Carry-on Cosmetic Solution: Travelon Travel Sheets

The number of solutions out there to deal with carry-on luggage restrictions for airlines is getting better all the time and I've got a few in the hopper to review in the coming month. (Already done, the 3-1-1 Travel Bag.) Lots of points for originality though with these travel sheets from Travelon. Liquid? We don't need no stinkin' liquid!

These are little sheets that come out of a dispenser and then when you add water, they lather up to fill a cosmetic need of your choice. Do your sink laundry. Shave. Shampoo your hair. All without worrying about how many ounces your bottles hold because there aren't any ounces of anything.

Yeah, it sounds a little wacky, but they work surprisingly well. The shampoo takes a little forethought since your fingers need to be dry when you take out the sheets---otherwise you could ruin the whole pack. Add water and lather up though and it works like regular shampoo. The shaving cream worked even better, giving me a better shave than I get from conventional shaving cream and definitely better than what I get from the dollar store travel razor I've used before.

I wish these sink laundry sheets had been around when I was a long-term backpacker. Besides the airline advantages, these are a lot easier and lighter to carry around than packets of powdered detergent or a bottle of liquid. You get 50 sheets in a pack for around $7.

In summary, they're compact, light, relatively cheap, and a breeze to take through airports. Apart from the initial wierdness factor, there is little to fault with these travel sheets. Go get some at your favorite gear or luggage store or at Amazon. For more info, see the Travelon site.

Whoomp! There it is

Sorry, couldn't resist the song reference for this device since it helps your mobile music sound better. I'm talking about the Whoomp! earbud enhancers. (They insist on putting an explanation mark in the trademarked name, to the sure consternation of picky editors everywhere.)

If you're one of the few people that didn't already have an MP3 player of some sort and you got one under the tree or in your stocking, you've probably already noticed that the earphones they came with aren't so hot. Sure, they'll do since you're probably not willing to pay a hundred dollars or more for really good ones, but they seldom deliver auditory bliss. Blame it on cheap manufacturing, a bad ear cavity fit, or bass leakage, but the sound is generally just so-so.

These Whoomp earbud enhancers are a novel solution. They fit over the earphones that came with your player and dramatically enhance the sound by extending it into a soft foam bud that goes further into your ear canal. I know, this is a recipe for future hearing problems if you're the kind who cranks it up to 11 and we can hear you across the room. For those who keep things below the ear-splitting level though, these enhancers make your normal little earbuds sound fantastic. The bass really thumps, the vocals are really rich, and you can hear the whole mix clearly. When I listened to one track before and after style, there were sounds coming through the Whoomp enhancers that weren't even there with the iPod earbuds alone.

You have to judge whether that enhancement itself is worth $19.95 because if someone just dropped these two little bits of plastic and foam in your hand, you'd probably say, "20 bucks for this?!?" Maybe the price will come down once they're in every Best Buy or Target. For now they're kind of hard to find, though you can get the Whoomp earbud enhancers at Amazon (via a third party).

The verdict though is that these things allow your music to reach its full potential. They make your compressed MP3s played through crappy earbuds sound like CD tracks played through real headphones. Nice.

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BodyGuardz Skin for iPod Classic

A while back I got a sample of these strange iPod skins from BodyGuardz and was a little apprehensive. My simple slip-on skin I'd gotten from a dollar store had been treating me just fine and while this film skin would allow my iPod to go au natural and still be protected, the whole idea of it scared me.

BodyGuardz are "made from the same material that is used to protect the front of automobiles," which sounds impressive until you realize that car manufacturers don't hand you a template, a set of instructions, and a spray bottle to protect the front of your car. The BodyGuardz box comes with two sets of skins for front and back (one's a spare), a spray fluid bottle, a little plastic squeegee, and lots of demanding instructions to make you wonder if you really want to use this on a $250 piece of machinery:

"DO NOT SPRAY YOUR DEVICE"
"Once the adhesive is contaminated with dirt it cannot be cleaned!"
"Do not push too hard. You do not want to stretch or scratch the film's surface."
"Make sure to squeegee out all the moisture and soap!"
"Do not remove the film after it has set for a period of greater than 10 minutes."
"Go slow until you are more experienced."

More experienced? Am I applying for a job here? Yes, it is feels like the first day at a new job applying this film and it's not something to be done while inebriated or multitasking. Or outdoors: "Wind and dirt are your enemies." But hey, at least they filmed a YouTube video you can watch to see how it's done.

It's the end result that matters though and despite my anxiety---and instructions that made me feel like a demanding boss was watching---I got it done and it's beautiful. My iPod is back to being white instead of blue and this guard doesn't collect dust and dirt the way my cheap skin did. The screen looks better for video too since the film goes directly onto the screen. It's hard to even tell the thing is there, which is kinda the point. No extra stuff.

I worried that I would be stuck with this thing for life should I change my mind, but the company says you can remove it with no residue left behind.

Besides the BodyGuardz for iPod, they also come in pre-cut models for the other iPod models, the Palm Treo, portable game players from Sony or Nintendo, and more. At a list price of $25, these things may have the fattest margins of anything I've ever reviewed here, but that's space-age tech for you I guess. If you want to protect your gadget with something that's barely there, this is the ticket.

Get the iPod Bodyguardz at J and R

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Impressive Netgear WiFi Phone for Skype

I plow through a lot of travel gear that is fine for what it does, but not groundbreaking. This Netgear WiFi Phone is a different story. It has the potential to revolutionize communication for travelers and get rid of much of the frustration and expense of making phone calls home from abroad.

This little gizmo is the size of a cell phone and it works wherever you have an unsecured WiFi connection (or a secured one where you know how to log in). You set it up once by syncing it up with your Skype account, then after that your contacts load automatically every time you turn it on. The interface looks pretty much like it does on your computer, so there's almost no learning curve. You just plop down in a coffee shop and start calling Costa Rica or Bali for a few cents a minute with SkypeOut, or free if the other person is on Skype at the same time.

The implications of this are huge for a long-term traveler or international business road warrior. Instead of paying your damn cell phone company two bucks a minute or fiddling around with different SIM cards on different continents, you can make hours of calls from any open hotspot for the price of a latte or two. At around $150, this baby isn't cheap, but it wouldn't take long to pay for itself, especially if you are going on a long-term trip and can ditch the cell phone contract altogether.

This WiFi phone also frees you up from the computer, which is also a big deal. It turns on and finds a network in less than 30 seconds, compared to the boot-up time you have to endure with a laptop. You make phone calls just like you would from a normal phone, so you don't look like a nerd with a phone cord sticking out of your computer. It just looks like you're talking on a cell phone.

One bonus use I discovered with this is that you could also use this Netgear phone as a makeshift WiFi sniffer. If there's no open signal, the phone won't connect to Skype. So you know before turning on a laptop to check e-mail that the spot you're in is either a paid hotspot or the signal is weak.

The only gripe I have is the cradle. Fine if you're just using this at home to cut down on your phone bill, but not very travel-friendly. Hopefully there's some kind of adapter out there that would allow you to charge this with just a cord. Otherwise, highly recommended!

Get the Netgear WiFi Phone at the Skype Store.
Read more about it at the Netgear site.

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Microfiber Compression Socks for a Long Flight

I never used to take this foot swelling, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) thing too seriously until one time when I wore a pair of Skechers velcro wraparound sandals on the plane and my ankles hurt for a week afterward from bruising. My feet had swelled up a size or two but the straps hadn't.

So I don't do that anymore and I make sure I keep my legs and feet moving around. Not easy to do when you're on a long coach flight across an ocean though, which is where these compression socks from Ames Walker come in. To reduce the risk of blood clots, these socks decrease pressure from the ankle to the knee, keeping blood from pooling and forcing it to the leg's deep veins. They improve circulation and reduce swelling by applying more pressure at the bottom than the top.

I haven't taken these on a flight yet, but definitely will on my next long one. I did wear them around for an afternoon and although I looked like a Miami retiree when I put them on, nobody was the wiser when I had pants on. They did feel very different than normal socks and I got the sensation like I was getting a bit of a massage.

So if you're going on a long flight and aren't fortunate enough to score business class, these microfiber compression socks can help you avoid "economy class syndrome." Although the elderly and those with circulation problems are most at risk for DVT, plenty of younger people in good health have gotten clots as well. Be safe on that long haul flight to distant lands, or buy these for a friend or relative who takes business trips a lot. They list for $17 to $20 usually, but are often marked down quite a bit from that. Buy them direct at Ames Walker or get them at Amazon.

Impressive EZdrive USB Hub from Ridata

So there you are in an Internet cafe on the other side of the world somewhere and there's one USB port on the front of the computer you're using. Meanwhile, you've got a thumb drive to get files from, an iPod to charge up, and a Skype phone you were hoping to use to get in touch with Mom. No problem if you've got this nifty Yego EZdrive USB hub.

Here's how it works. You plug it into the USB port just like you would any other jump drive and the one I tested holds 1 gigabyte: plenty for the average traveler or road warrior not trying to carry their whole video or photo collection. (For that, get a travel hard drive.) You can get one from 128 MB to 8 gigabytes. Here's the key selling point though: those two two prongs of the Y at the top are two more USB ports. When I first saw this I figured they were just clone ports, as in you would be able to charge things or grab data, but that the whole shebang would show up as one drive. No, it gets much better than that.

Each prong of this EZdrive shows up as a separate drive on your computer and each one functions independently. What that means is, you can do anything through a prong of this that you can do with a direct USB port on the computer. In one of my tests I upgraded the software on my iPod and added songs while I saved documents to the drive itself and pulled other documents off a separate thumb drive on one of the prongs. I then disconnected the second thumb drive, plugged in my Skype phone, and made a call. Each port lights up as you use it. Sweet!

There's a two year warranty and in my tests it worked flawlessly as a plug-and-play item on two different operating systems. You can use it on a Mac or on Windows from 98 to Vista. For only $14 to $20 for the 1GB version, this Yego EZdrive is a screaming good value. Heck, buy two or three: you can daisy chain them together and open up even more slots. If there's a traveler on your list, this would make a mighty nice stocking stuffer or birthday gift.


Search Yego prices at Shopzilla


Get the 4GB version at Amazon

Ridata Yego 2GB USB Drive 2 Ports Ridata Yego 2GB USB Drive 2 Ports

A Tiny Portable Hard Drive from Western Digital

I am holding in my hand a thin, lightweight chunk of plastic that is about the size of a standard photograph. Only one cord connects it to my computer: the one leading to the USB port--no other power source. The one clue that it's a hard drive is the slight vibration I'm feeling.

It's a portable hard drive though, one capable of holding more data than I have on the laptop it's connected to: 120 gigabytes. In fact, this quarter-pound package that's 5.11 inches by 3.14 inches holds more data than I have stored on my home PC, my laptop, and my iPod combined.

To put it in perspective, this little WD Passport portable hard drive, which comes in five colors, holds up to 34,000 photos or 9 hours of video or 30,000 songs. It would hold everything I've ever written in my life added to everything I'm going to write in the next 30 years.

This is the middle ground model though. These handy portable hard drives start at 60 GB (more than your average laptop) and go up to 250 GB, which should be ample for any National Geographic photographer on assignment.

Which brings me to why you would want or need something like this. The first is for a form of insurance. You back up everything you have to here and put it in a safe place, as a safety measure. On the road you back up your photos to here and put them in a different pack than your computer and camera. If you're a writer or musician or just somebody with a lot of music, this keeps you from being up the creek if your laptop gets stolen. (And according to Lojack, a laptop is stolen every 53 seconds, with only 3 percent of those getting recovered.)

The other reason is to keep you from having to travel with a laptop to start with. A regular USB thumb drive holds a lot, but this baby would hold everything you could possibly need--the entire contents of your desktop. But it is still small enough to fit into a jacket pocket. It has synchronization software on it, so you could take along all your bookmarks and secure docs, confident that you can plug into a public computer somewhere and have what you need at your fingertips.

How does it perform? Well, it did take an hour to transfer 3.5 GB of photos (partly due to my older USB port I'm sure) and it's going to take some work to figure out how to make the thing synchronize anything besides "My Documents." Otherwise it stays cooler than I expected and it is whisper quiet. And hey, it's not even made in China: the Thais put this together.

The Western Digital Passport portable hard drive comes in glossy black, glossy white, metallic red, or "vibrant green." If you want the carrying case, that's either an extra $20 or free depending on where you make your purchase, but the hard drive is rugged enough that it should be fine without it with normal use. Prices range wildly between $80 and $110 for the 120 GB version and go up to around $200 for the Passport External 250GB Hard Drive. Check prices here:

Amazon
J&R Music World
Shopzilla

Carry-on Cosmetic Solution: 3-1-1 Travel Bag

Back in August of last year, I lamented that the United States of Advertising was collectively doing a terrible job of coming up with market-friendly solutions to this whole TSA airport security fiasco. Where were the ingenuity and market solutions for those of us who want to pack light, carry on our luggage, and still look suave the next morning?

Finally, over a year later, we are seeing real solutions hitting the market and the TSA itself finally seems to have realized that being a product placement spokesperson for Ziploc bags doesn't do wonders for their trustworthiness factor. Exhibit one: the 3-1-1 Travel Bag. I'm starting with this one not just because it's a great solution, but also because any company savvy enough to grab the domain name www.311TravelBag.com gets kudos in my book.

The concept is not radical. You put some reusable bottles in a clear plastic bag and sell it as a solution to our airport woes. This item gets extra credit for doing it right though.

1) It's the right one quart size. 2) The bottles are sleek and stylish, not like something cheap you picked up at Rite-Aid. 3) The capacity is marked on the bottles (a flimsy sticker though--something more permanent would save some later arguments in the security line). 4) There are five or six different vacuum dispenser bottles (depending on model), one ounce and 1.75 ounces. 5) The package comes with stickers to label things, like "shampoo" or "hair gel."

Despite all this, you probably won't find this at your local travel gear store, beauty store, or online retailer. For now anyway you have to order it direct and pay for shipping at the Clear Bag System site. There are three versions, from $25 to $40, and the higher end versions add small jars to the pump dispensers. For $2.50 extra, they'll gift wrap it for your road warrior friend.

After the run-ins I've had with the TSA folks over the past year and a half over similar packaging, I still wouldn't pack any really expensive cosmetics inside one of these, but as long as your luck holds out you should be fine. Of course flights outside the U.S. are smoother sailing (unless you're going to Israel).

Carry a Laptop and SLR Camera with Lowepro Daypack

For a long while I've been using a daypack as my laptop case to stay incognito while traveling. This CompuDaypack from Lowepro goes triple duty with three compartments, adding on a bottom section for a digital SLR camera with the extras.

The back section holds a laptop (up to a 17-inch screen) and a middle compartment holds personal accessories and cables. It has all kinds of pockets, including ones meant for CDs, pens, and business cards. There's a front pocket meant for an MP3 player: you thread the earbud wire through the headphone port and listen to your tunes with the backpack on.

Of course this is more for hobbyist photographers than pros making a living at it. The lower compartment is meant for a digital SLR with lens attached, but up to a 105mm f/2.8, plus 2-3 other lenses or flash units. Naturally there's lots of padding to keep your gear snug and protected.

One thing I especially like about this bag is the handle at the top. More times than I can count, I end up carrying mine that way because I have something else slung over my shoulder, so it's a nice touch. At around a hundred bucks, this is certainly not a bottom-level pack. The back of it is cushioned and although it's really lightweight, this Lowepro daypack feels really rugged and well-made.

The photos here are the burnt orange and black model, but it also comes in black with green or slate gray. Find it at your local photo store or online here:

Get the Lowepro CompuDaypack at Amazon.
Get the CompuDayPack at eBags.

Super-light Travel Jacket from GoLite

I've written before about the importance of carrying a jacket in your pack, even if you're heading to Southeast Asia or Central America. It can get cool and rainy at any latitude, especially in the highlands or the desert. You don't want a travel jacket to take up much room though, which is where something like the GoLite Ether wind jacket comes in.

Weighing a mere 3.5 ounces, this wispy and comfortable jacket stuffs down inside its own pocket that's part of the jacket and then only takes up about as much space as one pair of socks. After it folds into itself there's a handy loop on the outside too, so you could hook it to a clip on some hiking shorts when on the move.

In my tests it repelled water well in a sprinkling rain and was a worthwhile windbreaker. There are a few sacrifices to keep the weight down--like only one pocket--but there is an adjustable hood and elastic to keep the sleeves around your wrist.

This GoLite Ether wind jacket is half the weight of the Sierra Designs one I got from REI, but does that make it worth twice as much money? The other one is under $30 for 7 ounces, while this one lists for $70 for 3.5 ounces. They're both made in China from 100 percent polyester, so you're basically paying a premium for the patented coating, lighter fabric, and a smaller package. If you're a runner, cyclist, backcountry hiker, or just someone with the money to keep everything as light as possible, go for it. Or if this doesn't feel like a splurge for a soon-to-depart traveler on your gift list, they will be impressed with your thoughtful gift.

This travel jacket seems to go in and out of stock at the online retailers like Backcountry.com, so try the buy links at the GoLite site if you want one of these and can't find it locally.


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Myvu Movie Viewer Glasses - Universal Edition

For the friend or relative who already has every other tech gadget out there, here's an idea: the Myvu personal video viewing glasses. The user plugs in a portable video device and then kicks back for an experience akin to watching a 27-inch TV in a living room.

I usually flip through the SkyMall catalog on the plane in about five minutes, most of what's in there seeming like more crap to fill our already overstuffed houses. I've always stopped and checked out these myvu glasses though, so when someone got in touch offering to send me a sample to check out, I jumped on it. What could be cooler than "big-screen viewing on-the-go"? That's the promise anyway. Reality is a little less exciting.

For this to work, you have to willfully trick your brain into believing you are watching a big screen, not a little postage stamp screen that's right in front of your eyes. This would be easier if the glasses didn't also let you see what is above and below them at the same time. It would also be easier if the resolution were on par with a computer monitor (or better), not the 320 X 240 this puts out. Still, if I tried, I could momentarily imagine myself in a theater, watching a screen nowhere close to my face.

I only tested this out with an iPod as their "universal edition" version is only compatible with iPod, Zune, Archos, and certain portable DVD players. I wanted to try out the widescreen mode by hooking it to my Sony PSP, but no go. In my tests, the brightness and contrast controls on the pendant were just for show--they had no effect whatsoever during the three iTunes downloaded shows I watched. Maybe with the other players it's a different story. The display was a little washed out, though it did look better when I tried it in darkness. The sound quality, on the other hand, was quite good and definitely better than the basic ear buds that come with most music players.

The Myvu universal edition comes with a variety of plugs, the charge/power pendant (which will run up to four hours), different nose bridge pieces to make it fit best, and a pouch to keep it all in. There are maddeningly few instructions--just two pages of mostly pictures--and no place to turn to for more on the website. The battery charges via a USB cable unless you have some kind of additional charger (like the Naztech 3-in-1) that works with a mini USB hub.

This item debuted in 2006 at close to $400 and only worked with the iPod. Now it's $199 and works with a variety of players, so it's a far better value. Until someone invents something that truly makes you feel like you're in an IMAX theater, this is the best option for giving your tiny handheld screen an upgrade. If you don't mind looking like a geek from the future, this would be worth taking along for those inevitable airport delays--or to give as a gift to your frequent flyer friend. I was distracted by the fact I could still see what was going on around me, but I suppose that's a good thing if you're watching to see when your flight starts boarding, or when you have arrived at the right bus or subway stop.

Click here to check prices:
MyVu MA0483 Universal Edition Personal Media Viewer

Get the Myvu at Amazon

Naztech 3-in-1 Mobile Charger

If you have a Blackberry, Razr, Pearl, Curve, or any other electronic gizmo that uses a mini USB to charge, this 3-in-1 mobile charger from Naztech is a terrific item to carry in your travels.

The charger has an AC adapter for wall outlets, a DC adapter for car receptacles, and a USB cable to charge through computers. So basically if you're near a power source, you're set. If outlets are scarce, as in the airport, you could work on your laptop and charge your phone through your computer's USB port. Or charge away when in the rental car with the same device. Only one thing to carry. It works with 120 and 240 current, so you can use it in both the Americas and Europe.

It has a long, well-made power cord and a LED that lights up when plugged in. The compact case makes it easy to shove in any bag. It even comes with a little carrying case pouch so people won't see it in your hand and think it's an, um, personal stimulation device.

The main drawback is that the clamshell packaging it comes in will cause you to curse repeatedly and probably slice a finger if you're not careful, so have some heavy duty scissors ready after you bring this home. Get it for $9.99 at Amazon or check free shipping deals at Buy.com.

Fresh Coffee to Go from REI Mug

Performing like a simplified version of the French Press, this 12-ounce REI branded vacuum mug results in some great-tasting coffee. The sheer simplicity of it makes me wonder why nobody else got this product out earlier. You just spoon course coffee grounds directly into the aluminum mug, pour hot water into it, and screw on the filter lip.

That's how you drink it, but screwing on the additional top cap keeps the thing sealed up completely and it then functions as a thermos. In my tests the coffee stayed very hot for over five hours in a cold car---impressive. That heat-retaining ability can be a curse though if you're just looking to fill it up and hop into your car for a commute. If you put in boiling water it's going to stay lip-burning for quite a while unless you take the filter top off and let it air out for a while. The mug itself stays amazingly cool to the touch though; you can't tell from feel whether there's anything hot inside or not.

Cleaning this travel mug and coffee maker is easy. There are no filters and no parts besides the three you see here.

This is more of an item for campers or backcountry skiers than it is for regular travelers, but it would be a great gift for someone heading off to a region where good coffee is hard to find (like most parts of Asia). The $25 price tag seems a bit steep for a Chinese-made bit of aluminum, screen, and plastic, but considering the almost magical insulation properties, it's not an item easily duplicated by knock-offs.

Get the REI Vacuum Infuser Mug.

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All Terrain Money Belt from Eagle Creek

If you want to keep your money from falling into the sticky hands of a thief while traveling, the best bet is to keep your cash where it can't be grabbed. For 16 years I've been using some kind of money belt from Eagle Creek to do that and so far the most I've ever lost to a pickpocket is 80 rupees. (A shade over $2.)

This isn't what you want to be digging in and out of while you're shopping in the market. Instead think of it as the place where you keep your back-up cash you don't need to have handy. I've walked around for weeks with $500 in one of these belts and nobody has been the wiser. You wouldn't know that there's a secret pocket on the back unless you saw the other side of the belt when it's not being worn.

The All Terrain Belt is naturally a double-duty item: it's a real belt after all. It holds your pants or shorts up as well as any other and this particular one dispenses with belt loops so it'll keep fitting well while you shed pounds backpacking around the world. One more bonus: there's no metal on it except the zipper. You can usually go through airport security without taking it off.

The Eagle Creek All Terrain Money belt is available for $15 at Magellan's, REI.com, and at EagleCreek.com.

If you travel more on business, you can also get a nicer looking leather one from $15 to $25 at BeltOutlet.com: Leather Money Belt by Austin House

Plane Comfort Pac'nNap Flight Kit

We all know that flying in coach is far from comfortable these days. Flights are packed, but at the same time the budget ethos has spread to the likes of American and United. Your chances of getting a pillow and blanket, even for an international flight, are iffy. Then when you do get these items, how clean are they? Airlines usually give some vague dodgy answer when asked how often their blankets are laundered, but with cost cuts so rampant, you can bet it's not very often.

So if you plan to catch a nap on the plane, bring your own accessories. I tried out this Pac-n-Nap kit from Planecomfort and it offers a good way to get comfortable without carrying too much. It's about the length and width of a piece of copy paper, and about three fingers thick when repacked. Inside there's a 50" x 60" fleece blanket (five feet long!), inflatable pillow, fleece topped pillowcase, zippered storage pocket, and reusable totebag. You blow up the pillow, put it inside the pillowcase, and you're good to go. That pillowcase is actually the bag it comes in -- the inside of the bag is fleece -- which shows that the designers have done their best to keep the package compact. There's a handy outside pocket on the bag too, good for keeping your phone and boarding pass in, plus there's a detachable shoulder strap for carrying it.

Yesterday a magazine writer interviewed me about avoiding stress in the airport when flying and this item could definitely help in that department. If your flight gets delayed, which it probably will this winter if you're flying through a Northeast hub, you could whip out this Pac'nNap kit and be far more comfortable for those extra hours than the other passengers around you.

Plane Comfort's Pac'nNap is available at some luggage shops or direct from the company at PlaneComfort.net. Order from them before January 5 and there's no shipping charge. The regular black, red, or navy model is $30, a shocking pink one with zebra print or polka dot accents is $40. The latter includes a luggage finder strap to put around the handle of checked luggage.

2 Too Cool Map Products

Sure Google Earth and GPS devices have their place, but sometimes you want to be unplugged. There's a lot of value in a local map you can just pull out of your pocket or bag.

The traditional map makers aren't leaving innovation to the pixel programmers though. I just got samples of two cool new map products that I can't wait to use on a future trip.

fabMaps
The first is from good ole Rand McNally and is called the fabMap. Mine is especially fab because it's a map of South Beach, Miami--and because it's made of cloth! Yes, it's a regular looking, useful map, but printed in color on cloth that's stitched on the side. That mean you can stuff it in your pocket, smash it into your purse, or get it wet at the beach. You can clean your sunglasses with it too, so there's your ruse if you want to look at it without appearing to be a clueless tourist.

The map has everything you'd expect from Rand McNally: streets, points of interest, hotels, and a distance scale marker. On the back of this South Beach map is a detail of Lincoln Road Mall, one of Espanola Way, and a symbol key. Other fabMaps are currently available for 15 popular tourist spots in the US, with more on the way. Right now that includes places like the French Quarter of New Orleans, the Theater District of Manhattan, the Las Vegas Strip, and the Fisherman's Wharf area of San Francisco. At only $5.95, this would be a great stocking stuffer.

City Walks and Village Walks
Chronicle Books has put out a series of maps arranged as walking tour cards in a box. You pull out the card you want and go take a hike. Arranged as City Hikes and Village Hikes, the boxes are smaller than a mass paperback book and contain "50 adventures on foot."

I got my hands on two of them: City Walks with Kids - New York and Village Walks - Provence and the Cote d'Azur.

I worked in Manhattan for a few years, so I already knew most of the areas in the New York with kids one. I just wish I had been able to take this box with me when we took our daughter there last year. One side of each card has an illustrated map, the other side has a few paragraphs of text. The cards point out all the kid-focused things in an area (including playground stops) and restaurants with food the little ones will like. Some of the cards focus on a neighborhood walk and others focus on one attraction, such as the New York City Fire Museum.

If you're going to be somewhere more than a half hour, it's probably best to group two or three of these together to have enough to do outside of mealtimes. That's easy to do though: they are in order from the bottom tip of Manhattan up to the Bronx, with the last seven hitting Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. All cards show how to get there by subway or bus and have stops marked on the map.

I haven't been to the the area covered by the French village walks set, but these cards are in a similar format, with a more traditional looking map on one side and text geared to patient adults on the other. There's a lot of dawdling built into the assumption on the itineraries though, so some look as if they would only take about 10 minutes to complete. It would pay to walk out the door with all three or four covering sightseeing walks in Nice or Avignon if it's not lunchtime or whatever they call happy hour in France. These cards would be a great companion in your pocket though as so many buildings or sights noted would be easily passed by on a normal stroll--unless you had your nose buried in a guidebook. Since these are lighter and easier to carry, they would allow you to walk with a lighter load.

The City Walks map cards sell for $14.95 and would be a thoughtful gift for a traveler or even a local resident of one of these regions. The City Walks with Kids series is also available for D.C., Paris, and San Francisco. The adult ones are also available for Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, D.C., New York, Toronto, Barcelona, Tuscany, Amsterdam, Rome, Paris, and Ireland. For info on these and future versions, search the Chronicle Books site.

Share Your Precious Outlet

When you're traveling with a laptop or mobile phone, there's the constant frustration of trying to find an outlet for recharging or using your equipment. This is especially annoying when you're in a Starbucks or airport where you're paying 10 bucks just to log onto the web. So spread the love when you find an outlet by using one of these Monster Outlets to Go.

With a compact, flat design, these outlet strips enable you to use your laptop, charge your phone, and still have one space to share with that guy walking around looking behind all the tables for an outlet. Or when you're in a cheap hotel room that is stingy with the outlets (or hides them behind heavy furniture), this will save some crawling and cursing.

The 3-outlet model I tried out is a mere 8.9 inches (22.6 cm) and it wraps around itself for easy packing. All the 3-prong outlets lie flat, so it's very compact and weighs about as much as your average cell phone. The packaging says there's a resettable circuit breaker in case of a surge, but it must reset automatically as I couldn't find a button anywhere.

The model with three outlets lists for $14.95, with 4- and 5-outlet ones for a bit more.

Try your local electronics retailer or you can pick one up for about $12 at Amazon or at Buy.com.

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Altec Lansing Orbit 360 Travel MP3 Speaker

Most speaker systems that hook to your MP3 player are either too big to take with you in a suitcase or they're too cheap-sounding and flimsy to project outside a hotel bathroom. This Orbit 360 MP3 speaker from Altec Lansing thankfully occupies the middle ground. It's not without a few odd interaction annoyances, but overall it's a good choice for portable sound, on a budget, in a small package.

This is a single speaker, meaning you won't get the stereo effect, but the upside is that it is one good speaker instead of two halfway good ones. In my tests it easily filled a 15 by 15 foot room with sound--definitely good enough for your average hotel room or beach deck. The bass response was better than the usual tinny speakers in this price range, though naturally it performs better on music with lots of treble (like electronica, dance music, and salsa) than it does with thumping rap or heavy metal. There's definite distortion at high volume though. With my cheapo MP3 player I got to about 80 percent of max before it got distorted. On my iPod it started getting distorted at about 65 percent (due to the crappier iTunes compression probably). A portable CD player did best, at around 90 percent of potential volume, probably because the original sound source was better quality.

It uses three AAA batteries--not included--and so far I've run it about six hours on a set of rechargeables without it running down. Supposedly it will go up to 20 hours on a set of batteries if you're not cranking it.

The product designers did some things right but appear to have been smoking something when planning others. What they did right was make it so that the connecter cord winds into the speaker itself. They also included an adapter that makes it able to plug into pretty much any MP3 player and some mobile phones. This Orbit speaker may send your patience into orbit at first though: you actually have to use both hands and considerable force to get the battery cover off and back on. To turn the unit on, you don't just flip a switch. You actually have to put one hand on the bottom, one hand on the top, and crank it to one side. Then the reverse when you want to turn it off. Forget any ideas of quick mood enhancement by keeping this on the nightstand.

After you get used to the design quirks though, this is a solid but compact speaker that is worth the packing space. At a list price of $40 (and on sale for $30 at many online retailers), this is worth picking up for yourself or as a gift for a traveler.