Today I’m here to review a real laptop running a real operating system. No one-mouse-button nonsense here.

I present to you – the Dell XPS 12, Dell’s stylishly insane attempt at a Windows 8 Ultrabook / tablet thing.

Note – I’ve never really used an Apple product other than an iPod. I’m sure they’re great, and the associated smugness that comes with owning one is entirely earned. They lost me at the horror that was iTunes on Windows. This review will continue in an entirely unbiased manner.

So, lets find out how well the Dell XPS 12 performs as a laptop for travelling, and more importantly, discover it if crushes the Macbook Air in every possible way. Which is obviously the important thing when reviewing any laptop.

Features and introduction

For a while, if you wanted a lightweight laptop with decent battery life for travelling with, you had to buy a netbook. These were very cute, and very underpowered for anything other than editing text in Notepad.

Thankfully, Intel figured out that there was a market for laptops that could actually be used for work, and coined the Ultrabook name. Oh, and Apple released the Macbook Air, which showed that people would pay a premium for a portable laptop with a pretty logo and this thing called “design”.

The Dell XPS 12 is a Windows 8 Ultrabook, which is a marketing term trademarked by Intel. It means that it’s light (1.5kg), has decent battery life and manages to pack some serious punch, thanks to a combination of a solid state hard drive, plenty of memory, and a blazingly fast Intel multi-core processor.

It also comes with a 12.5 inch 1920×1080 IPS touch screen panel. IPS means decent colour reproduction and viewing angles, and 1920×1080 means lots and lots of screen pixels.

For reference, the 13 inch Macbook Air has a resolution of 1440×900. That’s three quarters of a million less pixels.

For on-the-go photo editing then, the awesomeness of the Dell screen cannot be overstated. If that is what you want a laptop for, this should be way up at the top of your list. Although you might want to finish reading before heading over to the Dell site, credit card a-waving.

Rounding out the specs are a full-size backlit keyboard, a couple of “decent for a laptop” speakers, two USB 3.0 ports, an HD webcam, a battery life indicator, 802.11n networking, volume rocker, Bluetooth, a mini DisplayPort, and quite frankly the worst trackpad I’ve ever used in my life. More on that in a bit. Let’s talk party gimmicks.

The super flippy screen thing

The Dell XPS 12 comes with a fairly unique feature. That gorgeous screen flips 180 degrees inside its frame, transforming this high powered portable laptop into a high powered – albeit slightly weighty – tablet.

There are some great use cases for the tablet mode, beyond wowing the people you meet. If you’re in content consumption mode, then the tablet can be used for watching films, browsing the web, or reading a book. It’s also handy for using as an interactive slideshow, particularly if you have a number of photos you want to share – the touch screen interface is very intuitive, and you can really show off your content to great effect.

The mechanism for the screen flip is very sturdy, with the screen held in place by magnets to prevent any accidental flipping action – you have to want to flip it for it to happen, an important feature given that you might be touching the screen vigorously. In addition, there’s a screen lock button on the side to stop the screen re-orienting itself if you don’t want it to.

When flipped, the back of the laptop has two nice ridges to hold onto, and the carbon fibre feels great in the hand. And because the screen covers up the keyboard, which deactivates in tablet mode, it just looks like a slightly oversized tablet.

Dell also says that the flip mechanism should survive 20,000 flips, which at the rate of ten flips a day, would give you over five years of happy screen flipping action.

Windows 8

No write-up on the Dell XPS 12 would be complete without at least some thoughts on Windows 8, perhaps Microsoft’s most radical idea since Microsoft Bob. You remember Microsoft Bob, right?

Windows 8 is a serious change from previous iterations of Windows, at least from a user interface perspective. The focus is on trying to get the user to use touch to navigate the operating system, and of course, the death of the start button.

I say trying to, because the end result is an operating system that feels rather schizophrenic – with half of it (the start screen) designed for tablets and touch and the other half (desktop mode) designed for normal users. You even have to install different versions of apps for each mode. Which is quite mad.

Luckily, the XPS 12 is also schizophrenic, with that magic flipping screen. This means that you can use the Windows 8 start screen to your hearts content in tablet mode, throwing live tiles around, browsing the ever growing Windows Store (another Windows 8 feature), and playing Angry Birds (other interactive games available), before realising you’re not being in any way productive, and flipping back to the desktop to get some work done. Sure, you can use it as a tablet in desktop mode, but the onscreen keyboard is only going to get you so far.

Overall, what Windows 8 and touch bring to the table is another way to use your laptop, that attempts to marry tablets and laptops. You’ll find yourself using the touchscreen naturally in both desktop and tablet mode, and then you’ll find yourself cursing the fingerprints all over that lovely screen. Touch is the future. I’m just not sure that Windows 8 is, even if Dell’s implementation of it is the best I’ve seen yet. Time will no doubt tell.

Price and options

The base model of the XPS 12 starts at $1200, for which you get a Core i5 processor, 128GB hard drive, and 4GB of RAM. For reference purposes, a similarly spec’d 13” Macbook Air costs… exactly the same. Spooky.

I’d recommend aiming for the slightly higher spec’d model, with 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD, which will set you back $1500. Again, the same price as the Air at that configuration.

In comparison to the Air, the Dell comes with a far superior screen, which is also touch enabled, and has that magic party trick. It is, on the flip side (see what I did there), 150g heavier. Touch screens come at a price.

Also note that Dell very regularly runs deals on its site, so you should be able to knock off $100 from the above prices without too much trouble.

Good points at a glance

The screen: Gosh Dell. This screen is so awesome I want to take it home with me and whisper sweet nothings into its ear all night. The resolution means you can fit a whole load of stuff on it, including two windows side by side, and the 400 nits of brightness (I don’t know what nits are, but I believe more is better) mean you can actually use it outside should you wish. I’ve never seen a screen this bright on a laptop, and it’s a fantastic feature.

The hardware: Other than the screen, this laptop comes with some serious horsepower under the hood to make working on it a breeze. You can pick from a Core i5 or i7 processor, 128 or 256GB SSD, and 4 or 8GB of RAM. All of these options result in a blazing fast experience, but I’d advise picking a model with at least 8GB of memory for future proofing.

With an i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, the configuration I have here eats through all the tasks I can throw at it, including intensive stuff like RAW & HDR photo editing, with no problems at all. As a workhorse, this is a seriously capable bit of kit.

The keyboard: A good keyboard is a must for writing on the road. The Dell has a very nice chiclet-style full size keyboard, which is lovely to type on. Each key is backlit, and there are three settings of backlight intensity to choose from (as well as off).

Rugged, travel ready construction: The screen is coated in Corning’s Gorilla Glass 2, which means it’s virtually scratch-proof. The frame is machined aluminium, whilst the body is carbon fibre. Materials you would expect to find in a high end racing car, not a laptop.

Coupled with the no-moving-parts storage that is a SSD, the end result is a laptop that can probably take quite a beating – although it looks so nice you’ll want to wrap it in velvet and hold it close to your chest instead.

Startup: I’m not quite sure what magic Microsoft and Intel have conspired to put into Windows 8, but this thing boots fast. From hibernate / sleep, it’ll be up and ready to use in under seven seconds. Booting from off is barely any slower, with it ready to go in under ten seconds. And these are real world numbers, with multiple apps installed and starting up at boot. It’s impressive stuff.

Quiet running: The Dell is inaudible most of the time when in use, with the fan kicking in only when you really start to push the hardware. Even then, it’s not loud, with a long cooling channel at the back. It also stays remarkably cool in use, meaning it’s more than comfortable for prolonged lap sessions.

Bad points at a glance

No SD slot: This could be a deal breaker for a lot of people. My camera takes Compact Flash cards, so I haven’t noticed the shortage. Plus external card readers aren’t exactly heavy. But if you must have an integrated SD card reader, this Ultrabook doesn’t have it. The Macbook Air 13 inch does, as do a number of other Windows-based competitors.

The trackpad: The gesture-enabled multi-touch trackpad on this laptop is by far its worst feature. It was so bad at first that I’d actually prefer to go with an Apple one button wonder. And yes, I know they’ve moved on from one button mice.

Issues ranged from ignoring any attempts at input, to pretending a left click was a right click. The mouse buttons are also oddly loud, although I could just be sensitive to that.

Driver updates, along with disabling most of the gesture “features”, have fixed the majority of the issues I faced on first use, but really there is no excuse for shipping such an appalling pile of tosh with a premium product. Shame on you, Dell.

Only two USB ports: For some reason there are only two USB ports available. I guess it’s all about the looks, or something. Maybe holes weigh a lot. They are at least both USB 3, and one offers power when the laptop is off for charging your peripherals (at USB 3 power no less, which charges everything a lot quicker). Still, an extra port would not have hurt, even if less holes seem to be the norm with laptops of this form factor at the moment.

No user expandable RAM: Memory is one of those things that you really can’t have enough of, particularly for photo or video editing work. Soldering the memory onto the motherboard isn’t a very user friendly approach if you ask me, meaning you need to get as much memory as you can when you configure this beast – which happens to be 8GB.

For now that will be enough, but how future-proof this will be remains to be seen. To be fair to Dell, most competitors follow a similar practice, and 8GB is a common ceiling, although there are some companies offering 16GB as an option.

It’s not Haswell: As is usually the case with buying a technology product, there is always the question of what hardware is around the corner. At the time of writing, Intel are set to release their 3rd generation Core architecture, codenamed Haswell. This is promising a speed boost of course, but most importantly, the new architecture is intended to deliver seriously improved battery life, with up to nine hours of usable time being promised.

This might be worth waiting for, and I’d hope that Dell would refresh the XPS line with the new chips. In the meantime though, this is a bad point that applies to every other device on the market at the time of writing, so if you need a laptop now, can be disregarded.

Wrap up

So, is this Dell for you?

If your workflow involves a lot of photo or video editing, and you have the budget, then I’d argue that it is the finest convertible Ultrabook on the market right now. It has plenty of power, a fantastic screen, and you get the bonus of a tablet meaning you don’t need to cart an extra item around with you. Just consider investing in an external mouse to save your sanity.

As for the XPS vs the Air, the Dell has a much better, touch-enabled screen, and can be used as a tablet, although the latter is more of a “nice to have” than a killer feature in most scenarios. The Air has that SD card slot, weighs a bit less, and no doubt has a trackpad you can use without wanting to hurl the machine against the wall. If that sort of thing is important to you.

The reality is that you’ve likely already made up your mind, depending on which particular ecosystem you’re familiar with. If you want something Windows flavoured, this Ultrabook should be a contender. If you’re committed to Apple and its supporting apps, then you’ll be looking for a Macbook, and if the screen of the Air doesn’t work for you, just get the slightly heavier Retina enabled Macbook Pro. To be honest, I’m kinda wondering how you’ve got this far and haven’t already gone to set the comments field on fire with my heresy. I look forward to mopping up your froth shortly…

Dell XPS 12: The perfect travel laptop is a post from Too Many Adapters

So, Torre, do tell us … what’s in your bag?

First off, tell us a little about you and your travels.

I’m exactly like Bear Grylls, if Bear had Generalised Anxiety Disorder and a tendency to cry over heights, snakes and deep bodies of water. I blog at FearfulAdventurer.com. 

I earn my crust through freelance design, illustration and writing. I’m the author of Love with a Chance of Drowning – a memoir about facing my deepest fears to follow my heart across the Pacific on a leaky sailboat.

I spent two years exploring the islands of the South Pacific on that boat. I’ve toured New Zealand, hiked Nepal and motorbiked through Thailand. I spent the last year living in a $5-a-night bungalow on a Thai island, and I’m now travelling to promote my book.

Those modes of transport provide some unique challenges when it comes to equipment.  What tech gear do you carry with you, and why?

My hands are glued to a MacBook keyboard at all times. I have a Magic Mouse, which I don’t use. I always have a camera of some sort with me. I have a cheap, retro mobile phone that is never charged with either battery or credit, so it’s effectively a well-travelled plastic brick.

I recently replaced my broken Kindle with an iPad, which I hoped would become my new digital reader. But since I’m now constantly online with the iPad, it has become an elaborate Twitter machine. I have a bunch of great apps that I don’t use, and a huge library of Kindle books that I haven’t yet read (Twitter, you see).

If room permits, I pack a scanner for my freelance illustration work. I also have a Wacom Bamboo tablet for digitising my drawings.

Of those, other than your laptop, what is the one thing you couldn’t live without?

All of it. It’s cumbersome and I resent the mental energy required to safeguard it all. It also makes me feel guilty to own such expensive gear when I’m travelling in third-world countries. Sometimes, while hiking through poverty-strewn villages full of malnourished kids, I tally up value of my backpack in relation to the annual salary of the villagers and I feel like a disgusting human being. In the context of poverty, it seems so superfluous and grotesque to have a Twitter machine. I could cash it all in for some bags of beans and rice to feed a family for… how long? A year?

But that gear is my livelihood, my passion and my vehicle for communicating with the world. Without it I’d have no income and no voice. Plus, those village kids seem delightfully alert and happy without Twitter machines, so who am I to pity them?

…and the one thing you would / have happily gotten rid of while travelling?

I always find my camera to be a burden. It imposes a constant obligation to record for the future, rather than experience the present. I once lost a $1,500 camera, and even though it meant $1,500 down the drain, I felt relieved to no longer have the chore of snapping pics during that trip.

Also, cameras are invasive. Nothing creates a cultural divide like a massive L-Series lens pointed in the face of a vulnerable third-world citizen. I feel like I’m turning humans into zoo animals, so the camera often stays in the bag.

Am I bold and enlightened enough to do away with my camera completely? Probably not.

You freely admit to suffering from anxiety about pretty much everything (including eyeball worms).  Is there any tech or sites that you use to help deal with that (other than WebMD…)

If there were an app called Chill The F* Out, Lady, I’d be using that on a daily basis.

I have some noise-cancelling headphones, which are great. When I’m on a train ("OMG! Is this thing going to derail?!") or a plane ("What the hell is that crackling noise coming from the wing?!") I put on my headphones, turn up A Fine Frenzy and chill the f* out.

You’ve written a rather wonderful book that you initially self-published and was then picked up by a major publishing house – congratulations!  What apps and tools did you use in the process?

Thanks! I began writing my manuscript using TextEdit, a simple open-source word processor on the Mac that’s useful for writing code. The beginnings of my manuscript were a big ol’ lump of unformatted text within a document called Untitled.txt. I did this because I didn’t want to admit that I was writing a book. Such an ambitious declaration would’ve spooked me off task, so I used TextEdit as my denial tool. What kind of author would write a book in TextEdit? None of them. So I was surely not writing a book.

When I had about 20,000 words and a nice momentum happening with my story, I had the confidence to move the text into Word and format into a book manuscript. I called it Book.docx and shit got real.

Once the book was finished, I used Amazon’s services to self-publish. Facebook and Twitter were invaluable for creating buzz, which then led to my book being ‘discovered’ by a Hollywood producer. That set off an explosion of interest, and my little ol’ self-published book was purchased by five publishers and a film producer.

Have you had any major tech mishaps on your travels?

My partner has lost four cameras, as well as a range of other non-tech items. (I know, I’m also surprised that I haven’t yet killed him.)

Camera one: Our only means of taking pictures while sailing the South Pacific—a point-and-shoot with waterproof housing—was lost when he jumped into the water with it without sealing the housing properly. Splash! Fry! Dead.

Camera two: A Canon DSLR sporting a 10 – 22mm lens was lost because his backpack wasn’t zipped up properly when we went horseback riding. Somewhere within the wet, mossy forest floor of New Zealand’s South Island lies our dearly beloved camera. Ashes to ashes.

Camera three: A newly purchased Canon DSLR with a 50mm lens and a pricey polarising filter was the next victim. My partner left it on a train in Melbourne, along with a beautiful handmade leather bag. For weeks, I called the police station and the transport company, but nobody handed it in. Don’t worry—I put a hex on the thief: he now has eyeball worms.

Camera four: A compact with an underwater housing, which my partner dropped to the ocean floor while he was leading me on my first night dive in Thailand. He dove down to twenty metres with a torch to look for it, but it was pitch black and the camera was nowhere to be found.

A week later, someone found it on the seafloor, recognised our selfies, and handed it in to the dive school! Of the three cameras we lost, we managed to recover the one lost to the bottom of the ocean at night… in Thailand!

Any travel tech tips you’d like to share?

Be minimal with your gear. Be respectful with your pointed camera. Don’t tempt desperate people by failing to secure your gear properly. Take only the gear you’re willing to part with.

Torre’s book was actually launched this week in North America – if you’re interested in reading a truly great travel and love story, go grab yourself a copy!

What’s in your bag, Torre? is a post from Too Many Adapters

Trip Splitter

I recently spent two months travelling around New Zealand with Dave and Dustin and I honestly wish we had known about Trip Splitter while we were there.

If you’re planning a trip with any number of people then this app will definitely come in handy. You start by creating a trip, giving it a name and creating a profile for each of the participants. Once you begin travelling you can add expenses, assign them to different people and geo-locate them.

You can split each bill evenly or unevenly, use different currencies, take photos of your receipts, record transfers of money between participants and then every participant receives an email with the total breakdown of expenses.

Given that we didn’t track our expenses as accurately as we should have done in New Zealand, that we still haven’t worked out who owes who what two months after leaving the country, and that certain members (me) didn’t realise they were supposed to be keeping receipts, Trip Splitter would have solved all of these problems and made all of our lives a lot easier.

$2.49

Coverage?

Planning on heading to the US this fall? If so, then Coverage? from Technomadia has you, erm, covered!

It’s simple – the app displays a map of the USA, and when you select different mobile carriers it shows the coverage they each provide. You can even overlay multiple maps.

It shows coverage for  LTE, ’4G’ (which is HSPA+ & WiMax), 3G, 2G and roaming. The maps are stored within the app so you don’t need an internet connection to view them – useful if you need to find coverage and are not currently in range.

Given how much we struggled when road-tripping through the US last year, an app like this would have been really handy – we would have known that many providers have largely non-existent coverage in Wyoming, for instance, and been able to prepare for this in advance.

$2.99

Worldview

Not currently on the road but craving exploring somewhere new and exciting? If so, then give Worldview a download and you’ll find yourself with access to 26,000 webcams from all over the world.

We especially like that Worldview gives you ability to search for webcams nearby by using your current location — something that could come in handy if you’re planning on a day trip and want to know what the weather’s like. Likewise, you can also search the webcams for an upcoming potential destination to see how it looks.

We like flicking through the webcams on random mode and fuelling our wanderlust whenever we discover an amazing looking place we’d never heard of before!

Free

TrackMyTour

TrackMyTour is a travel journal that allows you to crate an online map that tracks your travels around the world, and lets your friends and family know where you are.

When you’re on the road, simply open up the app and tap “add waypoint”. You can then choose which map to add the point to, give it a name and category, record the weather, attach a photo and leave a comment. You can submit your location using either your phone’s GPS or by entering it in manually. You can then choose to submit your waypoint instantly or save it offline if you’re not connected to the internet.

You can set your privacy settings so that only friends and family with the link to your online map can view your travels, or you can have it public if you want anyone on the TrackMyTour website to be able to follow along with your trip.

TrackMyTour differs from most other tracking apps in that it doesn’t record your travels in realtime. While this may not be ideal for people who want to track every single path they travel down, by doing it like this you’ll conserve battery, keep roaming costs to a minimum and only record the locations that you want to.

Free

iOS Travel Apps of the Month: May 2013 is a post from Too Many Adapters

We’ve put together these eleven tips for making the most of that tiny trickle of data that’s flowing into your computer or smartphone. The faster you can get things done online, the sooner you can head out and enjoy the real reason you’re travelling in the first place…

Hardware

Use an external wireless card

If you’re a regular user of wifi on the road (and lets face it, most of us are), you’ll be all too familiar with weak connections and slow internet speeds. The wireless access point always seems to be placed as far from your room as humanly possible, leaving you to gaze forlornly at the signal strength icon as your connection drops out yet again.

Investing in an external wireless card can make all the difference. The better ones have powerful transmitters and better antennas that reach much further than the one in your laptop, giving stronger, more reliable connections. They can often let you use networks that you can’t even detect with your internal card.

Cheap ones can be picked up for around ten bucks, but we’d suggest spending a little more for best results. For around $25, something like the Alfa AWUS036H gets good reviews and does the job nicely.

Move around the room

It might sound silly, but just moving around a bit can make a big difference. Interference from microwave ovens, cordless telephones and other electronic equipment can play havoc with your wireless signal, and certain materials (concrete in particular) block radio waves very effectively. Even moving a few feet to the other side of the room could be the difference between a working connection and a lot of frustration.

If you want to get all technical about it, download something like Netspot (Mac) or Heatmapper (Windows/Android) to map out the best place to park your laptop.

Switch from wireless to wired

Under ideal conditions most modern wireless networks are still much faster than the internet connection at the end of them. The problem is that ideal conditions rarely exist, especially in crowded urban areas.

Every wireless network competes for space in a crowded radio spectrum, especially when most access points still use default settings. The more networks you can see and devices trying to connect to them, the bigger the issue.

Moving to a wired connection eliminates most of the problem. If you’re got an Ethernet port available (they look similar to phone ports, but a little larger), try to borrow a cable and connect it up. If you find yourself doing this regularly, pick up a short Ethernet cable and throw it in your bag when travelling. For a fancier option, devices like this one let you convert a wired connection to a wireless network that you can control.

Plug your laptop in

Probably the simplest tip of all – just plug your laptop into a power socket. Most computers will reduce the strength of their wireless card slightly when running on battery – great for giving you longer in front of the screen, bad for seeing that weak wi-fi network.

Connect your power cable and you might just be able to connect to the internet as well.

Software

Use Dispatch to connect to multiple networks

After a successful Kickstarter campaign last year, Connectify has developed and released Dispatch – an easy way to join multiple internet connections together. Wired, wifi, cellular – use the bandwidth of all of them simultaneously. Best of all, with that external wireless card you’re going to buy you can even use two wifi networks at the same time.

If you have a 3G/4G connection with plenty of data, or in areas with multiple free wireless networks, this is a great way of dramatically improving your connection speed. We use it all the time, and can vouch for its effectiveness. Combine it with the Hotspot product to turn your laptop into a wifi hotspot for extra geek cred.

Turn off background apps

Many of those handy apps that you’ve got installed are your worst enemy when battling with a slow connection. Your antivirus software, operating system and app updaters, Skype, Dropbox, Evernote, Crashplan, BitTorrent and many others will jump all over the limited amount of bandwidth that you have available, leaving virtually nothing for your browser or whatever you’re actually trying to use.

Shut down or suspend all of those background programs and you’ll finally be able to send that email or load that vital status update.

Use the mobile version of websites

Just want some information without all of the bells and whistles that make pages take forever to load? Try using the mobile version of the site, even from your laptop. It’ll be stripped down and may not look particularly great (http://m.facebook.com, for instance), but on a slow connection it will often be the difference between a page that displays and one that doesn’t.

If the site insists on giving you the desktop version, you can trick it into thinking you’re using a mobile device by changing your user agent string. The least painful way to do this is via a browser plugin like User Agent Switcher for Chrome.

Use Opera for browsing

The Opera web browser has long sat far behind the "big boys" like Chrome or Internet Explorer, but it has at least one feature that makes it compelling for travellers – data compression. By default, "Turbo" mode  kicks in when the (desktop) browser detects a slow connection, compressing all non-secure data via the company’s servers. The net result? Less data being moved around, faster browsing speeds.for you.

Mini, the mobile version of Opera has this functionality enabled all the time, and it has been spotted in pre-release versions of Chrome for Android as well.

Install Onavo Extend on mobile devices

On the subject of mobile data compression, Onavo takes the concept even further. Install the Extend app (Android / iOS) and all non-secure data will be compressed before being downloaded to your device – the company boasts data savings of up to 500%.

The downside is that this compression only works over cellular networks, not wifi – so it’s not a complete solution. Still, if you’re using a mobile connection that has speed or bandwidth limitations, Onavo is your friend.

Install ad-blocking software on your browser

Often the thing that uses the most bandwidth on a web page has nothing to do with the content you’re actually there for. It’s the big flashing advert in the top right corner, or the video that plays before you even get to read the page. Those things are annoying enough at the best of times, never mind when you’re on the world’s slowest internet connection.

Install something like Adblock Plus to selectively prevent that stuff from being downloaded, and you can speed up your surfing and reduce your frustration at the same time. Success!

Work offline

Sick of waiting for your favourite news site to load, or email to refresh when you hit reply? Switch to an offline version instead, and take that slow connection right out of the equation.

Gmail has an offline mode for just that purpose, and other webmail providers can be used with programs like Microsoft Outlook or Mac Mail. Worst-case scenario, just compose your new emails in a text editor and paste them in when your connection gets a little better.

Apps like Pocket can be used to save any web page for offline reading, while RSS readers like Byline or Newsrob can be set up to cache your favourite sites so you don’t need an internet connection while you’re reading them.

Have you got any tips for speeding up horrible internet connections? Share them in the comments…

Product and website images via their respective companies

11 ways to speed up your internet connection when travelling is a post from Too Many Adapters

All in this edition of Travel Tech News for May 8, 2013.

Does your phone need protection? Use a condom.

Have you ever been right there in the moment, about to have an amazing experience, and thought "damnit, I really wish I had a condom right now?"

Well, as long as that experience is something involving your smartphone needing protection from the elements, you need never be caught without a condom again. Firebox has released a new range of ‘smartphone sheaths‘ for iPhones and the Samsung Galaxy 3 that you can keep in your wallet and whip out when the need arises. As it were.

The sheaths apparently protect from water, sand and dirt while retaining full touchscreen and call capability, and 98% camera clarity. Which is good news really – you definitely want your photos to be as sharp as possible when you’ve got a condom on, we reckon.

New flight search engine – lowest fares with a twist

Hot on the heels of our flight search roundup last month, a new player has appeared in the market – and it has a unique angle. Hubskip is still in beta – which means you can search but not book – but the basic premise is very interesting.

Essentially the company has a proprietary algorithm that looks at flight cost fluctuations over time and predicts what the price is likely to do.  If you book your ticket through Hubskip it will hold off on purchasing the flight until it believes the price is at its lowest (up until two weeks before departure).  If the price drops after your book it on the system, the company will refund you a percentage of the difference (and pocket the rest).

Apparently Hubskip guarantees to get you on your flight – even if that means upgrading you to business class – so the risk to the customer is minimal.  June 1 is launch day for the booking component, and we’ll definitely be checking it out.

Binoculars suddenly get awesome

Yeah we know, binoculars are kind of old school. I actually took a pair with me to go wildlife spotting in Africa in 1999 – and then never used them again. With superzoom cameras getting ever better (and cheaper), it might have seemed that binoculars were slowly heading the way of the dodo.

Sony thinks otherwise, however, with the second generation of its high-end digital binocular product.  The Sony DEV-50 has 25x zoom, is water and dust-resistant and has both image stabilisation and low-light boosting technology.  Of most interest, however, is the ability for the binoculars to shoot 20-megapixel still images, full HD video and even in (wait for it) 3D thanks to the twin lenses.

You’ll need to drop some serious cash to pick up the DEV-50 when it launches next month – somewhere around the $2000 mark.  If you’re a serious fan of wildlife spotting or other long-distance viewing and recording, though, they could be just what you’re after.

Back up iPhone photos without computer or internet

If you’re the kind of minimalist traveller that likes to cart round as little tech as possible, you may well choose to travel with just a smartphone instead of a camera, laptop and all the rest. That’s all well and good – and an approach I tried myself – but there’s a problem when it comes to backup.

If you don’t have reliable access to a good internet connection, offloading those valuable pics to somewhere a little safer can be a real challenge. Enter the iFlash, an 8 or 16Gb flash drive that can connect to both an iOS device and a laptop.  Simply download photos from your Apple device to the drive and away you go.

You can either just use the iFlash like that, making it a small and simple backup solution, or you can use it as a way of transferring files backwards and forwards between a range of different devices.  Either way, if you’re travelling light, it definitely helps with the peace of mind.

Images via Firebox, Hubskip, Sony and PhotoJojo

Travel tech news: May 8, 2013 is a post from Too Many Adapters

As you may have gathered from some of my previous posts, I spend much of my time on the road dealing with broken screens, corrupted hard drives, water-clogged phones and my inability to find a protective case that actually does what it’s supposed to.

Having said that, I’m now two years into my travels and I think I’ve finally worked out a way to limit the destruction. It seems to be working as the only things I’ve broken in 2013 are a camera lens and the volume control on my headphones.

Not bad considering this is how unlucky I’ve been for the last two years.

My clumsiness credentials 

iPhone 4

Ah, my iPhone. The very first of my travelling casualties.

Though it was my first casualty, it was the one that upset me the least. Leaving England with a locked phone meant that I wouldn’t be picking up local sim cards as I travelled — the only reason for carrying it was for emergencies. Within weeks, I had realised I had absolutely no use for the phone and so it somehow ended up in the bottom of my shower bag, where it remained for the next six months.

I loved travelling without a phone and so was almost relieved when it finally stopped working. The substantial water damage and massive cracks across the screen were not at all surprising when I finally removed it from my bag to throw away.

Kindle Keyboard 3G

I managed to break five Kindles in the space of a year and Amazon replaced every single one without question, making them awesome and me a clumsy idiot.

Canon 18-55mm lens

While bickering childishly with Dave in New Zealand, I worked myself up into such a fury that I ended up losing my temper because I am apparently still five years old. Instead of throwing my water bottle down in a rage, I got my hands mixed up and ended up throwing my camera across a field. Remarkably, the camera escaped unscathed. The lens, however?

Not so much…

Macbook Pro

I am absolutely astonished that I have yet to completely destroy my laptop, given that I spend close to every waking second using it. However, that’s not to say that it hasn’t had more than its fair share of incidents.

There was the time I managed to spill a drop of beer on my trackpad, which then caused my curser to whizz around the screen like a madman for months and months.

Not learning that laptops and alcohol do not mix, a few months later I managed to pour a margarita onto my keyboard. The screen went black, the hard drive whirred to a halt, the keyboard freaked out so that pressing the spacebar would type a Q and pressing Q would type a Y, etc. Somehow, unexpectedly, a few days later the laptop was functioning perfectly again. The keys are working as they should and I’ve had nothing dodgy happen in the six months that followed this incident.

Oh, apart from the time I took off the keys to clean underneath them and managed to leave the M key behind in a guesthouse in Thailand.

Macbook charger

Apple’s MagSafe chargers are notoriously unreliable and so it’s no surprise that I’ve managed to break two of them when travelling. The first blew a fuse in a dodgy power outlet in the Philippines and the second had become so tangled up in my bag that it developed a loose connection and only worked intermittently.

External hard drive

I always keep my external hard drive in my daypack when travelling so that I’m never separated from it. Despite being overly paranoid about keeping it safe, the hard drive had still managed to work its way to the bottom of the pack, getting smashed around and dropped on the ground.

Needless to say, when I poured the margarita over my laptop and freaked out that I’d lost everything, I instantly grabbed my external hard drive, put it in Dave’s laptop… and realised it was no longer working.

Headphones

I love my Monster Inspiration headphones and can’t get through a single flight without them. However, on one of these plane journeys I somehow managed to snap off the volume control cover for the heaphones…

So what do you do if, like me, you are extremely accident-prone, have very little common sense, own valuable technology you want to keep protected while travelling — but at the same time know that it’s unlikely to survive the entire journey without a bit of help? 

After breaking device after device after device and having to shell out thousands of dollars to keep replacing them, I knew something had to change. I spent hours researching cases, covers, bags and back-up options, all while attempting to pack my bag a little more cautiously.

These are the things that have worked best.

How to protect your tech from a buffoon like me

iPhone case

When I recently bought an iPhone 5, I knew that I didn’t want to blow $1000 on a phone that I was going to end up breaking within a few months. This phone would have to last for years!

I picked up a case as soon I bought the phone and the fact that it covers and protects every exposed area of my phone means that there still isn’t a single scratch on the phone and that I’m able to casually drop it on the ground and know that it won’t break.

I’d previously only used iPhone cases that cover the back of the phone and part of the sides and my phone would always end up scratched within days of use. I’ve had this phone for 6 months and there’s close to no marks or blemishes anywhere on the phone!

Any case similar to this one would work well and you should probably pick up a few screen protectors too so that you can keep every part of your phone scratch-free.

Kindle case

As I found myself breaking every Kindle I used within weeks of receiving it, I found myself trying covers, sleeves and bags and yet, every single time my Kindle ever underwent any kind of pressure, they would let me down and the screen would end up smashed. I bought this case from Amazon back in December and my Kindle is still going strong! That’s five months without breaking a Kindle.

Prior to buying this case, I’d never had one last more than a month. 

External hard drive cover

When I replaced my broken external hard drive a few months ago, I knew I couldn’t let my new one get into the same state. Not wanting to spend the money on a case, I decided to keep it in the packaging it came in. This has worked perfectly and the hard drive looks as good as new.

Laptop keyboard cover

I used to carry a keyboard cover when I first started travelling but managed to lose it somewhere along the way and didn’t bother replacing it. Of course, MargaritaGate happened and I quickly saw the benefit of having a keyboard cover to protect your laptop’s insides from citrus, salty, alcoholic cocktails. I bought this keyboard cover and it’s great to have peace of mind whenever I happen to have my laptop anywhere near liquids.

Spare MacBook charger

Given that I’ve always found Apple’s MagSafe chargers to be extremely breakable and the fact that it’s not always easy to find an Apple Store in third world countries, I now carry a spare with me just in case mine breaks and I can’t get a replacement anytime soon. If you work online like I do, then it would be wise to consider doing the same.

Case for SD cards

I’ve been fortunate to have never lost or damaged any of my SD cards and I attribute this to having a waterproof SD card case. The case can store 4 SD cards and multiple miniSD and XD cards. I make sure to back up all of the photos on the cards before putting them in the case, just in case I happen to lose it  - and all my photos with it.

Backing up

Given my luck when it comes to technology, it’s inevitable that one day I will end up breaking my laptop. To try and minimise the chaos this would cause to my life, I back up my laptop to my external hard drive every week and email any super important documents to myself.

If you want even more reassurance that all of your files will be protected when your laptop dies then check out our storage recommendations and take a look at the Crashplan review, which gives you standard cloud and offline backup, as well as the option to backup to another computer. You know, just in case you happen to break both your laptop and external hard drive at once…

Smugmug

More than anything else, I would be absolutely devastated if ever I were to lose all of my photos from my travels. In order to prevent this ever happening, I upload all of my photos to Smugmug on a weekly basis, both edited and unedited versions. I get unlimited storage, the ability to download my photos and whenever any of your photos are deleted Smugmug places them into a queue, not a void. Given that I once had somebody hack into my old PhotoBucket account and delete six years worth of photos (that I was then unable to recover and lost forever) this is one of the most important features for me.

And so, after two years of repeatedly destroying the contents of my backpack, I finally think I’ve got the hang of this whole keeping-your-tech-working malarky. Of course only time will tell, but hopefully this means I won’t need to spend quite so much money replacing broken gear in the future!

Have you ever had as much bad luck as me when it comes to travel and technology? How do you manage to keep all of your devices safe?

Lessons Learned From Destroying All The Tech I Travel With is a post from Too Many Adapters

Nope, what you need is a particularly engrossing game on your phone or tablet to help the hours drift by.  With tens of thousands of games in both the Apple and Google app stores, though, which ones are worth your time?

Well, to get things started, here’s ten of our favourites – all perfect ways to waste time on long journeys.  They’re all available on both iOS and Android, so you’ve got no excuse not to go and grab them all.

Plague Inc

Plague is quite possibly the best distraction tool I have ever found, bar none.  I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve said "I’ll just have a quick game" … and still been sitting there trying to infect that last damn country several hours later.

With the premise of killing off the entire global population in all manner of nasty ways, you carefully evolve an infectious disease over time to do its evil work before scientists develop a cure.  It’s incredibly addictive, with a dark humour that appeals greatly.  There’s something strangely satisfying about being able to name your own disease and watch the scourge of ‘Travel Blogging’ destroy the world.

Apparently I’m not the only person that thinks so – it’s one of the most downloaded games on either app store.

Available on iOS ($0.99) and Android (limited version free, full version $0.99)

Granny Smith

Have you ever fancied yourself as an elderly granny on rollerskates determined to thwart evil criminals hell-bent on stealing your apples?  Yeah, me neither.  Still, despite not being able to identify particularly well with the central character, Granny Smith is a remarkably addictive game.

With fun cartoon-style graphics and a slick physics model that sees our fearless granny wiping out in all kinds of interesting ways, this is a game with a perfect difficulty curve – easy to get in to, but becoming increasingly difficult as you make your way through the levels.  The "just one more game" factor is extremely high.

Available on iOS and Android (limited versions free, full versions $1.99)

Hill Climb Racing

Hill Climb Racing is one of those games where its simplicity is a major reason behind its addictiveness.  With all of two controls – stop and go – and fairly rudimentary graphics and sound, its not particularly taxing on either your hardware or your brain.

Despite that, though, it’s just a whole lot of fun.  With ten upgradeable vehicles and 11 stages, all with wildly different characteristics, you’ll still be trying to climb that mountain or creep through that cave system as morning breaks on your overnight bus trip.  With new levels and cars being released every month or two, this is a game with serious longevity.

Available on iOS and Android (free)

Super Monsters Ate My Condo

Looking for a new and colourful way to drain your battery?  Well, the fun, frenetic and rather odd Super Monsters Ate My Condo could well be it.  Garish monsters jump up and down beside an increasingly-unstable tower of condos that fall from the sky.  Flicking unwanted condos out of the way allows colour matches to be made, yielding points and upgrades and deactivating the ‘evil’ condos that make an all-too-regular appearance.

With all manner of objectives to master (and the odd irritating bug to overcome), your desire to play the game will almost certainly outlast the charge in your phone.

Available on iOS and Android (free)

Hills of Glory 3D

Ok, we lied slightly when I said that all of these games are available for iOS and Android – Hills of Glory 3D came out on Android a couple of weeks ago, but it’s not quite ready on iOS yet.  It’s so much fun, though, that I couldn’t not mention it.

If you’re a fan of tower defence-style games (I am) and WW2 games (I am) and games-with-remarkably-good-graphics-for-a-mobile-device (I absolutely am), then this will be right up your alley.  It’s definitely a challenge, especially without spending real money for in-game credits, but one that you’ll happily devote an entire plane ride to overcoming and then some.

It would probably be a little easier on a tablet than a phone – the different control mechanisms for each weapon can be tricky to pull off on the smaller screen – but either way, you won’t be putting it down in a hurry once you’ve started playing.

Available on Android (free)

Amazing Alex

From Rovio (you know, the people behind that little Angry Birds franchise) comes Amazing Alex, another great way of losing several hours of your life.

Reminding me a lot of The Impossible Machine game I played as a teenager, the idea is that you place a bunch of everyday items (ropes, buckets, scissors, that kind of thing) to achieve a relatively simple goal like popping a balloon in an overly-complicated way.  Rube Goldberg machines, anyone?

And of course, it wouldn’t be a Rovio game without having to try to gain three stars. With 100-odd levels you’re not going to run out of annoyingly difficult challenges in a hurry, even if you do run out of patience.

Available on iOS and Android (free, $0.99 to remove adverts)

Jetpack Joyride

When I first saw this game, I thought "ho hum, another side-scrolling arcade game, how much fun could it be?". And then I downloaded it and played it for five straight hours. Right, so, apparently quite a lot then.

There is literally just one control in Jetpack Joyride. One. You press the screen to go up. When you’re not pressing it, you go down. That’s it. And yet somehow Halfbrick Studios have made one of the most compelling mobile games I’ve ever come across. Incredible attention to detail and neat little touches, approximately a bajillion upgrades and objectives and just a total sense of fun make this game an absolute winner.

Oh, and it’s free. Just go get it already.

Available on iOS and Android

Quell

If you’re looking for something a little more cerebral, try Quell.  The idea is deceptively simple, just guiding a droplet around a series of small mazes filled with various obstacles and collecting pearls along the way.  The droplet moves in a straight line until something stops it, and there is an optimum number of moves to finish each stage.

Unlike the frenzy of games like D-Day or Super Monsters Ate My Condo, the graphics, soundtrack and gameplay evoke a surprising sense of calm.  Perfect when everyone else around you on the train is sleeping and you’re wanting to do the same – even if in reality you know you’ll still be playing it many hours later…

Available on iOS and Android (free, or $1.99 without adverts)

Frontline Commando: D-Day

For a long time I’ve been put off first or third-person shooting games on mobile devices – the graphics and gameplay never quite seemed to good enough to justify the battery drain.  Last week, though, I came across D-Day, a WW2 action game that gets it right.  While my phone’s charge levels still drop alarmingly after playing for a while, at least the game itself is a lot of fun.

D-Day simplifies or eliminates actions that don’t matter so much – movement, for instance – in order to focus on the action. Pick a weapon (upgradeable, of course), aim with one finger and fire with the other. Duck in and out of cover, lob a grenade or two to keep things interesting and when you’ve cleared the area, move on to the next one.  The graphics are remarkably crisp and fluid, even on a relatively old phone, and sound effects useful without being overpowering.

All in all, definitely worth the download.

Available on iOS and Android (free)

Triple Town

I’ll admit, I was surprised that I liked this game. With cutsey graphics and sounds, and a very basic premise (match 3 items to make a bigger item, and slowly build a ‘city’ in the process), Triple Town didn’t seem like something that would hold my attention.  And yet, hours later, apparently it did.

There’s not much to say about it really – it’s a simple concept brilliantly executed, and won’t unduly tax your hardware in the process.  You can play Triple Town for a few hours and still have enough juice to find your hotel once you get off the plane.  Fun times.

Available on iOS and Android (free)

So there are ten of our favourite games that we use to while away the hours on yet another long journey.  What are yours?

10 great time-wasting games for long journeys is a post from Too Many Adapters

How I tested

I wanted to look at a whole range of accommodation options so I chose 6 hostels and budget hotels from 6 continents — with all of my choices being places I’ve either stayed at over the past year or am planning to stay in this year. I also chose a arbitrary date to search with, the night of the 1st July 2013.

I chose the following hostels:

- Essaouira Hostel, Essaouira, Morocco — 6-bed female dorm with shared bathroom for one person.

- Hostel Celica, Ljubljana, Slovenia — 4-bed mixed dorm with private bathroom for one person.

- Nomad SuCasa All Suite Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — 2 bedroom apartment for four people.

- Silverfern Backpackers, Auckland, New Zealand — 4-bed mixed dorm with private bathroom for one person.

- Pacific Hotel, Seattle, United States — Queen room with private bathroom for one person.

- Art Factory, Buenos Aires, Argentina — 6-bed mixed dorm with shared bathroom for one person.

There were many different factors I could have chosen but given that I’m looking at budget accommodation, I decided to go with the result that gave the cheapest price.

The sites I chose

With hundreds of hotel booking websites out there, it was hard whittling them down to a reasonable number — I settled for the following 8 sites. I included a mixture of hostel and hotel search sites, choosing the hotel sites that frequently offer budget accommodation options.

- A hostel website I use all the time: HostelBookers

- A hostel website I use as a second option: HostelWorld

- A hostel website I’ve never used before: HostelsClub

- A hotel website that offers “the lowest price guaranteed”: Agoda

- A hotel website that also offers the “best price guaranteed”: Booking

- A hotel website I used to use before I became a budget traveller: Expedia

- A hotel website that claims “one of the widest selections of accommodation”: Hotels

- A hotel website I’ve never used before: Venere

I loaded each website in a new, incognito browser window on Chrome (just in case the sites use cookies to remember my searches and show higher prices to me as a repeat visitor) and performed my searches.

How did they fare?

Before starting this study I half expected every site to throw up the same price, but was surprised to discover just how much inconsistency there was. Some websites claimed there was no availability for the date I chose, whereas others showed there were over 50 rooms available and, aside from a couple of times, none of the prices shown were identical.

HostelBookers was the clear winner in terms of price. Given that it claims on its website to be on average 7.9% cheaper than HostelWorld this wasn’t too much of a surprise. HostelBookers have no booking fees whereas HostelWorld charges a $2.00 service fee for every booking, which ended up making them noticeably more expensive.

The huge surprise, for me, was that HostelWorld was the most expensive site for nearly every room I checked.

HostelsClub proved that I had never heard of it for good reason, being extremely difficult to navigate and not ever showing availability for any of the hostels it listed.

In terms of hotel-specific websites that cover budget accommodation, I’d choose either Agoda or Booking as the best option to use in terms of availability and price. Expedia, Hotels and Venere were all frustrating to use and didn’t list many of the accommodation options I checked.

	Morocco	Slovenia	Malaysia	New Zealand	United States	Argentina
HostelBookers	$13.01	$39.02	$138.48	$23.74	$99.00	$13.54
HostelWorld	$15.69	$43.02	Not listed	$26.97	Not available	$16.23
HostelsClub	Not available	Not available	Not listed	Not available	Not available	Not listed
Agoda	Not available	$39.10	$141.34	$23.75	$129.00	$18.02
Booking	$13.03	$39.08	$133.38	$26.24	$141.26	$18.09
Expedia	$14.17	Not listed	$133.89	Not listed	$168.34	Not listed
Hotels	Not available	Not listed	$134.00	Not listed	$141.00	Not listed
Venere	$13.98	Not listed	$133.89	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed

Of course, price wasn’t the only factor I looked at. I played around with the websites and mobile apps for a while and came up with a list of pros and cons for each one.

HostelBookers

Pros: HostelBookers’ website is simple and easy to use. It consistently found the cheapest price and doesn’t have any booking/service fees lumped onto the final price.

Given that HostelWorld claims to have 35,000 properties on its website and HostelBookers just 20,000, I was surprised to find that for the cities I looked at HostelBookers actually had more options, as shown in the table below.

	Essaouira	Ljubljana	Kuala Lumpur	Auckland	Seattle	Buenos Aires
HostelBookers	57	33	93	41	11	95
HostelWorld	33	54	67	37	10	119

Cons: The only time HostelBookers failed to offer the cheapest price was when I checked for a hotel (Nomad SuCasa) instead of a hostel.

HostelWorld

Pros: HostelWorld was easy to navigate and use. It occasionally threw up an odd result, such as the hostel in Seattle, which showed plenty of availability on other accommodation sites but was listed as full on HostelWorld.

The one feature HostelWorld has that the others don’t is the availability to look at accommodation with partial availability. If there isn’t a room available for your entire stay then on any of the other websites it’s listed as unavailable. HostelWorld, however, still lists these rooms. This is especially useful if you have your heart set on a specific hostel and don’t mind changing rooms mid-stay.

Cons: HostelWorld gave the most expensive prices for all but one of the hostels I checked, thanks to the $2.00 service fee that is added to every booking.

HostelsClub

I had never heard of HostelsClub before beginning this research and it would appear there was a very good reason for this.

It sucks.

Pros: None whatsoever.

Cons: Whilst it listed almost every hostel I checked for, every time I entered my dates it claimed there was no availability for the room I was looking for. The one time it did show availability (for Essaouira) it listed only an 8 bed dorm, even though the other sites had multiple different room options shown as available.

Another interesting feature HostelsClub has is the inability to calculate how long a stay is in nights. When you enter in a stay of one night, it counts that as a stay from 1st July to the 1st July. A two night stay gave me dates of the 1st July – 2nd July.

Okay then.

I think it’s safe to say that there is absolutely no reason for you to ever use HostelsClub.

Agoda

Pros: I found Agoda to be much easier to use when I was on the iPhone app instead of the website.

There’s a reward system where you can earn points worth 4-7% of the hotel price on every booking and use those points to reduce your rate at a hotel you stay at in the future.

Agoda also offers a price guarantee where if you find the same room listed cheaper online, it will match or beat that price.

Cons: While the iPhone app is slick, simple and easy to use, the website is clunky, cluttered and frustrating to navigate. Agoda also advertises some pretty ridiculous discounts. Nomad SuCasa was reduced from $663 to $141 on Agoda, for instance, whereas the standard rate for the hotel on all other websites was between $130-$140.

Agoda’s rates also do not always include service charges or local taxes, which can add substantially to the final price you pay.

Booking.com

Pros: Booking.com is easy to use and has a simple booking system. Like Agoda, the mobile app was a lot easier to use than the cluttered website. Booking.com was also the only hotel-specific website that listed all of the beds I checked — and almost all of the prices were lower than HostelWorld’s.

Booking.com has a best price guarantee system where, once you’ve made the booking, if you find the same room cheaper anywhere else, it will match or beat the price.

Cons: The website is complicated and a little frustrating to use. Like Agoda, service fees and taxes are often not included in the price quoted making the total price more expensive than advertised.

Expedia

Pros: As with the hotel sites I mentioned above, Expedia has a much better mobile app than website.

The taxes and service charges are included in the price quoted on Expedia so you won’t have to pay for anything when you arrive at your hotel.

Expedia also has a price match service where if you find a better rate within 48 hours, it’ll match it and give you a $50 coupon.

Cons: Availability isn’t great for budget accommodation and the prices weren’t the cheapest either.

Hotels.com

Pros: None that I could find.

Cons: For a website that claims on its about page to “give travellers one of the widest selections of accommodation on the net”, Hotels.com clearly isn’t referring to budget travellers.

This was one of the most frustrating websites I’ve ever used and its results didn’t really make sense. The app is just as annoying as the website, asking me five times in five seconds if I’d like to allow push notifications — and then automatically opening a browser window to register the app. And then the app crashed. Once the app stopped freaking out it was reasonably easy to book a hotel — but I’d still choose Agoda or Booking over Hotels.com any day.

Hotels.com also had issues with availability. For Essaouira Hostel, it originally showed plenty of dorm rooms… until I changed the currency to US dollars and then it suddenly listed only private rooms as being available. No matter what settings I changed, I could not get it to show the dorm room options again. Also, for Nomad SuCasa, it showed ony two-bedroom apartments as available, whereas the other sites showed 1 bedroom apartments too.

Venere

Pros: None that I could find.

Cons: Just another generic booking site that didn’t offer a huge amount of availability or particularly low prices.

So, which is best?

I think it’s safe to say that, in terms of price, availability and usability, HostelBookers is, by far, the best site overall for budget travellers and as a long-time user, I’m happy that I can continue using it for the foreseeable future.

If ever I couldn’t find a hostel on HostelBookers in the past, I would always head over to HostelWorld as my second option – but I won’t be doing this any more. After seeing HostelWorld bring up the highest prices for all but one hostel, I’ll be using Agoda and Booking as my backup options instead.

With all of that said, Hostelworld recently acquired Hostelbookers so it’ll certainly be interesting to see what happens in the future — HostelWorld bought Hostels.com a while back and it’s now basically exactly the same as HostelWorld but with a different theme. It would be a shame if that happens to HostelBookers too!

Which site do you use when searching for accommodation, and why?

Budget Accommodation Websites: Which is Best? is a post from Too Many Adapters

Alarm Clock Plus

Sometimes it’s the simple things in life that matter … and things doesn’t get much simpler than an alarm clock, right?  Apparently the folks at Binary Tactics didn’t think so, and Alarm Clock Plus was the end result.  Oversleeping while travelling is more than just an inconvenience – it can be a downright wallet-busting mistake if you miss that early morning train or flight – and Alarm Clock Plus gives all sorts of ways to avoid that fate.

You can choose to wake up to a buzzer, music and/or a flashing light, and even require answering a maths problem to turn the damn thing off.  It can be set to ignore the system volume (so it will sound even when the device is in silent mode), and if you’re like me and rather enjoy afternoon naps after a long morning of exploration, there’s even a "nap mode" to wake you up after a pre-set length of time.

I use this app virtually every day, and highly recommend it.

Lookout Security and Antivirus

Security is one of those boring things that we’d rather not think about, especially when it comes to our phones and tablets.  Sadly, though, that’s precisely the kind of attitude that gives attackers an easy target, especially as our mobile devices get more powerful and have access to our email, bank accounts and more.  Malware, viruses, dodgy apps … and don’t even start me on the risk of having the entire phone stolen, especially if it is our only way of staying connected from the road.

There are several security products out there that claim to make these problems go away, but one that recently caught my eye was Lookout Security and Antivirus.  It has all of the standard security features like virus detection and cleaning, but it was some of the extra stuff that made it stand out from the crowd.  If your phone is lost or stolen you can force it to make an offensively loud noise, lock the phone, track it on Google Maps or, if all else fails, wipe the data on it (with the premium version).  That same non-free version also lets you see exactly what data all of your apps can access, block dangerous URLs and other useful features.

Definitely worth a look.

Juice Defender

Sick of your smartphone going flat all the time?  Yeah, me too.  While it’s certainly not a problem that’s limited to Android devices, there are at least a few apps out there that attempt to make the inevitable shut-down happen a little less frequently.  One of those is Juice Defender, a freemium app that gives you ultimate control over all of the different ways to eke out a little more battery life from your phone.

There are a range of default settings that are more or less aggressive in the way they manage your battery-draining hardware, but I found that even the standard options gave a noticeable improvement.  One of the most obvious ways that the app achieves this is by turning off your cellular connection when the screen locks, waking up every 15 minutes to check for emails etc.  Given what a battery hog cellular data can be (especially 4G), the savings really added up over the course of a day.

Of course there are many other settings as well, for those inclined to tinker with them.  Well worth a play with the free version to see how much benefit your particular device gets.

Bump

The first time I saw the Bump app it seemed like something that would be fun for about half an hour before being deleted.  The idea of being able to swap contact information with a fellow traveller just by ‘bumping’ your phones together sounded cool, but unless by some slim chance you both happened to have a smartphone with the app already installed, not something you’d often use in the real world.

I happened to come across it again recently, however, and the app has grown up and gained some extra features that now make it more valuable.  You can now send photos as well as contacts, but even more interestingly, you can also ‘bump’ to a computer as well.

Simply load the app and choose as many photos, files, contacts or whatever as you like, then go to bu.mp in the browser of any computer you happen to have access to.  Tap the phone on the spacebar, confirm the transfer on your phone and, as if by magic, everything just uploads.  For those who travel without a laptop, this seems like a slick and easy way of sharing photos, or backing up photos in an internet cafe or anywhere else they have access to a computer for a few minutes.  Have a play and see whether you think it’s any use (or whether you manage to break your space bar).

Speedtest.net

And finally, for the masochistic among us who really want to know precisely how bad their hostel internet is, there’s Speedtest.net. With one tap you can run a speed test of whatever internet connection you happen to be using, whether it’s your phone’s cellular connection, hotel wi-fi or anything else.  Wanting to know whether you’ll be able to have that important Skype call in a couple of hours, download your favourite TV episode or watch that crucial cat video on Youtube?  Find out ahead of time with this simple little app.

There’s also a ‘history’ section that keeps the details of every test you’ve run, so if you’ve got nothing better to do on a rainy afternoon you can track your progress around the world by the speed of your internet connections.  Or, you know, you could do something more enjoyable like … well … anything, really.

Android Travel Apps of the Month: April 2013 is a post from Too Many Adapters

Back in the day, we didn’t need passwords. The internet was a fun and free place, full of unicorns and starfish and anonymous FTP where you could log into anyone’s servers and have a good nosy around. Kept folks honest, it did.

Nobody locked their house, ya left yer keys in yer car, and there weren’t all these millions of capital letters floatin’ about.

SSH? SSL? MD5? SHA1? Madness, I tell ya!

Not like the ol’ days. No siree.

Pass me my slippers.

Disabling Crotchety Old Man Mode

Our Present Password Predicament

Unfortunately, the unicorns are long dead and the starfish dried up years ago. Passwords and the friction they bring are now a necessary evil. As more of us move our business and personal lives online, the need to protect that data is stronger than ever. But as new, powerful and useful online services continue to pop up almost on a daily basis, who here hasn’t sighed when faced with yet another registration page asking for yet another username and password?

Well, sigh no more, young ’un! 1Password brings back some of the unicorn magic, making working on the internet just that little bit easier again.

Managing the Madness

1Password is a password safe for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android that makes storing and retrieving passwords ridiculously easy.

Simply set one last (strong) master password, using these tips, then stick all your usernames, passwords, security questions, credit card details and software keys in there and never have to remember whether it was an ‘a’ or an ‘@’ ever again.

The Benefits

1. Browser Extensions

Extensions for Chrome, Safari and Firefox allow you to autofill usernames, passwords and even credit card information straight from your browser.

Click to login. Really, it’s that easy.

Enter your master password to open the extension up and it’ll recognise the domain you’re on and provide you with the right login information. Click once to have it autofill (it’ll even click the submit button for you) and, boom, you’re in.

2. Dropbox sync

Sync your 128-bit AES encrypted keychain with Dropbox and enjoy the security that comes from knowing that your passwords are always accessible. If the worst happens and everything gets lost or stolen, you can login to your Dropbox account form any computer, grab the file (and the 1Password demo) and be up and running again in minutes.

(OK, so technically you actually have to remember two passwords, your 1Password password and your Dropbox password. Still, better than the 210 I have in my safe.)

And if you have a phone or tablet, the iOS or Android versions will give you your passwords wherever you go (all locked up and secure, of course).

3. Store (almost) Anything

As well is login details, you can store credit card information, files, and software license keys, all of which are searchable from within the app (which, believe me, is easier than searching your email for that activation email for that piece of software you bought three years ago).

Never lose a software license again.

4. Smart Folders and Tags

Slice and dice your security data however you want and be a hero to your friends, family and clients.

As the resident tech support for my family and friends, I can keep track of a lot of their passwords and login details and make their day when they can’t find that password they wrote down on the back of that receipt three years ago.

Using smart folders and tags, it’s easy to organise all of this data and have it at your fingertips when that inevitable email arrives.

5. See How Insecure You Really Are

One of the first things I did when I’d put all of my passwords in there was to create a smart folder that gathered all of the entries where I’d used the same password.

It was pretty shocking.

A well spent few hours later, and now every service I use has a new, long, secure, totally unique password.

The Issues

1. Extensions Can Be Buggy

The browser extensions can be a little buggy. I’ve had issues being able to access the details of a login through the extension. It’s not that common and a restart of the browser usually fixes it but when it happens it can be annoying—especially because it’s the part of the app that’s most used on a day to day basis.

2. The Recent ‘flaw’

There was a recently discovered design flaw in the security architecture. Ars Technica did a break down and discovered for most end users this is a non-issue, and simply reduces the time required to crack it to 482 years (instead of over a thousand) for the latest version.

Personally, I’m not worried but thought I should mention it in the interests of full disclosure.

The Verdict

Of course, having long and secure passwords is just one piece of a larger puzzle that involves two-factor authentication and encryption, but having an app that can help improve my security behaviour online whilst actually improving my daily workflow has been more than worth the price of admission.

It’s impossible to overstate how much this piece of software has made my online life easier and more secure and it remains to this day one of the best purchases I’ve ever made.

Highly recommended.

1Password is available for Mac (single user: $49.99), iOS ($17.99), Windows (single user: $49.99), and Android (free—reader only). Download the 30 day free trial.

Comic courtesy of the ever-hilarious xkcd

Review: 1Password is a post from Too Many Adapters