So what is in my holiday gadget bag?

I continue to enjoy my holidays, traveling across the United States. I remember twenty years ago when I went to Australia, the only piece of electronic gear was the Sony Walkman, with six audio cassettes and a pair of alkaline AA batteries. And then I bought a small AM radio to stay in touch with the world. No cell phones, no Internet at that time. I also remember a GPS leaflet by Magellan, stating prices "starting" at $19k for a device capable of displaying coordinates on two line character display. Times have changed a lot since 1989.

Actually today I have just realized I carry four GPS devices with me:

1. The Garmin Nuvi 250, with City Navigator North America map on a SD card, sticked to the windscreen. Very simple, reliable and faithful gadget. I rely on the CNNT map everyday and use it to help finding various points of interest along the way, including gas stations, grocery shops and lodging.
   



2. Then there is the Garmin Colorado 400t. It has a very detailed US Topo map built in. And it is fully waterproof (tested yesterday on a whitewater rafting trip on the Colorado river). Generally the 400t is a gadget, as the type of my current trip does not require detailed topographic map - all the National Parks have usual paper maps that are more than sufficient. But it serves one important role: saves the track log. For some reason the Nuvi 250 does not have the track saving feature. But I definitely wanted to have a detailed track of the entire trip, as I hope to use it later to create a memorable presentation, including pictures taken, log of the trail and some more information from services like Google Earth. Actually I don't know if Garmin's log can be used for that purpose, but hope there are services (or file converters) that will allow me to extract the track information later. A few days ago I read Walt Mosberg's recommendation on the ThisMoment.COM service - a mashup that lets you pull various information from separate sources. Have not tried the ThisMoment.COM yet, but from Walt's description this is just what I need.



3. The Blackberry Curve 8900. Has a built-in GPS and uses Google Maps as a navigation software. Such a combo has a big disadvantage when going abroad. It uses quite a lot of data transmitted over the air. And that costs dearly when abroad. To avoid paying sky high prices for my BlackBerry data, I purchased a 100MB roaming package before leaving (the price for that was $100 - not cheap but still 5-10 times cheaper compared to what it could be without the pre-paid package). I was using the BlackBerry in new York, helping me navigate the streets and avenues. But apart from the cost of continuous downloads of subsequent map chunks, such a solution works only within the coverage area of mobile carriers. Especially it would not work in most of the National Parks and other rural areas. But on the other hand you would not wander the streets of New York with Garmin GPS in your hand, would you?



4. The di-GPS attached to my FujiFilm D-SLR camera. It embeds geo coordinates in every picture taken. Very nice feature, especially in tandem with the Picasa Web service - you can see the places, you have taken pictures of, on a map. I like that.

Four GPSes seem redundant. They could probably be reduced to two. Either the Nuvi 250 should be saving track logs - then I would not carry the Colorado 400T with me. Or there should be a BlackBerry application that saves track logs, provided it would not drain the BlackBerry battery too fast... Then the track log saved by the 400T (or better - the Blackberry) could be matched with pictures taken, based on time information. And Picasa desktop client should be automatically geo - tagging imported pictures, first asking for a GPS log file. Going down to one GPS device does not seem to be an option now, as while driving you need a big, bright screen, and while hiking mountains or rafting rivers, you pay attention to size and weight.

Apart from the four GPSes, we have simple two - way FRS/GMRS Motorola radios. We travel in a group divided between two Jeeps, and to coordinate driving, we use these walkie - talkies. I picked the Motorolas, as they can be charged via a mini - USB port.

And speaking of USB charging - this is the common denominator of all the gadgets I carry. To minimize the number of power supplies and cables, I decided every single device has to have an ability to be charged via USB. I have a universal laptop power supply by Kingston (model K33403) - it can use just about any input source: 240V (European), 110V (American), 12V (Auto) and so called "Air" (available on some airplanes). And besides the laptop power output it also has a USB port. Having many USB powered devices, I needed a splitter and decided to use a tiny four - port USB hub just for that purpose. The hub has a mini - USB input, so can be attached either to the Kingston power supply or a standard mini-usb car charger while in the car (removing the need to carry a bulky car cigarette lighter splitter). This setup almost works. Almost - with some exceptions:

• The Garmin Nuvi 250 cannot be charged using a standard mini-USB cable, as in such a case it switches itself into a "data transfer to PC" mode, refusing to do any other tasks (including the primary task of giving guidance). So while in a car, the Nuvi has to be powered by Garmin mini-USB cable that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket.



• The Colorado 400t uses traditional AA cells and does not recharge them - an external charger is needed. So I had to buy a USB charger for two AA cells. Fortunately it can be plugged to one of the USB ports of the mini-hub and still works.



• The BlackBerry (8900) has a micro-USB port. Micro-USB is different than mini-USB. Fortunately Motorola (the pioneer of micro USB adoption) sells a short mini-to-micro-USB cable. Using this cable I can charge the BlackBerry with just about any mini-USB ended cable. But after the first overnight charging session, I found out plugging the BlackBerry to the micro-hub does not charge it at all. It has to be plugged directly to the USB port of the Kingston power supply.



• The Motorola FRS / GMRS walkie-talkies are happily charged via the mini-USB ports, but while charging they turn themselves off, so no charging while driving which is a big disappointment. I have to bring the radios to a hotel room for overnight charging session - fortunately there is still one free USB port on the micro hub. But when we stay on campgrounds in tents, the only way to recharge it is to use the Solio solar powered battery. I combine solio with a second solar panel - a simple set of solar cells with USB-out socket. Solio intelligently handles such "booster" panels and recharges quicker - thumbs up for that!

And then of course I have a separate charger for my D-SLR camera batteries. I have not found a D-SLR battery charger with USB input, but still the one I use - the Hahnel Ultima II is as universal as it gets today... with multiple standard mains input, and +12V car input, and interchangeable cradles for different batteries, and USB output for additional devices. Unfortunately when it is charging the primary battery, the USB port cannot be utilized - another setback. Plus I still do not have a solution to charge my D-SLR battery using sun rays. Something to be investigated before we start our next journey - to Mongolia, where both the number of gadgets and availability of power sources will be significantly limited...

And I still hope one day the power efficiency of both our gadgets and solar cells will be such that no external chargers will be needed at all..