Tech toys for travelers

By Glenn Derene

updated 1:44 p.m. ET Oct. 20, 2006

They say you can't take it with you. Whoever "they" are, they're wrong.

Nowadays, you can take quite a bit with you wherever you go. Shoot across the country for business or to the south of France for an escape, and not only can you take your e-mail, you can also take your high-speed Internet connection, your movies, music, maps and directions, even your high-definition TV service. And none of the technology requires heavy lifting, oversized battery packs or a steep learning curve.

Portable personal electronics have been big business since Sony unveiled the Walkman in 1979, but in recent years, the trend has accelerated. According to the Arlington, Va.-based Consumer Electronics Association, portable music technology outsold home audio equipment in 2005 for the first time in history. Wireless handset makers are expected to sell 125 million units this year, creating $16 billion in sales. And notebook computers routinely outsell desktop PCs.

There are two main reasons for this increasing portability.

First, the seemingly inexhaustible ability of the electronics industry to cram lots of processing power into tiny products has created items that are small and actually useful — there are notebook computers as powerful as desktops and phones with much of the functionality of PCs.

Second, the swift expansion of high-speed wireless technology across the country and around the world has made it easy to remain connected on the road. Current projects such as Wireless Philadelphia and a combined effort by EarthLink and Google are attempting to provide blanket Wi-Fi coverage for Philly and San Francisco, respectively. Meanwhile, super-fast third-generation mobile networks are finally taking hold in the U.S. and are available from almost all the major wireless carriers in big cities — which means you can get more and bigger stuff on gadgets like cellphones and PDAs.

We've ended up with both highly specialized tools and gadgets that can accomplish a number of tasks. Is the BlackBerry Pearl an e-mail device or a phone? Is it an MP3 player or a camera? The answer is all of the above. On the other hand, jack the very specialized Pinnacle PCTV HD pro stick into a laptop, and voila — high-definition television wherever you go.

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These tools have become so small and easy to use that they virtually disappear into our travel routines. Fossil's new FX6001 watch lets you screen cellphone calls just by checking your wristwatch. Samsung's K5 MP3 player also does double duty: It's a tiny, flash-based music player carrying up to 4 gigabytes of music for airplane listening, and it has a slide-out speaker and built-in alarm that makes it the perfect travel clock.

BlackBerry Research in Motion's BlackBerry Pearl includes fun features including a 1.3-megapixel camera and an MP3 player, and retails for $200.

Then again, some travel technology has nothing to do with connectivity. Bose's Quiet Comfort 3 headphones pack the company's sophisticated noise-cancelling technology into a compact headset, giving travelers a bit of much-needed peace and quiet.

Of course, one of the most important factors when you're on the move is portability. The items we've selected will easily fit into a carry-on bag, and none of them contain any liquids or gels, so they shouldn't raise any eyebrows at airport security.

So go ahead. Take it with you — on a vacation, on a business trip, whatever takes you away from home. Your voyage can be made more enjoyable with a few simple high-tech tools.

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