CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman drove this Audi Q7 TDI clean diesel SUV for 5,765 miles on Road Trip 2009. Along the way, the vehicle averaged about 21 miles a gallon on the highway, not bad for a car of its size.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)When I first began talking with Audi about road-testing the company's new Q7 TDI clean diesel SUV on Road Trip 2009, I have to admit that I was more than a little bit suspicious of that term.
"Clean diesel." It sounded a lot like another new term of art, "clean coal," and I think we know pretty well that there really isn't much that's clean about coal. Plus, I think many of us have negative associations with diesel, a technology long known for sooty fumes, loud engines, and a whole lot of pollution.
Still, Audi was talking about high fuel efficiency, low emissions, and an engine that rivaled--or even surpassed--the power of its traditional gasoline counterparts. Indeed, there was even the discussion about outdoing hybrids for overall performance in certain driving conditions.
Since this would be a vehicle I knew I would be driving for more than 5,000 miles, I began to do a little research. Before I signed on, I wanted to have a sense that I wouldn't be one of those drivers leaving dark clouds of exhaust all over America's highways, and that the Q7 wouldn't eat up my budget at the fuel pump.
Among the very first items I found online was a 2008 Popular Mechanics article by Ben Hewitt exploring clean diesel and whether it truly is clean in any real sense of the word.
The article's opening paragraph certainly seemed to say that it was:
"Merging with northbound traffic on Interstate 75 just outside Auburn Hills, Mich., I punch the accelerator, quickly swing left into the passing lane and pull forcefully ahead of the cars around me," Hewitt wrote. "In any other ride, on any other gray morning, it'd be just another Interstate moment. But this rush hour, I'm behind the wheel of a preproduction 2009 Volkswagen Jetta, which is powered by a 2.0-liter turbo-charged, direct-injected diesel engine that, even as I leave the speed limit in tatters, is averaging nearly 50 mpg. Equally important, what's coming out of the tailpipe is no dirtier than the emissions from the 35-mpg econoboxes I can now see in my rearview mirror. Speed, fuel efficiency and minimal emissions? These aren't characteristics usually associated with diesel-powered vehicles. But they will be."
I tend to trust Popular Mechanics as merchants of sober journalism, so after reading Hewitt's piece lauding the coming of clean diesel, I decided it was worth trying the Q7 TDI out. After all, I thought, it looked like a pretty spiffy car, and one that might well even get better gas mileage than my own Subaru Outback.
The Audi Q7 TDI that CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman drove during Road Trip 2009, as seen along Utah's scenic byway, Route 128.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)Of course, I wanted to hear from Audi itself why they thought clean diesel was a technology to be reckoned with. So I asked the company a number of questions about it, including what, in fact, makes it "clean?"
According to Brad Stertz, Audi of America's corporate communications manager, there are two main reasons, the first being the adoption across the United States of a new, ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel.
"Cleaner fuel has allowed further advancements in the Audi TDI engine," Stertz said in a written response to my questions. "The injection system, with its maximum injection pressure of 2000 bar, an all-round advanced exhaust gas recirculation system and an optimized turbocharging system are at the heart of this evolution. A new feature is the integrated cylinder pressure control. All of these things have combined to ensure each drop of diesel fuel burns more efficiently during combustion, thereby reducing emissions and improving fuel economy. (Each drop of diesel gets 12% more power than a drop of gasoline and that translates into 25-30% better fuel efficiency.) All of these modifications constituted the first step in radically reducing the engine's raw emissions."
Further, he said, the TDI engine significantly reduces nitric oxide emissions through the use of a DeNOx converter, "which dramatically eliminated nitrous oxide, a leading factor in smog."
In the end, he said, "the ultra low emission system allows emissions to be minimized by combining modifications inside the engine with an innovative exhaust gas after-treatment system. The result is reduced fuel consumption and the world's cleanest diesel engine."
Picking up the Q7
On June 20, I picked up the Q7 TDI in Denver. It was an exciting moment since, as you can probably gather, there's no Road Trip without a vehicle. And I knew I'd be in this car for several thousand miles.
The Audi Q7 TDI that CNET News reporter Daniel Terdman drove during Road Trip 2009, as seen through one of the concrete tubes that make up artist Nancy Holt's great Earthwork, the Sun Tunnels.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)For the first few days, I didn't try much of anything requiring me to change any settings or do much beyond accelerating and braking. I was too caught up in trying to get the trip going and adapting to its pace. Not to mention the high-altitude I instantly encountered in Colorado. In fact, within a day of my arrival, I had already gone from a mile high--Denver--to more than 14,000 feet high on Colorado's Mt. Evans.
I was certainly feeling the effects of the altitude, but the Q7, not so much. It prowled its way smoothly to the top of what is North America's highest paved road without so much as a sputter. I guess it's that Alpine heritage.
Driving it later on more traditional highways, my first impression was that the Q7 was quite powerful, and indeed, with its quiet engine, I often found myself traveling more than 90 miles an hour without any obvious sign that I was going so fast. I suppose I should have used cruise control to prevent such moments, but I never did. I preferred to control the vehicle with my foot.
In fact, I wasn't driving for speed, but when I needed it, it was there. Passing slow drivers was where I'd say the Q7 really shined: time and again, I would fly by folks with no apparent effort. I'd simply step on the accelerator, and off we'd go.
Fuel efficiency
In the literature I'd read about the Q7 TDI, I found that its 225 horsepower, 406 lbs. ft of torque, 3.0 liter V6 TDI clean diesel engine with a six-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission, and all-wheel drive, was capable of more than 25 miles per gallon, at least in highway driving. One reviewer even wrote about achieving 30.2 miles per gallon over 1,000 miles.
My performance, over the nearly 5,800 miles I drove the Q7, was not quite as impressive. I got about 21 miles a gallon on the highway, and somewhat less than that, probably in the 17-to-18 mpg range in urban conditions. Fortunately, I was mostly on highways.
Although it only reads 1,765 miles, this is actually the final odometer reading for Road Trip 2009, a full 5,765.4 miles of driving in Audi's Q7 TDI clean diesel SUV.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)Still, I was a little surprised at first about getting just 21 mpg on the open road. But I think the reason is that I generally had the air conditioning on, and truth be told, was probably driving a little faster than I should have been. On the other hand, 21 miles per gallon for a vehicle the size of the Q7 is actually rather impressive. My Subaru, a much smaller car, gets 24 on the highway.
And, with a nice, big, gas tank, the Q7 would tend to get about 280 miles or so on just half a tank. That meant that while diesel turned out to be readily available everywhere I went, I never had to worry about running out of fuel.
Luxury driving
As a luxury vehicle, the Q7 certainly stacks up. From the nice job Audi did of seamlessly integrating iPods and Bluetooth phones like an iPhone for safe, handsfree driving while talking on the phone or listening to music, to comfortable seating with plenty of control over seat configuration to a powerful Bang & Olufsen audio system, I pretty much always knew, getting into the Q7, that the next few hours were going to be comfortable and cushy.
It's not that I have a lot of experience with luxury cars to compare the Q7 to. Indeed, I'm certain that other high-end SUVs from manufacturers like Mercedes, BMW, Infiniti, and others, stack up quite nicely against the Q7.
Regardless, it was a pleasure to drive, a pleasure to sit in and just listen to music, escape the rain, or nap in, all of which I did during the trip.
One area where I was a little surprised was in the Q7's initial pickup. At low speeds, it seemed like the car would usually take a second or so to boost acceleration when I put the pedal to the metal. But only at low speeds since, as I wrote above, accelerating past people on the open road couldn't have been more effortless.
I did end up using the Q7's navigation system quite a bit, but I have to say that from time to time, I found it wanting. That was especially true when trying to find specific addresses or destinations in smaller towns; sometimes, the navigation system simply wouldn't acknowledge that an address even existed, and that could be quite frustrating.
But most of the time, it worked just fine, and I enjoyed having the system give me just the information I need (direction, time to arrival, and distance both to the destination and to the next turn) in a little micro-display to the left of the speedometer. Having that information available made it possible to devote the main multimedia interface to music.
On the other hand, if I wanted to be able to see a map of where I was driving, the Q7 easily showed that and a list of songs in the small display to the left. It was nice to have that choice.
Nice and spacious
When packing to head out on Road Trip 2009, I had tried very hard not to bring too much stuff. One benefit of that was that the Q7 usually felt like, no matter how much I had, there was still plenty of room inside.
I didn't quite realize how much room there was until I arrived home and got in my Subaru, which, suddenly, seemed tiny. I'm sure I'll re-adapt to the smaller interior space of the Outback, but for the moment, I'm quite aware of how big the Q7 was inside.
I'm by no means a professional car reviewer, so I'm well aware that my assessment of the Q7 lacks many of the touchstones of the standard review. Regardless, I can say without reservation that my time in the Q7 TDI was thoroughly enjoyable. It's not a cheap car--the model I tested runs about $50,000--so it's far out of my personal range. But for those who have the means to swing such a transaction and who are interested in getting a vehicle that provides luxury, spaciousness, and impressive performance without sacrificing fuel efficiency, I have no qualms recommending the Q7 TDI.
In fact, I wonder if it's too late for me to go back to Denver, pick it back up, and hit the road again.
It wasn't Craters of the Moon, or Glacier National Park, but reaching 5,000 miles in tiny Hiland, Wyo., presented the opportunity for this picture of the Audi I'm road-testing framed against a huge, gorgeous sky.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)HILAND, Wyo.--I've been in a lot of small towns over the years, but in even the very smallest, I've never seen a city limits line like the one I saw here.
It happened that I hit exactly 5,000 miles of driving on Road Trip 2009 in this one-store-seems-to-be-it town in central Wyoming. As the odometer rolled over to 1000.0--which in the case of the Audi Q7 TDI I'm road-testing equates to 5,000 miles since the odometer resets to 0.0 when you hit 2,000 miles--I was able to pull into a parking lot in front of the town.
Hiland, Wyo., where I hit 5,000 miles even for Road Trip 2009, has a population of 10.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)That is to say, Hiland has a population of...10. And just one or two buildings that I could see.
Which is to say, it was a perfect place for a Road Trip thousand-mile milestone. On this trip, that's happened in several different places, obviously, the two most interesting being at Craters of the Moon and Glacier National Park. Usually, based on my experiences over the last four years, the milestones come when I'm along some nondescript highway.
In this case, 1000.0 miles on the odometer means 5,000 miles total on Road Trip 2009.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)Not to demean nondescript, of course. Those highways have featured things like attractive mountains, large meadows, huge forests and other natural wonders. And in Hiland, it was no different. Central Wyoming, which is Continental Divide country, is dominated by rolling hills and abrupt rock formations. It's fun. Plus on some of them, the speed limit is 75 miles an hour. I'm not sure I'd seen that before, or if I did, I wasn't paying attention.
In just a few days--and a few hours of driving--I'll be hanging up my Road Trip 2009 hat, so it's likely that this was my final thousand-mile mile achievement. Until next year, that is.
SIERRA MADRE MOUNTAINS, Wyo.--When I was planning stages for Road Trip 2009, my wife told me, point blank, that if I fiddled around with either my iPhone or my iPod while I drove, at some point during the thousands of miles I'd be behind the wheel, I'd have an accident.
Fortunately, I was able to counter that argument by explaining that the Audi Q7 TDI I'd be road-testing was supposed to feature really nice integration between those devices and the car, and I promised a hands-free experience, no matter how much I drove.
After more than 5,000 miles in the Q7, I'm prepared to grant Audi high scores for how they managed to make both devices seem like built-in accessories.
In point of fact, the car doesn't have specific iPhone integration. Rather, it's supposed to be for any Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone. But since the only one of those I have is an iPhone, that's what I've been using for 32 days, seven states, and nearly enough miles to cross the United States and return.
I've included lengthy videos in this post demonstrating how both the iPhone (see below) and the iPod (see further below) work with the Q7, so rather than explain it all in writing as well, I'll just touch on a few highlights and let the videos speak for themselves.
I'd read in a blog post by Guy Kawasaki that pairing his iPhone and the Q7 TDI he was testing out for a couple months couldn't have been easier. Having seen that report, I was excited about trying it out myself.
And Kawasaki was right. A quick configuration and a recognition by my iPhone of the car's Bluetooth, and I was connected. From then on, anytime I was in the Q7 with my iPhone, it automatically connected, as I could see instantly from the five bars and the Bluetooth logo that would show up on the car's main multimedia interface. In fact, since my iPhone was usually hidden away in a pouch in my backpack, I could tell when its battery had died by the fact that the Bluetooth logo had disappeared.
Dialing numbers is a little tricky--the first time. The car doesn't have a touch screen, so you can't tap out numbers. Instead you have to dial them in, one by one, with a round dial in the center console. But once you've entered a number, you can redial it simply by pushing a "mode" button on the steering wheel that you can easily reach with your left thumb, and then, also with your left thumb, a small scroll wheel when the interface is on your previously dialed numbers.
When you hit the number you want to dial, you click the scroll wheel and it dials, pumping in over the car's audio system. You generally have to turn the volume way up (by scrolling the volume wheel with your right thumb), but I've had dozens of very clear phone conversations in the car without having to move either of my hands at all on the wheel, or, really, my eyes from the road.
And that's pretty cool.
The iPod
The reason I ended up road-testing the Q7 is Apple and Audi were both interested in showcasing how the car integrated with the iPod. So, with Apple having lent me an iPod Touch, and having copied most of my music onto it at home, I brought it along as my music player for the trip.
The integration is good (as the below video demonstrates), but the interface is a bit less elegant than the iPod famously is as a stand-alone device. It maintains the menu-level structure of an iPod, but moving in between the levels is not all that intuitive.
Still, once I got the hang of it, I enjoyed having the device and the car linked up. The songs display on both the car's main interactive screen, and on a small screen in between the speedometer and the RPM meter. Controls to pause, lower, or raise the volume, switch to the next or last song, and move up a level in the menu structure are easily at hand on the center console.
And perhaps most elegantly, the iPod itself would be difficult to find for anyone who didn't know where it was. It fits in a small drawer--connected to a dedicated cable (not a generic AUX IN cable) that continuously powers it--that hides away in a compartment that itself hides away. Which means I need to remind myself to fish out the iPod when I return the car.
All in all, iPod users and those who have Bluetooth phones like the iPhone, will find themselves pleased with Audi's attention to how people want to use their music players and make calls.
From my perspective, they just wanted to make sure I could keep my word to my wife that my eyes would stay on the road, even as I talked on the phone--usually with her, by the way--or controlled my music. She seems won over.
CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman experienced noteworthy call continuity with his iPhone 3G in Ogden, Utah, on Sunday.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)OGDEN, Utah--I love my iPhone, but usually, I try not to depend on it keeping a phone call active for that long if I'm moving around much.
But on Sunday, I had what I thought was a noteworthy session of iPhone continuity. On my Road Trip 2009 project, I was here in Ogden, Utah, nestled at the base of the Wasatch Mountains, about an hour north of Salt Lake City.
It was a stunningly beautiful day, and Ogden features hiking trails that go straight up into the canyons of these first few miles of the Wasatches. So I drove the Audi Q7 TDI clean diesel SUV I'm testing up to a parking lot at a trailhead, grabbed some gear, and headed into the hills.
On Road Trip, I'm loaded down with cool gear that I'm testing out, but on this hike, I didn't bring any of it. All I brought was my own personal iPhone 3G and an old Canon PowerShot SD1000.
From the get-go, the iPhone was operating like a champ. It was getting a full 3G signal, allowing me to load up and listen to a terrific 39-minute interview on NPR's "Fresh Air" of John Mellencamp as I walked deeper into a wonderful canyon shrouded with trees and with a slightly ascending trail alongside a small, beautiful creek.
All the while, the iPhone kept the full 3G signal, and even when I had been in the forest for 20 minutes or so, the device was still seamlessly playing back "Fresh Air."
To be sure, the orientation of the canyon trail was a big player here. These mountains are on top of Ogden, a wide, flat city. And so I had easy, line-of-sight access to the 3G signal AT&T was putting out. Still, I've never had that good a signal that deep into a forest before, and I've been on plenty of such trails within sight of San Francisco.
Finally, it was time to head back, though, and as I did, I made a phone call. I was still in the forest, so I didn't really expect it to work, but it went right through. I started having my conversation. I emerged from the woods to a glorious vista of city below and mountains behind, and the signal was strong. Eventually, I made it back to the Q7, all the while still talking on the phone, and got into the car.
I was using my regular iPhone headphones, but when I turned on the engine and removed the headset, the call shifted over, without my having had to do anything, to the Q7's built-in hands-free Bluetooth phone integration. I kept on talking as I drove to my hotel.
When I got there, I turned the car off, put the headset back in, and the call was still active. Again, without my having to do anything. I grabbed my stuff, walked into my hotel, and went up the staircase. Eventually, a few twists and turns through a long hallway later, I opened the door to my room and put my things down. Except the phone. I was still on my call.
Amazing.
And why is it amazing? I mean, after all, it's just several systems doing what they're supposed to, right? Well, that's just it. In my past experience, I would never have predicted that this phone call could continue, from when I first dialed it to when I got to my room, without losing the signal at least once or probably twice.
So what's the lesson? Maybe, despite constantly being let down by it, I should have more faith in technology. It's not often that everything works the way it's supposed to, but when it does, it's actually pretty cool.
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
Road Trip 2009 hit 1,000 miles in the beautiful town of Glenwood Springs, Colo.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo.--It still feels like Road Trip 2009 has just started, but I've already hit 1,000 miles. Unlike Road Trip 2008, where I hit the 1,000-mile milestone while driving along a nondescript section of forested, deep South highway, this time the odometer turned over to four figures while I was rolling slowly in the Audi Q7 TDI "clean diesel" SUV I'm road-testing down a picturesque lane full of high-priced houses with fantastic views of the Rocky Mountains.
I like to use each of the thousand-mile points along the way as an excuse to blog about what has happened on Road Trip since the last such point. I suppose it's kind of arbitrary, and perhaps on my next trip I could just as well blog about where I'm at when I hit 843 miles, 1,843 miles, 2,843 miles and so on. But I'm a fan of round numbers; what can I do?
The odometer rolls over to 1,000 miles on the Audi Q7 TDI that CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman is driving around on Road Trip 2009.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)On Road Trip 2009, the first thousand miles has certainly been full of interesting stops, with a lot of variety.
I began by visiting the Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colo., and learning about founder Amory Lovins' highly-efficient house in that high Rockies town. The house, which focuses on finding ways to reduce power consumption, produces more renewable energy than it uses, allowing it to feed electricity back into the grid. Also, because of its use of a greenhouse, it features banana trees that can even produce fruit at over 8,000 feet of altitude.
I also visited Boulder, Colo., and among other things, I talked to the folks at Transition Boulder County, a nonprofit focusing on how to help local communities figure out how to thrive in what they say is a not-too-distant future in which the world has passed peak oil production.
In Boulder, I also talked to a scientist at the University of Colorado who is spearheading a nearly half-billion dollar project to investigate what happened to Mars' atmosphere in an attempt to find out if the Red Planet once was able to support life.
Then I moved on to Colorado Springs, where I spent several days doing a number of things.
First, I arrived at the United States Air Force Academy for a day witnessing the in-processing of the class of 2013, a group of 1,376 new basic cadets who are willing to endure four years of hard work and at least a year of humiliation at the hands of their older classmates for the chance to serve in the "Long Blue Line."
The next day, I had a very rare opportunity to visit Cheyenne Mountain, the underground facility also known as "America's Fortress," where NORAD and many other arms of the U.S. defense and military community maintain command centers and other facilities. The focus of my visit, however, was on the infrastructure of Cheyenne Mountain.
And then, before I left Colorado Springs, I returned to the Air Force Academy to watch dozens of firemen (and women) compete in the Firefighter Combat Challenge, a nationwide tour that pits teams against each other in a bid to show who is the strongest, fastest, and best at the many tasks these brave public servants have to perform on a daily basis.
Now I'm already well on my way to the next thousand miles. Where will I be the next time those three zeroes show up on the odometer? Only time will tell.
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
Hoover Dam was a big hit from Road Trip 2007. What will be the biggest surprises of Road Trip 2009?
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)In the United States, the major east-west Interstate highways are denominated by multiples of tens: I-10 goes from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Fla. I-40 goes from Barstow, Calif., to Wilmington, N.C. I-80 goes from San Francisco to New York.
The north-south Interstates, meanwhile, are denominated with fives. I-5 goes from the U.S.-Mexico border, through San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., and Seattle and ends at the U.S.-Canada border. I-15 goes from from San Diego to the Canadian border near Sweetgrass, Mont. And I-95 heads north from Miami all the way to northeast Maine.
Over the last three years, I've spent part of each summer doing a project called CNET Road Trip, and each time I've driven long distances through a specific region of the country. In 2006, it was the Pacific Northwest. In 2007, it was the Southwest. And in 2008, it was 4,593 miles through the Southeast.
All told, I've covered 12,853 miles and 17 states. But one of the little details about the three trips that I've enjoyed the most is that combined, I've driven at least a few miles on every one of those north-south divide-by-five interstates, except I-35. I spent a lot of time on I-5 on Road Trip 2006; I touched I-15 and I-25 on Road Trip 2007; and I actually hit I-45, I-55, I-65, I-75, I-85 and I-95 on Road Trip 2008.
On Sunday, I'll begin Road Trip 2009 in Denver. And looking back at that U.S. map, I realize that after this year's journey--which will take me through Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming--I'll have also driven on each of the divide-by-ten Interstates except I-30. Looking at that map, clearly there's a hole in the country I need to think about for future Road Trips.
Nevertheless, this time around, it's the Rocky Mountain region and a bit of the Great Plains. It'll start off with a drive--in the Audi Q7 TDI I'll be road-testing--to Mount Evans, due west of Denver, which features the highest paved road in North America. And given that the Audi has a so-called "clean diesel" engine, I'll be writing a fair bit about that technology and what it means for fuel efficiency and the environment.
There will be three major themes this year: military and defense; energy and sustainable living research; and America's natural wonders. To be sure, there will likely be plenty of little meanderings off those themes, but they will be the major backbones of the project.
That means I'll be visiting places like North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD/Cheyenne Mountain); the Air Force Academy; the Department of Energy's Idaho National Lab; a series of locations in and near national parks in Utah that were first put on a list by the Bush administration for drilling to private interests and then taken off the list by the new Obama administration; a firefighting technology center in Missoula, Mont.; a maker of commuter train engines in Boise, Idaho; an innovative wind farm in Wyoming; Air Force Space Command, also in Wyoming; Yellowstone National Park, also in Wyoming; the Badlands in South Dakota; a nonprofit working to help Boulder, Colo., transition to a peak-oil environment; and much, much more.
But even though I've worked out a more complete itinerary this year than I have in the past, I've still got plenty of wiggle room for unexpected discoveries. And I hope that you, dear readers, will get in touch with me as I go with suggestions for places to go and things to see.
Among the many high-tech gadgets Terdiman will be road-testing will be the new iPhone 3G S.
(Credit: Apple)Along the way, I'll be blogging constantly, posting regular photo galleries and some video, Twittering like mad, organizing meet-ups through Facebook; and giving away a whole series of things, including DVD sets from Showtime, Halo: ODST game codes from Microsoft; lots of video games; and more.
As I have each of the three previous trips, I'll also be bringing a long a veritable Best Buy's worth of high-tech gadgetry to test out. Among the devices are Apple's brand-spanking-new 13-inch MacBook Pro and iPhone 3G S; Verizon's MiFi 2200 mobile hot-spot; Iridium's new 9555 satellite phone; Inmarsat's Explorer 500 mobile satellite modem; Amazon's Kindle 2; and LiveScribe's Pulse pen; and more.
Last year, I took thousands of pictures with Nikon's D60 digital SLR. This year, I'll have Nikon's new D5000 dSLR, which adds HD video capabilities. I'll also be shooting some HD video with Flip Video's UltraHD. And I hope to edit some of the photos and video with the applications in Adobe's Creative Suite 4 Master Collection, and will be printing photos on Hewlett-Packard's Officejet H470wbt, a fully mobile printer.
And when I need to chill out and watch a movie, I'll have a pair of Sony's MDR-NC22 noise-canceling headphones to listen with.
On Road Trip 2009, Terdiman will be taking thousands of pictures with the Nikon D5000, which can also take HD video.
(Credit: Nikon)I intend, during the trip, to blog about my experiences using each and every one of the products I'll have with me.
As in previous years, Road Trip 2009 will be both a great deal of fun and a tremendous challenge. I'll be working nearly nonstop, posting stories constantly, driving several hundred miles a day on average, and even trying to get a little food and sleep. And I'll be by myself most of the time.
But I will have plenty of good music to listen to, thousands of miles of beautiful country to look at, and the chance to visit some of the most interesting destinations this country has to offer.
It is a tough job. But as they say, somebody's got to do it.
Starting today, please check out the Road Trip 2009 page frequently, follow my Twitter feed, and join my Facebook fan page. I'll do my best to bring you along with me.
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