TechTraveler

Chargepod overpowers your electronics mess

2007-11-21T11:00:20-06:00

When my wife and I go out of town, I seem to pack enough chargers to fill a small suitcase.
There's the chargers for two iPods, two cell phones and two PDAs.
The new chargepod, from Chicago-based Callpod Inc., fulfills the American Transcendalist call to "simplify, simplify." (Somehow, I suspect that if Henry David Thoreau were alive today, he wouldn't have schlepped an iPod to his cabin on Walden Pond.)
Chargepod will enable you to throw (thoreau?) away, or at least leave behind, that nest of cords that clog your duffel and clutter your world.
The $50 charger accommodates six devices that plug into a base unit, which resembles a gas cap from a Ferrari, that itself plugs into the wall.

For the past few years, I have used an iGo, which charged two devices at a time. Early on in the iGo era, my iPod's screen burned to a crisp. IGo denied it was their fault, I still have some lingering doubts. In any case, my video iPod has charged incident so far on the iGo.
Chargepod avoids the crisping issue with "smart" adapters that detect and deliver just the right amount juice required for each gadget. Plus, the chargepod's base unit reassuringly remains cool while iGo's heats up.
Chargepod smart adapters go for $10 each.
There is a $100 bundled product with six popular adapters covering Nokia, Motorola/mini-USB, iPod, Samsung, Palm and Sony PSP along with a wall charger and car charger and carrying case.
Check out the chargepod and the spiffy new dragon Bluetooth headsets, which can pair up as a walkie-talkie, from Callpod at callpod.com.
Move beyond chaos into electronics order with chargepod.

Triumph in dentistry: Not only Bluetooth is wireless

2007-11-12T18:05:20-06:00

Even when you travel, you should keep up with your oral hygiene.
Oral-B's New Triumph with with SmartGuide, appropriately enough in this age of wireless Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, takes toothbrushing wireless, plus the new brush is smart.

My old Oral-B power brush was rather stupid. It gave me a two-minute warning that my time was up. That was about it.
The Triumph has a standalone unit that displays the progress you're making in with your hygiene. It also lights up if you happen to apply too much pressure; not really a problem for me anyway. The floss-style brushhead has sensors that detect if you are too vigorously brushing and risking gum recession. We may have a recession coming on, but at least we can prevent gum recession and please Dr. Greenspan, DDS.
Back-lighting would be a nice addition to the display.
Oral-B says that this feedback--which includes a goofy smile after two minutes--increases average brushing time from a disappointing 47 seconds. Seconds count in this oral hygiene game, and we need 120, bunkies.
Oral-B Triumph with SmartGuide ilists for $150 and is available at department, retail and specialty stores. There's more information at www.oralb.com.
What's next? How how a brush that detects early decay and zaps it with a laser. Now that would be a triumph in dental technology.

Push-y new WorldMate version looks after travelers

2007-11-08T22:23:31-06:00

Sitting in the Dublin airport, the BlackBerry buzzed me with an alert: My sister, who started out in San Francisco, had just landed in Vilnius, Lithuania. A couple hours later, I got another alert that my son, who started out in Tel Aviv, had landed.
And in awhile, WorldMate let me know that the Aer Lingus flight for Vilnius was leaving.
WorldMate Live software, from Lod, Israel-based MobiMate, was doing its job, keeping me informed on where I needed to go, with my flight number, my conformation number and departure time.

The software offered more too: conversion rates from Lithuanian litas and American dollars
to euros, the time in Vilnius, Riga and several other cities I had selected,and the name and address of the hotel I was staying at and weather conditions
It was like having a full-time assistant, doing everything buy separating the red and green M&Ms.
WorldMate has been looking out for travelers for seven years in free and premium subscription software in a less dynamic version that forced users to do the work.
The new version pushes live information. Live was introduced on BlackBerrys, the phone most commonly used by MobiMate customers. WorldMate Live will be available on other phones in the months ahead.
WorldMate was more efficient than tracking a trip: gathering e-mail confirmations for hotels, flights and then printing them out.
Register and check into your account at worldmatelive. com and add your travel information along with meeting times and addresses.
The software packages it in a well-organized itinerary.
You can export travel information to WorldMate Live from confirmation e-mails.
Once the itinerary is saved, it is available in minutes on your phone.
E-mail a copy of the itinerary to friends and family.
I tried WorldMate Live on a Blackberry 8300 World Edition from Verizon. downloaded the software and an airplane icon for WorldMate Live. appeared. I entered hotel phone numbers and addresses.
Premium Gold Membership, costs $9.95 per month, or $99.95 a year, WorldMate Live pushes alerts to the phone. It pushes users information when there is a change in
flight status, such as a delay, a cancellation or a gate change.
The non-push version is free.
In any case, to be safe, you still might bring along those printouts.

OSHO Marco: Preventing tooth decay--and international incidents

2007-10-18T17:51:07-05:00

Our encounter at the security check at Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City had all the earmarks of an international incident as we switched from a US international flight to a domestic flight to Veracruz.
Our bag went through the X-ray device, but it was causing a stir.
The problem? There was a noise in the valise.
A couple of tough-looking Indian--Native Mexicans?--soldiers came running up. They appeared very concerned. They looked like the guys you see there armed with submachine gubs.
We unzipped the bag to reveal a fully charged electric troothbrush that inadvertently had been turned on in the baggage handling.
The soliders relaxed and we all had a laugh.
Incident over? Not really. I wondered what we could do to avoid it from happening again. I bought a cheapo power brush for a trip to Europe that had a removable battery.
By taking out the battery, I hoped to avoid a repeat. I did. But then the brush sucked. It simply wasn’t as powerful as my regular brush.
I found another solution: the OSHO Marko travel toothbrush. This sleek brush, available in chrome or clear models, looks like a big fat pen. But inside, it’s all toothbrush. It has changeable brushes so two or more can share.
Plus, you can “upload” your favorite toothbrush into the handle, simply by hooking up the “universal adapter” to your regular brand and squeezing. The latest in “suction” technology works like a charm.
A water-tight O-ring holds the cap on so you don’t get leakage. Presumably this O-ring works better than that on the Challenger Shuttle.
Put some paste on the brush and apply old-fashioned elbow grease.
The OSHO Marko whitens your teeth and lightens your load, sparing you from taking your toothpaste tube along.
Marko goes for $18 from ThinkGeek $20 and can be purchased at www.go-ohso.com, or a bit more from amazon.com and other e-tailers. A package of three replacement heads sells for about $8.
The OSHO Marko can help prevent cavities—and international incidents.

Sony's Reader: Beware the Prints of Darkness

2007-10-13T06:06:00-05:00

A friend of mine used to hole up at the Indiana Dunes for a couple weeks every year with a suitcase full of books. He would read night and day, ran or shone, for the duration of his vacation. It was his idea of heaven.
Sony’s Portable Reader System, the PRS-500, would seem to hold promise for voracious readers like him--who want to travel light. The half-inch thick, 8.8-ounce, is supposed to hold up to 160 e-books.
I gave it a spin on a transatlantic flight. I went the Connect bookstore, sort of like a literary iTunes store, where a huge variety of books were available for reasonable prices. I got an e-copy of “Kite Runner” I also went to a free e-book store and picked up Dracula by Bram Stoker. After all, I was heading to Dublin, where Bram wrote the book.
I also put back-up copies of my passport and hotels in the device.
On the darkened plane, on an overnight flight, I really was looking forward to reading about the Prince of Darkness. Instead, I got the Print of Darkness.
Sony claims the pages display on the six-inch LCD screen look like ink on paper. On its Web site, Sony says: “Viewing text on the Reader Digital Book's screen is just like reading text on paper. Unlike the display of a laptop screen which is backlit and can strain your eyes, viewing pages on the Reader Digital Book is as comfortable as on a real book. But unlike a real book, the Reader Digital Book's text is scalable, conveniently allowing you to adjust the size of text.”
Maybe. But I found the display extremely disappointing.
Years ago, I tried out some e-books. One of them had added illumination that brightened the page.
If the $300 did such a great job of displaying pages, why would Sony be selling a $15 book light as an accessory?
I noticed that Accenture had an early e-book on display in its Chicago lab as an example of a faulty technology.
Sony needs to do better with its Reader or else it’s destined for a spot on that wall of shame.
Meanwhile, readers, my advice is to leave the e-book at home. Just take an old-fashioned analog-type book…if you still support that technology.

Computer-free Skype calling via MOBIVOX

2007-10-10T18:45:36-05:00

I use Skype for virtually all my domestic and international
long-distance at home. I have used WiFi Skype phones in a pinch away
from home—or even while on my exercise bike.
But what do you do, when you are not tethered to your computer and are
are unable to reach a WiFi network?
MOBIVOX may be the answer to your calling needs.
This free service enables you to have free or cheap long-distance
calling on Skype when you are on the go and computerless. I have used
it on a mobile phone while riding on a commuter train. Also, I made
long-distance using the dynamic duo of MOBIVOX and Skype on a
landline.

You sign up at mobivox.com, listing the phones you're most likely to
be calling in on. This way MOBIVOX's digital operator, VoxGirl, can
identify you when you call.
The perky voice says hello to you and asks who you would like to
reach. I named a friend in London. VoxGirl identified the name on my
list of Skype contacts and put the call through for free.
Calls can be put through MOBIVOX or Skype. But most people I want to
reach are on Skype—plus I have dollars on account with Skype for this
purpose should I need to dial outside the Skype contacts.
Recipients of MOBIVOX calls get a brief promotional announcement
mentioning who is calling.
You reach MOBIVOX via an access number. MOBIVOX has 400 access numbers
in 38 countries. I found an access number for Dublin when I was there
this summer, but none for Vilnius, Lithuania, or Riga, Lativa. But
MOBIVOX added those cities recently.
Another cool feature: You can have VoxGirl hand your call off from a cell phone which carried as you walked, say onto your home or office landline. Amazing stuff.
The only charge for MOBIVOX—unless you use the system to call people
outside Skype or MOBIVOX registered calls—is the cost of calling the
access number.
By punching the * key, you can add up to nine people in a conference call.
I found VoxGirl's speech recognition was generally spot on, especially
if I just mentioned my contact's first name. MOBIVOX notes that
"non-fluent" English speakers can use their keypads to dial.

GotVoice, will travel

2007-10-10T06:32:00-05:00

Sitting at a public computer in the lobby of a hotel in the old city in Vilnius, Lithuania, I listened to phone messages forwarded to me from my office phone and cell phone. I was able to keep up with goings on at home--without making an international long-distance call.
I received the messages through GotVoice.com, a VocieMail forwarding and transcription service.
I've tried a couple similar services for cell phones. GotVoice's does cell phones, but it also has cracked the code for digitizing VMs on office PBXs. Important messages don't just come over cell phones, so the addition of the PBX service is significant.
Sorry, but GotVoice steers clear of home answering machines.
I had some problems setting up the MP3 player for GotVocie on Verizon's BlackBerry World Edition. But once, I got it going, I was listening to my messages on the phone. Before that, I went to GotVoice.com to listen in on the messages.
GotVoice launched a transcription service.in September.
As a person who tends not to listen to entire VMs, it's helpful to get the transcriptions so I quickly can see the gist of calls and pick up names and numbers.
As with its transcription rivals, GotVoice is less than perfect. There is a wide range of accuracy in GotVoice's transcriptions.Some are dead-on and others miss the mark. Another problem is that it can takes hours for the transcripts to be completed. The company blames the delays on the popularity of the service.
GotVoice allows you to answer your messages in several ways. You can record responses on a computer or a phone. You can type out a text message and have it transformed to speech and sent to a VM or e-mail box. You can send out messages--with sound effects like a babbling brook--to a VM without ringing the recipient's phone and disturbing him while he's asleep or in a meeting (or both).
The $10-a-month premium plan allows the subscriber to hook up three phones and is ad-free and includes transcriptions. There is a free "lite" plan that can be associated with two phones and does not include transcriptions but does include ads
GotVoice also offers visual VM, a la Apple's iPhone, but for any cell phone.

Happy landings for Verizon's World Edition

2007-10-09T22:02:11-05:00

A telecom exec told me the other day that he had given up his beloved BlackBerry from Verizon. The reason? His wife couldn't reach him while he was traveling in many European and Asian countries that did not use Verizon Wireless' CDMA technology. He switched to AT&T, which uses the popular GSM technology.
Turns out he hadn't heard that the world had turned: Verizon has started selling the BlackBerry 8830 Global Edition, which offers calling, e-mail and Internet service anywhere in the mobile world. Now your data, e-mail, calendar and so on, can follow you on a CDMA-based PDA.
I tried one out in Eastern Europe and Ireland this summer. The service worked just like back home in Chicago, even in remote parts of Lithuania and Latvia.
We called my sister-in-law in the Chicago burbs from a restaurant in downtown Daugavpils, Latvia. Driving in southern rural Lithuania, we woke up a cousin in Phoenix to ask him a trivia question.
I received an e-mail from a friend in London who wondered if I would be able to read her missive so I rang her up.
The phone flawlessly switched between OMNITEL’s GSM network in Lithuania, Telekom Baltija's CDMA network in Latvia and Vodafone’s GSM network in Ireland.
The World Edition goes for $300 after a $100 rebate for customers who sign two-year agreements. Several pricing plans are available for data and voice.
For more information, go to: http://estore.vzwshop.com/blackberry
On the downside, the phone doesn't have a still or video camera, and the small keys can be frustrating for the uninitiated. If you're a Verizon and BlackBerry fan and love to travel, the World Edition might be just the ticket for you.

TechTraveler: The Itinerary

2007-10-04T18:36:41-05:00

We rely on our technology at home, at work, and everywhere in between to improve our lives. It can be Internet service, cell phones, satellite/cable TV, music, GPS, etc.
There's no reason why we can't bring most of it with us as we travel.
Recently, while I was in Ireland and Eastern Europe late this summer, I tested out a variety of technologies, including new world cell phones, e-mail forwarding services, GPS units linked with photos and for finding your way around, Sling Box to peek back on my TiVO back home, devices to recharge iPods and other gear, and more.
I get to write about new technologies for a daily metro newspaper, but I don't focus on travel tech.
So I decided to launch blog devoted to the TechTraveler, where you and I can share the our experiences with tech on the go.
I plan in the weeks ahead to provide posts on new technologies, gadgets, software, that might help you on your journey. I'll be be evaluating products and services based on their usefulness, portability, price, and other factors.
I also hope to warn you about products and services you might want to avoid.
In Lithuania, I noticed that drivers are pretty reckless, but they look out for each other. Perhaps as a leftover from Soviet times, they flash their headlights as a warning that cops are out with radar guns ahead.
I hope that we can tell each other when we spot worthwhile products and services and warn each other off the those that aren't so valuable.
Good travels,
TheTechTraveler