Comments on: The Things We Carry

By: leah, best travel gear

leah, best travel gear — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 14:48:43 +0000

In reply to Eva.

Prior to the tech we enjoy today, I always traveled with several books and a stack of cds and cd player. And remember film? I’m so grateful for my tech. It’s thrilling to me to watch whatever movies I want on the plane and have a library of 100 books with me on my kindle. I can fit everything I need in a tiny lightweight bag (organization freak here). I choose not have a smart phone though (for now)–I think that’s the real clincher and it gives me freedom to be unavailable and unplugged the way I need to be. Agree that it would make a ton of sense to have universal cords (and something else I’d love–uncomplicated international cell phone abilities).

By: Ethanq

Ethanq — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 03:15:14 +0000

Is the title a reference to the Tim O’Brien book?

By: MG

MG — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 00:05:36 +0000

That’s about the same amount of gadgets I travel with now, but I would argue that they (including chargers) weigh less than the novels, maps and guidebooks, and paperwork (documents, registrations etc) that I used to have to lug around, especially on business trips. These have unequivocally made my travel more pleasant (as someone with no sense of direction, the various map and direction features alone are worth it).

By: Vinny Noggin

Vinny Noggin — Sun, 29 Sep 2013 05:06:56 +0000

Last week at the San Jose Norman Mineta place, I saw a guy wearing a kilt.It was plaid. Other than the kilt he looked normal and harried, was dragging the standard wheeled bag behind, wasn’t wearing a beret. It crossed my mind to ask him if he was wearing a jockstrap or what underneath. But you don’t do that.

By: Msconduct

Msconduct — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 23:52:55 +0000

A key thing in my kit that you don’t show is a common-or-garden power board to plug all the other stuff into. That way I only need one adapter.

By: Randy S

Randy S — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 19:43:37 +0000

Remember when we needed voltage converters also?

My USB drive is on my keychain. It’s surprising how often I use it. Significantly reduces the chance of losing it.

By: phs3

phs3 — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 14:56:32 +0000

Devices are *mostly* moving toward a few more universal connections: micro-USB, Apple’s own thing, some mini-USB. In any case, hotels *could* offer micro-USB charging ports, hard-wired, and sell adapters. So if you have a non-micro-USB device, you’d buy the adapter *once* ($5?) and just carry that. This is assuming you’re a frequent traveler with a hotel chain preference. Would be differentiator for the hotel chain, build loyalty, etc.

Weaknesses:
1) Adoption wouldn’t be instant. But we all book online now, right? So you could check before traveling.
2) “Broken” rooms, where the adapter doesn’t work. That’s solvable with a dozen or so portable adapters kept at the desk and lent (WITH DEPOSIT) to travelers. Make ’em bulky so there’s no incentive to keep ’em.

HHonors, are you listening? 🙂

By: Simon

Simon — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 06:50:29 +0000

In reply to Don. You don't need to give up your iPhone to be able to use a micro USB charger. You simply get a $5 micro-USB to iPhone 30 pin adapter. Done. Apple sells theirs for $19 but there are cheaper ones that do the same trick.

By: Don

Don — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 17:56:01 +0000

Couple of suggestions:
* Try an Android phone. Same charger works for that and many other devices.
* Put smaller chargers, headphones, flash drives, etc. in sandwich-sized plastic baggies and stick them in the Tumi. They stay untangled and access is easy.
* Try a Mi-Fi device that uses the same charger as the android phone, then you don’t have to worry about hotel Wi-Fi (and can use in a taxi or shuttle bus) or a cable.
Thanks.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 14:23:11 +0000

In reply to Roberta.

If the camera on the iPhone 5 is anything like the one on the iPhone 4…. I’ll continue lugging around my Nikon. Cell phone pictures always look great when viewed on the phone, but they’re never as good once downloaded and enlarged to a normal viewing size.

As for Dropbox… I’ve thought about it, but I don’t always have a Wi-Fi connection when I’m working. Plus, I cannot bear the thought of setting yet another user name and password. I’ll stick with the two-step manual file transfer for now.