[W126 Coupe] OT:Road Wrrior Solution Sought

[Dick Spellman]

Well Vance.  I have a ways to go before I can slip into a new S550 
(beautiful car) or such.  However, I bit the bullet so to speak and set 
up the following for tests next week.

Laptop table mount for passenger seat
DC/AC power inverter 300watt
Laptop w/DVD to read the map DVD*
*Bluetooth enabled laptop
*Wi Fi enabled laptop
Bluetooth phone
Bluetooth phone headset
USB GPS Receiver
Bluetooth GPS receiver
MS Streets & Maps 2006
BusinessMaps 4.0
ACT Contact Manager

While doing the air travel routine on some of the runs that will require 
a rental car, the table mount will be unavailable so I think this will 
be the greatest weakness in the set-up.  Here a PDA might well be an 
advantage.  So, I am setting up a separate test bed for PDA's to see how 
they fair as well.

Now, we'll see what the best mix is and hopefully come up with something 
that is fairly intuitive and simple to operate with a short learning 
curve or it's a bust for sure.  Still the move to the laptop as the 
platform is an automatic plus with the added horsepower and 
extensibility to do it all.  Sure beats a PDA I believe for local 
territory operations where air travels at a minimum.  One obvious 
expectation is that the laptop will go in the driver's shoulder bag 
before exiting the car or I'm sure it'll be stolen.

Take care,

Dick


Vance Rowley wrote:

>The new S500 and S600 has nearly all you mention as standard equipment, as well as a full surround sound, sound system.
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Dick Spellman" <spell.yy at verizon.net>
>To: <mbcoupes at mbcoupes.com>
>Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 2:39 AM
>Subject: [W126 Coupe] OT:Road Wrrior Solution Sought
>
>
>  
>
>>I am looking to understand the best mix of technology and software 
>>available today for the road warrior.  I need to quickly assemble the 
>>best 'all-in-one ' package that includes managing a database of customer 
>>contacts, cell phone calls, appointments, emails and gps locations while 
>>driving in a car.  In other words you might make a new contact, scan the 
>>business card into your contact management program alleviating the need 
>>to do a lot of typing, dial the customer phone number right from the 
>>contact software without touching the car cell phone using say Bluetooth 
>>and the system will also map your travels based on your schedules using 
>>a gps system in the car as well.  The gps will talk and give you 
>>directions from one appointment to the next based on your schedule and 
>>current customer location/address.
>>
>>A nice touch would be for the system when queried to volunteer other 
>>similar business types that are within say some distance (5-25 miles) 
>>that you could tag and say get me there and the system would then manage 
>>your entire trip with way points etc using the gps system.
>>
>>Figured I'd ask if an all-in one solution exists and if anyone can 
>>comment on the preferred platform for all of this.  In other words a 
>>portable laptop mounted to the car passenger area (easily packed to go), 
>>a PDA using Microsoft Active Synch, or some other PDA OS.  The contacts 
>>and notes need to be able to easily synch with a corporate server over 
>>the Internet with or without VPN set-up and update individual fields vs 
>>an entire customer record.  This may well be done from a hotel room or 
>>perhaps through the cell phone if the monthly costs make sense.
>>
>>I was thinking of a laptop with GPS card, , business card scanner, 
>>cellular phone card and wireless capability, a power inverter and car 
>>tray bolted up that would allow easy viewing, big keyboard for typing 
>>while parked, and then the cell phone wired to mute the radio with a 
>>handsfree configuration and Bluetooth interface to the laptop.
>>
>>Let's see what any of you knowledgeable road warriors think.
>>
>>Thanks in advance.
>>
>>Dick
>>The MB Coupes Website!
>>W126 SEC Mailing List
>>Postings remain property of MB Coupes, L.L.C.
>>
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>>
>The MB Coupes Website!
>W126 SEC Mailing List
>Postings remain property of MB Coupes, L.L.C.
>
>  
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