A couple of weeks back I did a 3 part series on Travel Tips including some of my favorite gear to travel with. Of course I’m always on the look out for ways to travel with less and travel smarter. One of the tips involved traveling with both a car charger for your phone and an audio cable to take advantage of your rental car’s Audio In port. Now instead of carrying two different cables I’ve been able to consolidate down to one.
It wasn’t long ago that I reviewed the TomTom Navigation App for the iPhone. At the time the only other app that I had to compare it with was the Navigon app, which came out first. When the TomTom app came out it really wasn’t any better than the Navigon app. Sure there are some things that were nicer like more POIs, but overall the app had basically the same major limitations as the Navigon app. Well Navigon has released two updates since then and in the latest update they gave us TTS (Text to Speech) so that when you’re approaching a turn it says the name of the street that you’re about to turn on. This plus integrated iPod controls an automatic day/night mode and a few other fixes plus a cheaper retail price makes Navigon my app of choice. Check out the Navigon app here on the App Store:
I’ve spent the better part of this week doing a 3 part series on some of my favorite travel tips and accessories (see Part 1, 2 and 3). So I thought I would wrap things up this week with one of my new favorite Apps: Taxi Magic.
True Story
I was in a meeting in San Jose and during one of the breaks I checked my Genius App Recommendations and one of them was Taxi Magic. So out of curiosity I decided to take a look. First off, this app was getting hammered in the reviews. However, I didn’t let that stop me since the app was free and also one of the biggest complaints was the $1.50 charge if you pay for your Taxi with your credit card. I wasn’t too worried about that, so I downloaded the app.
At the end of the day I needed to go from the office in San Jose to the San Jose airport and I was going to go by Taxi. So I decided that this would be as good of a test as I could give it. I didn’t have much time and quite frankly if the app didn’t work, I may have been late/missed my flight. Risky, I know.
If I covered every single item I traveled with it would probably bore you to tears. So instead I’m going to focus this last segment of my favorite travel tips on my favorite/must have travel items that I take on practically every trip. Now keep in mind that the items I mentioned in Part 1 and Part 2 are also included in my favorites.
At least one camera
Honestly I usually have 3 to 4 cameras with me on every trip. At a minimum I have my iPhone 3GS, which I consider to be my "I want to take a picture and don’t have anything else with me" camera. I also keep my Canon PowerShot ELPH 870IS point and shoot camera in my laptop bag (in one of those mesh bags I mentioned earlier this week). Between these two I’m usually covered for those surprise photo ops. However, if I know that I’m going to be taking pictures or the purpose of the trip is photography, then I’m also going to pack either my Nikon D700 or D5000. If there is going to be a video opportunity I’m also going to pack my Canon VIXIA HF10 HD video camera too. So you see, we got to 4 cameras without blinking an eye. I never want to say that "I missed a great chance to take a shot because I didn’t have a camera with me-AGAIN."
I also always carry either my di-GPS Pro (if I carry the D700) or Nikon GP-1 (if I carry the D5000) GPS units for Geotagging my Photos.
If you travel with electronics then you know how important it is to keep them powered while on the go. So in this Travel Tips segment I’m going to cover some of my favorite options for keeping my gear charged/powered when I travel.
The HyperMac Battery
This is probably my favorite new backup battery because it does double duty. It keeps my MacBook Pro charged on long flights AND it can also keep my iPhone/iPod charged too. See my original review here. Prices for the HyperMac Batteries start at $199.95. As a bonus you also get a car charger for your MacBook/Pro if you go with the $299.95 model or higher. See the HyperMac products here.
iGo
The next solution is the Swiss Army Knife of chargers. The idea behind iGo is that you buy one universal charger that plugs into the wall and buy Tips for all your devices. Honestly I used to use the iGo charger all the time. However, I don’t carry it any more (although I should) because they don’t yet have an Tip for MacBooks/Pros because of the proprietary MagSafe plug that Apple uses (I wonder how HyperMac does it?). However, for your non MacBook laptop and your cellphone, iPod, GameBoy, video camera, etc., this one charger does it all.
You can get the iGo Slim Design 90W Laptop Wall Charger here for $79.99. Then you can use the iGo Tip Finder to find the Tips you need for each one of the devices you want to be able to charge with this charger. So you carry ONE charger and a Tip for each device instead of having to carry multiple chargers!
I’m dedicating three days on my blog to "Travel Tips for the Techie". Having done a lot of travel recently I’m reminded of those things I do and bring along that make travel a little easier. So I decided to share some of my favorite tips with you here.
As a gadget junkie, I travel with a lot of electronics. So it was a common occurrence for me to hear the words "bag check" from the TSA x-ray person. I would hear those lovely words at least 50-60% of the time when going through airport security. Recently I decided to do something about it. I started to think about what is it about my laptop bag that causes the x-ray agent so much trouble? Then it dawned upon me that I carry a lot of loose crap. What I mean by that is that I carry a lot of loose cables, connectors, adapters, etc.
Hey guys, I’m on vacation this week! So instead of a review today, here’s a pretty picture instead. I will be blogging this week, but today I’m taking it easy. Thanks for understanding…
What makes TripIt so cool is that it doesn’t require you to manually enter the information about your trip. You simply forward your itinerary from your airline, hotel, rental car company, etc. to plans@tripit.com from the email address(es) that you registered from and TripIt.com will automatically add all of your travel information to your online itinerary. I was blown away that this even worked with the PDF itineraries that I get from my work travel agent.
Now what makes this even sweeter is that they have a Free iPhone App. The TripIt iPhone/iPod touch app allows you to see all the pertinent information about your upcoming trips.
TripIt also allows you to subscribe to an iCal/Outlook calendar of all your trips.
Now that Apple has increased the number of MacBook models where the user is not able to change the battery, external battery options are more important than ever. No matter how long the battery lasts inside your MacBook Pro, chances are you’re going to encounter a situation where it’s not long enough. This is where the HyperMac External Batteries come in.
I’m planning a trip later this month that will involve a 6 hour flight and I want the option of using my MacBook Pro as much as possible. I don’t have the most current model with the sealed battery, but even with two batteries, it won’t be enough for this trip. So I was intrigued by the HyperMac offerings.
Rather than trying to put this review into words, I recorded this video explaining how the product works along with the results of my "worse case scenario test":
The Bottom Line
The HyperMac solution is definitely worth it if you need to get longer than a few hours of portable use out of your MacBook. If you have one of the newer MacBook products with a sealed battery, then this solution can be even more of a must have for frequent or long haul travelers.
HyperMac Batteries are priced starting at $199.95 and go up to $499.95 for the largest capacity/longest life model. Learn more about the HyperMac batteries here.
I have a wide assortment of computer bags, suitcases and camera bags. Different sizes and used for different needs depending on how much gear I want to carry and how long I’m going to be gone. However, I wasn’t really happy with my large camera bag only because it always seemed like I could never fit everything I wanted to carry. If I wanted to carry two camera bodies, then that would mean leaving a lens or speedlight behind.
