Your perfect high-tech holiday
Make the most of your next holiday with the essential gadgets for your travel bag.
Packing for your perfect holiday is no longer as simple as asking the neighbours to feed the cat, throwing some clothes in a bag and strapping a few boogie boards to the roof of the car. These days you also want a high-tech travel kit, stocked with gadgets to help you find your way, keep the peace in the backseat and relax when you get there. A swag of handy gadgets can also help you stay in touch with the world and even keep an eye on things back at home.
Apple iPad 2 Wi-Fi 16GB Black
When you get behind the wheel, it’s obviously important to know where you’re going. Struggling with crumpled paper maps and arguing about freeway exits isn’t a great way to kick off a relaxing holiday. Instead you want satellite navigation from the likes of Garmin, TomTom or Navman to guide you on your travels.
Just enter your destination and the sat-nav does the rest, even speaking the directions aloud you so don’t have to take your eyes off the road or mess about with maps. It’s also handy to enter your destination in your contacts list as “Holiday”, so it’s easy to navigate back to base after a day trip.
Some of the great new features on today’s sat-navs include live traffic updates for avoiding traffic jams and “lane assist” features so you know when to change lanes. Some sat-navs are also media players and can even double as Bluetooth hands-free speakers for your phone.
Are we there yet?
Once you’re on the road your backseat troops need to be entertained.
In years gone by, in-car entertainment consisted of counting passing Volkswagon Beetles and getting your hand as close to your little brother's face as possible while still being able to claim “I'm not touching you”. Today’s kids are a little more demanding, and that’s when an in-car DVD player can be a life saver.
Happy snappers
Once you’ve arrived at your destination, you’ll be keen to hit the beach. Don’t forget your digital camera for capturing all that fun in the sun.
Nikon, Olympus, Canon, Sony, Panasonic and Sanyo offer a great range of “point n’ shoot” compact digital cameras. They’re simple to use and make it easy for even beginners to capture precious memories.
If your current camera is a few years old, it’s worth checking out the new models for improved resolution, optical zoom and low-light performance. Taking sharper photos lets you create sharper prints, plus you can crop your shots while still retaining a sharp image.
Serious photographers might also consider upgrading to a Digital SLR, offering extra features and the flexibility of interchangeable lenses.
Movie star
Digital cameras and smartphones shoot reasonably good high-definition video, but serious holiday movie makers might want to upgrade to a camcorder.
Camcorders from the likes of Sony, JVC, Samsung, Panasonic and Canon typically offer sharper images and clearer sound than jack-of-all-trades gadgets such as smartphones. You’ll also find better low-light performance, better zoom and more storage capacity. Ignore digital zoom figures, look for a minimum of 10x optical zoom in order to capture crisp video from a distance.
A good guide to a camcorder’s image quality is not just the megapixel rating but also the actual size of the sensor. A larger sensor offers clearer pictures and better low-light performance. Also look for image stablisation, without which your handheld camera work can leave viewers feeling a little seasick. Optical stablisation offers better results than electronic stablisation.
Game on
Handheld games consoles are another great way to pass the time in the backseat or just relax at the end of the day.
The PlayStation Portable is Sony’s handheld games machine, although it’s set to be replaced by the new PS Vita. Meanwhile you’ve got the Nintendo 3DS which offers 3D gaming without the need for special glasses.
Gaming is yet another task that smartphones and tablets can tackle. Lots of games let you play over the internet with friends, or with the person next to you via wi-fi. It’s not all shoot ‘em ups and racing games, these days you can even play family board games such as checkers, chess and Scrabble on your touchscreen gadgets.
Watch this
Come evening you might hook up your portable DVD player to the television, or you could bring along a tiny media player that holds your entire digital entertainment library.
Media players can play files from a USB stick, either videos you’ve downloaded from the internet or movies you’ve ripped from your DVD collection. Western Digital’s WD TV Live Hub makes life even easier because it features a built-in 1TB hard drive -- enough to hold hundreds of movies and television shows along with your music library. The WDT TV Live Hub features HDMI, component and composite video, so it’s easy to hook it up to old televisions and new. If you add a USB wi-fi adaptor, you can even stream movies to other devices such as computers, tablets and smartphones -- so the whole family can gather around the television or everyone can watch their own shows.
Starry night
Getting away from the city lights also offers a great chance to look at the stars, especially if you bring along binoculars or a telescope.
Typical 7x50 field binoculars, or 10x50 for older eyes, are great all-purpose binoculars -- whether they’re for a trip to the beach, a day at the races or gazing at the stars. They offer a good look at craters on the moon, while the wide field of view also makes them great for looking at the constellations. You’ll find a few useful smartphone apps, such as Star Walk and Planets, which make it easy to find objects of interest in the night sky.
Bedtime story
If you enjoy curling up with a good book at the end of the day, make sure you throw an eBook reader in your travel bag.
Slim eBook readers such as Kindles hold hundreds of titles, so you don’t need to lug around your entire bookshelf. They’re easy to slip in your carry bag, for enjoying a good book on the beach, by the pool or in bed.
eBook readers are easier on the eyes than smartphones and tablets, plus the battery lasts for weeks rather than hours. eBook readers don’t use a backlight so, just like a real book, you’ll need a reading light in bed.
Source: TechLiving Magazine: Issue 10 – Updated Summer 2011
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