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Showing posts with label surge protector. Show all posts
Showing posts with label surge protector. Show all posts

Aug 9, 2011

Road trip to PA with gadgets on board

  Recently, we took a trip to Pennsylvania. We visited Lancaster County and the Amish, and Philadelphia. Neither of us have ever been to Lancaster. I was in Philadelphia once for a few hours and my wife visited Philadelphia when she was very young. When telling folks that we took a mini vacation in PA, the reaction was almost unanimous: "Not exactly the place I would think of when going on a fun getaway." Though it was interesting.
  While Lancaster can be totally a tourist trap, there are ways to plan around that at least some of the times. We did visit the Amish house and farm, with a tour that was very interesting and we found out a lot of information about the lifestyle that have not known previously. We also enjoyed quite a bit of the farm grown food that was available everywhere including homemade ice cream. I would highly recommend sampling some.
  While on our long weekend getaway, we of course had some gadgets along with us. We do not travel anywhere without our point-and-shoot Canon Powershot SX120 and we also had the DSLR for the scenic shots (some pictures below). Since this was a road trip, we had the Garmin Nuvi in the car showing us the way. 
Other gadgets we packed for our trip were Belkin Mini Surge Protector, which I only recently acquired (Plug in and protect those gadgets), rechargeable batteries, rechargeable batteries charger, rechargeable lithium battery for DSLR, and media phones. My wife also brought along her Kindle, she does not go anywhere without it.
  The Mini Surge Protector came in very handy in our hotel room in Philadelphia that had only a couple of outlets that were easily accessible. We were able to plug in all of our chargers as well as phones which have the USB connector cable into the Surge Protector and have all the devices ready for the next day of all-day touring the city.  
  Moreover, my wife, avid photographer, told me during the trip how much she liked having rechargeable batteries with us. These batteries are not as susceptible to heat or cold as regular alkaline batteries, hence they have more juice and last longer. She was able to take over 200 shots before they needed to be replaced.
 Overall, it was a fun and educational trip. We saw and learned about the staples of American history as well as glimpses of life many years ago. Had some great cheese steaks, rang bells, and climbed the famous stairs.

Here are some of photos from the trip: http://traveltechgadgets.blogspot.com/p/photo-album.html
Photos by Svetik Photography

Jul 18, 2011

Plug in and protect those gadgets

With all these USB devices mentioned in "USB everywhere and anywhere," you need somewhere to plug them in. There is of course the computer or the laptop, though as discussed in the previous post, there are a lot more gadgets these days that utilize USB connectivity. Hotel rooms and airport terminals never seem to have enough power outlets to charge all of the devices.

Outlets of the future might look like this - in-wall USB Charger, but until then there are gadgets that make it easy to charge your USB device. One such adapter that I recently acquired is the Belkin Mini Surge Protector. It transforms one wall outlet into three outlets just by plug it in. Not only that but it swindles in place so you can adjust to whatever way the outlet is facing to make room for any other devices to plug in. It also has 2 USB chargers built it so that you can easily charge your mobile gadgets without having to drag additional adapters.

Furthermore, as the name implies, this device also acts as a surge protector, protecting the electronics in your computer from surges in power. As you might already know, a surge in power can be pretty bad especially for a laptop.  It is filled with voltage-sensitive components that a power surge could damage very easily. At the least, this damage will shorten the life of your computer, and it could very easily wipe out all of your saved data or destroy your system. This little device has over 900 joules of surge protection. And it also comes with $75,000 connected equipment warranty. It is definitely coming along with me on the next business trip, even if I have only a couple of gadgets to plug in I would still rather the convenience and peace of mind of the mini surge protector.


Why good to have on a trip:
- 3 out of 1 outlets
- 360-degree rotating plug with 4 locking position
- provides surge protection through all outlets
- USB outlets for easy plug in and charging
- compact and lightweight
- Nice hotel room companion for plugging in the laptop, cell phone, iPod, and iPhone when you only have one  outlet

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