Gadgets and gear – what to bring on an #iRoadTrip
March 7, 2009
I’m not going to walk through the underwear choices and hair-styling products necessary for five days on the road with a team of social media practicioners, but what I’m going to give you here is an overview of what tech equipment will be necessary for me to remain in contact with the virtual world during my #iroadtrip next week.
First off, the journey is the brainchild of Colin Browning of New Media Labs. He determined that media and tech events – even new technology thinking – doesn’t occur in a vacuum and isn’t limited to the population centers of the United States. In fact, he posited that people everywhere are becoming more connected and they all have stories to tell.
In an effort to tell those stories, and in a brilliant way to reach some current and prospective clients, he gathered a team of media specialists (me included) to join him in a journey from Detroit Michigan to Austin Texas. That’s where we begin…or where we will begin on Monday, March 9.
In anticipation of a series of regular missives and content about the trip, here’s how I plan to deliver my messages to the world…
Macbook – as a writer, this is my preferred communications tool. With it I can write, blog, tweet, email and even record sound and video. This item won’t be far from my lap during the journey.
Zoom H2 recorder – As a technology reporter for NPR and as a lapsed podcaster, I’ve found this device to be an amazingly versatile and powerful tool for capturing all sorts of sound. It records in WAV and MP3 formats and is lighter than my cell phone.
Seagate FreeAgent|Go external hard drive – I’m still working on getting a video camera to document some of the events along the way and in anticipation of shooting video I know we’re going to need some storage devices. This little drive is 500GB of pure portability. I’m doing a review of the drive soon for MobileMag.com, but what I’ll let out of the bag right now is that there’s no better feeling than having digital room to expand when you’re creating content on a regular basis. Sound, video and even written files have to go somewhere and there’s no way I’m deleting all my Jonathan Coulton songs off my Macbook’s HD.
**By the way, if you ever need to know about a tech gadget – go search MobileMag.com – they’ve done…we’ve done reviews of nearly every gadget you’ve ever heard of from micro projectors to Google phones to iPhone apps to cases. We even put up recaps of big tech events and slice-of-life sharing of how we use gadgets in our day-to-day life.**
iPhone – ‘nuf said.
Olympus 720SW digital camera – It’s waterproof to 10 feet, it’s crushproof and it’s shock-proof. I’ve taken this thing to about 47 other countries and I’ve no doubt it can survive the comfy 1500 mile ride in a 2010 Ford Escape. It also returns great photos like this one at the 2006 Tour de France.
Various dongles, cables, batteries and headsets – There are too many other devices to mention right now. I’ve still got to go to the bank and post office this morning and then rush to Rhode Island to buy a Powerball ticket.
If you’ve got some gadgets that you can’t live without, share that list in the comments. I love to find out what others are using to create and share their content.
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