Gadling’s top ten travel technology products of 2010

by Scott Carmichael on

Now 2010 is safely behind us, we can take a look back at the ten best tech products to hit store shelves in the past 12 months. And what a 12 months it has been – Android rose to new heights, the iPad became a (totally expected) instant success and more airlines than ever offer inflight Wi-Fi on their entire fleet. T’is a good time to be a traveling geek.

2011 will probably put 2010 to shame, but until those new gadgets actually appear, lets look back at the ten tech products that we consider to be the best of the year.

Apple iPad

In 2010, Apple once again did what they do best – they delivered a product that started a revolution. There is no denying that the iPad has changed how we travel, much like the netbook did several years before.

But perhaps more importantly than the iPad itself is how it has triggered a new wave of tablets from competitors. Nothing has come close to knocking the iPad off the top spot yet, but 2011 will undoubtedly be an amazing year for the tablet computer.

Product page: Apple

Price: From $499

T-Mobile MyTouch 4G

Launched towards the end of 2010 with an aggressive ad campaign featuring a sexy new spokesperson, the Android powered MyTouch 4G can easily be considered one of the best Android phones ever made.

For travelers, the phone is close to perfect – with Wi-Fi calling built in, 3G compatible video calls and a pretty decent 5 megapixel/HD video camera – and with a price tag under $200, it is a hard package to beat.

Product page: T-Mobile

Price: $199 (on a new 2 year agreement)

Jawbone JAMBOX Bluetooth speaker

The days of traveling with 12 D cell batteries and a massive ghetto-blaster may be long gone, but the desire for music on the road is still there. The JAMBOX was designed by Jawbone, who made a name for themselves with their amazing Bluetooth headsets. By combining their Bluetooth knowledge with the audio skills of Dr. Godehard Guenther, Jawbone created one of the best portable speakers on the market.

Sure, you won’t be found walking down the street with this on your shoulder, but pop it out of its (included) case and you’ll be able to fill your hotel room or conference room with some amazing audio. Then, when work calls, use the JAMBOX to hold a conference call.

Product page: Jawbone

Price: $199

Windows Phone 7 / HTC HD7

Talk about a complete surprise… After years of outdated and disappointing new releases, Microsoft sat down to create a brand new mobile operating system, built from the ground up. Windows Phone 7 entered the market two years after Android and three years after the first iPhone – putting it at a distinct disadvantage. But in every possible way, the operating system delivers. It is snappy, has over 5000 great apps and comes on a variety of great hardware. Time will tell whether Microsoft can get a decent momentum going on its sales, but as things stand right now, they earned themselves a well deserved spot in this top ten.

One of the first phones to feature Windows Phone 7 is the HTC HD7 on T-Mobile. Based loosely off the Windows 6 powered HD2, the HD7 features a brilliant kickstand, massive display and 5 megapixel camera with LED flash.

Product page: T-Mobile HD7

Price: $199 (on a new 2 year agreement)

Toshiba Portege R705

Since a lot of travelers still need to get some real work done, not everything on the road can be handed off to a tablet computer.

This is where the impressive Toshiba Portege R705 can help – despite weighing just a little over three pounds, the R705 features a DVD player, desktop grade processor power and a great keyboard. Match it with a price tag under $900, and you’ll see why it grabbed itself a well deserved spot in this chart.

Product page: Toshiba

Price: From $899

Briggs & Riley BRX Explore 22″ Upright

In 2010, luggage maker Briggs & Riley introduced the BRX line – and for the first time, adventure travelers gained access to a full assortment of luggage, without having to settle for a rigid frame backpack or cheap duffel. The BRX bags are designed to be lightweight, rigid and suitable for global travel.

From their lineup, we picked the Explore 22 Upright as the best piece of luggage of 2010 – because it lets you travel with a bag that doesn’t scream “business traveler” yet still allows you to drag it through the mud.

The bag is semi-rigid, which allows for a decent amount of over-packing without having to worry about the overhead compartment. But best of all, the features also work the other way around – if you are not exactly the type of traveler who likes to roam the world, the Explore 22 Upright does everything a business class bag can do, without looking like you are on your way to a PowerPoint convention.

Product page: Briggs & Riley BRX

Price: $299

Technocel Battery Boost

This tiny gadget took us completely by surprise – we’ve reviewed countless battery booster packs, but none of them were as well designed as the little Technocel battery booster.

Inside this key chain mountable pack is a 500mAh battery, a MicroUSB cord, a retractable USB charger plug and a MicroSD memory card reader. Slap a $24 price tag on it, and you have yourself what could very well become your best friend when on the road.

Product page: Sprint online store

Price: $23.99

ZAGGsparq 2

500mAh from the Technocel not enough juice for you? Then consider the ZAGGsparq 2. With its folding AC prongs, international power compatibility and dual USB charger ports, the 6000mAh battery pack inside the ZAGGsparq has the capacity to keep your (smart) phone going for up to a week.

In its 2010 2.0 update, the Sparq received a high-power charger port, capable of powering the iPad or any other power hungry device.

Griffin Technology Travel Stand

This is one gadget I can’t stop recommending to people. With no batteries, lights, buttons and just one moving part, the Griffin Travel Stand is the ultimate in easy to use gadgetry.

When folded shut, the stand holds and protects your headphones, and once opened, you’ll find the perfect movie watching stand for your iPhone or other mobile device. Best of all, with a price tag under $10, you have virtually no excuse not to pick one up.

Product page: Griffin Technology

Price: $9.99

Joby Gorillatorch Switchback

In 2010, flexible tripod maker Joby started making the transition into other gadgets. By adding flashlights and device stands, they expanded their already popular lineup into an assortment of great travel accessories.

Towards the end of the year, they announced the Switchback The brilliant design of the Switchback turns an ultra bright 3-LED headlamp into a lantern. Top the design off with an included flexible tripod, and you end up with one of the smartest lights on the market.

Product page: Joby

Price: $59.95

Bonus daily gear deal: 40% off Aviiq – the worlds thinnest laptop stand

by Scott Carmichael on

Looking for a better way to use your laptop on the road? The Aviiq laptop stand passed through the Gadling review labs back in October, and left us very impressed. Of course, the $79.99 price tag may not be appealing for everyone, which is why we’ve teamed up with Aviiq to provide a fantastic way to knock 40% off the price.

On the Aviiq site, click the “add to cart” button, and apply coupon code 10-TUV-03-MB-PC. With this code applied to your cart, the price will drop from $79.99 down to $47.97.

Trust us when we say that this is the best portable gadget you can get for your laptop – when folded, the Aviiq stand is absolutely tiny, adding next to no weight to your bag. Aviiq provides a 30 day money back guarantee on their products, making your purchase risk-free.

Review: Motorola Finiti Elite Series Bluetooth headset

by Scott Carmichael on

Motorola has a long and well respected history in Bluetooth headsets. And, if there is one thing they’ve always excelled at, it is adding innovative features to their products. They were one of the first with a folding boom mic, one of the first to add standardized MicroUSB charger ports to all their headsets, and one of the first with a rugged headset designed to work in extreme environments.

Right before the end of 2010, Motorola has released a new lineup of professional grade headsets – the Finiti and CommandOne. In this review, we’ll look at the Finiti. Like the Motorola HX1 we reviewed last year, the Finiti is designed to work in the most extreme of environments, and by using three different microphones, including one that picks up vocal vibrations, the headset is rated to work in winds up to 40MPH.

Lets start with the basics – the outside of the Finiti is downright gorgeous. Shiny chrome, a clear ear loop and a physical on/off slider switch. On the top is the MicroUSB charger port, and on the back is the earpiece is the vocal virbration sensor. On the bottom are three buttons – a call control/multi-function switch and volume controller.

In its “default” mode, the headset uses its two normal microphones to pick up your voice – one on the front, and one on the side. When you switch to “stealth mode”, it includes the vocal vibration sensor, and combines all those signals into one. The clarity of calls is absolutely amazing. When I reviewed the HX1, I crowned it “the best headset I have ever used” – and one year later, that crown can now be passed on to the Finiti.

Wind is not a problem for this headset – and that isn’t just the marketing on the box. Despite freezing temperatures, I opened the window of my car and made a phone call – the person on the other end of the call could hear the wind with the stealth mode turned off, but as soon as I turned it on, the call quality returned back to normal. Stealth mode also blocks other kinds of noise from the background – including music and loud people.

In addition to phone calls, the Finiti also supports streaming music, but you’ll need to settle for mono of course.

One of the coolest tricks offered by the Finiti is not even part of the headset itself – the Motorola MotoSpeak application runs on Android (and soon on Blackberry) devices. With MotoSpeak, your phone reads incoming text messages, and even lets you respond to text messages using your voice. In addition to these voice commands, the headset also supports some built in commands that let you answer and hang up on calls.

Now, all this Bluetooth goodness does not come cheap – and at $129.99, the Motorola Finiti is one of the most expensive headsets on the market. But – if you order from Motorola, and apply coupon code TXTSMART, you’ll knock 25% off the price! This coupon code also applies to the other Motorola products compatible with MotoSpeak; the CommandOne, the Roadster and the H17txt.

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Review: Sony Cyber-shot HX5V digital camera

by Scott Carmichael on

Ask a geek to design the ultimate point and shoot camera, and the list of specifications would probably come close to the camera in this review. The Sony Cyber-shot HX5B really does appear to have it all.

Inside the camera is a 10.2 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS image sensor, sweep panorama mode, anti-blur motion mode, twilight mode (for photos at night), 10x optical zoom. 720p MP4 / 1080i AVCHD HD video, GPS, compass, optical image stabilization, 10fps shooting mode (at full resolution), Memory Stick and SDHC compatibility, HDR mode, scene recognotion, anti-blink option and HDMI output.

As I said – this is a list of stuff I’d describe for the ultimate camera – so, does the HX5V actually manage to deliver what it takes to combine all these cool features into usable camera? Read on and find out!

Lets start with the controls (sorry for the poor shots, I was outside in 12 degree weather). On the top of the camera are buttons for the mode selector dial, zoom/shutter release and power. Right above the lens is the stereo microphone.

On the back is a D-Pad for menu and feature selection, a quick movie mode button, large 3″ LCD screen with an anti-reflective coating. As you can see from the icons, the screen is a bit cluttered, and it isn’t always logical why/where icons are placed.

Using the camera is a treat – albeit one with that may actually require a bit of reading in the manual. Photos turns out perfect – most of the time. If you are like me, you’ll constantly keep the camera in intelligent auto mode – and the intelligence is thankfully enough to never have to worry about what it does to your shots. Advanced photographers can switch it to a variety of other modes. The various modes in the camera are:

  • Easy (intelligent setting with simplified display)
  • Intelligent Auto
  • Program Auto
  • Manual exposure
  • iSweep Panorama
  • AVCHD movie mode
  • Scene selection (high sensitivity, soft snap, sports shooting, landscape, twilight portrait, twilight, gourmet, pet, beach, snow, fireworks)
  • Backlight correction HDR
  • Handheld twilight
  • Anti-motion blur

The iSweep panorama mentioned in the mode list is quite a lot of fun – select the mode, press the shutter, and move the camera from left to right. The end result is a 4080×1080 panorama shot, without the need to manually stich anything together. Just sweep and let the camera do all the hard work.

The 10x optical zoom is fast, and has a great wide angle – as you can see in the photo below.

Things I don’t like on the camera? It needs a special dongle to connect it to anything – USB, HDMI and composite video all come out of a large plug on the bottom. In this day and age, I’d prefer a camera that has regular (Mini) USB plugs and MicroUSB. Canon is a good example of a company that understands this. That said – with the amount of features built into the HX5V, I can see how the designers managed to run out of room for separate plugs. To charge the battery, you need to remove it, and plug it into the (included) wall charger.

As I mentioned earlier – photos turn out perfect – most of the time. When it works, it works very, very well. But every now and then, a photo just randomly turns out quite poorly. For no apparent reason, the camera seems to just give up. Now, this isn’t a huge deal – if you make lots of photos of the same thing, but if you are shooting that once in a lifetime action shot, you may end up disappointed.

And finally, I find the menu system a tad confusing. Normally, I can browse my way around any camera after a couple of minutes of hands-on time, but the HX5V manages to confuse you – which is why you really will need to read the manual before heading out on a trip with it.

Still, at $279.99 you really won’t find a better equipped camera – especially one that performs this well. The HX5V is lightweight, has everything a traveler could need (great lens, GPS, good battery life) and is exceptionally well priced. For more on the Sony Cyber-shot HX5V, head on over to Sonystyle.com.

Review: Livescribe Echo smartpen

by Scott Carmichael on

Don’t let the development in technology in recent years fool you – even though things like books and magazines have started to make the transition to “all digital”, there is still a big market for people who like to keep things old school.

One good example is the continuing popularity of Moleskine notebooks. Another great example of sticking with the old, is the Livescribe Smartpen. This computer pen offers you the best of both worlds – you can take notes on paper, and transfer them “to the cloud” when you are done.

In the past, other companies have offered digital pens and other writing instruments that promised the ability to turn paper notes into digital documents, but as I’ll show in this review, the pens from Livescribe are the first to actually deliver a rock solid product.

The pen itself is relatively bulky, but not to the point where it is uncomfortable to use. In fact, holding the Echo is actually quite nice. And remember, this bulk isn’t for nothing – inside the pen is a battery, a digital camera, display and batteries. How they fit all that inside this small case is nothing short of amazing.

On top of the pen is a MicroUSB jack and a headphone plug. On the from is a microphone, OLED display and power button. On the bottom is of course the pen itself, next to a small window where the digital camera hides.

Using the pen is extremely simple – you turn it on, and start writing. A sensor at the rear of the ink cartridge knows when you are writing, and the camera picks up your scribbles. The trick to this lies in the special paper. Each page has a micro-dot pattern, which allows the pen to detect every single bit of writing, and the position of that writing on the page.

Once you have written something, you can transfer it to the Livescribe Desktop software package. Once inside the desktop software, you can file them, add notes, and even send the files to the Livescribe online storage.

Fans of Evernote can take things one step further, thanks to one-click Evernote uploads. End result is all your written notes available in Evernote, and its web client or desktop/mobile apps. The character recognition feature in Evernote means your notes can be searched. Alterntively, you can enhance the Livescribe Desktop with the MyScript software package, which is designed to convert all your writing into regular documents.

The fun doesn’t end there – the microphone inside the Livescribe pen is part of the Paper Replay feature, and can link audio recordings with your writing. Imagine making notes in a meeting, and recording the meeting at the same time. Once you upload your notes, the audio transfers with it. But best of all, once inside Livescribe Desktop, you can point to any portion of your writing, and the audio picks up exactly where you want it.

Untitled from Scott C on Vimeo.

Still not convinced how amazing this thing is? Because this is more than just a dumb pen, you can actually download apps to it – adding a variety of handy features to its arsenal of tools. Built in are a calculator, a translator demo and a fun piano. In fact, the piano is probably one of the coolest tricks inside Livescribe – and one I always use to convince people just how fun it is. In the video above, you’ll see a short video showing some apps in action.

Other (paid) apps include silly tools like soundboards, but also travel phrasebooks and chemical reference guides. Apps start at just $1, and can be loaded through the desktop software.

Because the pen only has a power button, you browse its menu using printed commands on paper. Inside most Livescribe notebooks are the arrow buttons required to access the menus, and the box includes a cheat sheet with more handy command buttons. Buttons printed on paper include Paper Replay commands, playback speed, volume, battery life, time and date and remaining storage.

Like making the switch back to a Moleskine notebook, once you get used to living your life on paper (like we all did just one decade ago), you’ll learn to appreciate how easy and efficient things can be. But the best part is that you make the switch to paper without any compromises.

Smartpens are available in a variety of sizes – from 1GB to 8GB. Prices start at just $69.95 for a refurbished pen from the previous generation, to $199.95 for the new 8GB Echo.

Because you need to use special paper, you will need to invest in notebooks or flip pads. Prices for these start at $7.95.

My Livescribe pen has become an integral part of how I do my job – I make lots of notes every week, and many of them end up in Evernote. I can access voice recordings, and pull up anything I completely forgot I had planned to follow up on.

To learn more about Livescribe, or to find out how to order your own, head on over to Livescribe.com.