I’ve found myself traveling a lot more this year, and as such I’ve been able to test out some things that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to in a true travel environment. In most cases I demand two things when I travel: small and reliable.
With that said, here’s a random list of crap that I’ve really liked when traveling this year.
- Tripmode: A nice little menubar app that allows you to quickly toggle internet access on and off to different apps. It also tracks usage by app, and total usage of data. This is killer when you are tethering — or just trying to make do with a slow internet connection.
- Cloak: I’ve long loved Cloak for securing my internet connection when not on my own networks. But I had switched to my own solution, except that my solution broke. So I was left really needing a VPN — and damn is Cloak good. I’ve been using the 1 week unlimited passes as I hope to get my VPN working again, however Cloak really is great.
- Modular Face: Yes, the Apple Watch face. I keep the modular face on 90% of the time, and damn is it good. Great for being in another timezone, great for seeing what is next, the weather, and countless other things.
- Apple Maps Navigation with Watch: I used the hell out of this recently in San Francisco — man is it cool to get to exactly where you want to go without ever having to look at your phone. Half the the time I didn’t even have to look at my watch. Imagine that — looking like a local, and never getting lost. I took in the city, instead of a blue dot on my phone as I walked.
- X100T: Yes, I know, but this camera is a fucking beast.
- Anker Charger: Previously I had the Photive 6-port, but I bought an Anker model to get a slightly smaller device. It’s killer. I charged all of our devices with it, and man did it work well.
- Anker Battery Pack: On one of my recent trips I was to be gone for just a little over 24 hours. I decided to only take this battery pack and no wall chargers for my iPad and iPhone. It did not disappoint, and so, despite it’s size, I won’t be caught without this guy in my bag.
- MacBook: I’ll write a longer review of this Mac soon, but it’s easily the best travel computer. Light, fast, small, beautiful, and sharp.
- Tom Bihn Stuff Sack: I had never used one of these before, but I took the smallest one stuffed with all my chargers and extra batteries (two X100T batteries, MacBook charger and cord, Anker charger, lightning cables and Apple Watch charger) and it was by far my favorite way to tote this stuff.
- Tom Bihn Travel Stuff Sack: I’ve mentioned this bag before, but man do I love it. It’s a stuff sack with two sides: keep your clean undergarments on one side, and your less than clean ones on the other — no contamination. Just a great idea.
- Tom Bihn Aeronaut 30:I’ve written about this one before as well, but it’s the perfect travel bag. It holds a ton, and works exceptionally well. I love it.
That’s it for today.