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What's in my gadget bag (this time)

I'm off to New York City for a few days and just finished packing my gadget bag for this outing. Given the duration of the flight (about 6 hours with ime zone changes), the brevity of the layover (less than an hour), and the fact that I'm traveling with the family, I have configured my kit with power, entertainment, and flexibility in mind. Here's what I'm bringing along...
Written by Marc Orchant, Contributor
oakleysandbag.jpg
I'm off to New York City for a few days and just finished packing my gadget bag for this outing. Given the duration of the flight (about 6 hours with ime zone changes), the brevity of the layover (less than an hour), and the fact that I'm traveling with the family, I have configured my kit with power, entertainment, and flexibility in mind. Here's what I'm bringing along:
  • MacBook: Normally I would take the Lenovo X60t Tablet PC on a flight of this duration because of its significantly better battery life and flexibility but I don't have my iTunes library on this machine and my son and I want to catch up on the last few episodes of Heroes during the flight. I also have a few issues of magazines waiting to be read in my Zinio Reader library which is also currently on the Mac. Entertainment is the order of the day as I said.
  • Spare battery: because the MacBook is only good for about 2.5 hours when playing video in iTunes.
  • Palm Treo 700p: My business phone and EVDO modem.
  • Nokia N95: My camera (5 MP) and Jaiku/Twitter/TruPhone/Skype (via Fring) connection
  • Nokia N800: For my "waiting to take off" e-mail fix and to show off digital photos to the relatives at the family event we're traveling to attend.
  • Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard: With the N800, N95, and Plantronics headset, this is my "new mobile office" that I can set up in seconds and get a bit of work done just about anywhere.
  • iPod 30 GB: Tunes, video, and games to keep me and the kids occupied.
  • Palm and Plantronics Bluetooth headsets: One for each phone and to assuage my need to have a backup for hands-free telephony.
  • Ultimate Ears Super.fi Pro 5 earbuds: the rockingest sound ever in a pair of ear buds I can slip into my pocket.
  • Able Planet Clear Harmony noise canceling headphones: I just received these for an evaluation. I'm really looking forward to testing their ability to eliminate the drone of the flight. I'll be passing these around to the entire family to try with their iPods and laptops during the flights.
  • Griffin SmartShare headphone jack splitter: vital to the aforementioned video watching with my son. I like this unit because it has independent volume controls for each of us.
  • Monster Power Outlets-to-Go four outlet travel strip: Because outlets in airports are still all too rare (except in my home airport in Albuquerque where work tables, power strips, and task chairs are in abundance along with free WiFi). Hotels aren't much better.
  • David Weinberger's Everything is Miscellaneous: I've been saving this for the trip when I hope to finally have the quiet time to dive into one of my favorite writer's look at tagging, taxonomies, and the changing landscape of human manipulation and organization of information.
  • 1GB green iPod Shuffle: tucked away in the bottom of the bag, this is one of my wife's Mother's Day presents (along with a bouquet of fresh irises being delivered to our hotel and some confectionary goodness). This new unit will replace her current 512MB version one Shuffle which goes to my son. Sshh... it's a surprise so don't tell her. ;^)
That's the kit, all stuffed into my Oakley AP Sandbag. A bit more of a load than I usually carry but I'm confident we'll be well entertained during our travels.
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