Have you wondered how to live and work as a digital nomad in the places you want to be — not have to be? Do you want to be better prepared for the next power outage, lower your energy bills and become more self-sufficient, or stay connected and comfortable even when traveling through remote locations? We’ve got your back.
Here at The Verge, we can help you work from your living room, van, Airbnb, or anywhere that brings you joy. We can help you choose the right laptop, water filter, solar generator, portable A/C and fridge, and everything else that helps restore balance to the finite days we share.
My recent live/work experiment in the all-electric VW ID Buzz wouldn’t have been possible without BioLite’s first portable battery and solar panel. It was needed to provide continuous power to my Starlink internet, laptops, phones, and more because the Microbus can’t when parked. The BaseCharge 1500 has some minor quirks, but if it’s specced and priced right for your needs then it’s worth considering.
Two humans and a beagle named Hank spent two weeks and 2,000 miles in Europe with a Ququq camping box to preview the future of #vanlife.
“Most companies have settled into a hybrid work strategy that shows little sign of fading,” says a new report in the WSJ.
About 58 percent of companies now allow hybrid work schedules, according to Scoop Technologies’ monitoring of 4,500 companies. Just 42 percent of companies require a full-time office presence. Low unemployment gives workers leverage and they choose flexibility, duh.
No actual products were announced, but I can soon imagine an all-electric Winnebago fitted with an EcoFlow Power Kit that can be expanded with EcoFlow solar panels, batteries, AC, heater, fridge, freezer, ice maker, and smart generator as owners venture further off the grid.
I’m currently a lawful neutral, but drifting towards a chaotic neutral later this year.
I have one question about this, though: Where are the superultrawide lunatics (of which I used to be one)?
The self-propelled trailer reduces drag to extend range, comes loaded with solar panels to charge your EV, enough battery capacity to power your home, and sleeps up to six people.
40 percent do so part time. That compares to 16 / 28 percent for the rest of the UK, according to data released by the Office for National Statistics. Only 12.5 percent reportedly worked from home pre-covid.
Older, well-educated professionals earning above £50,000 annually were most likely to work from home, while those aged 16 to 24 and making less than £10,000 were least likely.
A new house led to a total overhaul of the work-from-home environment.
Joshua Spodek writing for Ars about going off-grid in Manhattan:
I allowed myself one cheat: I could plug in my laptop and phone when working at New York University. Otherwise, my only electric power came from the [200W] solar panel and [576Wh] battery. I still used my building’s hot water but not my gas stove.
Context: the average US home consumes 886,000Wh per month.
Until Volkswagen finally turns the ID.Buzz into the electric microbus of our hippie dreams, there’s the Ququq BusBox-4. It adds a cooker, fridge, water supply, and bed for about $3,000.
EcoFlow’s all-in-one Power Kit has proven itself to be a turnkey solution that takes most of the guesswork and complexity out of installing and using a battery-based solar generator inside an RV or off-grid cabin in the woods. It’s not cheap, but owning one could be the first step in starting a whole new life.
A game-changing all-in-one power system for cabins and RVs that can be installed relatively quickly. Just add solar.
I’ll believe the $24,000 Space Camper is real when I see it ship. Nevertheless, I do love the idea of an add-on that transforms Tesla’s Cybertruck into a giant off-grid solar generator, complete with bed, kitchen, and toilet. Someone has to be the next Landrover, so why not Tesla?
InForest’s Swedish cabins are completely off the grid, relying on solar power, battery backup, and a limited amount of water. Living in one for a week required some compromises, but fewer than expected.
How badly do you want to just pack it all up and get away? What if you could unpack everything in just 10 minutes, complete with a full kitchen, double bed, and enough solar power to keep everything running? Better start saving because the BunduTRAIL doesn’t come cheap.
That’s a 131 percent increase from pre-pandemic 2019, according to MBO Partners. Lots of employers not named Elon Musk have made remote work a permanent option. Just make sure you’ve considered the tax and legal implications of taking your career on the road before moving to that shack in Mexico or buying a van.
Slack’s video huddles feature, which was announced back in July, just hit our instance today and after two video meetings in it, I’m not sure I ever want to use Zoom again. Of course, there are things Zoom still does better, like letting me record a meeting or handle many more thumbnails on a single window, but the Slack video huddle just feels much more effortless. And the chat is saved as a thread in Slack.
Zoom is at the same time trying to attack Slack from the other direction, by adding chat and other features. But if I had to guess, I’d wager Slack might replace Zoom first.
[Slack Help Center]
Starlink can be expensive, but for me, paying an average price of €53/mth this year for fast internet from the remote beach where I work and play during the summer is totally worth it (read my review here). When my Starlink RV service is active, it costs €105 each month. But autumn is approaching so I’m closing my surf shack and pausing my subscription until April. With any luck, the price will be reduced again by the time I fire it back up.
Yes, Zoom is probably smart to go all-in on chat, and try to keep more people in its ecosystem all day. (Also, sorry, changing the name from Zoom Chat to Zoom Teams Chat isn’t going to accomplish... anything.) But I can’t help but be bummed to see Slack, Teams, Zoom and even Google Workspace all basically turning into the same overbearing all-in-one work app. Are there just no more new ideas in this space?
