Power to Go from Chargepod Fueltank

I’ve long been a fan of the Callpod Chargepod, a device that allows me to leave a whole collection of chargers and cords at home. (God forbid the electronics companies can manufacture standardized connectors for the simple task of delivering A/C power to a battery.) You just pack the mini hockey puck, one cord, and the little adapters for each device. Then you can recharge everything simultaneously with just one plug.

This new Fueltank item from Callpod is similarly cool, but it solves a different problem: not having the time or the ability to recharge your devices while you’re on the go. For business travelers moving from place to place, it provides a round of charges when and where they need them: on a plane, in a foreign country, in the back seat of a car—whatever.

It’s essentially a battery pack that you charge up from your wall socket, then you take it along with you, armed only with the connector tips for your particular devices. You you can get charged back up several times over without ever plugging in or crawling around an airport floor searching for an outlet. For a trip that’s only going to last a few days to a week, this is all you need to take and you can even charge two devices at once.

...continue to the full Callpod Fueltank review

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Which Noise-canceling Headphones Really Rock?

"How do you like those headphones?" I will ask the biz travel road warrior beside me on the plane. "Aww man, they're the Bose ones. So they're awesome." This exchange has become a private joke for my own amusement. If you paid $300 for something that others have bought for $100, it simply has to be awesome, right? Otherwise you were duped.

But of course when I probe further, none of these travelers I have sat beside has ever tried another alternative. They've got no comparison. So I was happy to see a scientific review of noise-canceling headphones in Consumer Reports a couple months ago. Do the Bose headphones really rock? Are they three times better than the alternatives?

Well, yes and no. Out of five models, the Bose ones came in second, above the Sony ones ($90), a PXC-250 sister model to the Sennheiser ones I use regularly ($60 at Amazon), and the Koss QZ77 model ($38 at Amazon). But the top pick was the Panasonic RP-HC55, which has small in-ear buds and retails for $60. For those who are good at doing math in their head, the #1 choice was 1/5 the price of the #2 choice. (Hey, all that Bose marketing is expensive!)

The beauty of the Consumer Reports study is that they did what none of us reviewers and bloggers can manage: scientific analysis. They actually went into a lab and measured which ones did the best job of canceling noise and which ones reproduced sound most accurately. Ten headphones entered, but five were sent home.

The remaining five were all recommended, which means you can do okay for $50 or great for $60 to $300. The Panasonic RP-HC55 model tied with the Koss QZ77 for tops in noise reduction. The Panasonic, Sennheiser, and Bose ones tied for Sound Quality.

I can't link to results because the Consumer Reports website is subscription only. (They don't run ads, so it's only fair.) But here's the lesson: don't believe the hype. Something expensive may be good, but just because it's the most expensive doesn't mean it's the best.


Get the Sennheiser model
Get the Koss earbuds
Bose QuietComfort 2
Panasonic

Standardized Cell Phone Chargers? Pinch Me I'm Dreaming!

On this travel gear blog I have bitched and moaned plenty about the lack of standardization with chargers for electronics, especially when I posted a review of something like the iGo charger or Callpod Chargepod. While these are both fine items I am happy to recommend, it's kind of sad that we need them. Why do three phones require three chargers anyway? It's just stupid. All those chargers do is transmit electricity, so the only reason to have a proprietary connector is to lock in your customers, annoy them, and make it harder for them to travel.

Either someone has been listening to people like me or the executives at these companies are finally realizing they are at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to helping preserve the environment. I was shocked and elated to see this small headline in USA Today: "Standardized Phone Chargers Coming. "

Here's the full scoop on the announcement from the International Herald Tribune. It is filled with depressing factoids like these:

- Cast-off chargers generate more than 51,000 metric tons of waste a year

- Every 20 months, 48 million to 51 million mobile phone chargers become obsolete.

- The GSM Association...calculated a reduction of 13.6 million to 21.8 million metric tons a year in greenhouse gases from making and shipping replacement chargers.

So they are waiting until 2012 to make this happen because....?

See solutions online at iGo.com

A Jacket That Packs Some Heat

Baby it's cold outside! Bundling up in lots of layers is fine, but not so great when you need to move around a lot, say snowboarding or skiing. Each layer adds more bulk and less flexibility.

How about packing some heat?

I've been trying out a sample of a vest from Ardica Technologies that is definitely unique. The Ardica Moshi System provides your own private heater for up to 8 hours on the low setting, or three hours on high. Basically it's a thin battery-powered heater that goes in a flap resting against your back, between the shoulder blades. You recharge it before you go and then control it through a lighted insigna on your chest, Star Trek style. In my tests the heater made a major difference, keeping me toasty on long walks in sub-freezing weather. It's light enough and thin enough that it wasn't a nuisance either.

But wait, there's more! The system also has a USB plug that allows you to charge up your iPod while you are on the move. Unfortunately that plug is situated in a side pocket rather than the one close to your ears where there is a slot to put your earphones through. So you either listen or charge, but not both. However, you can also use it to charge your cell phone or anything that has either a USB plug or an adapter with one. Other commercial jackets on the way will probably have multiple linked batteries and charging ports situated differently.

This is no thrown-together piece of technology. You can thank the U.S. government for laying out the millions in research grant dollars it took to develop it all. You see, soldiers don't like to be cold either.

The only problem is, the marketing has gotten ahead of the actual availability. You can't buy it from the Ardica website, so apparently I'm special to have gotten this loaner. Mountain Hardwear is going to put out a jacket equipped to use the Ardica heating system, but not until the fall of '09. Assume this will add a chunk of change to the price of a jacket as well, anywhere from $150 to $200. (Yet as it stands now, there's only a one year warranty.) But hey, my wife would have gladly paid that last time we spent a long weekend skiing in the blustery cold.

Stay tuned...

Fashionable B100 Laptop Backpack from Pacsafe

With the Meshsafe B100 laptop backpack from Pacsafe, you can walk around town with the confidence that your valuables are secure.

I was just in Mexico City for 10 days and after having it drilled into my head that it was a dangerous city, I thought I should play it safe with the backpack holding my computer. I have a very small laptop from Fujitsu though, in a size that would now be called a netbook. So I don't need something really large like the Daysafe 200 (with removable "safe") that I reviewed this past summer.

This B100 is a lot slimmer and, I must say, quite a bit more striking. I fit right in with the hipsters at Condesa DF Hotel in Mexico City and with a glow strip on the side, the nutso drivers could see me crossing the street at night.

As with most Pacsafe products though, it's what's going on behind the scenes that sets them apart. Anybody can make a fashionable laptop bag, but can they make it slashproof, snatchproof, and tamperproof? No, I don't think so.

This laptop daypack really is all that, so you can waltz through a crowded market with no worries about someone slashing the bottom of your bag open. the heavy-duty zippers can be clamped shut with a hook. You can clip a hook to a piece of clothing for more security. Plus there's a cool outside pocket for your cell phone that has a hidden cinch strap under the flap. If someone just tries to yank the flap, they can't get to the phone. (This feature makes the strap look a little dorky because the phone is right by your head, but it's removable and at least this way you do hear the phone ring.)

It's not just tough fabric making the bag slashproof. There is stainless steel wire embedded in the shoulder straps and steel wire mesh between layers of fabric in the bag itself.

I also like the practical side of this bag. It has a squishy and comfortable handle on the top (which you can see in the top photo) so you can just carry the thing easily when your shoulder gets tired or you're carrying several bags. Plus when you set it on the ground, it sits there upright. It doesn't fall over. Two simple things, but they make your travel life much easier.

The Pacsafe B100 fits laptops up to 13 inches. It's got all the gizmo, gadget, and pen pockets you would expect, plus a zip-out water bottle holder on one side and an umbrella holder on the other. Its slim profile means you can't stuff it with five books and a wad of magazines. but you can easily fit in enough to get you through a couple flights or a day of sightseeing. See the full specs at the Pacsafe site.


Check prices for Pacsafe at laptop backpacks at eBags.com

Casio Super-zoom EX-FH20 Review

I've been using this Casio Exilim Super-zoom camera throughout Peru and Mexico City, but it has taken me a while to get a review together because it's hard to boil down all this thing can do into a few paragraphs. I feel like this is the camera I've been looking for in order to get great photos in any situation, without having to be an SLR geek with a bag full of lenses.

First the bad news: it's as big and heavy as an SLR camera with one lens attached, so don't go thinking you'll save on weight or space. But the key thing is, you don't have to carry anything else. It has an incredible 20X optical zoom that works really well. I don't know how I'll go back to something less after this. I could stand anywhere and get a great shot of something far away, like a Peruvian highlands woman at a cattle market that was a good 100 yards away from me. This camera has lots of built-in software that's useful rather than gimmicky and one feature is image stabilization that really works. Unless you're shaking like a recovering alcoholic with the D.T's, you'll usually get a good shot even at full zoom if there's enough light.

There is also an image composition feature that works behind the scenes in low light. It figures out if you are using a tripod or not, then takes and blends multiple shots if you're not. So you end up with something like the vertical shot here in Arequipa---very cool!

All the Exilim cameras have Casio's "best shot" menu, which allows you to choose a specific situation from a menu such as "sports," "night portrait," or "scenery." Shutter speed, aperture, and even saturation are adjusted to fit. In my tests, this worked extremely well, to the point where I almost never bothered to use the manual override.

There are a few other unique features to this camera, including the ability to shoot video in high definition and the the ability to shoot 40 frames per second as still shots. The former I found to be too much of a memory hog to be useful (a gigabyte for just over a minute of video---and loads of fun to try to upload anywhere). The latter really came in handy though when I was watching Andean Condors soar by in the Colca Canyon of Peru. I was able to take a hundred action shots at a time and be sure I got a few good ones. See one of them below. There is also a facial recognition program that makes sure four or six faces in a group are all in focus.

All this cool technology takes some getting used to of course; it took me three weeks to figure out how to turn on the shutter delay timer. The manual doesn't make it easy since it's printed in just about every language but Swahili, three of these languages on each page. After you get the feel of the controls though, it's easy to make changes quickly on the fly as needed, adjusting for a cloudy day or flourescent light.



The viewfinder on this camera was what really got other people's attention when I was using it though. At 3 inches it's bigger than my iPod classic's screen and really allows you to size up whether your shot or video is a good one or not, even without using the zoom feature. My videos did come out well too: here's a sample I shot in Peru. There is also a (digital) viewfinder to look through at the top for when the light is too bright.

You can change the image size, shoot in RAW, and adjust all kinds of factors from shot to shot. So you have almost as much control as with an SLR, but in a more versatile package.

The Casio Exilim EX-FH20 uses four AA batteries and burns through rechargeables fairly quickly (90 to 130 shots in my tests) so you need to carry some spares. There's no way to recharge batteries while they are in the camera, so you'll need to buy a travel charger. If you're using disposable batteries, you might as well start your own private acidic landfill.

See the full specs of the EX-FH20 at the Casio site.

Get it at Amazon.

Search prices on Casio cameras

Parrot Minikit Chic for Hands-free Dialing

When you're driving in your car, talking on a cell phone can be distracting. When you start dialing numbers with your fingers while you are driving, you become downright hazardous.

In some states (and countries) you could get a hefty ticket for dialing while driving, in others it's just not very smart. Enter the Parrot Minikit Bluetooth device. With this clipped to your visor, you can dial away and chat away without ever touching your actual phone.

I normally shy away from the most geeky travel gadgets, but this one is truly practical. It also does exactly what it's supposed to do, without requiring hours consulting a manual. You just sync it up with your Bluetooth-capable phone (easy), clip it to your car visor, and start using it. When someone calls, you touch one button and start talking. Press the same button when you're done. The manual is only six pages long.

Here's the really cool part though: its software "reads" all the contacts in your phone and when you just say that person's name, the device dials it for you. On a four-hour road trip I made a series of calls with no hitches. When I first turned it on, the Minikit asked, "Who would you like to call?"

I replied, "Mom," A few seconds later, I was chatting away with my mother. I tried my wife, my dad, and a couple names--one being a rather odd foreign one that the Minikit nevertheless picked up on and dialed. You can specify which number to dial if you have more than one for that contact, such as "Paul mobile" or "Cindy home."

The only real drawback is the sound quality on the other end. Like most speaker phones, the device picks up a lot of extraneous car noise, so it's not as good as say, a Jawbone that has a built-in filter. The person talking to me sounded fine though.

The Parrot Minikit plugs into a car charger to recharge. The regular Minikit looks like a small science fiction spaceship model, but I tried out the Chic version, which lives up to its name. It's fashionable enough to get some, "What's THAT?" questions from passengers and is far more minimalist than most of these nerdy devices. There is no visible speaker: a vibrating panel of the device itself supplies the sound. It lists for $110, but goes for less at a lot of outlets. Very cool, very useful, and yes, practical.

Get it at Amazon

NGA's Best Gear of 2008

The current year-end issue of National Geographic Adventure has a "must-have" gear list for the best of 2008. Some of the items are well beyond the scope of a blog called "Practical" Travel Gear of course. I don't think I'll be trying out the $11,500 mountain bike, $6,900 watch, or $350 sunglasses anytime soon.

There are plenty of featured items though that are fairly affordable yet do what they do very well. I haven't personally laid hands on any of these, but I assume NGT gear reviewer Steve Casimiro has. Something tells me he's at the top of every gear company's mailing list.

Columbia Rapidfire Windshell - made of stronger-than-usual 20-denier nylon, water and wind resistant, but weighing only 4.5 ounces. At a list price of $80, this doesn't hit your wallet or your backpack very hard.

Hi-Tec V-lite Hornet HPi hiking boots - Could they make that name any longer? I've always viewed Hi-Tec boots as the cheapo choice, probably because I lived in Korea where they were made and you could buy them for a song in Itaewon. Apparently they have improved, as this model gets the nod for its innovative new moisture management system: some kind of plasma ion-mask that uses nanotechnology instead of the normal wicking membrane. Vibram tread and a 3/4 shank make it ready for any conditions and despite all the technology, list price is $115---not much above the norm.

KOR ONE Hydration Vessel - This gets featured for its cool-looking design and its BPA-free Tritan plastic. I like the fact it has a flip-open wide top so it's easy to fill and easy to purify (unlike the cool-looking but less practical Sigg bottles). Plus for this price, $30, you also get a rubberized base so it's not so slippery.

Nokia MD-8 - (picture below) OK, this is the one I'm really lusting over, to be honest. It's a "booming sound quality" iPod speaker set that blasts out tunes in stereo, yet fits in the palm of the hand. It runs for 40 hours on the batteries, has an FM tuner, and is a reasonable $50 list. Damn, too late for the Christmas list...

See a photo tour of the best gear items on National Geographic Adventure's site.

Fun Designer USB Drives from Mimobot

Almost all of the travel gear reviews I run on here are based on items I've tried out myself, but sometimes an item is just so perfect that I know I'd buy it immediately. When someone from SeekingDesigners.com contacted me about these cute Mimobots, they screamed out "cool stocking stuffer!"

Let's face it USB thumb drives are pretty much all the same if you go with the basic features. They get the job done and they're fine. But if you have someone on your list who likes to instill a little style in his or her workplace, one of these might be the ticket.

There are a variety of designs, some more feminine, some for those with a Star Wars fetish. (Besides the Storm Trooper one here, there's also a funny Chewbacca one and a not-so-scary Darth Vader.) Some are based on Japanese manga figures, so there's another obsessive type you can take care of.

They come in capacities from 1 to 8GB and are loaded with character-specific animation. See a quick sampling of Mimobots at the Seeking Designers site, where there's also some background on the artist.

To actually buy them though, you need to head over to the Mimoco site, where there's a whole slew of new ones posted on a regular basis. Most designs are $18 to $25 for the 1GB version and go up from there. Buy a few and you'll get a sizable discount.

Renting a Cell Phone for Travel

As I noted in this MSNBC article I wrote a while back, using your home cell phone when you travel can cost you a fortune: Traveling with your cell phone? Beware.

Most travelers have no idea how much they're getting dinged on every phone call and data kilobyte until a month later when they get a bill for hundreds of dollars. This is a huge profit center for the carriers---why do you think you see an AT&T full-page ad in every travel magazine saying "Works in 200 Countries"?

The article linked above offers several alternative solutions, including renting a phone for your travels so you can pay local rates. You can do this upon arrival in some countries, but there's less hassle and stress if you do it beforehand with a company like TravelCell. They ship you a phone that works in the country or countries where you are traveling, you use it for the agreed-upon time, then you ship it back in the supplied packaging. While you are in the foreign country, you pay lower rates than you would pay to your own carrier and in most of Europe anyway, incoming calls are free.

I tried the TravelCell service out for a recent trip to Iceland and it went off without a hitch. My Nokia phone arrived fully charged, with a charger and case. There were cards printed out with my custom phone number on them so I could leave them with people who needed to reach me. Clear instructions explained how to use the phone for calling around the world and what to do with it when I was done. Explanatory e-mails arrived at the beginning and end.

I still spent a chunk of change to stay connected, of course. Outgoing calls from Iceland were $1.19 a minute. (They would have been $1.29 a minute from my carrier, if my phone had worked there.) Incoming calls weren't free in that country, but they were 49 cents a minute--compared to the same $1.29 for my carrier. I talked less than the person who later told me he got a $180 bill from T-Mobile for one week, but my bill was a doable $42, including the $20 for shipping to and from.

The longer I had been abroad, the more sense this would have made. Unfortunately, all nations are not created equal when it comes to cell phone systems. I am off to Peru next week and as has been the case in Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica, services like TravelCell are useless. They don't have agreements with the monopoly carriers, so you're on your own. I plan on using Skype and VoIP phone kiosks to avoid what AT&T wants me to pay per minute:

Casio Wave Ceptor Atomic Solar Watch

Nuclear and solar live together in harmony with the Casio Wave Ceptor watch. No, there's not a nuclear reactor on your wrist, just updates from the official atomic clock. This means once you set your time zone, you never have to reset the watch until you travel. When you do travel, just pick a different city and you'll continually have the perfect time again. Always.

The solar part eliminates one of my pet peeves---having to constantly shell out money and spend time getting watch batteries replaced. With this Casio model, the sun keeps it running and it doesn't take all that much exposure either: it will run five months on a full charge before you'll start getting a warning icon telling you to get out of your cave. (If you live in an Arctic zone and it's winter, a lamp will do the job.)

I've been using this watch for a week and a half now and once I got past the biggest drawback, I've been loving it. The drawback was the steel quick-clasp watchband. It looks nice, it's comfortable, but it's definitely not one size fits all. So when it came sized for a sumo wrestler's wrist, I opened the manual to find out how to adjust the band. Just one problem: there's nothing in the manual on how to do that. Or on the Casio website. So you're on your own.

After some serious Googling, rooting around for my precision screwdrivers, then wrestling with the band under a bright light, I finally got it to fit. I guess the manufacturer figures the watch store will take care of all that for you, but if you buy it as a gift or get it online, be prepared to invest some time learning and poking. Pictured here are the "missing links" that I guess I should just toss.

But the watch itself has a lot of nice features and is carefree once it's set up. This model has a regular hands and a second hand, then the day and date are displayed digitally. There's a stopwatch and an alarm function if you dive into the manual more. The Wave Ceptor is water resistant to 100 meters and has luminous hands that glow in the dark. Get the full specs on Casio's Wave Ceptor site, where you can see the women's model too.

At a list price of $120 (and usually retailing for $100 or less), this watch looks and functions far above its pay grade. You might have to search around to get the particular model you want though. When I tried the "where to buy" section of the website for my million-person city I got a message of "I'm sorry there were no results that match your request." I didn't think a Casio watch would be all that hard to find, but you can definitely get this model online at Amazon.

Upek Eikon Fingerprint Reader for Flashpackers

Most of the travel gear reviews on this blog are for devices and gadgets most anyone could have a need for, but this Eikon to Go gadget from Upek is another story. It is a little larger than a regular USB drive, with a sliding cover over a reader for your fingerprint. Consider it a device to keep anyone else from using your laptop, or getting at your data, or logging onto sites where you've stored passwords. It's like a faceplate for your car stereo: after Eikon reader is set up, your laptop needs your fingerprint to do its thing.

After you pop this device out of its clamshell packaging, you hook it up to your PC or Mac and follow the wizard instructions to "enroll" yours---as in getting your fingerprints scanned and having those prints converted to encrypted mathmatical formulas. Then a "biomenu" appears that lets you decide how many of the possible features you want to use.

The features range from a simple lock/unlock function to locking specific folders to loads of password application and storage options. The most useful feature for many people will be the password bank. With this you surf around your usual sites and when you log in, you can register that site with a swipe of the finger. From now on, you swipe your finger each time you visit (or choose the site from the secure menu) instead of remembering all the passwords.

There are plenty more "gee-whiz" features that some may find useful---like the ability to assign different finger swipes to different applications. (I can think of a few that I would like to assign to the middle finger of my right hand...)

If two of you are sharing a laptop on the road, no problem. With a non-corporate version of XP or Vista, a different finger swipe will bring up the account of a different user automatically.

All this may be overkill if your laptop is mostly filled with photos, G-rated video, and some documents. It is aimed more at corporate travelers looking for an alternative to baffling password trees enacted by the IT department. If you're carrying around anything sensitive, however---and you don't often lose things that are the size of a thumb drive---this could provide some peace of mind on the road.

Although the Eikon to Go launched in April, apart from the Apple stores the retail launch of this thing seems to be taking a while. Check the Upek site for updates on where to find it.

Dead Simple Data Backup from Rebit

We all know we need to back up our computer regularly. It becomes especially important if traveling with an easily-stolen laptop holding months' worth of precious photo memories, music, and video. But it's a hassle right? So most of us seldom get around to it.

I've been testing a new solution that has finally solved the problem for good. It's a small external hard drive called Rebit and here are the instructions. 1) Plug the USB cord into the Rebit and your computer. 2) Click "OK" when the prompts come up on your screen. 3) Go on with whatever you were doing.

Yes, it really is that easy. You can keep surfing the web or answering e-mail and the device backs up everything on your computer, with no effort on your part. After the first round---which for obvious reasons takes quite a few hours---it will then back up any changes you have made whenever you plug it in. Again, it does its thing in the background and purposely doesn't hog all your resources to slow you down. Then you can pull up Windows Explorer and voila---the hard drive has an exact image of your own computer, with all the data there as well as applications and e-mails.

The only bug I encountered was that my Dell with XP couldn't boot up with this plugged in. Tech support says this seems to be something in my hardware configuration; they hadn't encountered this before. I didn't care anyway since I would rather just let it catch up now and then than leave it plugged in all the time.

For now anyway the Rebit works only with PCs. The small ones appropriate for travel are available in capacities from 80GB ($169 list) to 160GB ($219 list). You can get higher capacity for a home PC, but the units are larger.

I can't remember the last time I was this thrilled with a piece of computer hardware. For once a company's marketing tag line is entirely accurate: "ridiculously simple backup." See more about how Rebit works and buy direct at the Rebit website.

Do You Know Anyone Actually Using a Kindle?

It finally happened last week. I spotted someone using the Sony version of an electronic book reader. I average two or three days a month in airports, but this is the first time I've ever seen an e-book reader in someone's hand instead of a real book or magazine. And I've been looking hard for that every time I travel.

Twice some PR person has sent me a pitch e-mail about the Sony Reader then has balked when I asked to see one and use it. Three times different PR people have approached me to write about the Amazon Kindle, then have found some excuse when I said, "Send one and I'll check it out." In both cases I offered to return it in a few weeks after putting it through its paces, but I got the e-mail equivalent of inaudible mumbling.

So I've never used a Kindle or a Sony Reader. But then again, I don't know anyone else who has either.

I find this story from Yahoo News (via Reuters) to be quite odd: a Citigroup investment analyst says he thinks Amazon will sell double the predicted number of expected units this year, as in 380,000 Kindles. Really?

He says the Kindle is turning out to be "the iPod of the book world." Really?! Even in the first few months it was out, when the inferior first generation was thicker and had extra buttons, I randomly saw people using an iPod and personally knew people who owned one. This thing's hype-launch lasted as long as the Democratic primaries yet even avid readers go "huh?" when I ask if they've heard of it. The only people who seem to know what it is are publishers, tech geeks, and authors, but even the people who would benefit are not sold on it. It's way too expensive, the books aren't cheap enough, it's still harder on your eyes than real paper, it's no fun to read in bed, and on and on.

Here's the quote at the top of Amazon's Kindle page: "'This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere.' Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker."

Everywhere? I'd just like to see it somewhere. So I ask you dear readers, have you used one? Has anyone you know used one? What did you/they think?

[UPDATE 8/25/08 - Amazon is giving $100 off if you sign up for their Chase credit card. That looks like a sly way to give a rebate without calling it a rebate, but now we're talking! Sign up here.]

Sennheiser PXC 300 Noise Canceling Headphones

I have posted reviews of a few different earphone or earbud options on this travel gear blog. For most travelers, earbuds are the best option because they pack up so small and the right ones can passively block out a lot of noise over a wide frequency range. Some people are a lot more comfortable with regular headphones though, so these Sennheiser PXC 300 noise-cancellation ones manage to kick out a fantastic sonic experience but are not as bulky as the more popular Bose models.

These are good for travelers like the person who commented on my Koss earphones review -- people who find that earbuds get uncomfortable after a while. (I'd say though if you can wear squishy earplugs to bed and they don't bother you, you might have better luck with the Comply Noise Reducing Earplugs.)

The Sennheiser PXC300 headphones are wonders of technology, so they'll probably cost you at least $150. These use active noise cancellation, which means when you hit the button to turn on the battery pack, you not only pump up the volume but a lot of the extraneous noise around you gets cancelled out. Long explanation short, there's a little mic on the outside that picks up the noise around you and emits the opposite sound wave in your ear to neutralize it. Thus the "noise cancellation." It works best on long continuous hums though: airplane engine roars and the hiss of cabin ventilation systems---not that crying baby in the seat behind you.

Considering what they deliver, these are super-light and they only require two AAA batteries. They crank out incredible sound whether you've got the very best iPod or the very cheapest MP3 player. A little jamming and cord wrapping is required to get both the headphones and the battery pack into the too-simple soft carrying case, but once that's done it's a little larger than a portable hard drive or a bit smaller than a mass-market paperback. Also included are adapters for a regular stereo jack and the two-pronged audio outlets on many airplanes. Plus they come with a 2-year warranty.

The technical specs on these Sennheiser headphones are comparable to rival models costing far more and unlike models from some competitors, these will still work passively when the batteries run out of power. You just won't get the incredible bass response you do with the juice flowing. If you spend a lot of time shuttling around on airplanes and are willing to make a little extra room in your bag, these headphones will deliver a great listening experience and help shut out some of the ambient noise around you.

Get the Sennheiser PXC 300 headphones from Amazon

DaySafe 200 Theft-proof Laptop Daypack

There are a few different ways to guard against theft loss while traveling. Some solutions just require some common sense (leave the Rolex at home, don't travel with gear you can't afford to lose), while other solutions are technical ones where the right travel gear can make a difference.

In the latter category is this cool DaySafe 200 "secure computer backpack" from Pacsafe, the makers of the MetroSafe 200 bag I reviewed last year. If you've got your laptop and other electronics in this backpack, a thief is going to have a really tough time getting it from you. Here's what's built in to deter them:

* Lock and leave eXomesh built into the construction. It's slashproof, snatchproof, and tamperproof.

* Slashproof adjustable shoulder straps

* Snatchproof shoulder strap allows the bag to anchor to a secure fixture

* Tamperproof zippers

Most thefts occur from a plain snatch & grab, by slashing the bottom of your pack with a knife, by cutting a strap to make it slip off your shoulder, or by getting inside a locked pack by cutting the zippers. This bag thwarts all those attempts, even providing a little buckle that can fasten the bag to a belt loop while you're on the move.

Besides all that, it looks like a plain old daypack, which is a theft deterrent in itself. Are you carrying a $2000 laptop, or just a cheap camera and a Lonely Planet guide? Nobody can tell since the bag doesn't scream, "I have a laptop!"

The only drawback to all this is the bag is clearly heavier and bulkier than the cheaper laptop backpacks like the eBags one I've been using for years. For a good reason though, as there's far more padding, the laptop sleeve is removable, and the hardware is much stronger all around. There are two large mesh pockets on the side for water bottles, the usual array of pockets accessed from the front, and another hidden pocket at the top. There's a strong handle at the top for carrying the daypack by hand.

One interesting feature of this bag is that you can remove the inner exomesh compartment and leave it in the room as a separate permanent safe. You use the included padlock with a key and the attached cable to lock the whole slashproof inner bag to a permanent structure. Then you can take the daypack with you for sightseeing.

Think of the Daysafe 200 as a portable safe and insurance policy and you'll feel better about spending the $180 to $200 it retails for. This bag will keep your valuables in your possession wherever you are and as the company's tag line says, "When your gear's secure, you can do more."

See all the specs at the Pacsafe site.

Get the DaySafe 200 at Amazon

Search prices for the Daysafe 200

Solio Magnesium Edition Solar Charger

If you have read an article about personal solar power or have seen items featured on a TV show, chances are there was a Solio charger in the mix. The company was one of the first to put out a compact, innovative solar charger and its fan design made it fun to photograph.

Now they have put out a more rugged but far more expensive Magnesium Edition model that is nice, but a dubious upgrade in my opinion. (It lists for $200). Like the original, blades fold out to allow three different surfaces to catch the rays and store them as energy. Then you can charge up your phone, your iPod, or whatever gadget you have the right connections for. Some of those come with this, plus this newer model gives you a coupon for ordering one more. This model also works with the iGo system of plugs, so if you already have that this upgrade will be worth it for compatibility.

I got more stymied by this item than most. For one thing, there is only one button on it, so if the charger is not doing what you want (indicated by coded flashes), good luck figuring out what to do. In my case it would not charge initially using the sun; I had to plug it into a socket first, then use solar after it ran down. It did fully charge my iPod from solar power though, and the company claims it will hold its charge for a year. The rule of thumb is, one hour of sun equals 15 minutes of cell phone talk time or 40 minutes of MP3 music.

This newer one claims to have 25 percent more output, but is it worth $100 more than the original Solio charger? If you are about to climb Mt. Everest, maybe so---or if you already use the iGo charger system. Otherwise, go for the original.

You can get either version of the Solio Hybrid charger---as well as lots of other useful solar gadgets--at Current Energy.

Double-duty Mobile Charger from Duracell

I think I've made it to the point where about 95 percent of my battery use is rechargeable batteries. The main exception is the damn smoke alarms in my house as they only seem to work with throwaway alkalines, even though they're hotwired and the battery is just a back-up.

There's always one big inconvenience though: most rechargeable batteries lose juice over time, so if you charge them up and leave them in a drawer, they'll be half dead when it's time to use them. Most lose somewhere around two percent of their capacity a day. So you have to charge them up close to the time you're going to use them.

The exception to this are so-called hybrid batteries, which come ready to use out of the package and are not so prone to energy evaporation. The ones that came with this Duracell Mobile Charger worked fine right after I wrestled wrestled them loose from the (non-recyclable) clamshell packaging and the company claims that they only lose two percent of their power per month instead of per day.

Then there's the charger. It isn't nearly as compact as the Energizer travel charger I reviewed earlier, but on the plus side it has a USB port. This makes it qualify as a good double-duty charger: you can charge up the batteries by plugging it in or charge up your MP3 player by plugging it into the charger. So you can recharge your tunes without powering up a laptop. Power flows out from the batteries too though, so in a pinch you could pop in charged batteries and send that power to your USB device. Also, this unit has four individual status lights, so you can see when each battery is fully charged.

The Duracell Mobile Charger goes for anywhere from $17 to $29 depending on whether you are buying one stocked with two or four batteries and whether it comes with a car adapter.

Get the car adapter version with 4 batteries for $21 at Amazon
Get one with two batteries only at Amazon

Review of the Periscope Book Light in a Bookcover

I have run reviews of a few book lights before, including the Light Wedge, the Spike Light, and the Flex Neck. This Periscope Book Light provides a different approach. A leather cover wraps around your book and then, true to its name, the light is housed in a telescoping periscope that comes out of the top.

You can adjust the periscope light to go as far over your book as you want and the head swivels back and forth. (Want to know what that head looks like? See a poster for the new Pixar movie WALL-E.) It's a bright, two-bulb LED that definitely does the trick in complete darkness. The light is powered by three AA bulbs---please promise you will use rechargeables after the included ones run their course of 40 hours. You can buy an A/C adapter for it, but who wants to mess with a cord when they're reading a book?

There are a couple advantages of this design. First, you never have to worry about misplacing your light because it's attached to the book you're reading. Hey, it even comes with a cloth bookmark. Also, it "protects your privacy" if you don't want everyone to see that you're reading a trashy romance novel. Or if you are, as I once was, reading The Satanic Verses while traveling through a country full of Muslims.

The downside of this approach is that, last time I checked, book sizes weren't very standard. The paperback size one will only hold mass market paperbacks, so if your tastes commonly run to Danielle Steele and the like, you'll be fine. Otherwise, you need the larger one that holds hardback books and trade paperbacks. Those books come in all kinds of sizes though, so sometimes the cover is going to barely fit and other times you will have lots of slack space.

Still, kudos for finding a new solution and trying something different. After all, it really does feel nice to have a leather cover in your hand while reading a $14 paperback. See the whole line here.

The Periscope Book Light in a Bookcover is available for $35 to $40 at Barnes & Noble stores or their website.

Want to check out others?
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Travel Adapter, Converter, USB Charger from Travelon

If you are an American traveling abroad, this nifty electrical converter and adapter from Travelon eliminates the guesswork without taking up much room.

This universal 3-in-1 device is a converter, adpater, and USB charger all in one. It automatically steps higher voltage down to 110 volts and reduces the wattage at the same time (so nothing explodes or starts smoking). Through some Transformers-style engineering, the various plugs adapt to those in some 150 countries around the world (though in all fairness, most of them between Canada and Chile are the same and you don't need an adapter.)

This is all well and good, but what if you have an MP3 player or camera that charges by USB? They've got that covered too, so you can charge up your portable gadgets without booting up a laptop. You can even use this at the same time as you're using a different electrical item with a plug.

The Travelon converter and adapter generally retails for around $58, but sometimes you can find it for less at Amazon. If you don't need a built-in voltage regulator (most laptop cords have one built in), Travelon makes a slightly thinner model of this without the voltage adjuster.

I've reviewed plenty of travel electrical adapters over the years, but this is the one I'll be taking with me on my next trip beyond the Americas.