Travel Gadget Mistakes

Background

When traveling, I usually bring:

• Laptop
• iPod
• Digital camera
• Digital camcorder

Each device comes with its own accessories for power, cables, and memory.

On a recent trip to Ireland, I decided to bring a GPS unit for car navigation. After a long search, three options emerged:

1. Garmin 670 with Europe & US maps
2. Nokia N800 Internet Tablet with Wayfinder maps and Bluetooth GPS
3. MacBook with Parallels, Windows Vista, a USB GPS, and Microsoft AutoRoute Europe

I ended up choosing option #2, thinking I would get the best of options #1 and #3 with less travel bulk.

Results

The Nokia N800 is a fun little gadget and a decent replacement for a Garmin unit.

The interface is a little worse, but it does allow you to:

• Surf the web in a coffee shop
• Continue walking with GPS navigation afterward

My wife thought having GPS reduced the stress of car travel in a foreign country, especially since she usually handles navigation.

The N800 is less effective as a laptop replacement because of:

• An awkward keyboard
• No direct Ethernet connectivity
  (common in many hotels)

An external Bluetooth keyboard could help.

Learnings — Connectivity

Free Wi-Fi can be difficult to impossible to find outside major cities.

The N800 came with a 30-day trial of Boingo Mobile (later $8/month). Boingo allows access to paid hotspots around the world, including Starbucks and British Telecom locations.

Unfortunately:

• Hotspots are difficult to locate
• Boingo mainly lists them online, which defeats the purpose when offline
• Laptop access costs around $40/month

Most mid-level hotels only provide Ethernet connections in rooms, meaning:

• A laptop is useful
• Or at least a small network hub

Learnings — Backup

I usually try to back up digital photos while traveling.

Without a laptop, I couldn’t:

• Use JungleDisk
• Easily duplicate photo storage

If I continued with the non-laptop setup, a better option would be:

• Large SD cards
• Copying files between the two SD slots on the Nokia N800

While attempting a backup, I accidentally deleted all files on a 2GB SD card.

I eventually found a free recovery utility, but it required Windows administrator privileges. Most hotel or internet café computers do not allow admin access, so I had to wait until returning home.

Useful Tool

• Roadkil.net — free undelete utility for SD cards and disks

Final Thoughts

The easiest solution would have been bringing the MacBook.

Many frustrations could have been avoided, including:

• Easier internet access
• Better backups
• Processing photos and videos during flights

Traveling lighter sounded appealing, but in practice the laptop would have simplified nearly everything.