New Cool Up-and-Coming Travel Gadgets - April

New Cool Up-and-Coming Travel Gadgets

Goodyear Concept Tires Will Charge An Electric Car
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2015/03/goodyear-concept-tires-will-charge-an-electric-car/
Not only the new generation of tires looks cool, provides better fuel efficiency, the newest ones from Goodyear can potentially also supply energy that would be converted to charge up the battery within an electric vehicle

Microsoft vision of how tablets would look like in the near future:

Image via interestingengineering.com
http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/productivityvision/default.aspx

Onyx Communicator

Similar to the communicators wore by every staff member of Enterprise, these press and talk group communicators replace walkie-talkies for instantaneous communication with a preset group of people. Onyx enables you to talk instantly with a group at the touch of a button.

The Car That Can Run For 100 Years Without Refuelling - The Thorium Car
http://techcrunch360.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-car-that-can-run-for-100-years.html




Cars, The New Mobile Wallets
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/247351/cars-the-new-mobile-wallets.html

Future of self-driving cars - Mercedes F 015


A future car prototype


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Cruise Travel: TTG in South America - Packing and Other Travel Tips

Travel Tips From Our Trips


Packing tips:

Diversify - it is not just for stock investing.
Pack essentials in check-in bag as well as some in carry-on to ensure at least some of your essentials make it 100% to your destination.

1 suitcase and 2 carry-ons for 2 weeks for 2 people
Need to save or create more space in your suitcase? Instead of taking more clothes, bring Tide Travel packets. You can quick launder and refresh your clothes and extend their use for duration of the trip. For more space in our luggage, we use Space Saver Bags. We use the the kind that let out air when rolling them up. This way your stack becomes more compact, leaving more space in luggage for gadgets and accessories. The bags can be used on the way to and back and reused on multiple trips.



Make Copies of All of Your Travel Documents
At least three copies of all your travel documents including your passport, itinerary, plane tickets, identification cards, driver’s license, and credit cards. Make sure to copy them back to back and make copies of any info on the back of any documents. It will be easier for you to recover all of your documents, especially if some go missing for one reason or another. Keep each copies in different places to be safe. Here as well, diversification is key.

A Money Belt is great for organizing your money and documents and keeping them secure
Other Top Travel Documents Organizers

Travel tips:

Esquina Homero Manzi restaurant in Buenos Aires, Argentina is a place I would recommend for a dinner and a show. It is a further than most from the port, though it was well worth it. It has a lot more of a local flavor. The food and the service was great, and the show was very good. They had plenty of tango dancing interlaced with some singing

Dress warmly in Ushuaia. It is the southern most point of the continent which brings it very close to Antartica. The highest average temperature is in mid 50s. It is mostly cloudy with snowy mountains over looking the city.

Do not get a lot of pesos in the beginning when arriving to South America. Exchange rate is often better in stores. The store owners usually round off the rate that they are aware off, and a lot of the time it would work in your favor. The only places where local currency is best, is within the touristy spots like the Plaza Muñoz Gamero in Port Arenas. The vendors know exactly who they are dealing with and they will hike up prices in US dollars. Bargaining with pesos, you have a slightly better chance of walking away with a good deal. Also withdrawing money from an ATM, even with the fees for using a machine that is not your bank's one, comes out better than exchanging dollars ahead of time.

Chile wines, not Uruguayan
While we are not wine aficionados, we have had a great many tastings of variety of wines. Uruguayan wine did not taste good to us no matter how much the wine maker tried to build it up. And it seems that others support that as well as one of the facts the guy mentioned is that 80% of the wine is drank by Uruguayans. I would recommend Argentinean or Chilean wines. These were very good, especially the reds.

Translation - best thing to have on this type of cruise
It is great to have someone translate and communicate everything when in South America. Though not going to find that person on every trip in every country. Translation gadgets and apps come in very handy. One of the best apps recently released is the Google Translate, which works by putting a sign to be translated within your phone's viewfinder and the app will automatically translate to the preset language.
If you would rather not use nor have to pull out your smartphone each time to look up words, there are dedicated translation devices for multiple languages: Top Electronic Dictiories

Travel Insurance
We never travel anywhere that is further than staycation without travel insurance. When you fly or cruise, it provides a great peace of mind. Travel insurance will cover you on your way to the destination, during your trip, and on your way home. It guards you against delays, health and weather related issues, and much more. Don't forget travel insurance next time you pack



Bring a portable power strip
With all of the electronics we bring on board with us these days, most people find cruise ship outlets to be insufficient. You can bring your own charging station or power strip, such as the Belkin 3-Outlet Mini Travel Surge Protector, just check to make sure if these are legal on your cruise line beforehand. Also most of the TVs in the staterooms are now flat screen and these almost always have extra USB outlet either in the back or on the side.

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Cruise Travel: Gadgets and Accessories on our South America Trip

Cruise Travel: Gadgets and Accessories on our South America Trip


"Zip-it" The Sock with a Pocket - Secure Valuables When on the Go


Atitlan Leather Suede Leather Money Belt
When I first discovered a money belt, I thought it was genius idea. Though I was wondering what it would actually look and feel like. After some research online and amazon, I found this one. It looks great, quite stylish. The type of belt that I would wear on daily basis with a casual look. I ended up wearing it the entire trip. The zipper on the backside works well, though it is a very small compartment. You won't be able to fit ID or credit cards in there, but you would be able to fold and stuff some bills for quick access for tipping and such.


Eagle Creek Travel Gear Silk Undercover Money Belt
I was wearing this one most of our cruise on excursions. It is a great travel accessory to have with you. While it might not look like much, it is not a fashionable accessory, but very useful. It came in handy in countries where there are no coins given as change, just a whole lot of paper money. Instead of carrying a lot of the bills in my wallet, I placed some discreetly into my waist stash. Same for dollars, especially once we acquired some local currently, these were moved to the belt so that my wallet was not filled with them when paying for goods. This is especially helpful when looking to "negotiate" with local vendors for better prices.

Travalo Refillable Perfume Spray

Travalo Travel Sized Refillable Perfume Spray Dispenser
Yes, it is a perfume spray. However, it works just as well for cologne. I think it is a genius idea and travel accessory. Before I found out that this exists, I was wondering how I could transport my cologne without having to drag the entire bottle that also does not close very well and so usually leaks. Its not a huge problem when placed in a Ziploc bag and within my bag. My cloth just end up pre-perfumed. However, that is definitely not a desired effect. The Travalo dispenser is very easy to fill up. Just take off the cap off the perfume bottle and push the tip of it into the dispenser and the content will transfer over as much as needed. And then becomes a convenient travel sized spray

E-Scale Digital Luggage Scale

Orbsgo Precision Digital Luggage Scale w/ 110 Lb Capacity
We no longer take any trips without using and packing a luggage scale. This trip was no exception. We weighted our large suitcase many times to make sure it is up to airline's standards so we do not have to pay overage fees or have issues at the airport check-in. Well, on this trip, we still did. Since we did not realize before hand that this particular airline, LAN, was also very particular about the weight of carry-ons. At least the ticket agent we go was. The carry-ons were overweight, and we had to rearrange our belongings right there and then. Good thing my wife had a plan and was ready with a back up bag. Going forward we will be using our trusty luggage scales on carry-ons as well every time we fly.


Olympus TG-835 Tough Camera
We love this camera. We always have it with us no matter the adventure. With this camera we don't have to worry about it getting wet in the rain, so we can take pictures even if it is drizzling outside or we are on a boat. We also have with us at the pool for some great shots. And as it is also shock-proof from 5 feet, it can take some dings and keep on shooting. Panasonic Lumix is also freeze-proof to 14 degrees F, good thing for when we were sailing by Antarctica, and dust-proof.

Broken Sports Watch
We didn't start out taking along a broken watch. The sport watch we took was working OK in terms of showing time. However, when we were going through multiple time zones, we wanted to update the watch to those, and that is when we found the buttons on the watch stopped working. It was still a great gadget to have along since even if you don't want to, you have to keep track of time on a cruise. Either to get up for and catch a bus for the tour or meet up with your group or to make it to dinner, it good to have a time keeping piece. Will be looking for a replacement and will post what I found. If anyone have any recommendations, please let me know


Kindle Paperwhite 3G
My wife loaded up her new favorite series that she has been reading, which is 3 books, plus some others just in case. I also added on my book in case I get tired of watching movies and reading my magazine. All that on a small light easy to pack device. Kindles also have a very long battery life. So with full charge and average use it could last the full cruise without needing a recharge.

Earphones
There was no way I was going to be using the earphones provided on the airplane. Those are very cheaply made, nothing but plastic, with terrible sound, ear irritating devices. For the 12 hour flight that we had that won't do.


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