The most basic requirement for your gizmos is a good travel bag. One that has a place for everything to save you time from rummaging around for what you need.
Bags and Backpacks
For road warriors, some of the best organised gadget carriers come from Kata — well-padded, robust, with separate compartments that are often flexible. The Kata Prism-U, for example, is an excellent option. If you are constantly in and out of airports and hate taking your laptop out, the Victorinox Fast Pass or Big Ben Backpack is what you should get. Belkin also has a range of good messenger bags and backpack options.
Tablet Computers
After laptops and smartphones, tablets like the Apple iPad, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, etc., are rapidly altering the way you compute on the move. The sheer versatility and manageable form factor of a tablet makes it an ideal travelmate, even if you’re a stickler for the papyrus genre of reading. The pick of the litter (and most popular with an over 90 per cent market share globally) right now: the Apple iPad with is exceptional user interface and over 40,000 apps.
Point and Shoot Cameras
Though eminently pocket-sized devices are no longer all that basic anymore in both features and functions, you can pick up a diminutive P&S with a wide-angle to 30X zoom (that’s 28-840mm focal length) or a giant 3-inch LCD screen now. Among the good ones today are the Canon PowerShot SX210 IS, Nikon CoolPix S1000pj (which even offers a built-in projector to view your pictures on the wall) and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5.
Solar and Portable Chargers
Heading off for a few days of camping in the wild away from civilisation and wondering how you will charge your gadgets without electricity? Harness solar energy with devices like the Solio Classic Charger that stores energy for up to a year and recharges from sunlight (or a wall socket). An hour of sunlight will replenish your phone with 15 minutes talk time or 40 minutes of MP3 music. If you’re travelling by car and need to charge your laptop/cell phone/ iPod/ camera etc. on the trot quite often, there is nothing like the Belkin. Anywhere AC is a USB inverter-cum-charger that plugs into your vehicle’s cigarette lighter socket and converts your car’s battery power to common household current.
Adapter Plugs, Cards etc.
If you’re a frequent flyer to several countries across continents, it makes sense to invest in a single multi-country travel adapter. Always ensure that you not only have a spacious memory card for your camera but also a spare one just in case the primary card dies on you. Also, keep a high-capacity pen drive in your travel kit. It is a backup option for your data and also helps copy files from computer to computer when needed.
The writer is a part-time publishing consultant and a full-time devotee of all things tech. Contact him at
ashishone@gmail.com [1]
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[1] mailto:ashishone@gmail.com