Traveling with Technology

I’m heading home to visit my family for the Christmas holiday and I’m traveling with technology. Not just the usual cell phone or digital camera, but an entire list of devices. Here’s what an early adopter type rolls with:

1. Blackberry 8800. The absolute necessity. I’ll wear the same clothes 3 days in a row but I won’t MOVE without my blackberry. I’ve got 4 email accounts routed to it, text message threads with friends, and GPS navigation when I get lost. While I really did love the iPhone, it didn’t replace my blackberry for work and personal messaging combined.

2. Bluetooth Headset for the Blackberry (Motorola HS850). A must have. How else can you look so sweet in public places? I especially love the people that wear the headsets even while they’re having lunch with someone. As if they’re going to need to take that emergency call 1.2 seconds faster than without it already on. Ridiculous.

3. iPod Touch. I sold my iPhone because the crackberry won out, so I had to replace it with a dvice that’s the exact same just without the GPRS/EDGE radio. Love the iPod touch for all music and video watching needs.

4. Amazon Kindle. Wha what? I got one the day they were announced. Honestly I LOVE the thing, but my office has notable dissenters. I’ve already read the last three days worth of Wall Street Journals and one day’s worth of Investor’s Business Daily. Out of everything I’m carrying for “entertainment” this one will likely get the most usage. I’ll be writing a full review over the holiday so look forward to that.

5. Canon Powershot SD850IS. I’m not a fan of crappy phone pictures (nor does my 8800 offer that feature) so I carry a great camera in a super small form factor. I rather enjoy capturing photos along each step of a trip (particularly one for pleasure) so I’m glad I’ve got this trusty sidekick with me.

6. Nintendo DS Lite. That’s right, I have a DS Lite. So what. I enjoy the mental distraction of video games and honestly some of them are rather educational. Brain Age is a great example of something that’s Sudoku-like (does anyone even do Sudoku anymore?) and fun.

7. Low Tech stuff. Magazines, a pen and small moleskine notebook, and my boarding pass. Why magazines when I have the Kindle? Many of the ones I love aren’t yet available on Kindle (Wired Magazine isn’t for one) and some magazines are about the photography or imagery (gaming magazines in particular). This guarantees the continuance of paper for a bit longer. Wait until eInk technology goes color commercially (already has in limited beta testing) and the quality rivals CMYK printing. Not far off.

EDITED 12/23/07:  I forgot my Dell Latitude D820 on that list ;)  I was using it to WRITE the review so you wonder how I even could forget it.  Either way - it's a beast of a machine but with 1920x1200 resolution and 2.5 hour battery life (or more if I optimize it a bit) I can't beat it.  I love my Macbook at home but rarely travel with it because of the work+life combo this affords me.  And yes I'm running Vista.

 

What do you carry when you travel for fun? Write a comment and tell me.

Comments

[Michael Osborne]

The iPhone is great, and I love the iPod side of it (hence the addition of an iPod touch) but I can't get away from the tactile discrete keyboard of my blackberry 8800. I love that thing ;)

[Kurt Krake]

You dumped the IPhone? What is this world coming to?

[Joe]

I'm on my Dell D620, camera is a Canon SD700IS...those are at least in the same ballpark. But the phones...one is a Samsung i600, the other is a LG VX3200, and there is a Blackberry 7250 that Chandra has for work. There might be a hands-free set that came free with one of the phones in my bag somewhere.