Gadgets that Can Save Your Summer Road Travel
Can not wait to get to your summer destination? The worst part of your summer travel would probably the long wait to arrive to your hotel or resort of choice. And if you have kids with you, their whining can get on your nerves. So why not entertain them and keep them busy throughout the trip.
Here are some techie gadgets that can make your summer car travel more entertaining:
- Points of Interest or POIFriend
- FM transmitter
- iPhone and iTouch application for kids
- Rechargable battery packs (external)
- New games for your Nintendo DS
If your car is equipped with a GPS, you can download POIs without any fee from the internet. POIs can locate for you places that can interest you along your way to your summer travel destination. You can trace where the best restaurants are in town through the “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” application as seen in the Food Network show. You can also track down every Wal-Mart or Starbucks in the U.S.
Just download the desired file from the internet then move the file from your computer to the GPS unit through a cable or the GPS’ memory card.
If you want to enjoy your favorite music all throughout your travel and share it with your passengers, have an FM transmitter that ranges from $20-$30 a unit. This is perfect especially for car rentals. But if you have a functioning cassette deck, you can have better sound through a cassette adapter.
Keep the kids from asking “Are we there yet?” Try “Spawn”, where you can create fireworks with one touch to the screen. “Bubbles” based on the name allows you to create a bubble by dragging across the screen and pop it with another touch. IF your kid is a music lover, he would enjoy “Preschool Music” where he can create music with his fingers and your iTouch. These games cannot be as interesting as they are for kids, so remember to bring headphones. Each application costs $1.
Those invaluable cigarette-lighter adapters can do a lot to save you during long and boring road travels. But one outlet is not enough for all you gadgets, isn’t it? With only $15 to $50 you can have extended battery life for your cell phone, iPod, and other gadgets. But before buying an external battery pack, know about its capacity, measures in milliampere-hours. The cheaper ones can only have 500 mAh that can only charge half a battery’s life. While the slightly more expensive battery packs has a capacity of 3000 mAh, good for 3 full cell phone battery charges.
There are a lot of games that can soothe your interest during your long travel. One of the latest hits for the strategy-game lovers is “Pokemon Platinum”. To let the kids at the backseat enjoy a multiplayer game, why not try “Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time”. There are a lot more games to choose on, with a price tag range from of $35-$40.
