Mobile handset manufacturers have been releasing various “green” phones, usually attaining their eco-friendliness tag by being constructed from recycled plastics, such as the Motorola W233 Renew, intended to be a cheap, entry-level phone. It looks like Samsung is upping the ante with the release of the Samsung Blue Earth featuring a solar panel on the backside in addition to being made from recycled materials. Being a touchscreen phone with quad-band GSM and partial 3G support (no 3G support in the US, at the moment) this is definitely a more serious phone than the Renew. The CNet review suggests that the call quality may not be up to par, but still it’s an interesting glimpse into what may hold for eco-conscious consumers.
If you’re looking for a way to play a sizable chunk of your music library on the run in a device with minimal size and weight, look no further than the Sansa Clip+. The Sansa Clip has been around for years now and has garnered a reputation as having top notch audio quality in a small, matchbox-sized format which is convenient for jogging, working out and traveling light. The new Clip+ is an upgrade to an already great player, adding a more solid build, support for browsing files which are organized in folders and, most importantly, the addition of a MicroSDHC slot, allowing you to add up to 16GB of flash storage to your player. This means if you got the 8GB Clip+ and added a 16GB MicroSDHC card you’d have a whopping 24GB of flash storage – or if you’re on a budget, you could get the 4GB Clip+ and add an 8GB card for 12GB of storage (knowing you can always upgrade to a 16GB card later when they come down in price). Even with just a 4GB MicroSDHC card, 8GB of music is plenty to keep my ears happy for even the longest of trips.
The Clip+ is available in 2GB (black only), 4GB (black, red, blue) and 8GB (black only). It supports playback of MP3, WMA, WAV, FLAC, Ogg and Audible (audio book) audio files. The battery life is rated as 15 hours – enough for even the longest flights, but if you happen to need a charge, it has a standard 5-pin mini-USB port, allowing you to charge it with with your laptop and many phone chargers (i.e. older Motorola chargers). It’s 2.16 x 1.36 x 0.6 inches (55 x 35 x 15 mm) and a mere .85 oz (24g) with (surprise) a clip on the back.
In addition to having more storage capacity and superior sound quality, one of the ways in which the Clip+ distinguishes itself from competitors is by having a small OLED display so you can actually see what’s playing – unlike Apple’s iPod Shuffle, where if you can’t remember the name of the song that’s playing, you’re out of luck. It also includes an FM radio with the ability to make both radio and voice recordings – another feature the iPod Shuffle lacks.
All in all, Sansa has improved on an already great MP3 player that delivers amazing bang for the buck in a package that won’t leave you wondering whether to pack it or not and at a price that won’t have you worrying about it being lost or stolen.
Hot Deal Update: Amazon has momentarily dropped the price of the 4GB Clip+ to $39.99 with free shipping.
Need some classical tunes to relax to during your trip? Amazon is currently offering an MP3 album, containing some of the most well-known classical pieces ever, absolutely free (and I wouldn’t expect it to stay that way for long) . Follow the link below and click the Get MP3 Album button. Note that you’ll have to download and install the Amazon MP3 Downloader software in order to get the album (just follow the prompts). The software works on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
1. Canon In D – Societas Musica Chamber Orchestra
2. Air On A G String – Societas Musica Chamber Orchestra
3. Claire De Lune – Alain Planes
4. Aqurium From Carnival Of The Animals – Philharmonia Orchestra
5. Gymnopedie No. 1 – Yuji Takahashi
6. Pathetique Sonata: II. Adagio – Bruno-Leonardo Gelber
7. New World Symphony: II. Largo – Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
8. Nocturne In F – Vladimir Tropp
9. Fur Elise – Annerose Schmidt
10. The Swan From Carnival Of The Animals – Philharmonia Orchestra
11. Goldberg Variations, Aria – Konstantin Lifschitz
12. Piano Concerto No. 2: I. Moderato – Helene Grimaud
13. Recuerdos – Alexander-Sergei Ramírez
14. Song Without Words, Op. 19, No. 6 – Kyoko Tabe
15. Ave Maria – Maxence Larrieu
It should be no surprise that laptops are one of the biggest targets for thieves, whether you’re on the road or at home. The loss of your laptop would not only bring the financial sting of losing a valuable item, but also the loss of your data, which you may not have backed up recently, and the concern of whether there’s any sensitive information on your laptop that could be disastrous for you or your company should your laptop fall into the wrong hands.
Obviously, if you’re staying in a room that has an electronic safe, that’s probably the best place to store your laptop and any other valuables – but such safes are usually luxuries, rarely found in more modest hotels and guest houses. Some guest houses and hostels may have a lock box in your room which you can use with your own padlock, and this may or may not be a good solution depending on how well it was built. I once accidentally locked my keys (including the key to the padlock) in a lock box at a hostel in Australia, and had little trouble disassembling it with the screwdriver on my Swiss Army knife in about 10 minutes. Many places will let you lock your valuables in a safe at the front desk. This may be a good option for passport and other small valuables, but if you’ll be using your laptop daily this could be inconvenient. Plus, I’m generally of the opinion that the less people who know I have a laptop, the better (which also means that taking your laptop to the local restaurant or cafe to get some work done is probably not the best idea.)
There’s a variety of offerings when it comes to locks specifically designed for computer and laptops, but many of them are poorly made, poorly designed and easily defeated. Some use steel cables which are simply too thin; some use the round, barrel-style keys which are known for being easily defeated; some use 3-digit combination locks which can be defeated by anyone with enough time (under 2 hours) and patience to try all 1000 combinations; some use lock mechanisms which can be defeated in a matter of seconds. Don’t take my word for it. Have a look at the following videos from YouTube.
With the above in mind, take a moment to consider a well-known rule amongst security experts: for someone who is determined enough, there’s always a way to get past a lock, an alarm, or whatever security measures are in place. All you can do is slow them down, frustrate them, make them worry about getting caught and decide it’s not worth their time. None of the recommendations below are fool-proof ways of keeping your laptop safe – but any of them are better than nothing.
First, keep your physical location as secure as possible. Consider how hard it would be for someone to get into your room through the windows, especially if someone can walk right up to them, but also consider how hard it would be to climb up to them or to a balcony door. Don’t leave your windows open when you’re not there. If you’re traveling and staying at a budget guesthouse or resort where you can use your own padlock on the door, use one – and make sure it’s a good one. Don’t trust the padlock given to you by the management. They’re probably honest people, but a local thief might be familiar with the type of locks they use and know how to get past them quickly.
Next, assuming that someone does find a way into you’re room, your goal is to make sure that they can’t simply grab your laptop and head out the door in a flash. From this perspective, any lock is a good start, because they simply may not be prepared for it and not want to risk sticking around trying to get past it. However, if they have some idea of what they’re doing, whether it’s due to YouTube or due to their own experience, you want to make sure they have a hard enough time that they start to panic and abort their attempt. That’s where the options below come in.
Targus DEFCON 1 Ultra Laptop Security System – PA400U
(Note: this is not the same model as the one shown in the YouTube video above.)
The DEFCON 1 Ultra is retractable steel cable lock with an electronic alarm and motion sensor. Most laptops have a small, rectangular lock-slot built into the body, often on the back corner. Virtually all laptop locks depend upon this slot for their purposes, so make sure yours has one before buying any laptop lock. After inserting the included adapter into this slot, you run the cable around an immovable object, such as a pipe, or something difficult to move, such as a bed or chair. While the cable isn’t very thick, the protection comes from the fact that if the cable is cut, a 95-decibel alarm will sound that will surely put any thief into a panic, hopefully making them run in fear of being caught. It also features a motion sensor, so if the lock is moved around too much, the lock will first start “chirping” as a warning, and then unleash the full alarm if the motion doesn’t stop or the lock isn’t properly unlocked. The lock itself is a 4-digit combination lock giving you 10,000 possible combinations, ensuring that any thief would have to sit there for a long, long while to try to crack the code, but also giving you the convenience of not having to worry about carrying (and losing) a key. You can get it at Buy.com for around $42 with free shipping. Note that one online review claimed it wasn’t too difficult to remove the 3 AAA batteries while the device was locked, which would disable the alarm and leave the scant protection of the thin steel cable. Even without removing the batteries, I wonder how hard it would be to disable the electronic alarm by other means. That said, anything which makes loud noise is surely going to make a thief think twice about experimenting – and I’ll address this possible weakness below.
Kensington Microsaver DS Notebook Computer Lock – Model 64343
Also relying on the lock-slot built in to your laptop, this lock is Kensington’s highest-grade model and it appears to be the best you can get as far as non-electronic laptop cable locks go. It’s a keyed lock, and the important difference here is that it’s a multi-disc lock that uses a flat key instead of the round, barrel-style keys which are common on so many other locks and known for being easy to defeat. It uses a 6-foot long (183cm), 0.18″ (4.5mm) thick carbon tempered steel cable core with external steel braided sheath, which I presume helps hinder any attempt to simply cut the cable. While no cable is any match for a serious cutter, this will surely hold up better than the cable on the lock in the YouTube video above. It’s available at Amazon for about $44 with free shipping. If you have an ultra-thin notebook such as a MacBook Air or Lenovo ThinkPad X300 series, you may want to opt for the Kensington MicroSaver DS Keyed Ultra-Thin instead – but bear in mind that its cable is a foot shorter at 5 feet.
Pacsafe Daysafe and Innersafe Bags
While the locks above are ideal for keeping your laptop locked while you run out for lunch, they do have their drawbacks. First, there’s the obvious possibility of the locks being defeated and a thief running off with your laptop. Second, laptop locks still allow physical access to your computer. If the thief is after your data, then the lock is of little concern to them, because while the lock may keep the laptop in place, it does nothing to prevent them from opening your computer and removing the hard disk – something that can often be performed with the simple removal of one tiny screw. This is good reason to use disk encryption software and to make sure your laptop is set so that you always have to log in when you turn it on, but even these measures can be defeated, so it’s better to make sure that a thief never has physical access to your computer in the first place.
This is where Pacsafe bags come in. Pacsafe makes a variety of travel security products, but their most innovative products in my eyes are their Daysafe backpacks. The backpacks feature a security bag that is essentially a steel-mesh cage covered in nylon fabric which can be sealed shut and locked to a fixed object by an attached steel cable. Not only can you fit your laptop in the bag, but there’s also room for your digital camera, camcorder, external hard drive and smaller items like your passport and extra cash. I’ve personally used the Daysafe 100 on my travels and I have to say, I now consider it essential for any future travels. It may not stop a master criminal, but it goes a long way for giving me peace of mind when leaving my laptop and camera in my room. Both the DaySafe 100 and DaySafe 200 backpacks are available at Amazon. The security bag is removable from both models, but if you really don’t see yourself ever using the backpack, you can purchase the security bag alone as the Pacsafe Innersafe 19L Bag Insert.
Note that if your laptop has a screen that’s larger than 15 inches, you may want test whether you’ll be able to fully close the security bag with your laptop inside before purchasing. I can personally verify that a laptop with a 15.6″ wide-screen barely fit when in its laptop sleeve.
Doubling Up the Protection
If you want the the ultimate in security for your laptop without hiring an armed guard, then my suggestion is to use both a laptop lock and the Pacsafe bag – and this is where we come back to the Targus DEFCON 1 Ultra electronic lock. As I mentioned, that lock could be susceptible to defeat by removing the batteries or other ways of disabling the locks electronic abilities. However, defeating it requires physical access to it. If the Targus lock is placed inside a Pacsafe bag along with your laptop, the thief’s ability to get your laptop becomes substantially more difficult: If they cut the Pacsafe cable and start walking off with your bag, the motion sensor will trigger and the alarm will sound. If they try to cut into the bag, this too will be difficult without setting off the motion sensor – and even if they do manage to cut the bag open enough to gain access to the Targus lock, they still have to disable it, which would prove drastically more difficult through the cut hole in the bag than if it were sitting on table, and they still have to worry about setting off the motion sensor. Note, however, that if you implement this double-layer security measure, you too will have to be careful not to set off the motion sensor when opening the Pacsafe bag, so you might want to practice at home first.
Plan for the Worst
Even with the best security measure you can get, there’s the chance your laptop will be lost or stolen. Assume that it will happen and be prepared in case it does. Back up your important data, whether with external drives or online backup services – ideally with both. Make sure your sensitive data is encrypted so that if a thief does get your laptop, they can’t get your data. Finally, you can use software solutions to attempt to get your laptop back if it is stolen and the thief is foolish enough to get online with it. Look into free software called LaptopLock or even using a dynamic DNS service to find the IP address of your laptop, which you can then give to authorities in hopes that they’ll use to track it down (though this is reportedly optimistic). If you want a more hardened solution and you’re willing to pay for it, check out Lojack for Laptops. But remember, the best solution is to make sure that your laptop never gets stolen in the first place.
MediaRingTalk.com is running a promotion which allows you to make free VOIP calls using your computer to the US, UK, Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. Calls are limited to 10 minutes, but if you’re traveling and just need to make a quick call to a phone to check in (maybe just to tell the person to get online so you can talk on Skype) then this should do the trick. Note that in the UK, Australia and Taiwan the free calls are limited to landlines. The promotion is set to end September 30, 2009, but reports are that they regularly extend the promotion period.
If you’re backpacking through foreign countries where restaurants aren’t cheap, then getting your meals from the grocery store is pretty much a requirement if you’re on a budget. You can fill yourself cheaply with spaghetti and tomato sauce (I’ve actually seen backpackers use ketchup as a replacement) – yet while you might be saving money on your meal, nutritionists would argue you’ll be paying for it in other ways. Adding some of the foods on this list might save you more than just pocket change.
Some of the foods on this list are obvious, and others will be nearly impossible to find in other parts of the world. Regardless, even if you’re traveling somewhere that you can afford to eat like a king (i.e. Thailand), it doesn’t hurt to supplement with some of the foods on this list when it comes to those mid-afternoon or late-night snacks. I always like to keep bananas in my room when I’m traveling for just this reason, as they’re healthy, cheap, and available just about anywhere.
As for the foods on this list which may only be available when you’re back home, keep in mind that this list doesn’t just apply to when you’re traveling, since before you can go anywhere, you first have to save money for the trip.
If you’re headed to a country where the electricity runs at a different voltage (i.e. if you’re in the US and going to Europe) you probably know that you need a plug adapter in order to plug your laptop or other device in for power. If you have a few devices that need power and are tempted to bring a power strip so that you only need one plug adapter, you may want to reconsider. First, if the power strip has any kind of surge protection built in, it’s probably designed to work only on your country’s voltage and probably won’t work properly (and may even get fried) on a different voltage. Even if it’s just a basic power strip without surge protection, that’s still overkill in terms of size and weight for the kinds of small devices you’re probably traveling with, such as your laptop, mobile phone, etc. You can accomplish the same thing with much less size and weight by using a simple plug splitter, which usually split one outlet into three. Better yet, pick up a basic extension cord that has three outlets on the end, which can be found for under $2. Having a six-foot extension cord can be handy in developing countries where electrical outlets aren’t placed as frequently. In guest houses, hostels and small hotels, sometimes there’s only one outlet, right next to the door, which is an inconvenient place if you want to plug your laptop in and sit in bed.
Note that these cords are only for the two-pronged variety of plugs, so if you have a cord with a 3-pronged, grounded plug, you’ll need the appropriate plug adapter – or a grounded plug splitter and grounded extension cord.
If you want a surge protector for your laptop, there are small surge protectors available which can give you that protection without weighing down your bag. I’ve personally used the Tripp Lite TRAVELERC8 and it saved my laptop from a monster power surge in India, sacrificing it’s own life to save my laptop (though unfortunately the life of my laptop’s power adapter wasn’t spared).
. The Sansa Clip has been around for years now and has garnered a reputation as having top notch audio quality in a small, matchbox-sized format which is convenient for jogging, working out and traveling light. The new Clip+ is an upgrade to an already great player, adding a more solid build, support for browsing files which are organized in folders and, most importantly, the addition of a MicroSDHC slot, allowing you to add up to 16GB of flash storage to your player. This means if you got the 8GB Clip+ and added a 
instead – but bear in mind that its cable is a foot shorter at 5 feet.
and it saved my laptop from a monster power surge in India, sacrificing it’s own life to save my laptop (though unfortunately the life of my laptop’s power adapter wasn’t spared).