When traveling in the wilder parts of the world, or at least, the less developed parts of the world, one thing a gadget freak has to consider is access to electricity to charge their various devices.

A few years ago this was not really a problem, as all our mobile devices, phones and such like, all managed to keep going for days on end between charges But with the advent of gadgets such as the iPad, Smart phones and so on, this is no longer the case.

The Philippines, a case in point.

To illustrate this point, I currently live in the Philippines, a country that many people visit as tourists for the very good reason that it offers a wide range of delightful beaches and other natural attractions. But less attractive for a gadget owner is the fact that in many tourist resorts and similar, there is either no mains electricity or it is only on for about 3 or 4 hours each evening, and then it is not really the sort of electrical supply I would want to plug any modern electronic device into, as the voltage swoops up and down to an amazing degree.

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This has to be the last word in iPad comfort accessories, a small pillow specially made for your iPad’s comfort, and yours too, of course.

Veyl Products have come up with a rather neat small pillow for your iPad.   I know, you could simply use any old pillow-like thing you have knocking about for this, but wait… This is actually specifically designed for the iPad, so it has sort of pockets which will hold your iPad firmly in place, both in Landscape and in Portrait mode.

They give very little actual detail on their website, but I have a strong feeling that you can also use it to carry your precious iPad around in as well, a sort of well padded carrying case for it.

Anyhow, not much more to be said about this one, except it looks fun and useful, and at $29.99 it isn’t too expensive really…  Oh, and by the way, it comes in one of two colours, black or brown.  Not the most cheerful of colours, but they have the advantage I suppose if you are out and about of not being too visible………

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Around the World with 40 Lonely Planet Bloggers… A beautiful ebook:

Lonely Planet have just launched a free ebook (well, actually it is a PDF file) made up of the travel experiences of 40 bloggers, whose blogs are reported on by Lonely Planet, which has resulted in a truly beautiful ebook, full of the most amazing images of the places these intrepid travellers have visited.

Blogs We Like:

This ebook is a direct result of the “Blogs we like” program that Lonely Planet started up in 2008, in which they feature the blogs of their favourite bloggers on the Lonely Planet website.   These bloggers have formed a sort of informal group within Lonely Planet, which has resulted in this rather amazingly beautiful collection of images.

In the words of Todd Wassel, the ebook’s project manager:

“The concept is simple – put 40 experienced travel bloggers together, shake and see what pops out. The result is the first ever Lonely Planet Blogger Photo ebook, which explores our beautiful world from street level through the eyes of travel bloggers.

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Yet another portable charger to keep your ereader or mobile phone alive when on top of Mount Everest.

ZAGG, who are best known for their extraordinary name and their range of screen protectors have popped up with a portable device (The ZAGGSpark) to charge your phones and ereaders.

What is it?

Essentially this is simply a box with a 6000mAh Lithium Polymer battery in it, that you charge up and then take with you when you head out to the wilderness, so not exactly the latest thing in high-tech, but extremely useful nonetheless I reckon.

It is kitted out with a standard two prong plug to plug it into the mains to charge it with (it also has an European adapter as well), a number of coloured LEDs to indicate its state of charge, and two USB ports to connect your ereader or mobile phone to it with.

Obviously, if you own a large, battery intensive device, such as an iPad, it will only give you about a half charge, but apparently with smaller devices, such as the Sony ereaders, it will happily give you a full charge, which means that you can go away for up to about 4 weeks of intensive ebook reading without having to worry about running out of juice in that time.  This is useful!

It has two USB ports, as I mentioned, one is a bog standard USB port that will work with any device that uses a USB connection to charge itself, the other one is described as being “Optimised”, which apparently means it works faster than the standard one.  But, this port doesn’t work with all devices, for some reason.

What is the price?

The price is relatively high I feel, but for the convenience – if you are out and about a lot, and don’t have easy access to normal means of charging your devices, it is probably well worth the price, which by the way is $99 direct from ZAGG, but at Amazon you can get it for $79 – so off to Amazon yet again, say I.

To give you a better idea of this device, here is a short video that demonstrates it in action………

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Sad occurrence on a Quantas plane trip:

The other day I was flying back from Brisbane to the Philippines, the first step was a flight from Brisbane to Sydney,, during which I had my trusty old Sony PRS-505 with me, as usual when traveling.   As I had decided to watch the in-flight movies rather than read, I put the ereader into the pocket on the back of the seat in front of me, and settled down to enjoy the film.

In due time we reached Sydney, and got off the plane to go and connect to the flight to Manila.

After a few minutes I realized that I had left the ereader on the plane….  Damn it!  So, rushed to the nearest service desk to see if I could get it located and back into my hands before the flight to Manila – but some quick operator had already stolen it, and it was not to be found.

Feeling very sorry for myself I wandered back to my wife and told her the sad news.  She, noble soul that she is, said immediately that I should go and buy a new one at once….  (they are hard to find in the part of the Philippines we live in), so I did just that.

A broad choice of exactly one model was available, a Sony Daily Edition (known to its friends as PRS-650), so I bought that, and settled down happily on the plane with my shiny new black ereader, having quickly loaded a few ebooks into it for the trip.

So, what do I think of the Daily Edition?

Apart from the fact that it has a touch screen, unlike the old 505, the first thing that struck me was the wonderfully clear screen and delightfully black letters, thanks to the Vizplex technology of the screen, which is so much better than the relatively grey letters on the old Sony.   This makes reading a delight to the eye, and much easier than the older screen technologies, a real advance.

I also was impressed by the very easy to use interface, opening the various windows was so simple and the layout so well designed that anyone should be able to find their way around on this device with no trouble within minutes of starting to use it.

As with other Sony eReaders, this one has no WiFi or 3G connectivity, which some find to be a minus point, as you have to have a computer in order to load your ebooks into the device, personally I don’t find this a problem, but I can understand why so many prefer the Amazon Whispersync system for example, as that is so much easier to work with, obviously.  There is no doubt that if Sony decided to go that route in the future, it would give them a very strong position in the market, as their eReaders are extremely well made, solid feeling devices, with well laid out controls, both the touch screen and the buttons.

No cheap plastic here, they are made of very solid feeling aluminium, so are a pleasure to hold.

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WaterField Designs have everything you need to protect your Kindle 3:

WaterFields have introduced a very complete range of covers, bags and sleeves in which you can snuggle your precious Kindle 3, and thus ensure it remains in perfect condition, even if you happen to decide to take it with you on a camel ride through the Gobi Desert, or into the wilds of any major city’s underground system in the rush hour.

In total they have 6 different covers/cases/bags in their range of Kindle 3 protectors, which I list below, with brief descriptions of what each of them is.

Kindle Ultimate Sleeve Case:

This is a nylon shell, padded with neoprene that is intended to act as a cover for your Kindle.    Very tough, and good looking it is too.

Cost: Depending whether you want it for a Kindle 2, 3 or DX, from $ 49 – $  55.