Cleanse, Tone, Defrag: Summer Vacation Tech Essentials
You don’t know how much it pained me to write “vacation,” but seeing as the majority of our readership are from that there yonder place were it is indeed the correct term, I must abide.
Yes, summer is upon us once again – you can tell on account of the amount sporting a short and sandal combo, the hotter temperatures, the longer days, the torrential downpours (only applicable to British citizens) and, oh yeah, the fact that the calendar now reads July. Soon scores of people will be hightailing it out of their cities and towns and making for exotic destinations or different locales. Chances are if you’re a visitor to the site and indeed reading this, then you’re not the type to go all commando and be sans tech. You may want to or even have tried to, but you know that the withdrawals will be or are inline with a crack addict going cold turkey who inevitably caves and screams “I need mah fix, sugah” from a window. Its okay, like crack, tech is in our blood and lounging on the beach or in some woodland retreat isn’t going to take it out of you.
Short of taking the kitchen sink with you and booking your stays in accordance to available Wi-Fi and plentiful power-points, here are a few suggestions to pack alongside your trunks and outrageously kitsch Hawaiian shirts.
Making the sun work for you.
The whole imbuing your skin with a glow is actually an aside to ones such as us. Its main draw however is its glorious power properties. Portable solar charger are a lot more, well, ‘portable’ than they were even a few years ago, and a lot more affordable to boot. With such models as the JuiceBar, worrying about the amount of battery left on your phone or camera while at the beach is a thing of the past. Say you’re kicking back and getting your tan on with your iPod and don’t intend to move for some considerable time. Whack out your solar charger, hook it up, and let it tan alongside you while keeping the tracks a-coming.
Don’t be caught short with weird outlets.
This one is more for those going abroad, and while it sounds like a given, you’d be surprised how many people glean over the fact that different countries have different plugs. It’s weird and totally also not convenient and inconsiderate of that country, right? Did they not get the memo you were coming? If you’re staying in a decent hotel, then chances are they’ll be multiple outputs on offer or some kind of adapter available, though don’t expect there to be, and if there are, free. Get yourself a universal plug so you can be safe in the peace of mind that your gadge will last you the whole trip, and in the case of an electric shaver that gives up, without having to resort of cheap and cheerful non-descript disposable razors.
Tripod minus the tripod.
We’ve all done it – asked passerby’s to take our picture set to some touristy backdrop so that we don’t have to result to the ‘MySpace’ style of photography – but we wouldn’t need to if we had brought our very expensive and very bulky tripod. Yeah, ‘cus that’s going to happen. Plus, if it was in a non-English speaking country, we wouldn’t have to perform some kind of mime in order for the person not to think we’re some gypsy trying to sell them a camera. Thanks to such items as the GorillaPod, we can whip out a lightweight and malleable stand, perfectly frame a shot or get kooky with angles, set the timer and get into position – all without having human contact! Just, you know, make sure no ones runs off with your camera and GorillaPod while you’re posing.
No more towel take-off.
Beach, reclining in the park, picnic – well, not so much the picnic as the food basket should have enough weight in it, one greedy person who is not me would hope – having your towel try to take off when a gust gets beneath it is never a pleasant experience or sight as there’s much flailing. Worst still, you get up and return to find either your towel upside down inside out, spread across the branches of a bush, or taking a swim. With these Beach Towel Clips, your flailing should be down to a bare minimum. They’re sort of like oversized pegs and are kind of ingenious in that why have we been without these and having to make do with sandy rocks for stability for so long? Okay, so not so much tech as in the electronic sense, but gadgety enough to warrant a spot. Kinda. I just really think these are excellent and this is my column, gorram it!
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Susan Carr
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