When I go to conventions and even on vacation I need to have a laptop with me at all times. You never know when the site might go down and you need access to the internet to fix things. Also my sites do not run themselves so I always have to check on things and do work, even when I’m on the road. Usually when I’m at a hotel I setup my “workstation”. It is a big change going from my normal desktop computer to a laptop. With my desktop I have 2 24-inch LCD monitors, which is sure a lot of desktop space. Going from that to a small laptop screen does take some time to adjust. Well I thought I would let you guys get a glimpse of my mobile workstation and some of the gadgets I bring with me to make things as productive as possible.
Notebook
Currently I am using the Lenovo X200 tablet. Having a tablet is nice, but I mainly use it as a normal notebook. One thing I really like about the X200 Tablet is the battery life. I can get between 4-6 hours of battery life out of it, which is great when I’m on the road. It does have built in EVDO as well so I can always get on the internet anywhere there is a cell signal. Sometimes this is a life saver when the hotels internet is horrible, which is usually the case. If you have ever owned a ThinkPad you know about all the extra features it has to keep your hardware safe as well.
Notebook Stand / Keyboard
Before when traveling I never really used a stand or external keyboard, but this year during CES I tried it, mainly because I had the Logitech Alto, which I recently reviewed, and I knew it would make me more productive. The Logitech Alto is a stand a wireless keyboard combo. The stand not only holds your notebook it is the receiver for the wireless keyboard. It also includes 2 extra USB ports, which is nice when you are traveling. When your laptop is on the stand the screen is actually level with your eyes which means you don’t have to look down all the time, this means less stress on your neck overall making a better working environment.
Mouse
The mouse I use while on the road is just the simple Logitech V220 wireless mouse. It just makes it so much easier than using a touchpad or the trackball on my ThinkPad. I’m thinking about getting the VX Revolution though since I already use the MX Revolution as my main mouse. The VX Revolution is basically s smaller version of the MX. I also bring an old Alienware mousepad with me.
Storage
Even if you laptop does have a lot of storage space it is always a good idea to have some extra storage just incase. I have been using the Seagate FreeAgent Go 320GB hard drive. It is nice and small and has a very short USB cable so it is easy to carry around with me. Usually when I’m on trips I use the external storage to back up all of my work and photos I take, that way when I get home I can easily transfer everything back to my main system.
Accessories
Besides the main things you would expect I do have a few other things that make working on the road easy. First is the DigiMate III digital wallet, it is a hard drive with a card reader on it. It allows me to take my full CF card from my digital camera put it in the card reader, dump the photos onto the drive then format the card so I can take more photos. My CF card is only 2GB so it can fill up fast, especially if I’m at a trade show, this makes getting the files off the drive simple and much easier than opening up my laptop to do it. I also carry a 55-in-1 card reader along with me as well.
Finally I have one of the smallest power strips you can get, the Targus Travel Power Outlets, this very small (5.5″ x 1.25″ x 1.0″) power strip has 4 outlets and is small enough that it can fit basically in any size bag that I have. You know how large some power strips are and I always need one because hotel room only usually have 1-2 free outlets so it is nice to have something that provides an extra 4 outlets and is small.