which electronic devices to bring?

I doubt bringing with me
A notebook: to work as I travel, blog, read email, websurf, etc. For me absolutely essential. It's a ultra thin Macbook Air so I won't be that difficult.
Ipad: to watch movies during the long hours of flights. Skip?
Iphone: I need to bring the SIM-card for eventually transfering money from my bank-acccount and they send me a code by phone. But then again, I could bring a cheap phone.
Ipod: it has more memory than the iphone and it's faster.
Kindle: sothat I don't have to carry the heavy paper-books.
HD or pen drive? To back up work (just in case it's get stolen or damaged)

did I forgot something?
cheers

Skip the iPad, watch movies on your netbook instead. buy yourself a couple USB keys with plenty of memory to back up your stuff (multiple backups are safer - but don't keep the keys in the same place as your netbook coz if it all gets nicked you've lost the lot.
If you can get the bank to send you a device ranther than the iphone buy a cheap, unblocked phone and use local sims then just use your ipod for the music, games...

If in the end you do decide to bring the iPad, then don't bother with the kindle. You can download books onto the iPad from Apple and from Amazon (kindle)

I just take my tablet with me. But that's because I like to go hiking and travel light.

Not sure about mac but you can read kindle books on windows computers. That makes it so it's one less thing to worry about (if your eyesight it really good you could do it on the ipod but that seems like a pain)

Dear gadget freak;

If that bag of expensive toys gets dammaged or stolen, would you still enjoy that trip?
Or give up and go home.

I plaid games on my phone while I should have been listening to the music of the spheres.

I learned a lot less than I should have. And it supplied the diversion that theives use to rob us. It just takes 'em a split second. They hand off the goodies to an accomplice and nothing can be retreived or proven.

I buy my books at antique malls. $1.30 and they are all keepers, or there wouldn't be a market for 'em. If they get lost or finished. leave 'em at a hostel's book swap shelf.

Leave the gadgets home. And take advantage of the opportunity to learn something, from conversations with othe cultures.

Police reports are only good for insurance claims. Cops can do nothing for us.

thanks all! Very good contributions all.
Gawkabout: yes, you're right, the more you travel the more you realize how little we need. And As you mention it could be stolen, yes. But in that case I will go further with traveling. The thing is that I might work while traveling and therefore I really need a notebook at least.
I could skip the Ipad though. And also the Iphone. But the Kindle and Ipod seem for me necessary goods while traveling, Reading from the notebook is tyring and the guidebooks (LP, Rough guides etc) in paper are so heavy! And the Ipod...just for the music, of course I'll spend most of the time talking, listening to people and local sounds but every now and then it's good to close your eyes and listen to your music. And besides, it's so thin that it doesn't take much space.

iPod is also nice for playing music to fall asleep to when you're in a noisy hostel. i travel with a kindle, iphone, and netbook. use all almost daily. iPhone has some nice translation apps when we get in a bind. Kindle is great for long bus trips, and netbook is essential for blogging / work like you'll be doing.

take care

the netbook only, plus a cheap unlocked phone and a USB stick for backup. The laptop will also provide music with headphones, although I suppose an ipod won't take too much room.

most long-haul airlines now have seatback screens with masses of stuff to watch. Take a couple of books with you and swap as you go. That's it.

what about a camera?

oh yes, and an old camera, the good camera is too big and expensive to carry.
maybe I'll bring a small external hard disk and memory stick also, they re nowadays so small and light. I bought this afternoon an 32 G memory stick for the back ups of important documents and work.

Blimey - you going on holiday, or to a toy fair?
I like to listen to local music in bars and on the streets. A music player has no place in my luggage.
Laptop, etc.... Nah.
You mention a 32g memory stick for work - are we talking meetings with the bosses here, or a holiday?

did I forgot something?
Yeah - the 50" plasma TV :-)

Carry a small earphone, cheapo throw away:) comfortably loseable radio. Local radio stations will clew you in, to life there.

Say waa?
{ 8 oQ

Its your trip, not mine, babus.

The more we travel, the less we need.

did I forgot something?

Yeah, I think so. You forgot why you're going in the first place. As in, maybe it'd be nice to look up from all your electronic crap once in a while and experience something new.

I think ditch the Ipad. And, if you have an Ipod touch then ditch the iphone and buy a cheap one. With your phone you sholud go for a basic one with lots of battery. It will be one of the most important aspects as you may not always be able to get a good charge from it. I use a beat up old samsung phone when I travel and it is perfect.
James

what was in people backbacks 20 yrs ago?

None of that stuff!

You can see the difference between generations.

I hate travelling with a laptop but its good for editing photos on the run (especially if one is travelling for extended periods).

Take a book - you can swap it with a person in the hostel. Or use it to start a covnersation.

Ipods are good for those long journeys but you seldom need it.

A external HD is good for backing up photos etc. But you could also use an internet site such flickr etc to host photos

If you swap a book with a person does that person start telling you stories?

You can see the difference between generations.

Is that so? I was writing code in a text editor (who remembers Edlin?) when many of you weren't in diapers yet.

But I don't find a need to travel with a bunch of crap. I stick my Rs4000 Nokia phone in my back pocket, like usual, and could always find a net cafe if i really thought I wanted to know what someone that I don't really know anyways said on Fecesbook.

And as above, an external drive isn't a bad idea, but trying to upload large photos is not time-efficient.

Leave the junk at home and discover what's out there.

I been traveling so long, we had to use wooden gps.
:)

What the heck is wrong with using a paper map and asking questions?

Come-0nnn, solar flares! Get us back to basics.

what's wrong with using googlemaps?

I found that folks back love picture post cards. email is handy, I/ guess but very impersonal.

My friends save and reread PICTURE post cards. They display 'em like,"This is our man, in the field."

Then they want to return them for my journal. They say, "Don't tell us history of the stuff on the p.card. We can google that. Just tell us how you spend your days."

LIVE SIMPLY AND GET MORE OUT OF LIFE.

Pirate - its more to do with what gadgets people want to take. I find the younger generations will take laptops, ipads, etc....the older style will keep it simple. Obviously, some of the older generation will be prone to use technology. But not the majority, like the young 'uns that seem to always have the latest gadgets.

I don't see any connections betweens generations. I'm not that young, I'm 46, and I need the notebook while traveling 'cause I'm work as a journalist in the places I visit.
Regard the electronics as things that make life a little more easy and enjoyable, it has nothing to do with being gadgets-addict.

The strangest thing about this post is that you've put it on the travel on a shoestring branch!

Never mind the worry of having all your expensive gadgetry nicked (which should be a serious concern), just think about the weight of it all. Once you've been on the road a while, you really won't want to carry anything that isn't absolutely necessary, and none of those things are.

A notebook: to work as I travel, blog, read email, websurf, etc.
Work - well just possibly, if you HAVE to work, and your employer is paying for you to stay in fancy hotels, otherwise keep work for something to do to save up money to travel, then....travel.
Blog - a notebook (made of paper) is all you need to write down your thoughts and impressions. You can always use it to make a blog when you get home as you will then be incredibly bored after your interesting holiday interacting with people rather than machinery.
Email and surfing - this is what internet caffs are for.

Ipad: to watch movies during the long hours of flights.
Most airlines have seat-back screens nowadays.

Iphone: I need to bring the SIM-card for eventually transfering money from my bank-acccount and they send me a code by phone.
And what will you do for money when your phone gets stolen? Use ATMs. (I'd carry cash, but I'm so old cash points didn't exist even in my own country when I started travelling). Buy a cheap local phone when you get there if you can't live without one.

Ipod: it has more memory than the iphone and it's faster.
You say this is mainly for listening to music, but you'll get more out of your travelling experience if you listen to the local music on the streets, in bars, or on a cheap radio - which you can also use to get news - thank goodness for the World Service! - about places you might be planning to travel to where a war has just broken out. Make a note of any music you particularly like and download when you get home, another good reminder of your holiday.

Kindle: sothat I don't have to carry the heavy paper-books.
You only have to carry one book at a time, when finished either swap with other tourists, use hotel book swap shelves, or buy another in a 2nd hand shop. You don't need to carry a heavy guide book, borrow from the library and read before leaving home. Copy town street maps to take with you, return the guide book and buy a map of the country so you know where you're going.

HD or pen drive? To back up work (just in case it's get stolen or damaged)
yes, exactly - see above about work.

Each to their own; it comes down to priorities. You don't want to take the good camera because it is too big and expensive. But an ipad is only a couple of hundred grams less weight than a consumer DSLR including lens, and not that much cheaper.

I am almost the opposite. I'll take my DSLR and lenses, but will cut out as much else as possible. I'd rather be able to capture images of things and events I may never see again than watch movies on a portable screen.

thanks, i decided to leave the Ipad, Iphone and HD at home, I'll bring the old camera, the notebook, a memory stick, Ipod and Kindle with me.
cheers

And the old phone...?

oh yes, and I'll bring the old phone with me also. :-)

Talk with locals, wherever you go. Hear 'em out.
Don't just do something/sit there!

Theguy who steals all that electric crap, will be doing you a favor.

So i've just come back from 5 weeks in Thailand. I took a standard phone, mp3 player, 16gb usb pen, DSLR camera & digital camera.
I took two cameras because i'm heavily into photography and the digital camera was better on nights out and to film things.

Listening to the radio can be good but as it's been said, listening to music to fall asleep to is nicer than some noisy surroundings.
My phone didn't have wifi and was a massive down fall when the other people I was with had it. It's a good way to find out things to do in the local area, places to stay before you get there, rough costs of things, currency convertor etc etc. Also with regards to the Kindle, we ran out of books and found them quite expensive to buy and a lot of places you stay ask you to exchange books but you might not find something you like.

I'd say minimise what you're taking but make sure you have something you can read, listen to music & use the wifi. A USB is a good way to back up everything you've done just so incase you lose it :) Have a good trip, hope i've helped!

Just a rucksack for me. Not even a torch. I have a small one on my mobile phone that does it just fine.
External hard-drives, 60squillion gb memory cards. Oh where's the room for me towel?? Oops, forgot, I rarely take one of those either.
How things have changed, indeed. Not over 20 years as suggested though, but merely 10 - if that.

Don't forget the blender and washing machine.
Whew!

Keep it simple and get more from your trip.

I don't see the issue with someone else wanting to bring a few tech things with them on their trip.

Yes, go talk to locals, take in your environment....etc. but at the same time I know that I like my own space from time to time and that's not always easy when travelling but sitting in a bus I stick in the ear-phones put some music on to block out my surroundings and stare out the window lost in the landscape. It's something I enjoy doing.

I remember the first time I came across a fellow traveller travelling with a lap-top, it was about 10 years ago on the Trans-siberian. At first we kind of made fun of him for it, but then when we had access to music and movies on his lap-top we were quite happy for it. Whilst on the train we also mingled with the locals to some extent including a very memorable night drinking with the guards from the train, or another drinking with Mongolian business men. But it's also nice sometimes to just watch a movie.

Though it is true that you shouldn't bring what you you're not ready to lose.

Just the one washing machine - you mean :-)</i>

well...the dryer too. but the fold up one acoarse.

As a fellow journalist I'll give you an idea of what I take with me on a trip.

A couple of paper notebooks, a couple of pens, a Pentax Optio 5S camera and an iPod Nano. My partner takes almost the same (she has a waterproof Pentax Optio and a smaller iPod, but she is considering buying a Kindle over the next month or so). And yes, I have had pics published in magazines and newspapers that were taken on the Optio.

We were people watching on the Bergen Bahn recently as we travelled between Bergen and Oslo and most in the compartment were playing with iPhones or iPads, watching movies on their laptops or staring at the back of the seats in front of them. ourselves and a quartet of Americans were talking with each other, chatting to the guard, admiring the scenery or taking the occasional photo.

The main difference between the two groups in the compartment was the age difference. Those with techie stuff were in their twenties whilst those doing the interacting were over 50 (self included!).

Oh, and our respective bag weights for this trip were 7.2 and 8.2 kilos, but some judicious purchases in the Rohan sale a couple of weks ago should ensure that both of our bags are more like 5 kilos next time. And that includes the camera gear, the paper notebooks and the ipods...

jScribberkeith, ust wondering, if you work as a journalist, don't you have to send your articles in Word by email? Don't you need a notebook?

No. I make my notes on paper whilst I'm travelling and then write everything up when I get home before emailing them off. Okay, it's not as immediate, but it does give you time to reflect or to give you more time to research the piece if you\re missing some information. It is however a useful method of working.

My last trip was a 1000 mile + road trip in Norway that ended on Saturday 16th July 2011. The world knows what started a few hundred metres from the hotel I used in Oslo a week later and that's why I haven't written it up yet. Some things are better left to mature than to be rushed...

Most of my work is gear or travel related at the moment, but even when I was writing music columns or film and gig reviews, the notebook was used first and then reviews keyed when I got home. Printouts usually were done the next morning and then taken by hand down to the newspaper office in order to hit the features department deadline.

I've been writing since the mid-1980s and it's only over the last 10 years that I've had to email copy in to clients. Initially it was done by posting hard copy and pictures to magazines and then disks, hard copy and pics. If I've stumbled on a more pressing story (i.e. a gun siege at the end of my street a few years ago), i've rung the details in and then let the news teams do their stuff.

I'm off again in a month's time, but that's over here in the UK. I'm taking my car down to Norfolk with me so I have plenty of space for technology even if my partner decides to take her touring bike with her for days when she wants to do her own thing.

Our accommodation has both wi-fi and computers to use, but I'm still taking a notebook, pens and the Optio and writing up the trip when I get back. The best part of where we're staying? Mobile phone reception can be non-existent!

I've just gone back to having a mobile after a year without one and I don't feel bad about it when I switch it off and my boss (from the day job) or editors (I'm a freelance journo) can't get hold of me... The notebook is also being used on this trip to make notes for my new business plan as I'm ready to change direction as a writer one more time.

The last time I did this I ended up working for four nationals at the same time so like my writing, the plan needs a little bit of time to mature and a few edits too to take off the rough edges...

thanks but I can't afford to work on a paper notebook, I've to send it right away. Besides, the MacbookAir is very thin and light. The only problem is that you're carrying a value so you've to keep always an eye open

I bought a crappy old powerbook g4 to take overseas with me, my macbook is too expensive and flashy and i "need" a laptop for email & checking for flights, routes and stuff. Staying about a year or so... Ill probably give it to someone who needs it when im done.

how bout a robot to carry all that gizmo crap? and a sextant.
8oQ

A matter transporter as well. Saves on actual bus journeys.

I would buy that robot in a second...hate to carry my suitcases around. 3 kids, 7 suitcases, and a wife that wants crapuchino right there! I probably get like 3 of those robots.

ipad, no, watch movies on your laptop.

kindle, personally I'd read books on my laptop, but if it hurts your eyes, the kindle is pretty small and light I guess.

iphone, ipod and HDD/memory sticks, honestly I'd buy a cheap android phone, most have a microsd slot, buy a 32gb card or two and use it to store/listen to music, get your banking SMS and should be fine to plug it directly into your macbook and use it as an external HDD for backups. Plus you won't mind as much if it get's scratched, dented or broken.

I don't think it's a difference in generations, or age, more so a difference in travelling to explore, or travelling to de-stress. I do think the older generation seem to travel more to relax, and younger generation to explore, but that's a statement with my limited sample group (-:

What? No washing machine?

But what about the Kitchen sink!!! Have you not thought of its feelings?

Or the poor pack mule!
omg!!!!!