Taking off Travel blog

I love looking at new gadgets and there are some great ones on this month’s list.

Get Fit

There’s no reason to slack on fitness just because you’re on a business trip. On my last trip, I saw dozens of people get up early to use the hotel’s fitness room. If you’re lucky enough to have good weather, then walking or jogging are an option - and that’s where the Live-Lite comes in. From Perception Digital, this device measures steps and your heart rate, ensuring that you stay on top of your fitness regime.

Ergonomic Elegance

I don’t know about you, but I often travel with an external keyboard for my laptop to save my wrists. The trouble is that it takes up a lot of space. However, I may not have to do that for much longer, since Goldtouch has released a foldable ergonomic keyboard, the GoldTouch Go! It only weighs a pound and is supposed to be comfortable to use - $139 seems a small price to pay to avoid tendonitis.

Mouse Phone

For me, the Skype Travel Mouse comes under the category of ‘neat, but do you really need it?’ It’s a mouse that slides open to reveal a phone keypad. It also has a decent sized LCD display at 128×64 pixels, and is $35 plus shipping. The fact that you only need to use a single USB port for both mouse and phone is undoubtedly a plus, so it could be worth a look.

Charge It All - Or Almost

The Charge4All is yet another device that allows you to charge multiple devices from a single power connection. It won’t charge your laptop or anything else that needs high voltage, but it will charge MP3 players, cell phones, digital cameras and the like. It’s $29.95.

Swiss Army Drive

You’ll need to pack these in your checked baggage, but the SwissFlash and Presentation Master Swiss Army Knives have all the usual array of gadgets as well as a flash drive with a maximum capacity of 32GB. There are also versions with built in laser pointers. Prices range from the low 60s to over $300.

New In Japan

We can’t wait for this one to hit our shores. It’s a credit card sized digital voice recorder - perfect for taking voice notes on the move (that’s if you haven’t already got it built into your phone). Rumor has it that you can record up to 30 hours of digital voice with this compact gadget.

It’s time for another round up of essential gadgets for business travel, plus one non-essential that’s there simply because I like it.

Cell Phone Projector

One of the hot new must-haves this year has to be a cell phone with a mini projector. No longer will you have to worry about how to make that presentation - just load it into your cell phone and you’re ready to go. This one will set you back about $300, but is remarkably convenient. Several cell phone manufacturers are reported to have these in the works, with many expected to launch in 2010.

Weighing In

Need to find out exactly how much weight those company brochures have added to your luggage allowance? Then you need a digital luggage scale. The Balanzza Too is small enough to carry but will make sure that you don’t get hit with overweight charges. The latest version, which ships this month, includes an alarm and flashlight.

Downsize Your Laptop

Cut the weight of your laptop by getting a smaller, speedier version such as the HP Mini, which also has a beautiful dashboard interface for easy navigation. You might struggle a bit with the keyboard, but your shoulders will thank you for the reduced weight. If you can bear it, go even smaller and pick up a Dell mini, which is currently on my wishlist. Read more »

Joobili is a travel planning site with a difference. Its motto is ‘you say when, we say where’ and that sums up what Joobili is all about.

Using Joobili

To use it, all you have to do is pick a range of travel dates using the home page slider and it will tell you what is going on during that time. That takes you to another page with a list of events that you can filter using:

• categories such as family, arts, food and drink, celebrations, music and (my personal favorite) unusual
• country - the site currently contains only European destinations, but it would be good to see it broadened to include more places
• tags

You can also see others who have liked the events. Read more »

There’s a lot more to planning a business trip or a holiday than simply booking travel, making airport parking reservations and finding accommodation. These days you can find out a lot about where you’re headed by visiting sites for countries, cities, destinations and attractions. The only trouble is that those sites are designed to sell you on the delights of the places you are visiting. To find out what actual travelers think, you need to browse the travel forums. Here are nine forums where you can start your research.

Try these forums to plan and discuss your next trip

BootsnAll Travel is all about independent travel, with stories and blogs to make destinations come to life. The forum is sorted by destination, with active discussions of travel issues on all the major continents and regions.

Business Traveller, the magazine for business travelers worldwide, has been around since 1976. Its forum deals with any subject related to travel, with the most popular topics being airlines, airports and frequent flyer programs.

Cruise Critic is the place to go if you are traveling by sea. With five million plus members, there’s a wealth of information on everything cruise related. The forum also includes discussions of individual cruise lines. Read more »

Most of us travel with a mobile device and for many of us, that just might be an iPhone. After all, millions of them have been sold worldwide. One of the attractions of the iPhone is all the mobile applications you can use with it. There are hundreds of those available for travelers. Here they are:

The best travel apps for your Iphone

Check Flight Status

Flight Status - Check the status of thousands of flights around the world by flight number, route or airport. This is one of several applications using FlightStats data.

Find Places Near You

Yelp offers quick links to restaurants, bars, coffee shops and other places near you. Also consider Around Me and Where. When you’re on the road, you might also need to find a cheap gas station (Gasbag) or a bathroom (Sit or Squat). Read more »