoft product when I can use a great open source project’s work.

4. WriteRoom
I’m easily distracted and this program takes all my distractions and tosses them into a deep deep black hole.

5. Coda
I don’t do a lot of coding but when I do I need something that just works for me. And this thing get’s the job done and does way more than a simple text editor.

6. iBank
Organizing finances on the road is a hugely important thing for me to do. This program has made me happy a gazillion times over.

With the introduction of the excellent offline Google Reader [modus], we can delete FeedDemon from the list and save $25.
Although FeedDemon still has some more features than Google Reader, Google Reader performs well and fast.

Another addition to the list, comes in the form of the new version of Windows Live Writer.
Windows Live Writer is an all straightforward, out of the box editor for most blog platforms. Installation is easy and writing is even easier. It feels like writing in Word, with support options for your theme, just less bloated than MS Word. If you blog alot and hate to be stuck in your blogplatform editor, Windows Live Writer is what you need.

The Editor comes with many insertion and formatting possibilities and also supports tags properly, but not 100% correctly if you want to use site internal tags.
Live Writer can ping services when publishing entries, or publish entries at a specific time. Basically you’ll find everything you need and the feel is nicer than writing in the WP editor.
Screenshots after the jump

Writing for JOAB with enabled theme mode.

Whenever I travel, I make plenty sure that the location I travel to will have reliable and pervasive wireless internet access. I don’t care if I have to pay or piggyback, I just can’t get there and discover that there’s no internet service. Doesn’t work. The internet has become attached to my body like another organ. I simply can’t live without it.

So when my wife and I started planning for our next vacation we made WiFi access a priority. Where is the best, most relaxing location to go on vacation, where, at any moments notice, I can still hop on the net for about 2 hours each day? We considered Ireland and Italy at first, but quickly realized that in both of those countries you are traveling so much between cities that you can’t guarantee a consistent signal. Plus, the airfare is prohibitive. We prefer cheap holidays if you know what I mean. A vacation is supposed to ease your mind, not make you tense worrying about the bank account. All things considered, we calculated that a vacation in the Americas would be best. Just not the United States. We really need to get out of the country on this trip.

So, after much research and discussion we decided that our two vacation desiderata (steady WiFi and cost effective) would be best met by any number of 10 day Caribbean holidays. For one thing, the options are numerous. We could do an all-inclusive. We could do a cruise. What we discovered is that no matter what we choose to do, a Carribbean vacation saves us thousands of dollars on airfare and guaranteed WiFi connections. Unlike a European vacation (which we had initially preferred) a Caribean holiday is a more controlled holiday. And that’s really what we want out of our vacation: worry free beaches, blue seas, warm sun and (my favorite) sipping margaritas.