What Technology Is In Your Travel Bag?
by Robert McGarvey
It occurred to me the other day as I packed for a trip that just maybe the biggest change in my packing isn’t in the clothes (remarkably similar to what I packed 30 years ago) but in just about everything else.
Remember, now I prefer a backpack – a 35 liter Cotopaxi or a 40 liter Osprey – whereas decades ago my bag of choice was a big garment bag, mainly because folding clothes has never been a skill of mine. Still isn’t but I have grown to accept wrinkles, in my face and my clothes. A backpack is a functional choice and it is a change for me but it by no means is the biggest change in how I travel.
Probably the even bigger change is in the tech I tote and that’s despite the fact that tech today is a near universal reality whereas 30 years ago it was something of a rarity.
Rare it may have been but back circa 1990 I always brought a Toshiba T1100 Plus laptop, a modem, extension cords, a power bar, a screwdriver, and still more to insure I could in fact plug into the hotel’s phones and access CompuServe and/or AOL which were the online networks I used in those days. I also owned an acoustic coupler that I occasionally brought. Sometimes I also packed a bulky tape recorder (with spare D batteries) and a three pound Tandy-100 notebook which ran on batteries, had a tiny 8 line display and could store data on audio tape (thus the tape recorder). I remember transcribing an interview with Gerry Adams, the legendary Northern Irish politician, as a sat in a Belfast guest house and pecked away on the Tandy (which probably is the only oldtime tech I wish I still had – it was genuinely cool).
Add up all that weight I had to be lugging 20+ pounds of tech.
Looking back I have no real idea why I was so fixated on staying connected. I got few emails (I remember when CompuServe charged for emails). The Tandy could do most of what the Toshiba could do and, well, I guess I was just exhibiting my inner tech geek in my fondness for bringing so much gear on my travels.
But now it is 2023 and I travel light. Very light. For a computer my choice today is either a 9th generation iPad which cost under $300 and weighs about a pound or a Samsung Galaxy S6 Lite tablet which also weighs around a pound and cost $250. Note: I used to buy iPad Airs with all the bells and whistles but it occurred to me I didn’t use those features so I went cheap this past year. Either device does just fine with email, web searching, and the occasional writing chore.
Oh, the tablet, whichever I bring, also will double as my portable library with around 2000 Kindle books on tap in my library. Just think about how much weight that alone eliminates from my baggage.
WiFi is built into both tablets, no modem needed.
If I want I can bring a $30 Fosmon mini keyboard (it fits in a shirt pocket) or a lightweight Logitech keyboard, also $30. I probably will only bring a keyboard if I anticipate writing lengthy documents.
Of I course there’s also an iPhone 12. On it is a $23 Hindenburg field recorder app that recorded five interviews on a recent trip – very good sound quality without using an external microphone. The iPhone also can produce a powerful hotspot to handle my devices if I prefer to avoid public WiFi at hotels, airports etc (which I often boycott – security issues make using them unwise unless you deploy robust VPN).
Add in a USB cord or two and a USB outlet plug and tech is handled.
In a pinch, of course I could take quite good, even printable, photos with the phone (but I don’t customarily do photography). But if I had to I could.
Total weight is maybe three pounds, max.
And of course I can actually do much, much more with today’s pared down gear. Less is more.
How has your packing changed in your years of business travel? Speak up in the comments below.