Traveler 2.0

Airline-Branded Bags -- a Cool Retro Holiday Gift?

Do you remember when airlines used to actually give bags to passengers? Neither do I. And the concept seems a bit curious. I mean, didn't you already have all your stuff packed into bags when you arrived for your flight?

At any rate, once upon a time, airlines did indeed give bags to passengers, usually in first- or business-class. You can still buy airline-branded bags for sale online. They might even make a cool holiday gift for travel buffs longing to relive the long-gone days of glamorous air travel.

* New Pan Am-brand bags are available from Panam.com. The TV show, which I stopped watching after two episodes due to its severe cheese quotient, has no doubt stirred interest in Pan Am merchandise. There are dozens of Pan Am bags for sale on this site. The bright white and blue bags don't particularly appeal to me, but I wouldn't balk if someone slipped the black Orion bag ($89), shown at right, under my Christmas tree. 

* In Retro has about a dozen retro airline flight bag styles from Air China, Air India, Continental, KLM, and others. Prices listed are in pounds, so buyer beware.

* Virgin America, probably the only remaining domestic U.S. airline with style, sells two different Virgin-branded bags from its 'Swag Shop': the Rickshaw for Virgin America Messenger ($90) and the Rickshaw for Virgin America Weekender ($110). They're black (my favorite bag color) and have red interiors, so you can find stuff easily. And Virgin, which is based in San Francisco, says the bags are made in SF, too.

 

Best iPad Bags - Victorinox Flex Pack Backpack & Man Bag

I'm a huge fan of things that serve two or more functions, like jeeps that are also boats. And so, before my recent trip to Europe, I shopped for a small backpack for hiking and a small black 'man' bag for evening. My requirements for each bag: they must be big enough to accommodate my  iPad 2, have an external water bottle pocket, and at least one other external pocket for easy access to pens, pads, keys, and such.

I ended up buying only one bag, the Victorinox Flex Pack ($63 at Amazon). With its smart design, the bag can serve as a compact backpack. Then, by reconfiguring its two straps into one, you can wear it across the shoulder bag. The strap is said to be slash-proof because it's reinforced with wire.

Downside: There's no cushioning to protect your iPad. So if you use this as your iPad bag, be sure the tablet is protected with a sturdy case. And that's about it for drawbacks, as far as I'm concerned.

One other thing: I bought a small (13 oz.) filtered Bobble water bottle for the trip. In the morning, I'd fill it with tap water in my hotel so I'd have water with me throughout the day. And the small bottle fits perfectly in the Flex Pack's outside water bottle pocket. 

Asking Siri Dumb Questions, Southern Style

In my personal blog, "A Southerner in San Francisco," I've had some fun asking the iPhone 4S Siri questions about the South. After all, Siri technology is reportedly handled, at least in part, by Apple's new data center in North Carolina. So Siri should know a little something about her home state, right?

Check out the video below to see how Siri fares under Southern cross-examination.

 

What to Do About iPhone 4S Battery Life Blues

Owners of the new iPhone 4S no doubt got all charged up about the improved camera, faster speed, and Siri, the virtual personal assistant with a bit of sass. Unfortunately, some of those owners aren't so charged up about the iPhone 4S's battery. 

As it turns out, Apple forums and other sites are filling up with distress signals from iPhone 4S owners who complain that the smartphone's battery loses its juice way too fast. Apple's been mum thus far about the problem and any fix it has in store, just as it was when Antennagate was reaching a fever pitch.

While the world awaits from an official response, here are some things you can try to stop the iPhone 4S battery bleeding:

* Use the iPhone until it runs out of juice and powers off, then fully recharge it without interruption.

* Disable the calendar in your Exchange mail account, then re-enable it.

* Turn off Location Settings for apps that don’t really, truly need it. Yes, this means Angry Birds.

* Go into your Settings and find System Services. Turn off Diagnostics & Usage, Location-based iAds; and Setting Time Zone.

 * Turn off Push email, if you can stand it, and switch to manual Fetch.

 * Dim your screen’s brightness level.

If you want to get all severe about it, turn off 3G data, Bluetooth, and/or Wi-Fi, or all of the above by putting your phone into Airplane Mode when you don’t need it. Of course, then you have to remember to turn Airplane Mode off later. If you go this route, set an alarm on your phone’s clock as a reminder.

Some cool things I learned about Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs' death was a shock, even though his recent resignation from Apple was obviously health related. Having absorbed the shock, I've spent a lot of time reading the stories about his life and impact. Here are some of the cool things about Jobs I didn't know: 

 * He and Steve Wozniak started Apple in 1976 with $1,300. The company's current market value: $351 billion. I'd say that was a wise investment.

* Jobs bought Pixar for $10 million. The Walt Disney Company later acquired it for $7.4 billion. Another wise investment. 

 * Ella Fitzgerald sang at his 30th birthday party, in 1985. Ella was still going strong at that time. I can say this becaise I was lucky enough to see her in concert in 1983. She tore the roof off, brought the house down, and smiled sweetly throughout.

 * Jobs told a reporter that taking LSD was one of the most important things he'd done in his life. Only a child of the 70s could say such a thing and get away with it.

 * No market research went into the iPad. Said Jobs: "It's not the consumers' job to know what they want." This is the equivalent of Henry Ford saying that if he had asked consumers what they wanted in transportation, they would have said "a faster horse." In this era of focus groups and market research, it takes enormous insight, a deep well of confidence, and I'll just say it: big cojones, to forge ahead with your vision.

 * Speaking of cojones: In the eighth grade, Jobs needed a particular part to finish the frequency counter he was making, so he called William Hewlett, the co-founder of HP. Hewlett had no idea who Jobs was but talked to him for 20 minutes, gathered the parts Jobs needed, and offered him a summer intern job. This is one of my favorite Steve Jobs stories, ever.

* Jobs and Wozniak built and sold blue boxes that made it possible for people to make free, and illegal, long-distance calls, back in the days of Ma Bell's monopoly. How ironic that, decades later, Apple's iPhone was so closely aligned with AT&T for what seemed like an eternity. 

* His motto came from "The Whole Earth Catalog," which was: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." 

* Many people quoted in the obits have compared Steve Jobs to Walt Disney. Taking that comparison to the extreme, can you imagine what a Jobs World or a Jobs Land might have looked like? Everything would be beautifully, tastefully designed and minimalist, like an Apple Store with rides, and everyone breaking out into dance routines in front of webcams. That's one theme park I'd gladly visit.  

 

Planning to check email on vacation? Read this first

Life is a beach (at Monterosso, Italy) when you go off the grid

The next time you go away for vacation, particularly if it's to an international destination, do yourself a favor: Don't check email or voicemail. At all. Zero, nada, niente. 

Before you roll your eyes and click away, allow me to state my case in favor of going off the grid. 

Recently, I took a two-week trip to the U.K. and Italy with my partner Nick. Voicemail wasn't a concern; no way was I checking it. But I wrestled with whether or not to log into my email account during the trip. On previous travels, I'd check email in the morning and occasionally at night. It seemed like a practical compromise. As a Gmail user, I chose to limit my vacation auto response only to people in my contacts. I worried that by auto responding to every incoming email, I'd also be validating my email address to potential spammers. As a result, I felt compelled to check email on vacation, in case I received a message from someone not in my contacts--for instance, a potential new client.

There's a huge downside to this strategy.

First of all, people tend to send you little (or big) problems in email. How do I do this? What do you think of that? Can you help me? Nine out of ten times, these problems tend to work themselves out without your intervention if you simply aren't available.

Secondly, you run the risk of getting pulled into arguments and other unpleasantness back home. On a prolonged trip to the U.K. two years ago, I found myself drawn into an ugly squabble that troubled me for days. It was completely unnecessary and could certainly have waited until I was home. The argument pulled me away from where I was at the time and, worse, from the vacation state of mind I had been enjoying so much (and needed so badly).

Here's another problem to the strategy: By not auto-responding to every incoming email for fear of getting more spam, I was giving spammers control over my vacation. How absurd is that? Spam is going to make its wormy way into your email inbox no matter what you do.

So for our recent trip, I took the following steps before, during, and after: 

1. I gave everyone I work with at least two weeks notice that I would not be available at all during my vacation. I gave them the specific start and stop dates.

2. I gave my immediate family, a neighbor, and a few close friends our travel itinerary and the names and phone numbers of the hotels in London and Italy where we'd be staying. I gave people a way to contact me, but I didn't exactly make it easy for them.

3. In Gmail, I created a vacation auto response for all incoming email, not just those from people in my contacts. My message clearly stated I was on sabbatical and when I'd be available again. (You don't want to say you're away on vacation, for security reasons.)

4. I created an outgoing voicemail greeting basically saying the same thing.

5. I didn't travel with my laptop. I did take my iPad, but I only used it to research information relative to the trip, to book train tickets, and so on. The rule I made was that I'd only use the iPad for entertainment (like watching a movie on the flight over) or to learn more about where we were or where we were going on the trip.

6. I told everyone I'd be gone two days longer than I actually would be. My goal was to give myself the weekend to ease back into reality and get over the jet lag. Then, after those two days were up, I spent about two and a half hours catching up on email. Yes, it was a slog. But I didn't care. 

I realize going off the grid for one or two weeks (or even more) isn't going to work for everyone. But guess what? During my time off, the world continued to spin quite nicely without my participation. For some people, this letting go might seem threatening; for me, it was empowering. I took complete control over my time off, instead of giving it away in little pieces. Not to get all new agey on you, but I said yes to myself and no to everyone else. 

I also wasn't pulled into a potentially big problem that, after a day or so of back-and-forth emails, ended up amounting to nothing at all. In fact, I didn't miss anything important by not checking my messages. Instead, my mind stayed where it needed to be: in the moment and on vacation.

Travel tips part 2 - the tech accessories you should travel with

Following up my earlier post on clothes I recommend for travelers, here is some tech I think is worth packing on vacation (as opposed to a business trip). (FYI, I don't receive freebies, payments, or commissions by mentioning any of these products.)

* Magellan's Dual-Voltage Power Strip ($30) supports North American and international electrical currencies and includes three AC outlets and one USB charging port. Buy the power adapter you need for the country you're visiting (about $7 each), and combined with this strip, you should have everything you need to recharge your laptop, tablet, e-reader, smartphone, digital camera, and other gadgets.

* BookGem stand ($15). This compact, collapsible stand props up your iPad, Kindle, Nook, and other tablets and e-readers for comfortable, hands-off viewing. Rather than pack my iPad 2 in a heavy case/stand, I protect it with Apple's Smart Cover, which is very lightweight, and I use the BookGem stand to prop the tablet for reading or watching video.

* Boostaroo ($25). All too often, an airplane's loud hum makes music and video harder to hear on my iPad or iPhone, sometimes even when I'm wearing noise cancelling headphones. So I always travel with this 'portable amplifier,' which boosts audio to a comfortable level and also allows you to plug in a total of three headsets.

My new blog "A Southerner in San Francisco"

In addition to my posts here, I've started a personal blog about my life as a Southerner in San Francisco. The title: "A Southerner in San Francisco." (I put a lot of thought into that one!) It's written under my byline James A. Martin.

Check it out when you have a chance to find out about my "shocking Sunday in the park with Colonel Sanders," if the West Coast has ever been hit by a hurricane (the answer may surprise you), and an odd-item on the North Carolina Governor's to-do list. 

Travel tips part 1 -- the clothes guys should pack for a long trip

For several months now, I've been planning a two-week trip in September to the U.K. and Italy. Even though I know the summer travel season is winding down, I wanted to pass along some things I've learned, or been reminded of, in my research.

Today's topic: clothes that are ideal for travel. The following porducts mentioned are for men, though many similar products are available for women as well. And in case you start to wonder, no, I don't receive freebies, a commission, or payment of any kind by mentioning these products.  

 * Pack just two (three, tops) pairs of underwear. ExOfficio underwear is reasonably comfortable, it breathes, and it will dry within about 24 hours if left in your hotel room after washing. On a three-week trip to the U.K. a few years ago, I took only three pairs of underwear like these ($18). REI sells ExOfficio underwear, and the retailer has a generous return policy: Don't like it? You can return it at any time.

* Pack at least one no-iron
 dress shirt. A lot of retailers are offering men's dress shirts that supposedly need no ironing and dry fairly quickly after washing. I've yet to own a shirt that never needed at least a quick touch up from an iron, however. The material in a no-iron dress shirt tends to be heavy, so it's not recommended if you're going to a muggy climate. And no-iron dress shirts aren't the most stylish shirts you'll find. Still, I've had good luck with shirts from Banana Republic and Jos. A. Bank Traveler label shirts.

* Pack (or wear) a pair of Ecco slip ons. Ecco makes the most comfortable dress shoes I've ever worn. You could practically go for a run in the Ecco Helsinki slip on shoe ($140; pictured). It's great for trips where you'll be doing a lot of walking--attending a large trade show, going to the theater in New York or London, and so on. And if you buy a pair, get them from Zappos.com (click the above link). They'll arrive practically minutes after you click the 'Buy' button, the shipping is free, you can return them within 365 days, and return shipping is also free. 

Next time: tech you should travel with--and when you should not use it.  

How to get money for your old iPhone

Apple recently expanded its recycling program, allowing you to trade in your  old iPhone and iPads in exchange for Apple gift cards at a "fair market value." 

But is it really a fair market value?

To find out, I went to Apple's recycling page to see what my still-in-good-condition iPhone 3G (16 GB, locked to AT&T, and not jailbroken) might fetch. The result: a $65 Apple gift card. Next, I went to eBay and discovered that similar used, good-condition iPhone 3G phones had recently sold for $135 to $220. Finally, I headed over to Amazon.com and learned I could get a $114.40 Amazon gift card in exchange for my old iPhone 3G. Amazon's trade-in programs require that you send in the original packaging and accessories, which I still have. The Apple offer doesn't appear to come with those requirements. So kudos to Apple for being eco-minded. But I'm going to trade in my old iPhone 3G at Amazon instead.