Hurricane web surfing iPad 3G questions

[hugodrax]

Will 3G work after a Hurricane, Last time I lost my network connection for 3 days but I still had business to attend to.

3G on the iPad would be a great to surf during the eye of the hurricane, watch a Movie or weather radar,etc..

Is there a 12V auto adapter that will charge the ipad safely?

 

[SqB]

Just in case you're not kidding...

That would certainly depend on the data network. If the 3G network is still up and the cell towers near you are still standing, it would probably work. However, sometimes cell providers will limit connections to priority calls during events like hurricanes. I work in healthcare and was the emergency manager for a hospital here in Florida. We had priority service so that our cell phones would get priority routing when the network experienced high traffic during events and disasters.

So, the short answer is it's network dependent. If everybody's cable/dsl/wifi is out at the same time, you would expect the cell network to be pretty jammed up.

 

[Scuba-EMT]

Being from the Panhandle of Florida I can say the my cellular stayed up most of the time, very dependent on the storm.

As to your power question. I recommend the largest 12v Jump Start Battery (sorry, the exact name of the escapes me) that you can buy. You can use it to jump start your car and they plug into 110v to recharge. Mine has both a 12v socket and two 5v USB sockets (for charging cell phones). I have used this while camping and recharged multiple phones dozens of times. I should think it would power/recharge the IPad easily.

Cheers

 

[gwynne]

Speaking of, I noticed a hurricane tracking app pop up today. I didn't buy it, but as an east-coaster I will probably pick one up eventually, unless the existing weather apps provide easily access storm tracking and NOAA reports.

 

[SqB]

I haven't seen a power pack with a usb port yet. Great idea. I'll have to look for one next time I'm out. Great things to have around especially coupled with an inverter or with a built in inverter for 120v.

We went without power for 6 days in 2004. Data was also down and cell phones were spotty. SMS turned out to be a reliable tool. Was probably the only time I actually looked forward to going into work. There was A/C, Internet and hot food there.

 

[Decrepit]

1. You have an excellent login name here. Might be my favorite Bond villain. Other than his henchman of course. "Oh, well, if you can get HIM..."

2. What kind of internet do you have? Once power is back, if you've got cable, I'd expect you'd have a better chance of being on line faster, since that's almost always buried. Extend it with a wireless, and you could be up quicker.

Make friends with a neighbor that has a competing product, like DSL, get your iPad on their network and vice versa. That way whoever's up sooner has internet access.