What a difference a year makes. Last year, my more or less annual list of gift suggestions for the techie on your Commonwealth Christmas list was dead in the water because I couldn't find any “must have” goodies to recommend. This year is different: 2009 is the year of the netbook computer, thus proving that travel and technology are pretty much the same thing now. Saipan's professionals are constantly shuttling to Guam, Asia, and even the U.S. mainland, and this tempo is just going to increase as we scramble to dig into Asia's rising economies and Guam's military-based boom.
So, thanks to some input from a couple of Saipan Tribune readers, we'll look at the “travel tech” gift realm. And we'll look at some stuff that are affordable; under $20 in some cases.
I'm not going to rehash the netbook computer gig, we've already covered it this year; a good netbook is a true must-have. After owning a couple of brands, and laying hands (if only briefly) on every major brand, my current pick of the pack is the Samsung N110 with Windows XP. The street price is about $320 or so. This model came to my attention courtesy of Charles Reyes Jr., who, like me, spends a lot of time writing. The keyboard is the best I've found, the setup routine partitions the hard drive, it's as light or lighter than most others, and the battery seems to last seven hours or so. Incidentally, the hard drive partitioning routine has defaults that aren't very good, so if you go this route, contact me before you set it up and I'll send you an idea or two based on my experience.
If you have a netbook owner on your gift list, here's a great item: the Case Logic LNEO-10 Ultraportable neoprene notebook sleeve. True to the essence of a netbook, it is thin, light and minimalist. Contrary to the “sleeve” appellation, it has handles. The street price is typically under $20.
Still in the under $20 category, any netbook owner will want a stash of SD cards, since netbooks typically have integrated SD card readers. Picture a millimeter-thick postage stamp, and you get an idea of the size of an SD card. They hit fame and fortune as media for digital cameras. But I also use them like floppy disks now. For example, when I wanted to give my dad a compilation of photos and videos from a recent family gathering, I herded them onto a 4-gigabyte SD card and gave Dad that card. Based on the nominal capacities, it would take 2,778 of those old 3.5 inch floppy disks to equal the capacity of a single 4-gig SD card. Wow.
I've seen SD cards as large as 32 gigs, but 4 gigs seems to be the sweet spot for price. Try to find ones that come with little plastic protective wallets, they don't usually cost any more than the ones that come without.
OK, that's enough of computer stuff. Attorney Alan Barak, a very savvy traveler, has a couple of suggestions to offer for jetsetters. He recommends the First Class Sleeper, which is a long, cleverly engineered inflatable pillow that converts an airline seat into something the human body can actually feel comfortable in. Said Barak of the Sleeper: “It really does feel like the best armchair-excellent lower back support and a nice cushion around the neck.” Price is $29.95, and Google finds it easily.
Mr. Barak also uses an active noise canceling headset. These headsets employ electronic magic to reduce the ambient noise of an airline cabin, thus offering a bit of quiet, or a good way to listen to MP3 files and such. Prices vary wildly; $50 for discount brands on sale, on up to $500 for the top of the line Bose. These things don't mesh with my ears, but most people like them.
Grounding our ambitions to merely on-island travel, I'll note that the Motorola T505 (about $80 if you can find one) is an excellent hands-free phone speaker arrangement for the car. It uses a Bluetooth link to the cell phone. Driving times on Saipan are so brief that only a chronic cell-phone yacker will need one of these, but if you have such a person on your gift list it's a good bet, and it's the only such device I've found that works worth a darn.
As you can see, this is a great gift season as the Commonwealth's peripatetic pros set their sights on 2010's opportunities.
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Ed is a pilot, economist, and writer. He holds a degree in economics from UCLA and is a former U.S. naval officer. His column runs every Friday. Visit Ed at TropicalEd.com and SaipanBlog.com.
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