3g Kindle
At 189 USD, the Kindle comes in cheap for the functionalities that it offers. For the modern traveller its interesting feature is the free 3g Access worldwide(At least in most cities with 3g Access). Most modern e-mail websites have text only versions and this comes in handy with Kindle as its browser is not meant for graphical and interactive content. With Wiki travel and Wikipedia, you’ve got enough internet reading material without breaking the bank.
For the avid reader and traveller, buying a Kindle 3g is a no brainer: you could bring it by the beach and read with your hearts content without the sun glare on the screen, high contrast — just like paper. You can even let it read the book for you. Having said that I recommend buying Amazon’s Kindle Lighted Leather Cover, not only is it classy, the light it offers is powered by the Kindle itself!
Wouldn’t it be good to centralize all your travel information in one place? Trip-it.com offers this cloud based system for free… ok no big deal. But, here is where Trip-it.com shines, you can actually send them e-mails of your plane itinerary and hotel reservations and they will automatically aggregate all this info in their system. Most of the time, you will not need to edit this. If you have
Android or
iPhone… Good news! They have an app for that, the great thing about it is that the info is cached in your phone. no need for
Internet if you just want the cached info from your mobile.
With luggage excess fees skyrocketing this days, at around 25 USD, this gadget is worth it for the peace of mind of bringing a maximum of luggage load with out the penalty. A friendly reminder, please check the airline you have booked with for your luggage limitations. There is quite a difference between Europe and North America for sure.
I bought my first pair just a few weeks ago, a Bose Quick Comfort 15. At little bit more than 300 USD it didn’t come in cheap, but I am quite happy with this purchase — I have tested it on my recent long distance flights. I flew on a trans-atlantic flight with an old US Airways airplane on economy class and boy did that headphone save me! The cabin noise was unbearable and there was no personal entertainment system… good thing my the noise isolation worked really well!
The noise canceling works well with constant noise like those that you get on planes and trains, if your neighbor or a cabin crew talks to you whilst you are not paying attention, you can still hear their voice because those sounds are not constant.
A word of warning though, the Quick Comfort 15 comes in with a very lightbackground buzz that is almost not perceptible, it didn’t bother me but I guess for those with sensible ears this could be an issue. If you live in the US they currently have a 30 day trial period– that is a good incentive! Another issue with the Headphone is that it is dependent batteries, no juice, no music. The specs mention around 35 hour of life span for a triple A battery which is large enough to cover at least 2 long distance flights.
The airport express is really practical if you find yourself in a Hotel offering internet access with an Ethernet network plug : no wifi. Plug in t
he Ethernet plug to your Airport Express, and voila you have your wireless connection. I still see a lot of old school Hotels with no wifi, so my Airport Express comes in handy.
Aside for travel use, you can use it at home as a wireless hub, you could plug a printer to it for network share and of course with iTunes you could stream music to a speaker plugged in on your Airport Express
Image by clintonjeff via Flickr
Image by La Ignorancia Mata via Flickr