Blogging from The Orient Express thanks to Dell

So here I am on the Orient Express and it's simply the only way to travel by train, I can't believe that later tonight, I'm going to be back on the Tube and facing the usual scrum. I imagine that even first class carriages on the London Underground were not like this and in a way - it's almost too comfortable (the cushions are so plump, I have to move them away). I'm in the process of uploading photos and deciding which ones to add to my Flickr account, so watch out as the day progresses.


Obviously Dell have paid for all of us to do this trip and it's to launch their new Latitude laptops - yesterday's post went into a more details about the simultaneous webcast with San Francisco. So today was very much an opportunity to have more one on one sessions and most importantly to try the Latitudes and ask Dell's senior execs questions about where Dell were heading, what "Mobility" means to Dell and what was so great about the Latitudes.


They are going get back to me on some specific questions I had asked, as I still find it hard to understand why wireless isn't enabled on the London Underground. I know lots of people hate the idea of people using mobile phones, but if it were just enabled for computer usage (ie data rather than voice) where's the harm in that?


I have an hour and a quarter commute each way - sometimes an hour and half. That's three hours when I could be "working" or at least doing something like blogging or surfing that involved or something else that meant I wanted to use the internet.

TfL seem very commericially orientated so why aren't they getting together with Telcos and companies like Dell who can surely see the potential of even a small percentage of the 3 million people who use the Tube everyday accessing the net.


The Latitude has a new "always on" functionality, which means that more or less the minute you turn it on, you are right online and have access to your email, menus & stuff. Like the BlackBerry functionality there's no escape. Depending on your perspective that can be good or bad. But I often find it annoying waiting for my Mac to start up. If your laptop then has similar instant access to applications as your mobile phone, you can see why Dell are making noises about the PC world and mobile models meeting.


Anyway, enough of this for now, as I'm told that lunch is being served. If it's anything like the fab breakfast, we're in for a treat.

Watch this space for more & in particular the photos, as really a picture says a thousand words about the experience of travelling on the Orient Express.

UPDATE - Photos from the Orient Express are up.





You can catch up with mine and L J's reactions as things happened with our Twitter'ings - Annie Mole Twitter feeds - L J Rich Twitter feeds.

Thanks again to the fab L J Rich (pictured above in her Casey Jones train driver hat) for being a great travelling companion and getting me on the launch in the first place & thanks to the Dell Mobility Team for their most excellent hospitality. Enjoy the photos!