Travel Gear - The Gadgeteer

The Hop! Self-Rolling Suitcase – These Are Not the Droids You’re Looking For

By Ian Lim / October 12, 2012 / News / Bags, Bluetooth, luggage, Travel Gear / 3 Comments

Sick of lugging your bags around airports or bus stations? The Hop! from Cargo Collective is a suitcase that takes away some of the load. As the name might suggest, the suitcase is named for hotel bellhops. Using three receivers, the Hop! triangulates its position relative to your Bluetooth-enabled smartphone, and using an air-based caterpillar traction […]

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Satechi Launches Compact USB Surge Protector

By Janet Cloninger / September 27, 2012 / News / Laptops and Gear, Surge protector with USB power outlets, Travel Gear / 3 Comments

Here’s a great little addition to your gear bag. The Compact USB Surge Protector from Satechi can protect your laptop from power surges and spikes and provide you with a separate USB charger port with conditioned power, too. The USB charger provides 5V, 1A power to charge up a smartphone or MP3 player while leaving

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Let Your Smartphone Help Plan Your Leaf Peeping

By Janet Cloninger / September 14, 2012 / News / Android, Android app, Apps, iOS, Travel Gear / 1 Comment

Are you a leaf peeper? Do you plan vacations and weekend trips with the sole purpose of gawking at the colorful fall foliage? If you do, the Leaf Peeper app from Yankee Magazine can help you find the best fall displays. The app lets you make foliage reports, called Peeps, about the conditions in your

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Kanex Lets You Travel with Your Own Private WiFi Network

By Janet Cloninger / September 13, 2012 / News / Travel Gear, WiFi, Wireless / 9 Comments

Have you ever checked in to a hotel that promises WiFi, only to find that you have a room with weak, useless WiFi service? There’s only one Ethernet cable in there, but you have several device you want to connect? If you had the mySpot from Kanex, you could create your own password-protected personal network

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Timbuk2 Commute Messenger is TSA-Compliant

By Janet Cloninger / September 6, 2012 / News / Bags, Laptop bag, Travel Gear / 1 Comment

The new Commute Messenger from Timbuk2 has an external zippered laptop compartment that also has room for a tablet and cables, and it unzips to lay flat for airport security checks. It’s made of ballistic nylon, and it has a waterproof TPU flap and a waterproof hypalon rubberized bottom to keep your stuff dry inside.

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Just Mobile Gum Backup Battery Review

By Ian Lim / September 3, 2012 / Reviews / Batteries and Chargers, Pocket Gear, Travel Gear / Leave a Comment

We rely so much on our smartphones these days, not just for phone calls but also for the information and access that they supply. Bigger screens are nice, but it’s always a compromise between screen size, weight and battery life. What do you do when you’re not near a power point all day (or multiple

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World’s Lightest Packable Electric Guitar

By Janet Cloninger / August 31, 2012 / News / Music Gear, Travel Gear / 1 Comment

Hammacher Schlemmer is offering what they call the World’s Lightest Packable Electric Guitar. It weighs 3 pounds and is 28″ long overall, and it is a “full-scale length 24 3/4″ guitar with 22 frets, enabling accurate chord and finger placement without adjusting one’s playing style.” The tuning pegs are placed inside the “body” of the

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Hong Kong Trip Report

By Jackie Cheng / August 23, 2012 / Articles / Travel Gear, Trip Report / 16 Comments

Hong Kong is a wonderful place to visit. It has yummy foods, interesting people, and some unique technologies that are different from the USA. I was there for the past 3 weeks. I was born there, and this trip was for both business and visiting relatives. I thought I’d write up some of the highlights

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Keep Your Coffee at the Perfect Drinking Temperature

By Janet Cloninger / August 21, 2012 / News / Coffee, Gear, Travel Gear, Travel Mug / Leave a Comment

This is an indiegogo funding project. The ThermoBuffer is “the world’s first thermodynamic mug”, and it will reportedly keep your coffee at a perfect drinking temperature for up to 3 hours. Instead of a dual-wall structure for insulation, the ThermoBuffer is has a triple wall. The gap between the inner walls is filled with water,

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Exogear Exovolt Plus – Stackable Power

By Ian Lim / August 15, 2012 / News / Batteries and Chargers, Tablet, Tablets, Ultra Portables, Travel Gear / Leave a Comment

So you want backup power for your devices when you’re out and about, but you don’t want to go too small because you might need more, or too big (with it’s additional weight and size) because you might need less? The exovault plus from EXOGEAR is a stackable battery pack so that you can customise

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Stuffa Jacket – Fit More In

By Ian Lim / August 11, 2012 / News / Clothing, Outdoor Gear, Travel Gear / 3 Comments

Julie loves her SCOTTEVEST products, but they’re aimed at the Gadgeteer in all of us, with pockets for all your electronic gadgets. What if you’re one of those minimalist travellers or need to “beat” those airline-imposed carry on luggage limits? The Stuffa Jacket might be the solution. With 12 compartments for stuffing in your long weekend’s

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Just|Mobile Highway Pro Review

By Dave Rees / July 30, 2012 / Reviews / Android, Car Gear, iOS, Travel Gear, USB charger / 4 Comments

Earlier this year I reviewed Just|Mobile’s 12 volt, single USB port car charger, called the Highway. A very well made, nice looking device/car accessory for charging your tech while motoring down the road. That is fine for those of us who only need to charge a single device at a time. But realizing that more

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Tekkeon TekCharge Pocket Power Pack MP1820 Review

By Smythe Richbourg / July 16, 2012 / Reviews / Android, Batteries and Chargers, eBook Readers, iOS, Portable power supply, Travel Gear, USB charger / 16 Comments

TekCharge's retractable cable comes with two interchangeable tips - one of which I lost within days of getting the unit.

The TekCharge Pocket Power Pack is a small battery that can be used to power USB-chargable devices for quite a while. Not too expensive, versatile, and easy to take along – what’s not to like? Let’s take a closer look and see.

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VXi BlueParrott Xpress Bluetooth Noise-Canceling Wireless Headset Review

By Steve Holt / July 5, 2012 / Reviews / Bluetooth, Headset, Travel Gear, Wireless / 16 Comments

For years I have been a Bluetooth headset evangelist. I have reviewed many Bluetooth headsets for The Gadgeteer (see related links for some of my reviews). I have long since gotten over any self-conscious feelings about looking like an employee in the McDonald’s drive-thru, and I have embraced my inner, and outer, geekness. Then along

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Freitag F60 Joan – Cycling Carryall

By Ian Lim / June 26, 2012 / News / Bags, Bicycle, Purse, Travel Gear / 2 Comments

Here’s a bag for all those cyclists out there who need to carry some gadgets but don’t like backpacks, messengers, or saddlebags. The F60 Joan from Freitag measures in at 350 X 120 X 180mm (8.13 X 4.7 X 7.1 inches) and has a 4 litre capacity. Using hideable Velcro straps, it converts quickly and easily from a large

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Pre-Order Skooba Design’s New Laptop Weekender V.3 and Save 25%

By Janet Cloninger / June 20, 2012 / News / Bags, Laptop bag, Travel Gear / Leave a Comment

Do you like to travel light, but find a laptop bag isn’t quite big enough to fit all your gear and your clothing and toiletries? The new Laptop Weekender V.3 bag from Skooba Design looks like a normal duffel, but it’s designed to hold enough clothing for a couple of days plus your laptop and

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The Sony DSC-RX100 Might be my Next Travel Camera

By Julie Strietelmeier / June 7, 2012 / News / Camera, Camera gear, Photography, Travel Gear / 10 Comments

Last week I was on vacation up in Michigan and took a brand new camera that I had purchased especially for the trip with me only to figure out that it was too bulky to carry around. The Olympus OM-D EM-5 is a fantastic mirrorless camera if you don’t mind the size and weight. I did. So

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Charge Tablets and Smartphones with the Scosche goBAT II Portable Charger

By Janet Cloninger / June 5, 2012 / News / Batteries and Chargers, Gear, Travel Gear / 1 Comment

It often seems that backup batteries are device specific, so you’ll need to buy – and carry – a one for each of your devices. The goBAT II Portable Charger and External Battery from Scosche can charge most any USB-chargeable device. It has a 5000mAh lithium ion battery that can charge up to two devices

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BookWedge Reading Pillow Review

By John Schettino / June 4, 2012 / Reviews / eBook Readers, Tablets, Ultra Portables, Travel Gear, Universal Tablet Stand / 1 Comment

The BookWedge inflated wedge is, well, a wedge. A wedge that inflates. At this point you know just about everything you need to know about the product, including its website. I’ll go ahead and prattle on for a few hundred more words anyway, because not only is this a wedge that inflates, it’s actually a

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Aviiq Portable Charging Station with Cable Rack System

By Janet Cloninger / June 1, 2012 / News / Travel Gear, USB charging station / Leave a Comment

Late last year I was selected to review the Aviiq Portable Charging Station (see related links). The 4-port USB charging station allowed me to charge up to four devices, including an iPad, from a single wall outlet. I found that very convenient, but the relatively unstructured storage bag and cable storage system resulted in the

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