How to use a smartphone to keep in touch while traveling

In college I had always dreamed of the handheld computer – where I could travel and share video and photo's instantly with just a tiny handheld device.  This weekend, I experienced the future.  I was able to completely broadcast, connect, and share my trip to New York instantly – with just my Smart Phone.

I was one of the very first owners of a Palm Pilot.  Back in the late 90’s the Palm Pilot cost $400.  For this cost you might think it could cure cancer, but basically all it could do was keep track of your calendar and contacts.  It had a one color screen, and that color was green. 

In college, I upgraded to a Dell Axim handheld computer, which was called a Windows Pocket PC.  This one had a low resolution color screen and in addition to calendar and contacts it promised web surfing and media consuming.  Oh the dissapointment.  Rarely did the wireless work correctly, the browser was horrible, and it took a jackhammer to load any sort of video or movies to the device.  Sigh...

Now fast forward to this weekend where I went to New York City for BlogFrog and the BlogHer conference.  My wife could not come with me, so I was determined to make her part of the trip, I enlisted my shiny new iPhone 4 to make it happen and this is what I did:   

•          I started by taking photos then sending them instantly to her via email (or you could use your Smart Phones voice recorder to record and sounds )
•          For even more instant fun, I upped the game to Multi-media text messages
•          But my favorite, by far, was to take short video clips, then send them via Email to post@posterous.com   Posterous is a site that lets you blog anything by attaching it to an email, thus every email I sent them they organized into a nice little blog at rustin.posterous.com .  My wife and kids could check this for frequent little video updates.  And it took just 20 seconds after taking the video to send the email to Posterous!
•          The ultimate was the FaceTime video chat – if it would have worked right.  We connected and I instantly saw my wife and the kids in the background – it really was magical.  But we got about 30 seconds in before the video was cutting out and never came back.  It was a good start!

We’ve come a long way since the Palm Pilot.  How do you use technology to stay in touch with loved ones while you are away?