The Portable Office

Stay connected, get your work done, and avoid disaster anywhere you go.

by Gina Trapani and Glenn Fleishman, Macworld.com

These days, many of us are spending less time at the office.

It’s not that we’re working less; in fact, it’s just the opposite. Thanks to laptops, e-mail, and ubiquitous Internet access, we can stay on the job 24-7 no matter where we happen to be.

To help you cope with that new reality, we offer the following tips and tricks for the mobile work style. We asked Glenn Fleishman to compare the latest cellular data services, which can deliver broadband-like speeds to your laptop wirelessly almost anywhere you can use a cell phone.

We asked Gina Trapani, editor of the Lifehacker productivity blog, to explain how she and her coworkers—who are scattered all over the United States in what Gina calls the “placeless office”—use Web-based services to communicate and collaborate.

Finally, we asked you, the Macworld reader, to tell us about the worst things that ever happened to you and your Mac on the road, and what you learned as a result. Some of your answers were horrifying; all, we hope, are instructive.

The Portable Office

These days, many of us are spending less time at the office. ItÃ¢ÂÂs not that weÃ¢ÂÂre working less; in fact, itÃ¢ÂÂs just the opposite. Thanks to laptops, e-mail, and ubiquitous Internet access, we can stay on the job 24-7 no matter where we happen to be.

The Portable Office: The best way to get online

When you're on the road, you could rely on Wi-Fi hotspots and hotel Ethernet to get online. But there's a better way: 3G cellular-data service. Glenn Fleishman explains how to find the 3G service that's right for you.
The Portable Office: Work anywhere

When you’ve got co-workers scattered all over the country, you need a different kind of office software. Gina Trapani lists the tools she and her widely dispersed team use to run the Lifehacker blog.
The Portable Office: Travel Terrors

We asked you to tell us about the worst things that have happened to you when you were traveling with your Mac. Here are the worst of the worst.