For the first time in 2010, I left town without my laptop… and mostly stepped off the grid. Fortuitous timing I suppose, as the NY Times recently suggested that digital downtime is good for the brain. And while I did savor about 5 days of R&R, several at sea, you know I wouldn’t leave town completely tech-free.
When we last cruised in 2008, Kindles ran about $400 — too rich for my infrequent reading blood. Not to mention fear of water or sand damage and theft made it a somewhat impractical proposition. But the dynamics are entirely different at $139. Of course I don’t want my Kindle stolen, but at this price point I had little problem tempting fate and leaving it on the beach while snorkeling. Plus, I took a page from Mrs. GeekTonic’s book and used a Ziploc bag to keep the e-reader sand and water-free when ashore. In our stateroom (above) and other areas of the ship, I obviously had no need to sully the Kindle with plastic wrap.
Another change this year is how the iPhone handles ‘airplane’ mode. Two summers ago, disabling the cellular radio also meant disabling WiFi. Fortunately, nowadays you can independently toggle WiFi – which comes in handy when traveling abroad. So we purchased 60 minutes of shipboard satellite-based Internet service at 40 cents/minute to keep up with email (and maybe I sneaked a peek at Engadget headlines). But, in the end, we only used about half of our allotted time.
Earlier this year, I dropped the Sony DSC-WX1 in favor of a DSC-TX1 Cybershot variant for more accurate/realistic color reproduction. And I’ve been relatively pleased with its performance, despite not really enjoying fiddling with a touchscreen camera interface. I’d say about 2/3rd of our trip photos were taken with the Sony, while the rest were taken via iPhone(s). The best camera is the one you have with you. Although, for the second time this summer I was bummed that I didn’t have a waterproof digital camera of some sort with me. I’ve been meaning to pick one up for some time, but haven’t yet pulled the trigger. Which is kinda ironic as I’m always recommending Kodak’s waterproof Flip-esqe PlaySport.