I was so pleased with the fact that I didn’t have to pull a laptop out of my bag at Newcastle Airport that I completely forgot I had a smartwatch on my wrist. My phone and wallet went in the tray, my bag and tray went on the conveyer and I stepped towards the security scanner without a care in the world.
Nothing happened. No beeps, no pat-down, no cavity search. Evidently, there isn’t enough metal in the Gear S to register, which should make this week a little easier. I did remember to put my smartwatch into flight mode before I boarded my flight to Brisbane, thus eliminating any further chance of embarrassment.
The watch tells me I did 14,000 steps on Monday, which is a pleasing start to the week. Pedometer aside, its most useful feature today has been the ability to check incoming mails while on a phone call. It’s an obvious use case (especially if you don’t have a Bluetooth headset), but one I hadn’t contemplated before.
On the phone front, I shot a basic video of my hotel room in Newcastle, then topped and tailed it using the Note’s built-in video editor. That’s a task where the large screen is definitely a plus — I’ll try a more complex edit later in the week.
In the video, I spend some time hunting for a useful power outlet. In the end, I had to unplug the alarm clock in order to have somewhere to boil the kettle while leaving my phone charging. The bathroom power outlet didn’t help — the kettle cord want long enough to reach it.
So now I’m in Brisbane. Assuming an eager G20 policeman doesn’t arrest me on suspicion of suspiciousness, I’ll check in again tomorrow morning.
Lifehacker’s Note 4 Roadtrip series is sponsored by Samsung.
Comments
3 responses to “Note 4 Roadtrip: The Smartwatch At The Airport”
I always pack a powerboard. Find that spare power point – no problems.
Slight edit suggested: “the kettle cord WASN’T long enough to reach it”
At the very least, the well-seasoned traveller should carry a 2-from-1 point point splitter — smaller than a powerboard, and often good enough. (Although a powerboard in your carry-on used to make you more friends at the airport, but now that more airports are including charging facilities or power points, this is less the case.)
Essentials for every road trip all in carry on
Power board one with 2 power points 4 USB ports 2*2 amp 2*1amp
Extension power cord
Extension USB cables * 2
32 GB thumbdrive that has both USB and micro USB connectors
Clothing
Surface Pro 3
Note 4
Smartwatch
One of my favorite features on the Note 4 which might be an Android 4.4 thing is the way your can make the call go into a small box on the screen whilst using the screen for other things.