Hello, from Las Vegas
It’s been a crazy, jet-lagged few days, but I’ve finally found the time to update this here site from the USA.
This is my third time in Las Vegas, where Jen has lived for most of her life. Aside from a few quick catch-ups with some of Jen’s family and friends, we’ve been desperately rushing around in a bid to prepare for our new lives. We’ve set up bank and mobile phone accounts, I’ve applied for my social security number, and we’ve taken advantage of the spectacular shopping opportunities that this city offers in preparation for our upcoming move to Seattle. We’ve got some really good deals on some new clothes, a few household items and more.
In fact, I’m also posting this entry using my newly acquired mobile office set-up.
So, yeah. That’s a 64GB wi-fi (new) iPad, a wireless Logitech keyboard and a Nokia Lumia 900. I went wi-fi only with the iPad since the Lumia 900 can tether its 4G connection. Between the phone and the iPad, I can capture some fairly rich photo and video content, I can record or even film interviews, and the keyboard and the right apps have me covered for writing.
Anyways, I picked up all of this stuff for around about the price of a brand-new, mid-range notebook PC. I know everyone says that tablets will never replace a full-fledged PC, and for the most part that’s correct. But for my purposes for the foreseeable future, this set-up is going to be far more practical. Besides, we’ve got a desktop PC (that we brought over from New Zealand) if I really need to do something that the iPad just can’t manage. I do intend to pick up a good notebook of some description eventually, but it will have to wait until I have steady, full-time work.
And this set-up will be put to the ultimate test in just a few days’ time. I’m off on a bit of a trip to cover a pre-E3 media event. I can’t say too much about the little that I know about it at this stage. But you should definitely keep an eye on my Twitter account for some exciting video-game coverage in the days to come 
Once that’s all over, I hope to enjoy a few more days in Vegas with Jen, her family and friends before we fly to Seattle on May 1st. It’s an awesome city to spend some time in, particularly if you know where to go, and I’m fortunate enough to know a lot of locals here. So I’ll try to post up some cool pics and footage from Vegas in the not-too-distant future too. In the meantime, here’s the one image I’ve managed to snap while out and about in Vegas today. I took this to quickly test out the Lumia 900 at an outlet mall we were at earlier today – it’s not the most exciting image, but you can see the Stratosphere in the background!
Looking forward to your snippets Chris, what about full E3 visit, is that on the cards?
Nice set-up.
Have you got digs in Seattle yet? I may have an idea.
As it happens, I am going to E3
And nope, we haven’t got a place in Seattle yet. We’re staying with some friends for a few days when we touch down and we’re just going to try to find a place as fast as we can. But yeah, I’ve emailed you to ask you about your idea
Did you buy your setup in LV? I’ve spent a lot of time there over the years and used to reguarly buy my stuff at Frys, like the warehouse but all electronics and computer goodness, average customer service but really good prices.
As for clothes, I never really could get past the outlet centres, where the first shop is usually a lugagge one, so you can fill it with all your other purchases. Great prices.
Anyway enjoy LV and the US, I did when I was there.
I bought the iPad at Best Buy – as far as I could tell, they had the best price. I ordered the Logitech keyboard from Amazon before I left NZ. It was $10 or so cheaper than Best Buy.
My wife took me to Fry’s yesterday – what an awesome store!
And yeah, we hit up one of the outlet malls yesterday and got some great deals. My wife’s also a bit of a professional thrift shopper, so we got some great second-hand stuff for dirt cheap