The Daily Trap, Trapit In Your Pocket At Thirty Thousand Feet
It’s the crack of dawn, my tired eyes follow the leader through the airport security assembly line. As I slither my way to my cramped middle seat, I can already hear the far-too-early birds chirping, infants wailing, drooling passengers mouth-snoring. I just want to crawl into my quiet space bubble and drift away, stress-free like a vacation is supposed to be. Suddenly, the pilot says those magical words. Ah, electronic devices! Now my trip can officially begin.
At 30,000 feet, I prepare for whatever it takes to help make time fly, and this past weekend when traveling to a family reunion in Denver, I found the perfect solution to peacefully kill time and have fun while doing so. For nearly two straight hours, I dipped into my very own personalized digital magazine, piloted by Trapit’s iPad App, integrated with Pocket (an awesome free read-later App), perfect for reading when wifi is either inaccessible, or of poor quality. Here’s why…
Rather than rolling the dice with onboard wifi to aimlessly surf the web, saving Trapit articles to a read-later App like Pocket is the efficient and convenient way to go (you can also use Instapaper or Evernote). When you share an article to Pocket, the text and photos are remembered, downloaded and conveniently sorted, making a wifi connection unnecessary after liftoff. Hence, the digital magazine concept. This wifi-less route is also far friendlier when it comes to battery life conservation.
The ultimate goal is accumulating a nice mixed bag of stuff to read. For me, there’s no telling what type of story will be mind-gripping, so having an overflow of choices to match your mood is key. Avoid expensive magazine kiosks and certainly don’t force yourself to skim SkyMall for a second flip through.
Getting started: If your trip date is set on the calendar, stay on the lookout for intriguing long-reads on Trapit in the weeks prior, zeroing in on time friendly content that won’t end up feeling dated. Once you’ve registered a free account on Pocket, you’ll be ready for the next step.
Discover: When you’ve narrowed in on an interesting read, it’s time to share it with Pocket. Click the Trapit share button, and then tap the Pocket icon.
Note how Pocket has added the article for future viewing. Don’t forget to open the Pocket App after sharing (when wifi is still accessible) to ensure your content has been saved.
Now that you know how to share to Pocket, use Trapit to broaden your horizons: This is a great time to check out what Trapit’s editors have been working on in our featured sections, on top of sharing from your own personalized Traps.
Ever heard of cloud-seeding, the term locavore, or augmented reality? Breakthroughs in HIV treatment and prevention? What health gurus are saying. Planning to cook a group meal for the family? Trapit’s Lifestyle section is filled with inspiration.
Point of destination: It’s also a great strategy to build Traps focusing in on where you’re headed. Trapit assists brainstorming local touristy events coming up, trailheads to climb, and fine-dining hot spots to hit.
Ready to roll: Here is a glimpse of what I selected to satisfy my reading fix enroute to Denver. Note how Pocket allows you to view your reading queue as a list as well (tap icon in the top left corner to change).
My reading intake has never been healthier, and it has never been this easy to enlighten myself with such a broad array of intriguing subjects. The more you discover, the more you learn and the more you will smile up there in your space bubble. With Trapit—integrated with a read-later App—prepare yourself with great wifi-free reads, and squash the chance of boredom plaguing your travel aura.
-Geoff