Other Technology
by Jenn Lopez
Being carry-on only during this trip, we were more tech heavy than ever before. Lots of these items could easily belong in other categories but there were so many items, I did what I could with them. If you’re interested in seeing what’s in the other categories, feel free to browse around the site. You’ll find everything I’m discussing in the “In Our Backpacks” section along with the amazon links. Know that if it’s on the page, we’ve tested these for over a year and are very happy with their performance. It may not be the best or hottest name brands but they work like a gem for what we feel are reasonable prices.
Alright, in our “Other Technology” category, we have the GoPro Hero 10. Nora was big into vlogging before we left and we thought it was a great creative outlet for her as well as a great way to remember the trip. After lots of research, the GoPro Hero 10 was what we went with. It wasn’t the latest version of the GoPro but it was good enough for Nora to have a decent quality action camera. Knowing our girl is a water baby and a chatty Cathy, she needed a few accessories and protective things to go with the GoPro. For instance, once she’s done swimming, she would like to chat to the camera. We noticed that once underwater, the mic on the GoPro wasn’t the best quality until it dried out. So an exterior mic was required. The Media Mod was the easiest way to connect mics and other accessories as she progressed. Originally we had bought her a lapel mic and it worked great for what she needed at the time. Once she started doing voice overs on the computer and iPad, we got her the wireless mics. Both are fantastic for what we used them for.
All the protective lenses and gear kits for the GoPro were great, but only if you have an idea what you’ll be using the GoPro for. The silicon protective housing wasn’t great when she used it underwater, but was fantastic when walking around vlogging and the strap was great for keeping the camera on her wrist.
Protective cases and lenses were items we invested in for pretty much every piece of tech we had. Other ways we protected our tech was by keeping track of them with Apple AirTags. We had one in each of our suitcases in case they were ever gate checked. We had them in our backpacks with our electronics as well as in our crossbody bags. I had an AirTag in a crossbody bag with our passports and Nora had one with all her GoPro stuff. These AirTags were huge for peace of mind. If you haven’t already read the story of how Nora left her GoPro in a restaurant for almost 3 weeks and we were able to find it and get it back thanks to the airtags, feel free to go back through the stories, they’re only short, but know that without the AirTags, the GoPro and its accessories would have been gone for good.
We took whatever safety measures we could with Nora’s electronics. Nora’s iPad Case for instance was robust. It was everything that a protective case should be but was a huge pain in the ass when trying to restuff it in her backpack after the security checks due to the silicon. It didn’t slide easily back into the bag. I’m sure a little bag specific for the case or even different placement in the bag would have helped but this was our experience with it.
The USB-C to HMDI cable worked awesome on our tip and is still working. While Disney+ may have had an issue (as previously discussed), it’s the only issue we’ve ever had with it. It’s a sturdy rope cord that comes with plastic covers to protect the inputs. There’s just not much else to say other than it works and is great quality if you need one.
Knowing that we’d be traveling to different countries, we bought an Anker Charging Station so we could connect our electronics to it overnight and have everything charged. It was small, flat, easy to pack, and worked great. We wanted to be able to plug one item into the extension cord and have a charging station area. This charging station was home to our phones, remotes, toothbrush charger, battery banks, everything. Highly recommend it if you have lots to charge and are not in a hurry.
So many items in this category are amazing like the JBL Clip. We love music and needed something that was small but had a decent battery life. We have music going all day long in our home, background music or party music, the JBL has enough bass and volume to accomplish both. Plus the body is water resistant so we bought some little USB-C plugs to protect the charging port from water, dirt, and dust. This thing went everywhere with us.
Another item that went everywhere with us was the battery banks. We had originally bought one for our trip to the Orland parks years before, and loved how well it worked. It comes with its own little bag and just makes life so easy. We also purchased little 6” cords to go with the battery bank. They were compact enough for several to fit into the bag with the bank, and allowed us to charge more than one device at a time. The battery life is awesome. We liked the original one so much we bought another one. Nothing beats the convenience and reliability of this little bank. Loved that the cords and bank were all in one little bag that we threw in the daypack or in my purse. Such a good purchase, and still working great.
Other items that were great were little connectors for USB to female USB-C and USB-C to female USB. Both worked great. You don’t need them until you need them. Like the USB-C covers. We used them with various items and they worked great. They did what they should and even came in pretty colours.
Speaking of pretty colours, the headphones I bought were so pretty and were fantastically comfortable. They worked with or without the cord and had their own carrying case which I loved. I unfortunately had to give them away once I bought a winter jacket. Hard decisions had to be made, and not freezing was the priority. It was a sad day.
The last item I’ll discuss is the Crucial 4TB SSD. Think external harddrive but oh so very small. The quality of these things are fantastic. We bought two and have used them regularly. One was a storage backup and one was a living drive. The two combined are still smaller than my phone and that’s 8TB of storage. If you’re in need of storage, check these out. You won’t regret it.