Smart Home Lifestyle

July 21, 2007

Airplane Travel Gadgets that will Help you Earn your Wings

If the thought of airplane travel has got you cooling your jets, you’re not alone. Long lines. Long flights. Lingering jetlag. To help get your feet off the ground, here are five gadgets to make sure you pick “flight” over “fight.”

Round trip relief

Plane rides are all about “hurry up and wait,” so make sure you’ve got plenty of reading material. Sony solves the problem of lugging heavy books around by combining all your favorite novels into one digital reader.

“Today, we’re writing a new chapter in digital technology for reading,” said Ron Hawkins, Sony Electronics’ vice president of Portable Reader Systems marketing. “Not intended to replace traditional books, but to supplement them, the Sony Reader allows people to take a library of books and other reading material with them wherever they go.”

The Reader, which measure about the size of a paperback and weighs around eight ounces, holds 80 books at a time. Simply download your favorites from the CONNECT eBooks website. The Reader also lets you store personal documents and photos and listen to MP3 or AAC Podcasts. The Reader cost just under $300.

First class gadget

Like resorts, all-inclusive gadgets give you more for the money. Hammacher Schlemmer’s GPS unit adds in an MP3 player, audio book player, translator and currency and measurement converter. This handheld device weighs less than 6 oz with a 3.5” color screen. The GPS displays maps of the US, Canada and Puerto Rico with text or speech prompts.

The unit offers 700 MBs of memory that can be used for MP3 audio files, digital audio book files or even more maps. Plus you can store your digital photos. The unit can be purchased at www.hammacher.com for just under $1000.

Connecting flight

Want some Fox News to go along with your French Foie Gras? With Slingbox, no matter where your travels take you, if you’ve got a computer, high-speed Internet access and about $250, you’ve got “TV and Tivo to go.”

“The Slingbox clearly defines a new era for television viewing,” said Blake Krikorian, Sling Media co-founder and CEO. “Our goal is to enhance the TV-viewing experience by allowing people easy access to their living room television content, no matter their location: around the house or around the world.”

Slingbox provides the route to live or saved programming. Local network channels can be accessed as well as movie channels, a huge perk for the business traveler longing for commercial-free entertainment. And best of all, Slingbox lets you control your DVR from remote locations, which means you can watch what you have saved, or you can schedule a future taping. Slingbox even provides an on-screen virtual remote control that acts just like your Tivo remote at home for commands like "pause" and "thumbs-up."

Floatation Device

Whether you’re deep sea fishing or deep in the Amazon, the terrestrial and aquatic digital camera will keep your memories afloat. And Hammacher Schlemmer’s digital camera’s 100% waterproof see-through case is great for those underwater shots or for those days with torrential rain. And for days with sunny skies, simply unsnap the case and slide out the camera.

This 5 MP camera comes with 16 MB of memory that can be expanded up to 1 GB with a SD card. It has a built-in flash, 4X zoom and a 2” color LCD screen. The camera costs just under $150 at www.hammacher.com.

Cabin confidential

In-flight chatter quickly becomes quieted with Bose’s noise canceling headphones. The QuietComfort Acoustic Noise Canceling headphones fade background noises for a more peaceful flight home. These compact, lightweight headphones allow for hours of comfortable wearing or listening. The detachable cord connects to your MP3, DVD or CD player. It can even hook up to the in-flight movie. The QuietComfort headphones cost just under $350 from www.neimanmarcus.com.

Author: Diana Kostigen, Marketing/Public Relations Director, Comtec