A few years ago, I used to have a huge list of stuff I brought with me when I travelled. Having tried an immense range of electronics and productivity tools, I’ve now refined it down to a small collection of hardware and apps.
Mobile/Data
iPad 2 3G
After a particularly galling Orange experience I swore I would never ever again pay a penny/cent in international data roaming rates. So when I’m travelling I now switch my iPhone data off completely and just use it for calls and SMS. All data goes through my iPad 2 via a Maxroam data sim. I took a hard look at the iPad 3 but it really didn’t do much for me.
-critical iPad apps: Onavo (data-shrinking), Uber (US car service), Hailo (London taxi), Airbnb (hotel).
Computing
13″ Macbook Air. Hands-down the finest notebook I’ve ever owned. The larger screen real estate (11″ v 13″) makes a huge difference and still fits into any crazy reclined economy seat situations.
Luggage
-Long haul: still rocking the Travelpro I bought years ago. Unbreakable.
-Short haul: say what you want about Tyler Brule but the man knows luggage. For overnights I use the Japanese-designed Porter Boston Bag. Just wish it had a shoulder strap.
-Day trips: Nothing beats the Tom Bihn Ristretto. It really is perfect.
Audio
Still an area I haven’t quite nailed yet. Up until recently I’d been using the Beats By Dre noise-cancelling headphones. Then I broke them. And so I bought another pair, and then proceeded to break those as well.
Special mention: Jawbone’s Jambox, which survived trips to China and the Middle East before giving up the ghost. Great for both music and conference calls.
Sharing
Pretty simple. Dropbox on every device with custom sync (to avoid unnecessary data usage). Is there really anyone not using it at this stage? Keynote and Pages on iPad for editing and creation.