CNET's "Worst Tech of 2006 (So Far)"

I often surf over to CNET to see which gadgets are worth their asking price and which ones are duds. Plopping down your money on an impulse gadget purchase before doing your homework is a sure way to find yourself annoyed when using it.

Tech reviewers are refreshingly frank about what gadgets are useless, annoying, confusing, or misleading in their claims. And they usually have a good sense of humor about it. Check out this Worst Tech of 2006 (So Far) list to see what I mean.

Here's my favorite quote:
"We couldn't measure this laptop's mobile performance because its battery life was well short of the 90 minutes that it takes to run the benchmark. But you can use it as long as you want while it's plugged in. Which is totally the purpose of owning a laptop. If you live in the magical realm of Electro-Outlet Land."

One Bag site

There are all kinds of books, articles, and web sites out there on how to pack for a business trip or a vacation. What it mostly boils down to, however, is that people take way too much stuff with them. They'll bop around the house an entire weekend with one pair of shorts and a t-shirt, but when it's time for a long weekend vacation, they suddenly feel they need to plan for every possible eventuality.

Here's an idea: go check out the web site One Bag. As you probably figured out, it's about packing in such a way that you only need one suitcase, one duffle bag, or one backpack. Airline workers do it, long-term backpackers do it, and road warrior business travelers do it. So can you. Figure out what you really need, only take a gadget if it's going to work hard for you, and leave the rest behind. Don't forget, anywhere in the world, there's this thing called "laundry service."

Cool Ipevo phone handset for Skype

I don't get too jazzed up about the latest phone technology, but this little Ipevo handset for Skype is about the coolest thing imaginable. It plays into my thrifty side, while being easy to use as well. You just download the driver, plug it into your USB port, and you're calling around the world for nothing or next to nothing. If you already have Skype, you use it to call other users on your list or use SkypeOut to call anyone else for about two pennies a minute, no monthly charges. If you don't have Skype, what's wrong with you? You can make and receive calls to ordinary phones with your computer. www.skype.com

Before, I'll admit, it was a bit of a pain. You had to buy a headset and figure out how to hook it up right. If you used that in public you would look like some call center worker who got waylaid at the coffee shop. With this little phone though, you can talk away at any hotspot and look gadget-savvy instead of goofy.

If you're staying far away from home, where your cell phone doesn't work or is too expensive, just log on and start gabbing. I gave it a test run this morning and while Skype won't win any awards for perfect phone clarity, it's generally as good as the average cell phone call and you can't beat the price! Check out the Ipevo phone here.

Why I like my cheap MP3 player

I have a portable music player and it's not an iPod. Wierd eh? I walk around all day seeing people wearing identical earbuds and scrolling through their identical players. The playlists and case colors are different, but everyone is hooked up to big brother Jobs.

Not me. I laid out a whopping $60 about a year and a half ago for a no-name MP3 player with 512 megabytes of memory. It's not much I guess--only about 120 songs--but on my last 3-week trip I still only got through it all twice. When I got back, I switched out the songs, and I had a fresh mix to go. Meanwhile, the thing also functions as a jump drive, so I carried a few key documents with me as well. It doesn't have to be plugged into a USB port to recharge--it just uses a single AAA battery. I use rechargeables, but in a pinch you can always find a AAA battery for sale in even the most backwater market. In other words, you don't have to be tethered to a computer to keep the juice flowing. Simple, low-tech, and ready for any trip.

Also, I can download MP3s from anywhere and be good to go: I don't have to convert them into a proprietary format. The songs my wife downloads from iTunes for her iPod have to be burned to a CD first to become usable on anything else. I get scads of music from eMusic each month, so I'm always getting plenty of fresh tunes for a reasonable price. It's small too--about the size of a fat pack of gum.

There are drawbacks of course. Some of the cheapies don't have control over the playlists, so you basically get one long song list. But hey, consider it an iPod shuffle with a song display. For under $60 now--the price of about four CDs--you can't go wrong.

Do you like to discover interesting new music, but don't want to pay a buck a song for it? You can still be legal here:

25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!

Adapter Plugs for Laptops and Travel Gear

If you're traveling abroad with a laptop or something else that needs to be plugged into a socket or recharged, how do you figure out what kindo of plug you need--and get it?

Several travel gadget stores sell bundles of adapters you can take along with you. I got one of these for a round-the-world trip I was taking once and it worked well since I was going from country to country. But this summer I'm just going to Argentina and then coming home. So I only need one thing.

One handy resource is the Electrical Wizard from
Magellan's. You just go to the adapter page, plug in the info on your gear and where you're going, and they pull up the right things for you to put in your cart. While you're there you can buy a surge protector for safety's sake and then figure what else you need for when you're not plugged in. (Which will hopefully be MOST of the time!)