Three Great Travel Gadgets for Techie Road Warriors
I travel fairly often for business. I by no means have the status of road warrior, but I travel enough that being able to maximize my work productivity on the road is very important to me. In fact, I’m writing this on a plane on my way to Tempe, Arizona.
Some of the tips I’ll be discussing are of my own design. Others were given to me by far more seasoned travelers than I, and I’m thanking them by paying it forward to you.
Laptop that also acts as a tablet
I do quite a bit of writing, so I strongly prefer a laptop with a traditional keyboard. My problem on airplanes is that the seats are so tightly pushed together these days that on some planes if the person in front of you pushes his seat back, you can’t open your laptop enough to see the screen.
In the olden days—say six months ago before I bought my Lenovo ThinkPad Twist—I would have been relegated to paper and pencil until either the end of the flight or the person in front of me decided to sit up straight. Now, I simply convert my laptop to a tablet and use the onscreen keyboard.
Three prong power strip
This device can be purchased in almost any hardware store in the US for about $2. It’s a very small strip that you plug into the wall, and you can insert three plugs into the back of it.
Having this simple device in your briefcase allows you to double jack with anyone in any airport, bar, or restaurant. You just ask the person connected to the electric wall plug of your choice if you can plug in your power strip and then plug his plug and your plug in at the same time. This also can work if you need USB power sources rather than standard wall sockets.
External battery charger
There are a number of great external battery chargers; in fact, I just bought an Energizer external battery charger. This is great if you have multiple devices you would like to charge on a plane or anytime an electric wall plug is not convenient.
At the airport this morning I had to make a number of work calls before getting on the plane. Then, while sitting in my seat on the airplane, I was able to charge both my phone and my laptop. Thus, my laptop has plenty of power for my cross-country flight, and I also have full use of my cell phone when I land in Phoenix.
