I get asked a lot about mobile and tablet gear recommendations from people because the choices are overwhelming and constantly evolving. My answer is often “it depends” (based on their needs/situation/money/context/etc.) as I wouldn’t recommend the same thing to my Mom as my journalism friends.

This winter when I started planning for my solo, 6-week “Bucket List” backpacking trip across Asia where I’d need to travel light, but have as much technology crammed into the smallest, longest-lasting battery, highest storage for the money (more than 16 gb, as my Apple IOS account has several games that are each 1 GB alone) and most universal hardware and software formats, it came down to a battle between the current titans of the mini-tablets: The iPad Mini and Google Nexus 7.

Below I’m going to run down the factors that affected my decision and lead me to purchase a Nexus 7 (32gb wifi) for this device will be my primary connection with the outside world. First, for a little context, I work regularly in both of the Apple IOS and Android ecosystems (among many others), use both frequently and have app ‘investments’ in both of them. I won’t get into the argument of ‘full sized’ vs ‘mini’ tablets and Steve Jobs’ fallacy of having to ‘file down your fingers’ to use it (how does this not apply to the iPhone and all mobile phones, Mr. Jobs? Anyway… I digress.)

Also, many of the programs I will need and regularly use are available on both platforms — Skype, Evernote, Google Hangouts/Drive/Gmail/Maps/All the Google Apps for that matter, Kindle, Pocket, Zite, Flipboard, Snapseed, most social media apps — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram — Vine is the one Apple-only social media app and Outlook Exchange email support, but I can survive.

So with all of those factors being equal, here are the reasons I made my decision to go with the Nexus 7:

Price
This is probably the biggest factor for people who are seriously debating the two, since it is a significant difference. I was willing to pay more for the Mini though, so it wasn’t that huge of a factor for me. I bought this Nexus 7 with 32 GB of storage for $243.79 (including tax!) at the local GameStop across the street from me, which is surprisingly cheaper than you can get it from even the Google Play Store — $278.77 (after $13.99 shipping and $15.78 tax for me). The iPad Mini with 32 GB of storage would cost $454.74 ($429, with $25.74 tax and free shipping), so the cost difference is substantial.

Offline Downloading of Languages for Google Translate
This might have been the nail in the coffin for me. I won’t have wifi or cell coverage the vast majority of the entire trip. Not only does the Android version have amazing support for more than 70 languages (with data connections) and just recently the Android app opened up offline downloading for the translation modules in more than 50 languages, including many Asian countries.

Offline Downloading of Google Maps
This was the second nail in the coffin for me and sealed the deal. The IOS version of Google Maps doesn’t offer this yet. After buying some Kindle Ebook versions of guidebooks and finding many of their digital conversions for maps were completely terrible and pixelated — absolutely unreadable and unusable — this was a life saver (that I found out after I’d already made the purchase). They won’t have the valuable tips on good restaurants and bars that the guidebook maps would have, but at least the streets will be available for me to navigate my way. Google saved me where Lonely Planet and Rough Guides failed to deliver on digital.

Social, Sharing & Productivity
The irony that many social media apps, like Vine, often launch on IOS, first is pretty rich since Android’s workflow for sharing between apps is millions of miles better than Apple’s integration. For this trip, time is the most important thing to me — especially keeping my time on electronic devices limited — so I need to be able to work efficiently, keep up on major news and be productive and quick in my digital interactions. Apple just added Facebook sharing last year. On Android, basically any app you have install can be shared with if they support it. This is a HUGE benefit for me.

General price of apps
“In general” Android apps are free, IOS apps seem have more of an expectation to charge users. This is changing slowly, but it’s still kind of what I see in the market.

Google Apps are generally better on Android than IOS
I use a lot of Google applications that will be critical for this trip — Google Maps, Contacts, Calendar, Docs, Hangouts, Voice, Chat. They are generally offered on both platforms but most of the time the most innovative features are available on Android first and they’re more tightly integrated than on IOS.

Google Music is actually pretty excellent and getting better
My mental check-out / comfort time on this trip is going to be my music and the Google Music “Play Music” app is actually pretty good for managing and syncing a massive library. The new version released yesterday at Google I/O is excellent so far. They also offer up to 20,000 songs of music matching — FOR FREE — which many other services (such as iCloud/iTunes) charge for. Offline downloading support — HUGE — for this trip. As well as their instant playlists (sort of a Pandora-generated play stream of your own content) is pretty nifty.  If only I could find a good a Play Music-like, multi-platform ebook/pdf/epub cloud and offline-saving library system!

Micro USB plug
Using a universal hardware standard is very handy here. That means there’s less chargers to carry and it’s the same charger as my phone charger. They’re also MUCH easier to replace if I leave one at a hostel or hotel than having to try and find an Apple Store in rural Cambodia.

Google Now
I love this true personal assistant/productivity tool on my Android phone and having it available on my tablet will be fantastic too. Siri is a gimmick  Google Now is real, active help. Especially when I’m running around countries, need to have my own Pepper Potts assistant/love interest looking out for me for my schedule/flights/logistical meetings and other madness.

Google Voice to Text
Google’s Voice to Text keyboard works offline, Apple’s does not. Google’s is also vastly superior in accuracy compared to Apple’s, from my experience.

More Keyboards Supported
Android offers many different keyboard options, I’m probably going to be writing back home and answering work email a bunch. I need to be hyper-productive with this. I love Swype myself. Apple does not. The native Apple keyboard is very nice though, I must say.

Security
Android offers a higher level of security — you can encrypt the entire tablet — which is handy in case I leave it somewhere or if it gets stolen or pick-pocketed.

Inconspicuous
Traveling solo in developing countries, it’s probably better to be more inconspicuous with your fancy tech devices. Apple’s products are often seen as a luxury item and might draw more attention of thieves and pickpockets.

Display
This is a ‘nice to have’ but especially since I’m going to be reading a lot of e-Book versions of guidebooks, the higher pixel density of the Nexus 7 helps it’s case further. (They have 216 vs 163 pixels per inch for the Nexus versus Mini, respectively)
Now this isn’t all just peaches and cream, so I definitely want to acknowledge the big drawbacks and compromises I must make with this decision:

No rear camera, not the greatest front facing camera
Not a deal breaker for me as I’ll have my own separate camera for shooting photos, as well as an unlocked cell phone that I’ll be using for shooting more. It’d be nice to have a higher quality cam for Skyping or Google+ Hanging Out with people back home, but it’s not a deal breaker.

Outlook Exchange server for accessing work email
My current employer does not support Android yet for our work email Outlook Exchange access, which is a big bummer and going to be a time waster, but hopefully I’ll get super efficient at the web version. UPDATE: Kind of fixed! There’s an app called Touchdown HD to get around this (with a free 30 day trial and a $20 licence key for longer use), thanks to Mark Young for the tip/reminder!

A metal body is better than plastic, I think?
The metal body of the iPad mini just feels sturdier and it’s thinner, it’s also a little larger, which is a drawback, IMHO. The weight remains about the same but the Mini just feels more solid. So if all things were equal, I’d probably take the Mini form factor, but I really don’t mind the finish and slightly grippy soft plastic backing of the Nexus 7.

—

NOTE: This information is all useless starting…. now.
I had to pull the trigger on something so I should make the caveat that this post is based on the information and current market conditions of what was available. By the time I finish writing it and hit publish, it will be out dated. In fact, I seriously hesitated to buy the Nexus 7 because Google I/O was happening this week and there was ALLEGEDLY going to be a new Nexus 7 released (This version was released last year at Google I/O), but that didn’t happen. In retrospect, I lucked out, Google didn’t release a new version and I don’t have buyers remorse (I couldn’t have bought one even if they released it yesterday because I’m leaving on so soon). So basically, buyer beware, do your research, hopefully these thoughts can help you start out.

I’ll also report back after the trip and the dust settles on how it went and what I wish I’d have known or done differently.

Lighthouse photo courtesy Paul Bica on Flickr

Just over two years ago in April 2011, we opened the previously private Mobile Journalism Facebook group to be publicly visible …and not much happened.

It wasn’t the right time yet.

This past year though we’ve seen an exponential explosion in growth from about 50 members to almost 300, as the industry has shifted and more advocates for mobile journalism have come to publicly raise awareness, including Regina McCombs, Damon Kiesow, Amy Gahran, Robert Hernandez, and Cory Doctorow.

It’s been exciting to see the group grow and the industry lighting up, and realizing the shift and potential that has taken place. In my own career, mobile shifted from being part of my job focus to everything quickly. In 2008, at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch my responsibilities as Interactive Director were split focusing on mobile, social and multimedia, but since then it’s grown to be my primary focus through the RJI fellowship, a Director of Mobile News position at Lee Enterprises corporate, and now to my current role at the BBG, where my focus is on many markets that are basically mobile-*only* (Such as in many of our African and Southeast Asian countries, the first and only interaction our audiences have with the Internet is through mobile devices).

This is what excites me most about mobile: as more and more networks light up around the world, more devices fill the pockets of people around the world and the digital and information divide becomes narrower as people who have never experienced the awesome power of having the world’s information in the palm of their hand — and the resulting disruption, education and innovation that comes with that technological shift to all aspects of life — including culture, communication, news, health, education and money.

It reminds me of the motto and one of the early principles I learned in my career at Scripps in Florida: “Give light and the people will find their own way.”

We’re about to experience a supernova and I’m excited to see how the group, mobile and media industries continue to evolve.

Congrats gang, and happy anniversary!

It’s getting close to Spring again.

The snow is melting, coats are getting lighter, flowers are starting to erupt from the soil and I’m diving back into working my nights and weekends on the 7th Annual NPPA Multimedia Immersion with my amazing co-director, Seth Gitner, and our fantastic team of coaches and tech experts who will be descending upon Syracuse, New York mid-May for the workshop.

Going through some of my archives getting prepared for this year, it’s been amazing to see this workshop evolve over the past 7 years. From starting out with predominately newspaper photographers learning the new craft of composing audio slideshows using Soundslides to video with tape-based cameras to the DSLR video revolution, and now evolving into new tools including mobile multimedia. Our students have ranged from print media journalists, freelancers, non-profit and NGO content producers, TV videographers, advertising and marketing creatives, educators from around the world, and they’ve gone on to do amazing things — winning Pulitzer Prizes, creating award-winning documentary films showcased at international festivals, even getting new high-profile gigs, like the current White House Chief Photographer.

Throughout the past 7 years, I firmly believe our workshop has maintained it’s quality as the best, most-personalized training you can get in multimedia storytelling for the money. We have an unheard of 2-1 coach to student ratio, so the hands-on learning that takes place is focused, fast and deep. We’re still confirming coaches and working on the schedule, which we both change pieces of every year, but we’ve already got Canon and Nikon bringing a whole arsenal of the latest and greatest gear and their reps stay and work (and play) side-by-side with our students and coaches.

We’re already half-way to being sold out for this year (and we’ve sold out basically every year), so if you’re interested, get a move on. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or on the NPPA Multimedia Immersion website, where you can also register for the workshop. Feel free to contact me if you have questions, too.

It’s an intense, week-long workshop, but it’ll change your life as we are all evolving through these changing times.

One of the productivity and archive challenges I’m facing is finding a killer digital library management tool. … Anyone have suggestions?

I’m basically looking for the Amazon Kindle library functionality, without their DRM locking to their own app (and they also don’t allow non-Amazon file uploads, and different file formats other than the email option and I’m not emailing hundreds of books/presentations to myself).

This may not exist, yet. I know there’s lots of pieces of these kind of services that I’ve found through searching and trying out applications, but I haven’t found a perfect solution yet so I’m turning to the crowd to see if there’s something I should try out.

Must haves:

• Android & IOS support (web availability would be awesome too)
• Cloud-based with large storage (the library of books/pdfs/presentations I’m moving has thousands of documents from the past 12 years), so large cloud storage space is excellent, but offering the ability to only sync/download the books/files to the deviceI’m currently using would be very helpful
• Support for ePub, Mobi, PDF (and ideally other formats, but at least those three are deal breakers)
• Library-wide deep search
• Sync your reading location across platforms
• Note-taking/tracking that are private, but can be made publicly shareable (Advanced sharing features would be huge, I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface of how powerful ebooks can be, but I just need to get the library up first, then I can worry about this next level of Maslow’s Heirarchy of Digital Needs)

Would be awesome, but not deal breakers:

• Support for audio books and music, too!
• Book lending support
• Some way to sign into my Amazon & Apple accounts for those books too

Some of the tools I’ve been testing have pieces of what I need, but nothing’s knocked it out of the park that I’ve seen so far:

• Readmill
• iCloud 
• Google Drive
• Fabrik
• Moon+ Reader
• Cool Reader
• Ibis Reader
• Mantano Reader
• And a bunch of others: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Android_e-book_reader_software
• Some hacked together Calibre – Drop Box combo?

Suggestions?

Are there other workflows I should be considering because this is totally unrealistic? (I know it’s a first world problem but syncing books between the phone/tablet every few weeks as I work through them seems like something that should be eliminated by cloud-based library technology by now.)

Thanks for any ideas you can offer!

SND CLE is about to kick off in my home state of Ohio and I, unfortunately, can’t attend but I wish them the best and will be tracking the event from social media.

Running SND STL, just over a year ago, marked a pivot point in my life. Actually, most of 2011 and half of 2012 was the pivot point where I came to a serious realization: I needed to find a better life balance.

Don’t get me wrong, SND STL was a blast and I’d do it all over again if I had the chance; I learned a lot, the overwhelmingly positive response and impact it made from folks who I really respect like Yuri Victor and Joey Marburger fills my heart and makes me proud of our team. What we pulled off with very limited financial and human capital blows my mind and I’m so fortunate to have had amazingly hard workers like Steve Dorsey and Jen Hermann by my side.

But I knew after I fulfilled my commitment to SND STL, I needed to step back and reboot.

I needed to start saying no to things.

I needed to start taking better care of myself.

I needed to recognize that I can’t know everything about everything, and can’t spend almost every night and lots of time on the weekends on a computer. There’s no badge or certification for being the ‘most knowledgeable’ in every single digital news technology. Trying to pour through 1,000+ RSS feeds is insanity.

I needed to find a better balance.

So as I alluded to before, this shift has been a pretty big project for me and I recently passed a pretty major milestone that I’d like to share — I’m down 200 lbs from my peak weight.