We are participating in the BootsnAll 30 Days of Indie Travel project. We will be posting once each day in response to a prompt given on the BootsnAll website. Leave your comments below and also check out their website for other bloggers joining in!
Day 23: Where would today’s travelers be without smartphones, GPS, iPods, iPads, or even the internet? Share one item of tech you can’t live without or tell us how technology has changed the way you travel.
I like technology.
As much as I want to travel light and be unplugged, I know that I can’t resist technology. I love computers and gadgets and gear. Below are just a few of the gadgets that I will be bringing on the trip:
- Ultra-light laptop
- Kindle Keyboard 3G
- Rugged 500GB External HDD
- Flip HD video camera
- Pentax DSLR
- Software for security and easy file access: Dropbox, Google Docs, VPN, SOCKS Proxy
If I could only choose one of these items, it would have to be the Kindle.
As much as I love (and need) my laptop, the Kindle would be the one I couldn’t live without for the following reasons:
Reading books
I love to read, and one of my goals for this trip is to read books, something that has been lacking in my life for the past three years. I read constantly, but it’s mainly articles and blogs on the Internet. As much as I love paperback books, they aren’t as convenient to carry around as an e-book, and so they end up staying home on the shelf. I already spend a lot of time looking at a computer screen, so I wanted an e-reader with an e-ink screen, that reads like a book, instead of burning my retinas with a backlight. There are so many free and under $3 books on Amazon, that I won’t run out of material any time soon.
Reading the web
I am an avid user of Instapaper, a website and iPhone app that allows you to save the full text of articles for reading later. I do most of my reading with Instapaper, and it offers Kindle integration. I can set up Instapaper to automatically deliver my recently saved articles to my kindle over Wi-Fi or 3G. This will be especially useful if I don’t have an iPhone with my on the trip to be able to use my favorite app.
Free 3G Internet
This is the main reason I bought the Kindle 3 instead of one of the newer versions. I am not planning on bringing a phone, but would still like to be able to check email, look at a map, or research accommodation. This version of the kindle allows free 3G internet access worldwide along with Wi-fi whenever we can get it. It’s not as nice as using a tablet or a laptop, but if we absolutely need to look something up on the Internet it will be there when we need it, without having to deal with SIM cards and data roaming.
Our trip was a great excuse for me to get a Kindle, and I know it will be one of my most used and beloved gadgets while traveling.
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