This is Gary with MacMost Now.
On today's episode let's look at some Apple travel tips.
Today I'm in beautiful Barcelona.
When I travel to places like this there is usually some equipment that I always bring
along.
Now I like to stay in rented apartments but you may like to stay in hotels.
Either way there are some useful Apple gadgets that you can bring along.
For instance, my main gadget and the most expensive one that I bring in addition to
all my iPhones, iPad and MacBook, is an Airport Express base station.
Now an Airport Express base station is about $100 and is pretty compact and the new ones
are even smaller.
But I am using previous generation ones.
I can plug that in and then use that as my wifi base station.
The great thing is that when I stay in a place like this apartment or sometimes when I stay
in hotels I can plug that directly into the ethernet that they have and create my own
wifi network.
Even if a wifi network is already provided I can take a small ethernet cable and plug
my base station into the one that they have there.
Instead of using their wifi I can use my wifi.
Now there are two main advantages to this.
One is security.
For instance I don't know who has the password to the base station in this apartment.
Or maybe sometimes they are not even protected with a password so it is just public.
That is not very secure.
If I plug my own base station in I'm using my own wifi network which I have secured.
The second advantage is I don't have to enter in that password.
You see a lot of time you stay in places and there is this really long password that you
have to enter in.
Well I've got my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook.
That is three devices right there.
Add in all the devices from my family and I usually have seven or eight devices.
So I have to enter in the password for each one of those.
Well, I don't have to do that if I am using my own base station.
All these devices are already familiar with the base station.
So I plug it in.
I plug it into the existing network and all my devices are instantly online.
So it is very convenient as well as more secure.
Another gadget I like to bring along is a simple little connector.
It is the HGMI connector.
You can get the old one for the thirty pin dot connector for the iPad and iPhone.
Or you can get the new lightning version of that.
Now what this does is it allows you to hook your iPad or iPhone into a TV.
Most TVs for the last several years have HGMI connections.
So you also want to bring a small HGMI cable.
I usually bring a one meter or three foot cable even something smaller.
I've actually got one that is only about six inches long.
This allows me to plug in my iPad to a TV.
So if I've got some movies on it or I want to watch some video or rent some videos on
iTunes it is very convenient and I can actually watch them on the television which is great
to do when you are relaxing in the evening with your family rather than everybody gathering
around an iPad or iPhone.
Another thing I bring along is just a small cable to connect my iPhone or iPad to just
about any audio device.
Just a regular mini jack cable.
This allows me to plug in my iPhone into just about any kind of stereo system that I find
in the hotel room or place I rent.
It also allows me to plug an iPhone into a rented car.
So it is very easy to bring this along and it comes in handy all the time.
Lastly the thing I like to bring along is a small extension cord.
Just a regular extension cord because sometimes the power outlets in hotel rooms or apartments
are not really where you want them to be.
Bringing along an extension cord allows you to basically move your devices about a little
easier.
It also helps, of course, if the extension cord has three connections on the one end
so you can actually plug in three devices for that one outlet.
Very handy for hotel rooms.
If you are staying in a country that doesn't use the same type of power connector, say
here in Barcelona the Spanish power connector is very different than the American one, then
I have one simple little power adapter converter that costs a couple of dollars, I plug in
my extension cord, and now I can plug in an iPhone, iPad and my MacBook all into one plug
using one of the adapters rather than having to carry three of them with me.
So there is a look at some of the basic gadgets I bring along with me when I travel.
I would love to here from you comments to this post at MacMost.com to see which little
gadgets you find useful while traveling.
Until next time this is Gary with MacMost Now.