Have Laptop Will Travel

The Caribbean: A techie’s holiday paradise

My wife and I are preparing for a long overdue holiday vacation (holiday if you’re in the UK, vacation if you’re in the US). The one caveat is that as an online entrepreneur, I need daily access to the internet.

Whenever I travel, I make plenty sure that the location I travel to will have reliable and pervasive wireless internet access. I don’t care if I have to pay or piggyback, I just can’t get there and discover that there’s no internet service. Doesn’t work. The internet has become attached to my body like another organ. I simply can’t live without it.

So when my wife and I started planning for our next vacation we made WiFi access a priority. Where is the best, most relaxing location to go on vacation, where, at any moments notice, I can still hop on the net for about 2 hours each day? We considered Ireland and Italy at first, but quickly realized that in both of those countries you are traveling so much between cities that you can’t guarantee a consistent signal. Plus, the airfare is prohibitive. We prefer cheap holidays if you know what I mean. A vacation is supposed to ease your mind, not make you tense worrying about the bank account. All things considered, we calculated that a vacation in the Americas would be best. Just not the United States. We really need to get out of the country on this trip.

So, after much research and discussion we decided that our two vacation desiderata (steady WiFi and cost effective) would be best met by any number of 10 day Caribbean holidays. For one thing, the options are numerous. We could do an all-inclusive. We could do a cruise. What we discovered is that no matter what we choose to do, a Carribbean vacation saves us thousands of dollars on airfare and guaranteed WiFi connections. Unlike a European vacation (which we had initially preferred) a Caribean holiday is a more controlled holiday. And that’s really what we want out of our vacation: worry free beaches, blue seas, warm sun and (my favorite) sipping margaritas.

LG introduces privacy feature for screens

Privacy is crucial for travelers who need to conduct business with their laptops even while on the road.

LG now has an answer to this need with its new LG Display, a new 14.1 inch panel that has a viewing-angle image control feature.

The VIC feature allows you to change the viewing angle of the screen on both sides to 60 degrees by just touching the display. The VIC is actually a fourth sub-pixel added to the usual red, blue and green sub-pixels.

Expect to see this new display in a few months as production will begin this October.

The Logitech KINETIX backpack is cool

Bringing my lappies with me can sometimes be a horrible experience. My trusty Acer’s laptop bag is quite bulky and heavy, which contributes to the total weight that I have to lug around with me. My ASUS EEE may be easier to carry in a bag but I hate that it just gets all jiggled up in my messenger bag or backpack because there are no internal restraints. There are also a lack of pockets for my other gadgets, like my Nokia E61i, my iPod, my Nintendo DS, as well as various documents and papers.

So it was with great excitement when I saw the Logitech KINETIX backpack. The ergonomic looking bag looks quite hip with its black and orange contrasting colors. It’s slightly curved back frame means that air will flow at the back, which effectively prevents the sweaty back stains that all backpack users experience. The great thing here is that the sturdy frame has many pockets and compartments that are easily accessible. The laptop compartment can fit up to a 15.4 inch notebook, which is quite awesome.

The Logitech KINETIX may be THE backpack to use for lappie users. I’ll definitely have this on my buy list this year.

Matias introduces Folding Keyboard

I don’t know about you guys but I don’t like using the keyboard on my laptop when I have to work for extended hours. I have pretty big hands and I touch type, and a laptop’s keyboard makes it difficult for me to type for long periods because my wrists start to ache. It also prevents me from touch typing because I’ve been used to a traditional keyboard layout. I don’t want a recurrence of my carpal tunnel injury and I certainly don’t want to relearn touch typing using a laptop keyboard. That’s why I always try to bring a full sized keyboard with me. But then these keyboards occupy a lot of space that it compromises portability.

It’s a good thing Matias announced a Folding Keyboard for people like me. This new gadget is the usual PC keyboard with one unique feature — it actually folds. This reduces its length to half of its original size making it easier store in your laptop bag. Folded, the keyboard measures just 10.8 by 5 by 1.18 inches and only weighs a little over 15 ounces. The keyboard is connected to the USB port and, just like a full sized keyboard, has a complete number pad, function keys and volume controls. The Matias Folding Keyboard is Windows and Mac compatible and costs $59.95.

Alternative power sources for your laptop

laptop junkies are also juice freaks.

No, I do not mean slushies or smoothies. I am referring to the constant need for electricity to power up their laptops wherever they go. Let’s face it, even with 8-cell batteries, at some point in the day you will have to look for an electrical outlet to charge your laptop if you are a heavy user. Unfortunately, free outlets could be hard to come by especially if you are always on the go. Because of this, most laptop users look for alternative power sources for their gizmos. One of the first popular alternatives was the Solio Charger, which was not only functional — it actually looked good, too. But even with a successful design, a product still needs to evolve to capture a larger share of the market, and this is where the Hybrid1000 comes in. This product is a more rugged version of the Solio Charger — and it really takes its outdoors look seriously. It comes with a weatherproof case and is said to withstand hard drops (but, really, does anyone really test if an expensive product is “drop-proof”?).