TECH IT AWAY
RIGHT about now you might be readying yourself to jet off to some holiday hotspot in search of the sun that has, for the most part, been scarce during the UK’s summer thus far.
You’ll no doubt be packing at least some of your most useful tech, too – I can’t imagine anyone travelling without their mobile phone these days. It’s become our camera, our wallet, our translator, our guide, and, perhaps most importantly, our boarding pass.
So, it needs looking after in every way.
There is, of course, other tech that can make your journey better, too – here are a handful of accessories for your phone and other must-have add-ons that will make your travels easier.
Love Style battery pack/ passport holder
How about this for killing two birds with one stone? It’s a passport holder, and it’s a battery back. Anyone who has ever run out of phone juice at the airport will not need telling what a disaster it can be.
Even if charging is available, it might not be free, and it will very probably be busy. This passport holder is a must, then, as it conceals a 5,000mAh battery pack that will be a life-saver just at the moment you need it the most.
OneWorld PD universal adapter
Of course your UK plugs won’t work abroad, but what an expensive faff it is trying to maintain a collection of adapters that will work anywhere. This universal adapter solves that problem by working in more than 150 countries around the world right out of the box. In addition there are USB-C and USB-C charging ports, and the ability to charge up to five devices at once. It’ll be the only adapter you need, where you go.
AirFly Pro Bluetooth adapter
If you rely solely on Bl u e t o o t h headphones or earbuds, you’ll likely find yourself in an annoying situation when you can’t use them to watch the film on your flight. You’ll have to use the airline-supplied crackly recycled wired ones that are never loud enough. Unless, that is, you invest in an AirFly Pro – plug that in instead and you’ll never want for sweet music. You can even link two sets of headphones to it for communal listening. It’s also useful at the gym, I am told by people who go there.
SoundMAGIC E11C in-ear isolating earphones with mic
You may wish to avoid the complications of
Bluetooth altogether on the go, and its associated charging and connectivity issues. For a long time I recommended SoundMAGIC’s E10 wired earphones, but no more. Those incredibly-good-forthe-price beauties have been usurped – by SoundMAGIC’s E11C earphones. Like the E10s. But somehow even better.
Gear Geek travel essentials airplane phone holder
Turn the back of your seat into a mini-cinema with this handy and affordable holder (it’s less than half-price on offer at £8.99 as I write). A short hop around Europe may very well not include any inflight entertainment, so you might have to bring your own. Avoid arriving with a crick in the neck and position your phone at just the right height for viewing.
Waterproof phone case
Don’t go in the sea with your phone unprotected. And don’t leave it on the beach either. Avoid water damage and pesky thieves with this watertight bag that is big enough for even the biggest smartphones. You can still use the phone while it’s in the bag, too, and everything will stay dry inside up to 19ft down.
Boox Palma e-reader
Once upon a time I would have recommended Amazon’s Kindle as the e-reader of choice, and it still has a lot going for it – it’s £84 and more durable than your phone, less prone to heating up in the sun, and a lot easier to read in the midday glare. But there’s a new kid on the block this year – the phonesized e-ink reader from Boox, the Palma. It runs Android so you can download any app from the Play Store to it, giving you a wide range of bookshops to choose from, including Amazon.
AirTags and Tile Pro trackers
You’ll want to stick a tracker on your luggage before you go, not least so you have a good idea where it is if and when it goes missing. It might help you get it back sooner. For Apple-users there’s only one sensible choice – the AirTags are Apple’s own and work great with the ecosystem. Tile’s Pro tag is a good choice for Android users and allows for easy tracking of objects via the decent Tile app.
AirTags, above, £35 from apple.com/uk
Tile Pro, left, £29.99 tile.com
right, is an interesting case you can snap an Apple Watch into, and use it as if it were a little iPod – there’s even a click wheel that uses magic to turn the watch’s digital crown.
If you have a watch with mobile service, you could easily use this instead of your iPhone for a simplified experience (although you do need to own an iPhone to use an Apple Watch). But most of all it’s just fun.
£64 plus shipping from thetinypod.com
A GROOV-E KIND OF LOVE
I still have a full-sized printer and it’s never been anything but trouble. Especially so now, since I never use it unless I’m printing off a shipping label for something I’ve bought (to return) or sold (to deliver).
This new miniprinter from Groov-e might be a much better bet for that job, now that I don’t really need to be churning out reams of A4 photos…
It’s a thermal printer, too, so although it’s mono it doesn’t need ink… just the right paper.
Might be just the thing for the
Etsy side-hustle you’ve been planning.
£24.99 from selected retailers including Rymans, Asda and Tesco as well as Groov-e.co.uk
SONOS APP NOT SO SOUND
You may recall some weeks ago we brought you news of a total redesign to the app that controls smart speakers. Well, it hasn’t gone down too well.
According to users it was buggy and lacked an intolerable number of features the old app had.
This has led Sonos CEO Patrick Spence to issue an apology to users – and a promise that the company is doing all it can to fix the situation quickly. It’s already a good way through squashing bugs, and missing features will be added, too, over the coming months.