Travel is a great way to expand your mind and figure out what is important to you, but sometimes you just need to phone home to tell someone about it. The great thing about the tech age we are currently enjoying is the term ‘phone home’ can be done from a number of devices, from a number of locations and sometimes may not involve a phone in the traditional sense at all.
Thanks to mobile technology and the wireless networks that exist, you can call mom and wish her a happy birthday from the Palatine Hill in Rome, snap a shot of you eating the best sushi of your life from Ueno in Tokyo and text it to your friends or blog about your impressions of the Great Pyramid of Giza without much effort at all. But to do all this, you’ll need the right technology for the job, so be sure to consider bringing a few of the devices mentioned below:
Smartphone
There are many smartphones to choose from that can run a host of apps but I’m partial to the old iPhone as my lifeline to everyone else. Using Apple’s device, you can download a free calls app for iPhone that makes phone calls a snap for anywhere in the world. If you’re going to use a different phone, I recommend getting one that is fairly compact so it’s easy to slip into your pocket or bag for quick use.
Tablet
Great for writing, surfing the net or taking pictures, tablets are rapidly becoming the device of choice for travellers all over the world. You can get many of the same apps as are available on a smartphone, many optimized for the tablets themselves, but with the increased size they are great for video calls back home and writing so long as you bring a fold up keyboard as well.
Laptop
Even though tablets are rapidly gaining ground at the expense of laptops, it’s still pretty handy to have these computers with you for long trips. Great for typing on for emails to family members or keeping your blog up to date, some people would shudder at the thought of trading away their laptop for anything else.
Dedicated Camera
At the end of the day, you want to have good pictures of the things you see and even though almost every device has a camera these days, nothing can compare to a dedicated camera on somthing like a digital SLR. Use these pictures to blow your family’s mind of what you’re seeing and accent your website with stunning shots that can be easily uploaded to your laptop at the end of the day.
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