Mike wants to decide whether to rent a car or to take a cab. He whips out his PDA and checks out the rates of all the car rental agencies at the airport. After considering the exchange rate and the hassle of gassing up a car, he opts for a cab. He asks his PDA where the nearest taxi stand his instead of looking at the signs as he is terribly near sighted and finds it easier to filter through the ads on his PDA (thanks to some ad-blocking software someone wrote).
His PDA shows him a map of the airport layout with arrows pointing from where he is to where he wants to go. A dot on his PDA indicates his current relative location in the airport. By default the map is stationary and oriented with the top pointing North while the dot moves along with Mike. It could be changed but most people find it easier to follow maps like this. The map does however mark the locations of all businesses with their corporate logo. Some corporate logos are blanked out though. After experience bad service from them in the past Mike vowed to never patronize their businesses again and went so far as to "ban" them from his PDA display. Following the directions on his PDA arrives at the taxi stand. Approaching the first available taxi, Mike's PDA confirms with the airport computer that the taxi is indeed properly licensed and therefore required by law to charge a fixed set of rates. Mike takes for granted that this drastically reduces the number of unscrupulous drivers looking to rip-off unsuspecting out-of-towners. Mike has already told his PDA his intended destination and when the taxi pulls up, the driver already knows the destination.
Mike gets in the cab and confirms his destination to the driver by repeating the name of the hotel where he's staying. It's really just a force of habit as he finds it weird if he didn't say anything. The driver hides his irritation at Mike's newbie-ness and acknowledges the hotel name. Mike sees that the map of the hotel and the familiar arrows on both his PDA and the driver's in-car computer screen, along with the distance, estimated time of arrival, estimated cost of the trip and suggested gratuity.
The driver does his usual routine and asks, "So what are you in town for?"
"Business meeting," replied Mike in an unintentionally terse way. "For the Big Internet Company," he added rather redundantly. Sheepishly, Mike tries to avoid thinking about his inept conversational skills by browsing the driver's record that is legally required to be provided to all customers. His PDA reports that the driver has been in this chosen profession for over five years and has no record of driving accidents. The driver also has 5,223 (over 98.5%) of former clients rating him as "good."
When they arrived at his hotel, Mike gives his thumb print authorization to his PDA to approve the payment of the fare, with 100% of the suggested gratuity. Mike also becomes the 5,224th to rate this driver as "good."
As soon as Mike walks into his room, the temperature and humidity has begun to adjust to Mike's preferred levels. The alarm is also set, without Mike consciously doing so. Normally the PDA's annoying "alarm buzz" is enough but the PDA was programmed to co-ordinate its efforts with the room to simultaneously turn on the lights, turn on the radio, pull back the curtains and lower the temperature by 5 degrees. Sue, who secretly programmed Mike's PDA before he left, thinks this will be funny.
As Mike unpacks his clothing he realizes he forgot to bring his prescription medication. He goes out to a nearby pharmacy and asks for an order of his medication. His PDA contains his digital prescription certificate that the pharmacy computers recognize and instantly cross verify and authenticate before he can finish his sentence telling the pharmacists so. As usual he pays effortlessly through his PDA.
Rudely awakened in the morning, Mike has his meeting and finds it terribly boring. It's not anything that hasn't been mentioned before. It ends successfully and Mike goes walking about downtown, to see some sites before leaving.
Mike has a list of possible gifts to buy for Sue his PDA. Being close to Valentine's day, Sue would expect something since they are living together and possibly married. As he's walking about downtown, his PDA will notify him that one of the items is offered at a nearby store, it lists the price if it's below the maximum limit that Mike set. In much the same way he paid for the taxi ride and his medication, Mike buys the gift.
Upon leaving Mike checks his PDA and discovers that there's a shuttle bus going to the airport every morning. Seeing the price of the shuttle bus is cheaper than the taxi cab ride, Mike decides investigate further by looking at the customer comments section provided by some independent consumer rights group. The message boards indicate that although the price is cheaper, the busses usually take longer to get to their destinations as they make multiple pick-ups and drop-offs along the way whereas taxis are exclusively express. With this in mind, Mike looks up the shuttle-bus pick up schedules for all the hotels that the company services and notes that the one he's staying in is first. Mike concludes his time is more valuable and opts for a cab instead.
With everything set Mike begins to plot a way to make to Sue believe that the house is haunted.