Mac360 On Maui: Surfin’ With A PowerBook?

If you’re ever forced to mix business with pleasure with a holiday-- do it on Maui.

Unless you’ve gotta have that highspeed fix to keep you and your PowerBook happy.

This week is business, pleasure, and the holiday on Maui. Business here is seldom hectic (unless you’re in construction-- it’s booming), pleasure abounds, and mixing it all with a long holiday weekend-- great.

Of course, high speed access to the Internet is less than desired. So far, I haven’t found any at the hotels; either Kaanapali Beach side, Wailea side, or Kahului (business).

It’s dial up. For what it’s worth, dial up seems to be pedal operated to get to 56k. The best I’ve been able to connect to either Earthlink or the local dial up service at better than 30k.

Needless to say, I’m not surfing much. Speed is addictive, you know.

At home we have both RoadRunner (for very fast surfing and downloading-- when it works) and DSL from a local ISP through Verizon.

The DSL connection isn’t as fast as RoadRunner but it’s truly “always on.” Service has been excellent.

To be fair, some hotels in Hawaii have high speed ‘net connections. A visit to the Big Island last year proved that. Maui is a different story.

We’re staying at the Maui Prince for a few days (just below the slopes of 10,000 foot Mt. Haleakala) and the best we can get is dial up. Same as with the “business” hotel.

I’ve heard of a high speed wireless system but haven’t had time to find one on Maui to check out the service.

Most Maui hotels are designed to give you comfort, spas, food, activities, and don’t do much for the business traveler-- or those of us hooked on speed. Why come to Maui and surf the ‘net when you can surf the real thing?

The hotel where I’m staying now has an odd electrical arrangement. Turn on the switch by the door and power goes on to the TV and lights. The same for the hallway-- turn on the switch and there’s power in the bath room. Turn off any switch and there’s nothing. No power. Odd. What would you expect for $89 a night; kamaaina rate?

Because beaches on Maui’s south shore don’t have much surf and that’s where the resorts and hotels are. So, it’s sun and fun and food for a few days. I’ll check in via the PowerBook and dial up from time to time. The daily updates might get sporadic as my attention could be diverted.

This will be a series of daily Mac exploits on Maui (now through the holiday weekend), so stay tuned for more fun. I’m checking out a new digital camera, too. More to come.

Oh, one more thing. The photo above? It’s a shot of the crater at Mt. Haleakala. It was very cloudy but the clouds lifted and the crater floor was crystal clear.

More photos of Maui to come, too.

Check out the daily list of our 9 Word mini-Reviews at NoodleMac, and Kate's daily in-depth Mac software reviews at PixoBebo.