When Paul Holstein heads to Europe for summer holidays, he’s packed and ready for business.
The owner of CableOrganizer.com offered a snapshot into the must-bring tech that keeps him productive “across the pond” — as if he hadn’t even left his Fort Lauderdale offices.
His take…
What a perfect topic for me. I’m on vacation in France now and, of course, totally connected.
My favorite laptop these days it the Toshiba Portege R600-ST4203. It’s built for the traveler. It’s 2.4 pounds and one inch thick. You can’t imagine how this changes everything. You don’t need to carry a separate laptop bag if you don’t want to. You can tuck it into your regular carry-on suitcase.
Alternatively, you can carry a small laptop bag and add clothes to it for short trips. Forget the headset and webcam. Those are built right in to the laptop. They are built into most laptops today. That saves you a lot of effort as well.
When I’m in the US, I always carry and use my Verizon wireless card for the PC. While others are struggling to connect to airport lounge Wi-Fi, I’m surfing along painlessly. People are always asking me how I connected the network. I just smile and tell them it’s the Verizon card. Forget about hotspots and security problems connecting to unknown networks.
Yes, I always carry one or more USB flash drives. They are so cheap today that I use them as disc replacements. I even had a bunch made up with my company logo and I use those to give people large files. When I went to my nephew’s graduation, I simply uploaded all the photos I took onto the flash drive and gave it to him rather than e-mail them later. Even if you forget to bring your USB flash drive, you can simply walk into a nearby store and buy one.
My favorite communications device these days is the iPhone. It has the best implementation of Exchange available today on any platform. I’m in France now and I have the $20.00 per month data plan so I can receive all my e-mails. In addition, I stay connected with the Facebook app, and the hotmail app. In addition, I really like the weather channel app; the movie app called “Now Playing” even works in France. I’ve got USA Today, Bloomberg, and Public Radio on the iPhone and for my kids, I have WunderRadio which has lots of channels, including the Disney Channel. I also keep lots of playlists for different situation such as working out or kids music. The iPhone has two applications for Internet workers such as myself; one is SiteCatalyst and the other is called “Analytics.” Both give me all the stats on my web traffic and allow me to see what’s going on. On top of all that, Skype works really will on the iPhone provided you have a Wi-Fi connection.
As for travel software on my iPhone, that would take a whole article by itself. I’ll just list some of my favorites: Yelp, YPmobile, Translator, TravTracker, TripIt, WorldMate, the built in Map application, Navigon, several subway maps and guides and Disney Maps. The built in Mapping app even works great in Europe and it has a built in compass to let you know which direction your going. It’s amazing.
Finally, I bought a Mophie extended battery for my iPhone. It more than doubles the battery life of the phone. When you travel long distances, you don’t always find plugs where you need them or have time for charging. The Mophie battery acts like a case for the phone and can recharged from any USB outlet or a standard outlet with an adapter. BTW, my Toshiba will charge the USB port even when it’s turned off. How’s that for a thoughtful feature?
Frankly, the iPhone is so practical, that I don’t even need a laptop much of the time.
Next time, we’ll explore PC software options and other applications that make this road warrior a pretty well-balanced traveler indeed.