Investigating Nomad Tech Tools
Cubicle no more – where will you go? Technology can now get you there.
Technology and the internet have enabled humans to do things that, they could have only dreamed of twenty years ago. Nowhere is this more true than in two areas: work and travel.
Occupation: Connected
These days, we can work from a hotel room halfway across the globe no differently than if we’re stationed in the corner office. We can book a flight in some countries on our smartphone while we’re on the way to the airport to catch it. Most importantly, we can reach virtually anyone—be it for work or for pleasure—in any time zone on earth with just a few keystrokes. All this ease and friction-less movement have opened up a gap for a new kind of travelling worker: a digital nomad.
Digital nomads lead location-independent working lives, where their responsibilities and paycheck are not tied to any one address. They may be a freelance consultant working for themselves or they may be employed by a company that does not require their physical presence in order to get the job done.
Either way, the rise of digital nomadism has been a noted trend in the past few years. With travel and tech becoming increasingly intertwined—and in response to the unique needs and demands of perpetual travel—lots of super-niche tech tools have arisen for this unique cohort. Here is a list of the kinds of super-specialized and niche tools that have recently been launched to serve this mobile class of wanderers.
Departure Time? Sure!
When most people travel they have specific dates they need to leave “home” and arrive in their destination. But often, nomads needs are more flexible. AirWander, which launched last month at Tech Disrupt London, helps nomads find and book itineraries with long stopovers, allowing them to explore a new place rather than rush through a 36-hour flying itinerary.
For nomads, this is far superior to the normal algorithm based searches for multi-city bookings. As one nomad wrote, “most online booking sites theoretically offer “multi-city” bookings, but their search algorithms either roll over and die before returning any results, or they offer you ludicrously overpriced bookings with byzantine routings only a mileage runner could love.” Instead, AirWander helps create itineraries that emphasize enjoyment and exploration over efficiency.
Access Anywhere
Most people want wifi when they’re at an airport, but nomads especially need it as they may be on deadline or not want to disrupt their work schedule while they are in transit. To suit their needs, travel blogger and computer security engineer Anil Polat created a global, interactive Wifi map that helps nomads quickly and easily find wifi passwords in the airports they pass through. Regularly updated, and including dozens of airports around the world, the map even tells you where to sit in the airport for the strongest connection and instructions for entering a password quickly and without hassle.
Freedom to Explore and Expand
NomadList is a treasure trove of information for the digital nomad. It understands the difference between travelling somewhere and living there, at least temporarily. Ranking cities based on cost of living, weather, wifi speed, safety, and quality of places to work, it gives nomads dynamic information that they definitely won’t find in a guidebook.
One of the biggest facets of nomad life is finding a suitable place to work when you don’t know a city very well. For that, there’s WorkFrom, which helps you find co-working spaces or working friendly cafes in which to set up shop. This info is essential to nomads, as it’s not always appropriate to pull out a laptop anywhere you feel like it in other cultures. It also helps solo nomads find people like them to hang out with wherever they happen to be..