Tag Archives: Gadgets

I hate doing taxes to such an extent that for the second year in a row, I’ve filed an extension. Most of this has to do with the fact that I start out organized each year, and then all my receipts, etc, deteriorate into stacks of paper everywhere. I hate paper.

While I was getting my taxes together a couple months back to take to the accountant, I had a brilliant idea. I needed a portable scanner. If I can just scan my receipts and save them out to my Evernote Receipts notebook, I’m set. Everything then is digital and searchable – just the way I like it. So I started pricing portable scanners.

There are some neat ones out there, but they were all a little out of my price range. Then I stumbled upon Doxie.

Doxie is small and comes with a carrying case. It has only one cable – a USB cable that connects it to your Mac OR PC and also provides the power. Yes, it’s a cute scanner, with the little hearts, but it also comes with skins in case it’s a little TOO cutesy for you. Personally, I like the hearts. Even the required software is rather sassy.

Shortly after receiving my Doxie, I started scanning in all my travel receipts from the front half of 2010. True to my nature, they were scattered everywhere in my office (and I may not have found them all yet). Now, however, they are all scanned in as PDFs and Doxie immediately sent the PDFs to my Evernote.

One of the neatest things about Doxie is its ability to share instantly to the app of your choice – including the ones in the Cloud. If I’m scanning in photos, I can send them to iPhoto or one of my Flickr accounts. I can even send it to Doxie’s cloud hosting service, where it will create a condensed URL for me and send that to Twitter. It also scans out to Google Docs (which I use extensively), to Scrib’d, Picasa, and to Acrobat and Evernote locally (amongst others).

It was a speedy scanner, getting me through 5 months of receipts in around 2 hours, including my various digging, finding, and organizing in that time period. It takes up to 8×11 or A4 and as small as a business card. It required a download of software, which I liked because that gave me the latest and great version.

In fact, the only downside to Doxie that I can find right now is that it does have to plug in via USB. Some of the more expensive versions are self-sufficient, but USB is a small price to pay for, well, a small price.  Of course, the USB thing (and the need for specific software) does preclude me from using the Doxie with my iPad.

Doxie fits in several of my purses, and definitely my various pieces of carry-on luggage. Since acquiring the Doxie, I’ve carried it with me on multiple business trips. If I have a laptop with me, then I grab a point during each trip to scan in my receipts. Maybe next year, doing my taxes won’t be quite as painful. If I’ve just carried the iPad however, then I can’t bring the Doxie.

Doxie costs $129 and is available only on the Doxie web site.

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Cheers!
Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by one of her day jobs.

by Michelle Lentz

For me, 2009 was the Year of the Suitcase. I traveled more, for both business and pleasure, than I ever have before. That trend looks like it will continue into 2010, which is pretty exciting. In fact, my 2010 kicks off next week with a trip to Las Vegas for CES 2010, where I’ll probably find new gadgets to lust after. Until then, however, I’m thrilled with several of the gadgets that have gotten me through the last year of travel. Some of them aren’t as new as they possibly could be, and some of them are pretty basic, but they all serve their purpose.

Amazon Kindle 2: I pre-ordered this last February. It was my first big gadget purchase of the year and I don’t regret it for a second. Sure, I occasionally lose a lot of patience with Amazon, considering that it won’t read the ePub format. I am a big proponent of ereaders, Kindle or otherwise, and evangelize them to everyone. See me in an airport and want to play with my Kindle? No problem. It has made traveling a lot easier (I used to pack tons of books and now I just pack the Kindle) and I still end up reading myself to sleep by the light of a booklight attached to the Kindle cover.

Sennheiser PXC 250 Noise Canceling Headphones: There are probably better options out there, but these Sennheisers fold up rather small and slip into my purse or briefcase. They block out just about everything, which makes flying so much easier. They’re also a whole lot cheaper now than when I purchased them, currently coming in at $62.66.

Luggage Scale: Without fail, I tend to both overpack for a trip and shop once I arrive. This means I’m always checking one bag, despite the ridiculous fees. To keep myself on the safe side of 50 pounds, I rely 100% on a portable digital luggage scale. These things retail for around $13 and have routinely saved me on excess fees and helped control my overpacking and shopping urges.

Wine Diapers / Wine Skins: Being a wine blogger, I can’t seem to travel anywhere without a bottle of wine, and I also tend to buy wine where ever I end up. This means that I not only need to pack the 750 ml of liquid in my checked luggage, but I need to keep it from breaking and turning a white designer sweater pink en route. I’ve been testing out the Wine Diaper, which works well and has the benefit of being reusable, but I rather prefer the Wine Skin.

Dell Mini: I ordered the Dell Mini 10v rather cheap (<$200) from the Dell Outlet. Not only that, I was able to score a pink one, which I quickly outfitted with a pink mouse and pink USB stick. I purposely bought a lower-end Mini, the 10v, which has the VGA port. Why? Because when I present at conferences, I need it to be as easy as possible with a low-barrier for whomever is setting me up / letting me use the equipment. The Mini 10 (no V) includes fancy items such as GPS and an internal TV tuner. I loaded up the Mini 10v with Windows 7, Word and Powerpoint, Thunderbird, Acrobat, and Firefox. With just that amount, it’s perfect for presentations, email, and surfing. However, a few weeks ago I had to write an RFP while traveling. Don’t buy a 10-inch netbook for your primary machine if you need to write anything more intensive than a basic blog post. At that point, the 10-inch screen is a hindrance. But for travel and presentations, the machine is a dream.

Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go: To complement the Mini 10V, I also picked up the Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go stick. After doing some price comparisons, it seemed the best option. Most of the places I go actually have wireless. However, occasionally the broadband or wireless in a hotel will be ridiculously expensive or just a poor connection. Sometimes I even find myself at conferences where I don’t have wireless available in the sessions rooms. Remarkable, but true. To combat this sometimes-but-not-always problem, I went with the pay-as-you-go option. I tried it out for the first time last week in Key West and it worked beautifully. I was able to do everything from surf the Web to uploading files. I bought a $20 card, which got me 250 MB (the equivalent of 2 hrs browsing, 1 hour web video, or 25,000 emails).  It was a leisure trip, so I wasn’t online much, but I still have about 150 MB left. The catch is that your data allowance expires anywhere from 10-30 days after purchase, depending on how much you buy. But if you buy strategically (in my case, before every trip), it shouldn’t be an issue. The initial hardware purchase will set you back $99 and there is a lot of freedom in being able to get online anywhere, anytime.

Motorola Droid: I realize I just got my hands on this in November, but it’s quickly become a huge part of my life. Now that I have service everywhere I go (unlike my last two years with AT&T), I am constantly tweeting, texting and emailing. I realize that might not be a good thing, but my ability to be connected has greatly increased. The keyboard makes everything easy for me and I have no problem finding free apps I like and need from the Android Marketplace. I can’t say that the Droid has changed the way I communicate. But it enhances my communications and allows me to communicate in ways I couldn’t with my iPhone.

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Cheers!
Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

The times, they are a’ changin’, and therefore so are our favorite holidays. Halloween, with its costumes and over-the-top decorations, lends itself to technology (almost as well as Christmas).

CNN has a great round-up of some Halloween tech gadgets this year, including the Cylon Pumpkin (pictured above), amazing hydraulic angel wings, and a costume made of lights.

Over in Avon and Somerset, UK, the local police force will be tweeting for the evening, as they give tours of the jail and even if they arrest anyone.

Miriam Brown, Media Relations Officer for Somerset West will be out and about in Taunton with local officers, on Saturday night, making sure it is a happy rather than horrible Halloween for the residents of the town. She will be providing live updates of the evening via the police Twitter feed: www.twitter.com/aspolice

Chief Superintendent Yannis Georgiou will then be giving a live update of the evenings progress including any arrests. Miriam will be “Tweeting” on Twitter during the evening to update you with the evening’s progress, so follow the events while they happen by logging on to the Avon and Somerset Twitter page and following our Relentless event.

Don’t get arrested. They’ll tweet it.

You can, of course, come up with creative tech-related costumes. I personally think Mac and PC (from the ads) would be easy and hilarious, especially if you’re a two-OS household. (And that’s why I’m a geek.) A black turtleneck , jeans, and an iPod will transform you into Steve Jobs, even without the cash. Speaking of Steve Jobs, iPods/iPhones seem to be a popular costume,

whether you’re an infant,

a dog,

or a rather inventive adult.

Personally, I’m going incredibly low-tech.

Have a happy and safe Halloween!

Photo Credits:
Cyborg pumpkin from CNN.com
Baby Carrier/iPod from Flickr (CC)
iPod dog from  DVICE

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Cheers!
Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.

by Michelle Lentz

I just pre-ordered my Kindle 2. I’ve been wanting an ebook reader for a while. A friend of mine recently let me borrow his older Sony eBook Reader and I was hooked. Much to my surprise, I actually preferred reading on the device than an actual book. Considering the thousands of books my husband and I have strewn across our house, this is really a big thing.

The original Kindle, while well-loved, was rather ugly in form factor. Amazon has cleaned up the appearance and made some other improvements, as per Amazon:

Thin: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines.

Lightweight: At 10.2 ounces, lighter than a typical paperback

Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots

Books in Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required

Improved Display: Reads like real paper; now boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and even crisper images

Longer Battery Life: 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging

More Storage: Take your library with you; holds over 1,500 books

Faster Page Turns: 20% faster page turns

Read-to-Me: With the new Text-to-Speech feature, Kindle can read every book, blog, magazine, and newspaper out loud to you

The Kindle holds over 1500 books thanks to upgraded storage (2 GB), and Amazon backs up all of your ebooks (purchased from them) online, so if the unthinkable happens – you’re covered.  You can now use a cursor, thanks to the revamped e-Ink screen. WhisperNet has also been upgraded to 3G networking. Even with 3G, the battery life is supposedly 25% more than the original device.

The Kindle store now carries 250,000 options for your reading pleasure, and 10% of Amazon’s sales – if I understood correctly – are now from eBooks. Apparently Amazon is thinking about ways to make Kindle content available for other devices (such as your iPhone), but they haven’t said too much on the topic just yet.

So, any interest in moving to an eBook Reader?

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Contact Michelle with news, stories, events, and more. Email: michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, Twitter: @writetechnology, Friendfeed: michellel, Blogs: Write Technology, Wine-Girl.net

Nominee for City Beat’s Best of the City: Vote for My Wine Education under Public Eye > Blog:
http://www.bestofcincinnati.com/

by Michelle Lentz

Time Magazine Online has a special feature on hi-tech travel listing 25 essential travel gadgets. I would beg to differ on whether or not some of the gadgets listed are essential or just cool. I also think that if Time’s staff is traveling with all of these things, they need a Sherpa, not a carry-on. Just a thought.

I do agree with some of their choices though. For instance, if a MacBook Air was practical for my daily use, I’d have one. But I can’t afford to have a laptop with no purpose other than travel – at least not at that price. They show a wine skin that I didn’t even know existed. But I’m making two trips to San Francisco and Sonoma this fall. I’ll be investing in some of those wine skins!

Time also lists the Clear card to bypass airport security. I’ve been debating on this one – it will help me in California, but not in Las Vegas. It will help me in Cincinnati, but I never fly out of the airport closest to me. (Dayton is so much cheaper!) So that one is under consideration for me, but would be a great help to those flying from the west coast to the midwest or east.

I love the Tumi Frequent Traveler carry-on. It’s fantastic, except for the $595 price tag. For $235, I personally recommend the Zuca Pro (I have a pink Zuca). The Zuca can handle anything and it a perfect place to sit (yes, sit!) in a crowded airport. I’ve definitely used it for that. I’ve also used it as a step-stool and as the perfect carry-on. My other travel essentials include an Airport Express for hotel rooms, a neoprene charger bag from built, my Sennheiser folding, noise-cancelling headphones with my iPhone, and a hacked PSP for games and for movies.

What small and essential things do you pack when traveling?
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Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology.