By Mike Langberg – Executive Travel – 09/01/05
Samsung MM-A800 camera phone $349*
www.samsung.com/wireless
Give your thumbs a well-deserved rest. The MM-A800 offers
both voice command and voice dictation for sending text
messages. So, you can say, "Send text to boss," and then,
speaking carefully—one word at a time—say the
message itself. The system isn't perfect, but it's easy to
correct errors and much faster than picking out letters
with your thumbs. The MM-A800 is also the first cell phone
in the United States with a two-megapixel camera for
snapping print-quality images.
Toshiba Libretto U100 $2,099
www.toshibadirect.com
Smaller than a letter-sized notepad and not much thicker,
the 2.16-pound Libretto U100 is nonetheless a full-fledged
Windows computer with a 1.2-gigahertz Pentium M processor,
512 megabytes of RAM, a 60-gigabyte hard drive and built-in
Wi-Fi. The keyboard and 7.2-inch diagonal screen are
cramped, but the Libretto comes with a "Zooming Utility" to
easily enlarge small type that would otherwise be hard to
read. The Libretto also has a built-in fingerprint scanner
for security.
DeLorme Earthmate GPS LT-20 $99
www.delorme.com/earthmatelt20
In-car navigation systems make it easy to find your way,
but only if you're driving your own car. DeLorme's
Earthmate GPS LT-20 kit turns your notebook computer into a
navigation system with the company's Street Atlas USA 2006
software and a small yellow GPS receiver that plugs into a
USB port. To help keep your eyes on the road, the LT-20 can
deliver spoken turn-by-turn directions through your
notebook's speakers.
PalmOne LifeDrive Mobile Manager $499
www.palmone.com/us
This impressively versatile device won't pack your suitcase
or hail a cab, but it does almost everything else. It's a
personal digital assistant keeping track of address and
appointments; it's a viewer and editor for Microsoft Word,
Excel and PowerPoint documents; it will fetch your email
and display Web pages through Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless
networking; and after work, it will play MP3 music, display
digital pictures and run video on its big color screen.
With a four-gigabyte internal hard drive, the 6.8-ounce
LifeDrive offers far more storage than competing personal
digital assistants.
Kensington Personal Firewall portable device $49
www.kensington.com
Want to win points with the over-stressed administrators in
your company's Information Technology department? Tell them
about the Kensington Personal Firewall, a USB device that
provides full protection—even for wireless
connections—whenever it's plugged into a computer.
Many IT managers don't allow firewall software to be
installed on company laptops, which is a problem for
workers on the road, and therefore outside the company
network. Kensington's USB key resolves the problem by
providing protection without installing software.
MemoText reminder service $4.99 per month
www.memotext.com
All the written reminders in the world won't help if you're
walking around blissfully unaware that you're due in a
meeting, or that your spouse expects an anniversary gift.
MemoText turns your mobile phone—the device you're
most likely to always have on hand—into a beeping
alert machine. With a MemoText account, you enter short
message reminders to yourself on the Web, then specify a
future delivery date and time. You can also beep the phones
of family members or colleagues, so everyone stays on
track.
Mitsubishi PocketProjector SD $799
www.mitsubishi-hometheater.com
Those fancy and expensive two-pound portable projectors
look downright bulbous next to the diminutive
PocketProjector SD, weighing a mere 14 ounces. The tiny
unit fills a 40-inch diagonal screen with an SVGA (800 by
600 pixels) image and can run for 2.5 hours on batteries,
while other projectors are lost without an AC outlet. An SD
card slot lets you put on digital picture slide shows and
PowerPoint presentations using a memory card instead of a
computer.
Swissbit SwissMemory USB
Victorinox 1GB pocket knif $159
www.swissbit.com
Moving the venerable Swiss Army knife into the 21st
century, this model includes one gigabyte of USB 2.0 data
storage, along with the familiar knife blade, scissors and
nail file/screwdriver. There's even a retractable pen and a
red LED light. It comes with software for synchronizing the
memory module with important files on your computer, and a
USB extension cable. The memory module also detaches from
the knife for carrying through airport security.
Lapworks Laptop Legs $19.95
www.laptopdesk.com
In the good old days, laptop computers had little flip-out
feet on the bottom to put the keyboard at a better angle
for typing and help keep the underside ventilated. But the
plastic feet broke off easily, so manufacturers dropped
them. Lapworks brings them back in peel-and-stick form, at
a price that's low enough to make it no concern if you
accidentally damage them.
*with two-year Sprint PCS contract