Last Last-minute Travel Gift Ideas

Last-minute gifts are those that require little mulling over or research and can be grabbed and done with quickly. Here are some that fit perfectly:

Joby Gorillapod - bendy tripod that once connected to your camera’s tripod mount can be twisted around and secured to virtually any surface. We have used one on our trip to Cali (California Tripping) for some self-shots.

JBuds Noise-Reducing Ear Buds - for only 10 bucks, these are great in-ear headphones to take along on travel or anywhere you go.

Tweakers Portable Mini Lighted Speaker - palm-sized speakers deliver amazing sound from your laptop or MP3 player.

Pico key chain light - this little light runs for 15 hours and packs 10 lumens of light into a 30-foot beam.

Luggage Scale - every traveler flying anywhere would need one of these gadgets. They are great at weighing all of your suitcases to avoid fees and unnecessary hassle at the airport. I got a digital one of these as an early holiday present to replace an analog one, already weighted a bunch of things around the house, its that easy to use.

ZOMM Wireless Leash for Mobile Phones - A wireless leash, a speakerphone, and a personal safety device combined into one sleek device -connects to all Bluetooth enabled phones. Never misplace your phone again, ZOMM alerts you anytime your phone is more than 30 feet away.

Though the simplest last minute gifts that you cannot go wrong with in the last our are Gift Cards. They make great stocking stuffers and gifts that need to be there tomorrow. A lot of them can be sent by e-mail or overnight, printed out at home, and even posted on Facebook:

Amazon.com Gift Card - Don't know what to get your traveling buddy on the list or just ran out of time, this card makes a great holiday gift as they would be able to purchase just about anything they want with it at amazon.com. This gift card can even be used to get Android Apps.

iTunes gift card - music, movies, shows, and much more can be downloaded through iTunes. All sorts of entertainment for a larger variety of tastes.

Magellan's Gift Certificates - a great source of unique and useful travel products.

Holiday Air Travel Tips

TSA Holiday Travel Tips:




Did You Know?: 
One of the things discussed in the video is keeping your small valuables and accessories all in one place and not throw then into a bin. It is a great tip. And there is a great invention just for this purpose, a Scanner Bag. We have 2 of these ourselves which we have used on our trip to California as described in California Tripping. It is the size and look of a luggage tag, but it also expands into a bag to hold all your small gadgets, wallet, watch, and so on, in one place. And since it is attached to your carry-on, it is easy to grab and go once done with the security screening. Available GadgetDuck.com

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So that's where Batman gets all his high tech gadgets...

How to make good use of your car's unused plug

I have been looking to make the cigarette lighter in the car more useful. I have no use for it for its original indication.

Up until recently it only has been used to plug in the charging cable from the GPS. And once in a rare while to charge a phone. However, it did not seem enough. With more and more of today's gadgets using a variation of USB connections, the large plug is becoming outdated.

This is where my newest gadget comes in, the dual USB plug. The one I recently purchased and is already in the car's secondary cigarette lighter is Anker 24W Dual USB Car Charger PowerDrive. When I first find out about such a cool and useful gadget, I started my search for the best one available and a good price.

There were quite a few models listed on Amazon.com. Though after doing some comparisons two models stood out. They were similar in price, and most of the features. And at first glance, I could not pick between the two. But then I read more into their features. What separated the Anker USB charger for me from other dual USB car chargers was that it has twice as much juice as the competitor. I thought it was too good to be true, so I did some more digging and it was correct. This unit has 5 volts @ 1 amp per plug, while the other one offered 500 mA of power per each. More power to quickly charge my travel gadgets, yes, please. It also has built-in SmartFuse for circuit protection to keep the devices safe.

The car charger plug fits snugly into the outlet, not sticking out at all, and converts it into a quick charging USB port. Great for plugging in just about any gadget that you would take a long on a trip, be it a phone, tablet, or game that come with the USB adapters.

Why good to have on a trip:
- Charge several devices at once
- With 1 amp power per USB port, it has plenty of juice to charge most devices
- Works with iPod, iPhone, BlackBerry, cellular phones, MP3 players, PDAs and more
- Built-in SmartFuse for circuit protection
- Use your existing USB charging cables to charge most USB powered devices
- Space-saving design fits two USB ports into a compact device

Did You Know?:
Circuit protection devices are used to protect connectors from being damaged by the excess current caused by an overcurrent or short-circuit.

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