Good practical tips for traveling with technology

Traveling used to be easier when we had to worry about all our electronic devices. Now, before embarking on any journey, you keep in your bag something that resembles an electronic bazaar to avoid forgetting something important. After many trips with all equipment in tow-and after consulting many friends and followers on Twitter-here collected their favorite recommendations for when to travel with technology. Whether traveling abroad or at home, here are some of the best ways to get the best of all our teams. 

1. Do few things, but do not overdo

According need to make the trip, it is always a good idea to carry a couple of extra cables, adapters and other accessories on. For travel abroad, one of the things to be carried or yes, eBook and other equipment-is-for a power adapter charging our camera phone. I recommend a universal adapter that works with outlets in many different countries. For most electronic equipment, an adapter is all you need. For other appliances, such as hair dryers, shavers and irons for hair, you can also possibly need a transformer.

Will it handle a lot with rental cars? Take your music player, a cable for male to male audio, and a car charger to listen to songs while driving. Or consider, otherwise, a cable to connect your laptop with a TV mode to see DVDs in your hotel room.

2. Local calls abroad 

If you have any old cell floating around-who does not have it – it could become an ideal tool for make cheap local calls abroad. Before leaving, find out if your phone can be “unlocked” to work with other networks. On arrival, visit a local store and buy a cellular SIM card, which will cost about $ 20. When entering the card in your old phone, you will receive a local number. From that moment, the calls you make in the city will be a bargain.

3. Communication with our house 

Do not call your house with that local SIM. The long distance rates can become exorbitant. A better trick is to use Skype, the Internet telephone system. Skype calls have a laptop or a smartphone and an Internet connection; you can get in a hotel or in a cafe. With Skype, you can call home for nothing more than pennies per minute. And if you set up your Skype account as call transfer, the people back home can call a local number to contact you anywhere in the world, and will not call them anything.

4. Avoid buying Wi-Fi in hotels 

Accessing Internet is invaluable whether traveling for business or pleasure. The only problem is the cost. Some hotels want to charge the same as pay per night for a month of Internet service. That is why it is smart to consider the Wi-Fi prices before booking the trip. In the United States, many hotels offer rates low and intermediate free Wi-Fi, while the faces chains charge between 10 and 20 dollars a night for the service. For international travel, see the invaluable guide Hotel Chatter World to see which hotels offer free Internet, or low prices.

5. Tips for owners of smartphones

If you have an iPhone or other Internet-compatible device, you want to take before traveling abroad, because it is a good way to access the Internet while traveling. Remember to enter the phone settings panel and turn off the roaming long distance (long-distance roaming). This will prevent the build bulky phone tariffs through foreign networks. Your phone can anyway access the Internet through Wi-Fi. There are some iPhone apps that are especially useful in the outside like Yelp for reviews on restaurants and attractions; Skype to call home; and TripIt, a wonderful online service that keeps all the sorted details of your itinerary-. The Web site TripIt is great even if you do not have an iPhone.

6. Do not hesitate to get an iPad

I discovered that the Apple tablet computer is a fantastic trip. It is small, light and, best of all, the Administration Transportation Security (TSA according to its acronym in English) USA does not require get her out of our suitcase during checks at the airport. (Most of the times at least). During a trip I made ​​recently a TSA agent asked me at Kennedy Airport (New York) to take out my iPad. The iPad is more useful for a pleasure trip that business. It is the perfect way to read books and watch movies while traveling. But if you plan to write the great American novel while visiting cafes in Paris, take a small Bluetooth keyboard (Apple makes a nice one) to connect to your iPad. Even with the keyboard, the iPad computer easier to transport-in a backpack or briefcase big- most notebooks.

7. Identify your photos

The old photo of your grandfather beside an elephant was this taken in Rhodesia or Ringling Brothers? Digital photographs offer a way to solve this kind of geographical confusion. Your files can be integrated with location information that will enable us to always remember where we got our photo. Some newer cameras and smartphones inserted this geographic information automatically, but if you have an old camera, consider buying a memory card to put labels on the site, such as Eye-Fi Explore. The card features a built-in Wi-Fi chip. The chip not only sets its geographic location but you can upload your photos to the internet automatically.

8. Do you want photos of truth?

Some people still can not digest the fact that your photos are in memory card. Of course you can print them when you return home, but if you lose to make instant prints, check the Polaroid PoGo portable printer. This unit sells for $ 40, but requires special paper that costs about 30 cents per page. If traveling with kids, the snapshots can become a fun project to put together an album while traveling.

9. eBooks on the beach

If you plan to spend your vacation with a whole shelf of classics, would have to adopt digital technology. With a Kindle, Nook, iPad or other flat reader, there is no practical limit to the number of books you can enjoy and not have to worry about the weight. There is only one problem: how to protect these delicate devices amid the sand and surf? You might consider the option of buying a waterproof sleeve for your reader. TrendyDigital makes one that sells for $ 20. Or else, opt for cheap: place your ebook inside a plastic bag with sandwiches such seal. These bags are usually transparent enough to be able to read them, and strong enough to protect the equipment from weather.

10. Headset that eliminate noise

Headphones that electronically eliminate the ambient noise have existed for a decade at least.. But they are now so cheap-you can get the Sony MDR-NC7 for less than $ 40 in the USA that is no longer the exclusive domain of frequent travelers. This kind of headphones are a must have or yes, if you plan to watch movies or listen to music on planes, trains and other noisy means of locomotion. Without them, you have to go much volume, which is not good for your hearing. Remember to bring along a pair, even if you are not interested in listening to songs because these headphones make a cacophonous plane ride something like a vacation.