Fortune Magazine – 12 Travel Gadgets
I am always interested to see what magazines recommend as the top gadgets. What does Fortune Magazine think is important when you’re traveling? See here:
For their top 12 travel gadgets, they have chosen an interesting list of items:
The Garmin GPSmap 60CSx handheld mapping system: A GPS system is better than a map when you’re in an unfamiliar area. It uses information from sattelites to find where you are in the world and then place you on the map. You can type in where you want to go and it will take you there. This is a great choice, actually. It’s not the most expensive unit available, but it isn’t bottom of the line either. Good choice.
Uniden GMR 1588-2CK two-way radios: Cellular phones have replaced walkie-talkies like these for me. I have so many minutes that I NEVER go over now, so I have no issue with just picking up my cell phone and calling my sister in the car ahead of us telling her that we need to stop in Fillmore, Utah for a potty break. The only problem is cell coverage isn’t universal. When we go camping, we bring the walkie-talkies out of storage because we know that our phones won’t work in Devil’s Kitchen. We got ours for less than half the price of these, though. Shop around for a better deal than $60 for a pair. Try these instead: Motorola T5500AA GMRS / FRS 8-Mile Two-Way Radio
Bose QuietComfort 3 noise-canceling acoustic headphones: Flying can be noisy. If you’re trying to listen to a movie on your laptop or listen to music on your iPod, the sound of the engine can drown out your music. Noise-canceling headphones counteract the noise of the engine and make your flight quieter, even if you’re NOT listening to music. They won’t cancel out the jerk talking loudly to his assistant or the crying kid in the back, but they will make your flight a little quieter. You don’t need these 350 dollar monstrocities, though. You can get a good set of noise-canceling headphones for about 60 bucks. Try these instead: JVC HANC100 Noise Cancelling Headphones <img align=”right” src=”http://www.starling-travel.com/wp-content/PhillipsDVD.jpg” alt=”Philips PET320 3.5\” Portable DVD Player” />Philips PET320 portable DVD player: There are so many choices for tiny little DVD players, that I don’t know how they chose this one. Phillips is a really good brand and at only $139, it’s a pretty good price (although I’ve seen this Coby DVD Player for less than $90). If you can’t watch movies on your laptop, a portable DVD player like this makes sense. If you’re taking a long road trip with children, a portable DVD player and a stack of children’s movies could be a sanity-saving device.
Otterbox iPod case and H20 Audio waterproof headphones: I consider this one to be completely worthless. If you’re out and about in the water on your vacation, enjoy the water. You don’t need your iPod with you at all times. Enjoy the sound of the water against the earth and save yourself 150 bucks.
Fujitsu LifeBook Q2010 ultraportable computer: Sure, this computer is tiny, but if you want to use a DVD, you have to buy the dock or buy a USB DVD drive. A computer for travel really needs a DVD player so you can watch movies on the plane or in the car. Otherwise, this is great little computer. Sometimes it’s worth buying the slightly bigger version to get all the features you want, though.
Altec Lansing inMotion iM9 portable iPod speakers: Turn your iPod into a ghetto blaster. That’s what this $200 gadget does. That $200 doesn’t include the iPod, by the way. I don’t really think this is the best choice. I saw a really cool version of this that was only $35 at my local store. Sure, the speakers aren’t Altec Lansing, but when you’re sitting out in the boat listening to music, the audio quality isn’t as important as the ability to share the noise.
APC UPB10 Mobile Power Pack: I’m trying to think how this gadget could be useful. It provides 50 hours of battery time for an iPod (or other USB charged device). Whenever I am unable to charge my gadgets with electrical power from the hotel, I usually have the car with me. Instead of this $70 box, I recommend a Xantrex Technologies 851-0400 X-Power 400 Power Inverter. I got mine for about $40 and I can plug in my laptop, iPod or any other device into the plug that gets juice from my car. It’s great for camping.
Voltaic solar-power backpack: Yet again, this sounds like a really cool thing, but I can’t see a use for it. I like the idea of being able to charge my portable devices using the power of the sun already beating down on me, but I don’t really spend that much time outdoors without power, even when I’m traveling. Maybe when I was a teenager and I listened to music on my Sony Walkman all day long, I could have used a backpack like this. Maybe if you are backpacking in the woods without your car, it might be useful, but for $250, I think I’ll pass and use the car power inverter.
Sony DCR-DVD505 Handycam video camcorder: I haven’t been impressed with the Sony Handycam series, so I wouldn’t recommend them right now. Plus, those little DVDs only hold about 20 minutes of video. If you’re willing to deal with that limitation, you could use the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1 5.1MP MPEG-4 High Definition Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom. It stores the video on SD cards and is also an excellent still camera. Plus, it’s far more portable than a big camcorder. Who wants to lug that thing around all day? With the Sanyo, you can keep it in your pocket when you’re not using it.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H2 digital camera: Another questionable choice. If you’re trying to take a picture to win awards, then this camera might be good, but the a Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1 5.1MP MPEG-4 High Definition Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom is much more portable, is a video camera, a still camera, and it fits in your pocket. If you’re traveling in order to take award winning pictures, then the Sony is great, but save yourself $600 and go with a two-in-one camera like the Sanyo.
RaySat StealthRay two-way satellite antenna: Fortune says this item is for the family with everything, but at $36,000, it’s completely out of the range of logical. Sure, it provides Internet access to your car or RV no matter where you are, but at that price, you could buy a Toyota Prius just for road trips and save on gasoline. With $36K to spend, I could think of a lot more interesting things to purchase for traveling than the RaySat.
In short, the Fortune recommendations hit two out of twelve times. I guess that’s what we get for getting travel-gadget ideas from a magazine that has nothing to do with gadgets or travel.