What’s in Kevin’s CES Gear Bag?
I see that James already shared the kit that works for him, so I’ll briefly explain what I’m taking and why. My bag will surely be lighter as two items James is bringing aren’t necessary for the way I work, which underscores a fact we often repeat here: everyone works differently and therefore everyone has different mobile technology needs. The two items in question? The card reader and travel router. A good two years ago, I standardized my flash memory card needs with unique SanDisk SD cards. These cards snap in half to expose a USB interface, which provides me the best of both worlds. I get SD compatibility for my very mobile devices but can easily transfer data to any of my computers. Since I have my own EV-DO card that I pay for, plus an HSDPA review unit, 3G and WiFi ought to be plenty for me. I don’t need to share my connection with anyone and if I do, I can use Internet Sharing software in a pinch. I suppose the router might be nice for in-room Internet service, but with 3G, I should be good.
So that brings me to my computer. Last year, I exclusively used an Asus Eee PC 701 to cover the show. I actually did bring a Samsung UMPC as well, but that stayed in the room. This year, I’m debating between the MSI Wind netbook and the Apple MacBook. The Wind would be ideal, but I only have a single, 6-cell battery for it. I have two batteries for the MacBook and I’m routinely getting five hours of run-time on a single battery. It’s darn near impossible to consistently find an AC outlet at CES, so I’m on the fence here. The deciding factor may be how much video and how many photos we shoot because the processing power of the MacBook will get the job done quicker.
As far as photos and video, I’m definitely taking the Kodak Zi6 HD camera I just bought. The quality of my test video was fairly good and using the previously mentioned SanDisk SD card, I can easily transfer the vids through USB. I can also take 3-Megapixel stills with it, but without a true optical zoom, I’ll likely bring my Canon XSi DSLR. Using the same SD/USB card, it’s a snap (literally!) to transfer photo files.
Of course, I’ll have my first-generation iPhone with me as that’s what I carry every day. Actually, that’s a third item that James is bringing that I won’t take: an extended battery for my phone. Since my iPhone doesn’t support the power-hungry 3G signal, I can easily get by on EDGE all day and then some. Maybe I’ll stick the Solio Classic on the hotel window to get some free juice from the sun while I’m out there.
All in all, this is relatively light load to cover a show with nearly 2,000,000 square feet of floor space. I’ll have one computer, one phone, two very light 3G adapters, a DLSR and a pocketable HD camera for sure. I’ll have AC adapters in the room, but won’t be carrying those around; especially if I take the MacBook and second battery. Doing so will add a good two to three pounds of weight, but the ability to work away from power outlets for ten hours might be worth it.
Kevin mayhaps you could still get yourself an Acer Aspire One with this 10 hour battery pre-CES?
http://www.aspireoneuser.com/2009/01/03/extended-battery-white-7800mah-5999-usa-131/
Real keyboard and 10 hour battery life: a little piece of heaven.
No way I can get one in time Scotty. My flight leaves in < 24 hours. At this point, I need to go with an established work environment so it’s either the Wind or the MacBook. Amazingly that battery for Acer Aspire One costs more than the battery I bought for the MacBook. Yikes!
I must admit I rarely use 3G on my iPhone and easily get my full days use. I just turn on 3G when downloading a large document on email or if I’m needing some info off the web.
My exchange email works just fine over GPRS or Edge. It’s a sacrifice for battery life but not a dealbreaker.
Will you really use the DSLR much Kevin? While the quality will be fantastic, is it needed for blogging? Wouldn’t the Kodak do the job, or possibly get a cheap 3x optical zoom camera. Just thinking of your back!
Gavin, I do have a point-and-shoot Panasonic Lumix that I took last year. It’s not much smaller or lighter, so the extra picture quality of the Canon is probably worth it. If the Kodak had some type of optical zoom, I’d simply take that. Still on the fence with this for the reasons you point out.
The real reason I am taking the extended iPhone battery is not because of the 3G, I easily get all day battery using 3G. I intend to be using the iPhone camera pretty heavily doing liveblogging and that camera eats the battery pretty quickly in my experience. As for the card reader, mine is a little bigger than a USB flash drive and weighs just a few ounces.
Kevin’s not saving much on that front.
No tablet for either you or James?? Long live the keyboard, I guess. Looking forward to your posts from the floor.
Interesting stuff. I will be very interested in seeing how the Kodak does on the HD video. I have been considering upgrading my SD Flip Ultra, but I am not sure that HD is worth it to me yet. It will be interesting to see how the batteries in that hold up. It’s nice that you can put a 16GB card in it, but can you really record that long on a single charge. Looking forward to the CES coverage.
Sean, I think the quality of the output is pretty decent for the price. Good point about the batteries. It comes with two rechargeable AA batteries and when I carry a device like this, I always carry spare standard batteries in my bag.
DSLRs aren’t just great for quality, they’re also very, *very* fast, and last a lot longer on a battery, since they’re not necessarily cranking up the LCD, etc.
I have a decent Nikon point-and-shoot, and a mere D40 DSLR, and I know which one I’d use to take a bunch of pictures at a show.
Kevin, I forgot to mention what I think is the “last nail in the coffin” for your solar iPhone project that I calculated this past weekend.
At 10 cents for a kilo-watt-hour a complete iPhone recharge (according to my killa-watt meter) is roughly .025 cents. Since you get a charger with your iPhone the entire cost of your solar charger has to be paid off to get “free charges”. $90 / $0.0025 = 36,000 complete charges.
Which seems impractical on a couple fronts. That’s about 100 years even if you charge your iPhone completely roughly every day. I seriously doubt the battery in the solar charger even has 36,000 charge cycles in it. Nor do I think the solar panels will last that long. And I predict even you will be using a 3g phone again before you reach break even.
Mt advice: leave the solar charger out of your gadget bag and save the planet the carbon foot print for the added weight on your CES trip.
as for battery life on the Zi6, its fairly good. I recorded the whole 15-20 minute show of the World Showcase players performance of Arthur and the Holy grail (grail grail grail Huh!) and nary a drop in the battery meter. The lack of any moving parts really helps battery life.
I am going to buy either the HP mini or the wind which does everybody think is better
if only they made the MSI xSlim in 10″ …. why did they have to go to 13? WHY???