Technology and Travel
Published on 24 Apr 2014 · Filed in Information · 317 words (estimated 2 minutes to read)Cody Bunch recently posted a quick round-up of what he carries when traveling, and just for fun I thought I’d do the same. Like Cody, I don’t know that I would consider myself a road warrior, but I have traveled a pretty fair amount. Here’s what I’m currently carrying when I hit the road:
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Light laptop and tablet: After years of carrying around a 15" MacBook Pro, then going down to a 13" MacBook Pro, I have to say I’m pretty happy with the 13" MacBook Air that I’m carrying now. Weight really does make a difference. I’m still toting the full-size iPad, but will probably switch to an iPad mini later in the year to save a bit more weight.
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Bag: I settled on the Timbuktu Commute messenger bag (see my write-up) and I’m quite pleased with it. A good bag makes a big difference when you’re mobile.
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Backup battery: I’m carrying the NewTrent PowerPak 10.0 (NT100H). It may not be the best product out there, but it’s worked pretty well for me. It’s not too heavy and not too big, and will charge both phones and tablets.
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Noise-canceling earphones: The Bose QC20 earphones (in-ear) are awesome. Naturally they let in a bit more noise than the bigger on-ear QC15 headphones, but the added noise is worth the tremendous decrease in size and weight.
On the software side, I’ll definitely echo Cody’s recommendation of Little Snitch; it’s a excellent product that I’ve used for years. You might also consider enabling the built-in firewall (see this write-up for enabling pf on OS X Mountain Lion; haven’t tried on Mavericks yet) for an added layer of network protection.
What about you, other road warriors out there? What are you carrying these days?
UPDATE: Thanks to Ivan Pepelnjak, who pointed out that I had inadvertently swapped out the product names for the Bose earphones and headphones. That’s been corrected!