The top ten travel products of 2009

by Scott Carmichael on

Welcome to the Gadling Gear Review “best of 2009”. Winning a spot in the Gadling top ten lineup of travel gadgets is a huge honor – Over 250 gadgets pass through our hands each year, some great, and some not so great.

The ten products in this list show the best of the best in the travel gadget world. Each of these products offers something special, something not found anywhere else or something that is just downright awesome. Every single one of these products has been tested by the Gadling labs – we don’t do cut and paste reviews. The list of the ten products is published in no specific order.


Verizon Wireless MiFi

Getting online has never been easier than with the MiFi. The MiFi is a combination of a wireless router and a mobile broadband adapter, all in a device a third of the thickness of a deck of cards. With its internal battery, you can create your own personal wireless hotspot, anywhere in range of the Verizon Wireless broadband network.

Why it matters for travelers? Screw paid hotel Internet – create your own hotspot where you want.

Price: $49.99 (with a 2 year service agreement)
Where to get it: Verizon Wireless

Manfrotto ModoSteady

The Manfrotto ModoSteady is the perfect accessory for anyone traveling with an HD camera or camcorder. It allows you to play movie director with its steady camera mount, and in a matter of seconds, you can transform it into a mini tripod or shoulder mount.

Why it matters for travelers? One device is a tripod, steady-cam mount and shoulder mount, all in just 500 grams.

Price: $119
Where to get it: www.manfrotto.com
Gadling review: September 2009

Tom Bihn bags Tri-Star

Tom Bihn was featured in our best of 2008 lineup with their Checkpoint Flyer bag, and this year they did it again. Their Tri-Star bag beat every other bag I tested in 2009, and earns a well deserved spot in the this lineup.

The Tri-Star is an astounding bag – it is a shoulder bag, backpack and carry-on all in one. There is enough space for a laptop, documents and clothes for a couple of days.

Why it matters for travelers? The perfect bag for one-bag travelers.

Price: $249
Where to get it: www.tombihn.com
Gadling review: June 2009

iPhone 3GS

In 2009, the iPhone went from good to great. It gained more speed, and a better camera. These minor changes alone are obviously not enough to make it to our list – what helped this phone win a spot in our lineup are the applications. No other phone in the world has the same level of fantastic applications as the iPhone.

Especially in the travel application segment, the iPhone beats every other platform. With fantastic apps like FlightTrack Pro, the iPhone has reached “must have” status for anyone on the road. 2010 may prove to be a challenging year for the iPhone – new devices are going to do their best to knock it from its throne, but without support from developers, the iPhone will still remain the leader.

Why it matters for travelers? The best device for the best in mobile travel applications.

Price: From $199
Where to get it: www.apple.com

Gogo Inflight service

What started as a service on a handful of planes, is now the driving force behind Internet in the skies on almost 700 aircraft. The Gogo Inflight service provides affordable and speedy Internet access for your laptop, PDA or smartphone. It finally brings an end to watching reruns of stuff you don’t even want to watch once.

In just 12 months, Gogo managed to find its way onto 6 airlines, 2 of which offer it on every single one of their planes.

Why it matters for travelers? What better way to spend six hours trapped in a metal tube?

Price: From $5.95 / flight
Where to get it: Participating airlines

Olympus E-P1

Earlier this year, Olympus announced their newest digital camera – the PEN E-P1 offers almost all the features you’d expect from a large digital SLR camera, but without the bulk. Its smaller size makes it perfect for travel, and since it can be outfitted with any Micro Four/Thirds lens, you can pick the right lens for your shots.

Why it matters for travelers? Smaller and lighter than a digital SLR, with the same great photos and great HD video.

Price: $799
Where to get it: www.olympus.com
Gadling review: June 2009

Bose Quiet Comfort QC15

For years, when you wanted noise canceling headphones, you purchased Bose. As the headphone marketplace filled up with new companies, Bose continued to innovate, and churned out even better products. In 2009, they released the QC15 headphones, and instantly secured their spot as the best in the market. The new QC15’s are lighter, and block even more outside noise than the previous models.

Why it matters for travelers? Blocks out crying babies, engine noise and fellow passengers.

Price: $299
Where to get it: www.bose.com

Lug NAPSAC and SNUZSAC

As airlines cut corners, passengers need to carry their own blanket and pillow – something the folks at LUG noticed. They invented the NAPSAC and SNUZSAC.

These products appear to be regular pillows. The smart part of these things is that they can be unzipped, to remove an ultra-soft blanket, then inflated back to their normal shape. End result – a pillow and a blanket. Before landing, you simply deflate the pillow, pop the blanket back inside, and pack it in your bag.

Why it matters for travelers? Airlines don’t care about your comfort, so take good care of yourself

Price: $28 (NAPSAC) $30 (SNUZSAC)
Where to get it: www.lugtravel.com

Callpod Fueltank

I love backup battery chargers. They allow me to charge my equipment anywhere I am. And what could be better than a single battery charger? Well, how about one that charges two devices at the same time! The Callpod Fueltank uses the same power tips as on the award winning Callpod Chargepod, which means you can put together a power kit that’ll charge six products in your room, and two on the go.

Why it matters for travelers? A gadget with an empty battery is about as useful as a fart in a spacesuit.

Price: $59.95
Where to get it: www.callpod.com

Macally PowerLink

This gadget caught me by completely by surprise when I received it. When I read the product description, I didn’t really expect too much, but it has actually turned out to be one of the most impressive little gadgets I’ve seen all year.

The Macally PowerLink is an iPod/iPhone backup charger, 2GB flash drive and USB connector in one device. It’ll charge your device to about 50% (great for emergencies), it holds 2GB of your most important files, and it means you can leave your iPhone cable at home.

Why it matters for travelers? One device to sync, charge and power your iPhone and carry 2GB of your most important files

Price: $49.95
Where to get it: www.macally.com

Gadling visits Aircell – the company behind Gogo Inflight Internet

by Scott Carmichael on

There is no denying it – Gadling loves Gogo Inflight. So much in fact, that we begged to take a look behind the scenes at what makes this inflight Internet service run, and grill their executives on when we can finally have Internet on every single flight we take. It was a fascinating day, spent with people that really love what they are doing.
The geeky side of Aircell

The Aircell network consists of 92 ground stations. Think of them as the same kind of cell tower you have in your back yard, but looking up at the skies. The technology is very similar to what you use on Sprint and Verizon (EVDO Rev.A). Thankfully for Aircell, looking up at the skies requires a hell of a lot less towers than looking towards the horizon (like cellphone companies need to do). For starters, there are no trees and buildings blocking your view, and when you look up, there is no curvature of the earth to deal with.

Some other background information for the geeks – their network uses cellular equipment from Chinese manufacturer ZTE (their first major network sale in the US. The rest of it runs pretty much the same way any major network operates – a lot of Cisco and IBM equipment, and a backbone powered by AT&T. At the moment, each airplane gets 3.1mbit of bandwidth.

Their network operations center was surprisingly boring – a handful of people keep a close eye on the ground based network, and one guy watches the planes. The reason for this is actually great for Aircell – their equipment has proven to be extremely reliable, and they really can keep the entire network running with just a couple of guys.

In their network operations center, the wall has the screens you’d expect from any NOC – a couple of network status screens and a large plasma TV with 100’s of planes. The planes are all color coded to show their status. Thankfully all but one or two planes were green which may have explained the serenity in their room.

Aircell equipment installations

At the moment, Aircell has gear installed on just under 700 aircraft (this does not include installations on private planes). When you realize that just 12 months ago it was only on 23 planes, you’ll understand what an amazing accomplishment this has been.

The really amazing number is that the Aircell team can install the entire system on a plane in just 8 hours. Airlines hate taking a plane out of operation, and obviously, Aircell can’t ask the airline to hand them a plane for a couple of days. So at the moment, the Aircell team arrives at the airport, gets access to a plane at 10pm, and by sunrise, the plane has been equipped with everything it needs to offer Internet access in the skies.

The company

During the day, Aircell opened up every office in the building for me – nothing was off limits. I spent some time chatting with their CEO, their VP of airline operations and even spent some time in their mock airplane cabin complete with coach and first class seating. This cabin-in-an-office is where Aircell did some real hands-on testing of how people work on their computer, and probably realized like the rest of us that using a large laptop in a coach seat is a major hassle.

The future

As Aircell adds more aircraft to its network, and more users learn the joy of inflight Internet, you obviously run the risk of towers becoming too crowded, and the speed grinding to a halt. Thankfully the company is fully prepared to deal with that. When they showed me their current base station map, they showed how easy it is to just add new towers. So easy in fact, that they can even add towers for one specific high-traffic route. So, if too many people start using it between LA and San Francisco, keeping speeds acceptable involves nothing more than a new tower looking up to the skies on that route.

In addition to this, Aircell already has a future plan laid out for a migration to 4G technology. They have picked LTE as their next generation system, and as the market evolves, they’ll be able to beam as much as 100mbit to a single aircraft.

Of course, when I asked which airlines we can expect to join the ranks of the current Aircell customers, the room got rather quiet. But it is safe to say that pretty soon, almost every major US carrier will have committed to offering Internet in the air. There is only one competitor for domestic US inflight Internet access, and they have yet to see a major rollout to any aircraft.

One big topic at the Aircell HQ is video – video is big on the ground, and if it is up to them, it’ll be big in the skies as well. There were very few details about their plans, but if you picture turning your laptop into an inflight entertainment system with content coming from equipment on the plane, you’ll get an idea of how Aircell envisions the future of flying.

Wrap-up

I’d like to thank Aircell and everyone that took the time to speak to me. It was fun to see so many people speak so passionately about what they are doing. Despite some grumblings from the media wondering how they’ll ever make money, the company has a pretty solid outlook on the future. Usage is up month after month, they just reached the one million user mark, and are going to hit two million within the next month.

Obviously most passengers would prefer the service to be free, but when you look at the amount of money that has been pumped into building this network, it is pretty amazing they can offer it at this current price point.

United Airlines offers a free “try before you buy” Wi-Fi session on all p.s. flights

by Scott Carmichael on

Passengers on the United Airlines p.s. premium transcontinental service can enjoy one free Gogo Inflight Wi-Fi session. The promotion is done as a “try before you buy”, which is a great way to get introduced to the joy of inflight Internet access.

To get the free session, all you need to do is create a new Gogo Inflight account. After that, you can surf the web for the entire duration of the flight. Since these flights are some of the longest domestic flights available, you’ll be saving $12.95 with this freebie.

Wi-Fi access is offered on all United Airlines p.s. flights. These premium transcontinental flights operate between New York JFK and Los Angeles / San Francisco. Seats on p.s. flights all offer an AC power port, making it easier to stay online for the entire flight.

Four pieces of great inflight WiFi news from Gogo

by Scott Carmichael on

Inflight Internet provider Aircell released not one, but four different pieces of good news yesterday afternoon. We’ve translated all the PR-speak into the stuff you need to know if you want to stay up to date on the latest developments of Internet in the skies.

American Airlines widget

American Airlines is taking its rollout of the Aircell Gogo inflight service pretty serious – taking a page from the early days of WiFi on Virgin America, American Airlines developed a simple WiFi tracking widget.

The tool allows you to check whether your flight will come equipped with the Gogo inflight Internet service. Of course, the target we all want is that these tools won’t be necessary, and that every flight you get on will have the service, but until then, lets be grateful for this handy widget.
One millionth user

In October, Gogo welcomed its one millionth subscriber. I remember taking one of the first ever Gogo enabled flights last year, and in those 12 months, Aircell installed the Gogo service on over 600 commercial planes.

This is an amazing accomplishment, and to show how fast the growth is – the two million mark will be reached in January 2010. With over 100,000 new users each week, it is pretty obvious that the Gogo inflight service is highly popular.

Buy one get one on AirTran

Gogo customers who purchase an inflight Internet session on AirTran get an early Christmas promo this Holiday season – after buying one session, you’ll get a coupon emailed for a free session.

The promo ends December 31st, and is applied to any Gogo flight pass of $12.95 or less. It is not valid on discounted or free sessions.

Air Canada begins WiFi trials

Starting today, Air Canada will begin a trial offering WiFi on select Toronto-Los Angeles and Montreal-Los Angeles flights. The service only works over the continental US, but with these long flights, that means it’ll be available for the majority of your trip.

The trial lasts till January 29th, and after that period, Air Canada will analyze customer feedback and determine how to proceed with a fleet wide rollout. Eventually, Aircell hopes to extend the reach of their network into Canada using the Canadian ground network licensee.

Free Wi-Fi tomorrow on Delta Airlines – for a good cause!

by Scott Carmichael on

Tomorrow, October 31st, Delta Airlines and Gogo are offering free Wi-Fi on all their flights.During the sign-in procedure, simply use promotion code GOPINK.

As if that were not cool enough, Aircell (the company behind Gogo) will donate $1 for every free session that day (up to $10,000) to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

This is the fifth year Delta has supported breast cancer research with their Pink Plane. Last year, Delta raised half a million Dollars for the foundation through donations and pink product sales.

During the month of October, all Gogo proceeds from Wi-Fi sales on the Delta Pink plane will go to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

So, if you are flying a Wi-Fi equipped plane on Delta tomorrow, you’ll get free Internet access, and you’ll help support a great cause.