Joy of Gadgets

Since I’ve joined Check Point Software, I’ve done a fair bit of traveling–moreso than I’ve done in quite some time. Since I am ending up more random places, and have had the joy of going through airport security in Tel Aviv on two occasions so far (which makes the TSA experience seem relatively painless by comparison), it has forced me to refine my travel toolbox–things that come with me on every trip I make. Lighter traveling makes for easier traveling, and the following items have earned a more or less permanent place in my travel bag.

The Apple iPhone: As much as I have liked the Nokia phones over the years, thanks to the breadth of applications on the iPhone, not to mention the iPhone’s multimedia capabilities, the iPhone has been a welcome travel companion. TripIt and iXpenseIt have become absolutely indispensable applications while traveling.

Portable iPhone Battery Charger: Written about this in the past, of course, but it bares mentioning again, especially when using the iPhone in airplane mode on a plane where they don’t provide a USB or power jack. It keeps my phone charged so that when I land, my iPhone and I are ready to go.

The Nokia E71: This comes in handy, particularly on those trips to Israel where I can’t use my iPhone as anything more than an iPod Touch thanks to AT&T’s roaming rates being so expensive. Prior to my purchasing an iPhone, the Nokia E71 was my primary phone and it is still quite capable in a pinch. It is also a failsafe in case I completely drain the battery in the iPhone

MaxRoam: One thing I have to admit missing from my days at Nokia was not having to worry about my mobile phone charges when traveling abroad. 500 – 1000 EUR phone bills were not all that uncommon for travelers abroad. Even though I was a responsible chap and asked how one might reduce that cost while abroad, I was often told “not to worry” by managers. Meanwhile, Check Point has a different opinion about these things, so I carry a MaxRoam SIM in that Nokia E71 to keep the roaming costs a bit more reasonable. That and I get a local SIM card if I’m going to be someplace more than a few days.

Skype: Assuming I have a good Internet connection, Skype is a lifesaver, especially for making reasonable calls to the US while I am abroad. Actually, the calls are included in the ~$30/year Skype North America plan, making it an excellent value.

Monster Outlets To Go: Given the relative lack of plugs I have found in hotel rooms, having a power strip with me has proven to be a wise investment. Abroad, it is even better because I can make more efficient use of the relatively scarce plug adapters. The Outlets To Go by Monster has been fantastic. It’s compact, the plug lights up when connected to power, and it’s relatively inexpensive. Can’t ask for much more than that.

iPass: As much as I’ve used (and loved) Boingo in the past, I have had numerous issues with their software on the iPhone and on the Mac. Also, I frequently find their “mobile” software doesn’t allow me to log into hotspots I use frequently. Enter iPass, who has been at this remote access game longer. They still provide dialup Internet access on the road, but also provide Internet access through a number of other mechanisms, including many of the same WiFi hotspots Boingo does. Their iPhone app works pretty well.  More options is good, and when providing reliable remote access solutions, experience counts.

A Travel Router: Because one never knows exactly what kind of broadband connectivity one will find at a hotel, and I have multiple devices that might need to use that Internet access, a travel router has a place in my bag. I can plug it into the hotel Ethernet and make it WiFi so my laptop and my mobile phones can connect to it. I currently use a first-generation WTR54GS from Linksys, which I have flashed with the flexible DD-WRT firmware.

The EVERYMAN Headset: Yes, with Skype, one needs a quality headset for an optimal experience. The EVERYMAN delivers in terms of cost and compactness in my travel bag. Yes, they gave me a review unit a few months ago, but at $23 shipped to my door, I’d happily buy another one!

An Extra Change of Clothes: One thing I learned from a professional services guy I worked with early in my career is that you never know when you will get stuck someplace on the road. Flights get canceled or severely delayed. Any number of accidents can happen involving your clothing, as well. As a result, I always–even on short trips–bring an extra change of clothes with me. I have never had to use them, thankfully, but it’s nice to know they’re there if I need them.

An Extra Bag: Yes, I actually pack an extra bag in my carryon. It’s one of those nylon “recyclable” bags you might get at a grocery store. This particular one folds up nicely with a velcro flap to keep it a nice, tidy bundle. However, if I end up picking up a few extra things on my travels, having a way to carry that stuff home is important.

Pat Phelan and others gotta be thinking about this: how to pair up their global SIM with the iPhone without, say, encouraging people to unlock their handset or using SIM hacking tools. My answer: become an authorized “carrier” partner with Apple. Sell the iPhone with your SIM. Make it easy for people to go iPhone and not be ripped off for global roaming.

My guess is that the price would have to be unsubsidized, since there’s no proper monthly fee charged by these service providers. You might also consider disabling GPRS data by default since many of these “global SIMs” don’t offer data, or don’t do it at an affordable enough rate to use for anything more than a small amount of data.

Or do one better. Does Apple allow you to use, say, an iPhone you bought through AT&T with an O2 SIM? O2 is Apple’s carrier partner in the UK? If it does, then provided Apple “authorizes” the MaxRoam (or other global) SIM for use in the Apple iPhone, they don’t even need to sell the phone!

Of course, this will probably never happen. But it’s a nice idea.

The Gorillapod Focus is a tripod designed for professional-grade cameras. Unlike most tripods that have rigid legs, the Gorillapod has flexible, yet sturdy legs, allowing you to, for instance, wrap the tripod around a post, or fold it up into an interesting shape. The camera attaches to the tripod with either a 1/4″ or 3/8″ screws (adapter included).

I don’t think I have a camera that weighs even close to 11 pounds–which is how much this little tripod will hold. If I did, this might be one of the tripods I would carry. It’d be cool if the tripod were longer, but even at 11 inches, you should be able to wrap this thing around something taller, if you need to!

At $149, it’s a bit pricey, but you have to remember where this is aimed at: people with several thousand dollar cameras. If your needs are a bit more modest and you have a smaller, lighter (up to 7 ounce) point-and-shoot camera, you can try the original Gorillapod for $24.95, including free ground shipping!

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No, not a snowflake snowflake, the Snowflake from Blue Microphones!

This little USB microphone is about the size of a deck of card, when folded up. When you separate the white plastic from the aluminum base with the microphone–they pull apart easily–you can either put the microphone on top of your monitor–it hooks on an LCD monitor, or you can set it on your desk. An included USB cable is hooked to the back of the microphone.

The sound quality? Pretty good! I used the Skype test call plus a call with a friend of mine to verify the audio quality. It will be a worthy addition to my laptop bag for travel.

I’ve heard Andy Abramson use this microphone with Ken Rutkowski on KenRadio and have heard the recordings over Skype, it sounds great. That is, when Andy has a good Internet connection

You can get the Blue Snowflake for $69 (or less) from a local Blue Microphones dealer or through the Internet, of course. Well worth it if you want your voice to sound good on the go!

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The one problem I have with traveling is that most of the airlines don’t put power jacks at the seat. You might get lucky on a cross-country flight, but on short-hop flights like I usually take, you’re lucky if they give you peanuts and a drink, let alone power.

Enter the Inflight Power Recharger. The theory behind this gadget is that you can use the power that comes from a headset jack to charge your gear that charges with a USB cable. Historically, planes have had headset jacks in them, and at least one loud audio channel–the louder, the better for the charging process. I’ve found plenty of planes that didn’t have them recently, so even this is not a guarantee.

How does this work? Capacitors. They store the energy captured from the audio system and when it gets enough, pumps it through the USB port. It takes a few minutes to store up enough energy to actually charge anything. To help keep things consistent, you can also seed the device with 2 AAA batteries, which quite honestly, will do more to charge your USB devices than capturing the power from audio signals will.

Take a look at this video, where I demonstrate the product in action:

A while ago, I had purchased a Linksys WTR54GS as a travel companion. It is a fairly serviceable router that slides into a nice little compact carrying case complete with an Ethernet cable to jack in a computer or to something else.

The main problem I had with the device? The firmware–something Linksys never bothered to update beyond the initial shipping version. The router’s web interface was slow and frequently had issues. A problem with nearly every Linksys router since they switched to using VxWorks instead of Linux.

Leave it to the fine folks being DD-WRT for figuring out how to liberate this device from a life of running VxWorks. I followed the rather convoluted steps for getting DD-WRT onto the router. One small hitch I ran into was that the referenced Sercomm utility crashes under XP. However, a quick Google search resulted in finding an update to Sercomm that would make it run under XP.

About 10 minutes later, I had removed the crappy VxWorks-based firmware and had the latest DD-WRT up and running in no-time. The web interface was nice and peppy. All the functionality of DD-WRT is now in my travel bag, ready to convert WiFi to Ethernet or vice-versa.

One of the things I hate about traveling to Ottawa is that there is no direct flights from Seattle. Last time I went, I avoided the dreaded O’Hare airport by flying through Vancouver there and Toronto on the way back. This time, no such luck.

While Chicago O’Hare has no shortage of places to eat–something I don’t mind–the one thing there is a clear shortage of is places to plug in and recharge your electronic batteries. It’s almost as if they went to great lengths to hide or even remove the power plugs from any place usable. Those I am able to find are hidden away in the most inconvenient and uncomfortable places.

I plan on sticking to my Nokia N800 tablet, which has good battery life. I also have a couple of portable battery chargers for Nokia devices, which I will use if I can’t find a place to plugin.

What are some of the ways you cope with the lack of ability to charge your mobile devices while in transit?

Devices with cellular, WiFi, and/or bluetooth radios can only be used on a commercial airline flight–in the US anyway–if the device can be switched into what is referred to as Flight Mode. This mode essentially disables all radios on the device so that it can be used “safely” on an airplane, but other functions on the device can still be used. Many Nokia phones have an Offline profile that accomplishes much the same thing.

On my last trip to the Bay Area, I noticed that Alaska’s “safety announcement” made specific mention of “Flight Mode” on various electronic devices. While I don’t remember what they exactly said, it was something along the lines of “you can use your iPods, Blackberries or similar devices once we reach 10,000 feet so long as they are in Flight Mode or the radios are disabled.” First time I’ve ever heard it mentioned there before.

Alsaka seemed to know the difference a while ago. Then again, many of their customers are techies flying between the Bay Area and Seattle. Whether Alaska figured this out on their own or their customers educated them already, I have no idea (sorry, Andy, Alaska’s flight attendants don’t need your Flight Attendant Gadget School). Either way, I have not once been bothered by flight attendants on an Alaska flight about my gadgets. I do get the occasional question of “is it in flight mode,” but beyond that, they leave me alone.

Putting it in the safety announcement makes their knowledge of flight mode official. Maybe some other airlines could learn a thing or two about flight mode.

The folks at Creative Weblogging–the people behind Gadgets Weblog, VoIP Weblog, and a slew of others, were serving up a “compromised” creative–a ad with malicious intent. In short, what it was doing was redirecting people to a site that, if you were running Internet Explorer and had scripting turned on, would install malware on your box. I announced it on both my CW blogs here and here.

Fortunately for me, I usually browse with Firefox and the NoScript extension–on my Mac. Needless to say it didn’t do anything to my machine when I ran across it. I personally recommend browsing the Internet with that combination. Or, if you’re stuck on using IE, disable active scripting.

Anyway, with the help of the various editors at CW, the malicious ad was tracked down and removed from the CW network. There was much rejoicing.

Meanwhile, you can safely look at the following articles I wrote this past week:

• Airports Charging For Power (From The Gadgets Weblog)
• Skype 1.4 For Linux Now Available (From The VoIP Weblog)
• Alaska Airlines To Bring WiFi To Planes (From The Gadgets Weblog)
• Cubic Telecom’s CEO Admits To Errors (From The VoIP Weblog)
• Sushi-Rolling Machine (From The Gadgets Weblog)
• Jangl Partners With Fubar (From The VoIP Weblog)
• Universal Power Adapter (From The Gadgets Weblog)
• Mobivox Gets 11 Million In Series A Funding (From The VoIP Weblog)
• Vringo Wins MIPCON’s Mobile TV & Internet Award (From The Gadgets Weblog)
• Connecting The Islands Of VoIP (From The VoIP Weblog)
• White LED Lights Coming! (From The Gadgets Weblog)
• T-Mobile Being Sued For Locking Mobile Handsets (From The Gadgets Weblog)

On a recent Air Canada flight, I got to experience their new in-flight entertainment system. It’s a touch screen with a number of different movies, TV shows, XM Radio (selected channels), and audio. All entertainment was available on-demand, meaning you could stop and start at any time, fast forward, rewind, etc. There were some “games” listed as well, however they were listed as “unavailable” when I tried to play them.

I took some other screenshots of the entertainment system, which I have posted on Twango. I have embedded the gallery below.

The main thing I used at my seat was the USB charger for my Nokia N800. My particular seat did not have the 110v charger there for whatever reason, but I could have easily used it if I wanted. With power, at least I didn’t need AirCanada’s entertainment system. I could easily use my own for as long as I wanted!