Finding the right balance between power and weight

When business travelers tell you they're trying to keep their weight down, they may not be talking about cutting back on carbohydrates or spending more time on the treadmill.

Often, the weight they're most worried about carrying around is inside their computer bags, where even an ultralight laptop, with all the accessories that pack on the pounds, can tip the scales.

Electronics manufacturers, it seems, are simultaneously correcting and compounding the problem, designing products that are smaller and lighter, yet offering more and more gadgets that travelers feel compelled to take with them.

"I feel like a third or more of what I have to carry on a typical trip is electronics hardware," said Katie Hall, a civil engineering consultant who keeps a box ready to pack with just travel hardware, including power cords, a phone cable, a portable scanner and a mouse.

But one product that cuts down on some of the weight in her computer bag is a $60 DC-to-AC power converter made by the American Power Conversion Corporation. It enables her to plug her laptop into the different types of power outlets available on some aircraft, as well as the cigarette lighter outlets in cars.

Although these adapters can eliminate the need to carry extra computer batteries on a long flight, one challenge for business travelers is that different aircraft use different types of power outlets, and the outlets are not found at every seat on planes that offer power to passengers. (The outlets are mostly in first- and business-class cabins, and sometimes scattered throughout coach.)

To make sure she gets a seat with an outlet, even though she typically flies coach, Hall said that as she is booking her flight she pulls up SeatGuru.com, a Web site that displays annotated diagrams of the planes nearly two dozen airlines fly. Travelers can see not only which seats have power outlets (and what type), but also find out which seats offer extra legroom, lack overhead storage or do not recline.

With the APC power converter, Hall said, she still had to carry her laptop's power cord, but other products eliminate the need to carry multiple power adapters--often referred to as bricks--for all the devices business travelers typically take on the road.

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Paul Moriarty, an executive with a wireless technology company, said he cut down on his cords about a year ago by purchasing the iGo Juice universal power adapter, which can charge multiple devices using aircraft, auto or regular wall outlets.

"I've got a brick for my laptop, a brick for my PDA and a brick for my cell phone--I figured if I could combine those all into one brick, I could save a lot of weight," Moriarty said, though somehow his computer bag still manages to weigh in at 25 pounds. The iGo Juice from Mobility Electronics, which retails for $120, comes with a set of tips that work with various gadgets; customers can buy additional tips as needed for their own gear, as well as a $25 accessory that lets them charge a laptop and another device at the same time.

The only downside of this "one adapter fits all" solution, Moriarty said, "is if you lose the brick, you're back to paper and pencil."

Another computer accessory he said he could not live without is a thumb drive--a portable hard drive also known as a flash drive that plugs

into a computer's USB port, making it possible to swap large files between computers without the need to communicate over a network. (The devices are available from many manufacturers for $40 to $70.)

Moriarty said he once worked on a PowerPoint presentation with a colleague on a train to Paris, passing the thumb-size drive back and forth between their laptops. "My biggest worry about the thumb drive is losing it," he noted.

Speaking of that fear of loss--or theft--Craig Ellison, director of operations for PC Magazine Labs, said one computer accessory that is often overlooked by business travelers is a cable lock, which fits into a square security hole that is standard on all laptops.

"I always, always, always take a cable lock with me," Ellison said. "In my hotel room, typically what I'll do is unplug the notebook and put it on the top shelf of the closet, and I'll lock it to the bar in the closet." (Once, when that was not an option, he said he looped the security cable through an opening in the base of a lamp and one in a chair. "I figured if someone's going to steal my laptop," he said. "They're going to take it down the hall with a lamp and a chair attached to it.")

Since he usually has to test various products when he travels, Ellison said he often had to take a separate suitcase just for his technology, but another item he makes a point of bringing along is a gadget that indicates whether there is a Wi-Fi signal nearby. Available from multiple manufacturers, including Kensington and PCTEL, for about $30, these Wi-Fi locators fit onto a keychain and, at the push of a button, light up to indicate whether there is a hot spot nearby and how strong the signal is--saving harried travelers the frustration of powering up a laptop in a hotel or airport, only to find out there is no wireless network around.

"The downside of these things is you don't know if it's a free network or a paid network or whose network it is," Ellison said. "But for just a real quick and dirty 'Is there a wireless network here?' check, those devices do a pretty good job."

For travelers addicted to the wireless lifestyle, another gadget that does not exactly slim down a computer bag--but may be worth its weight in freedom from cords--is a travel router. Like the wireless routers computer users have come to rely on at home, these smaller, lightweight counterparts can be plugged in to a hotel's broadband outlet, making it possible to download e-mail anywhere in the room.

"Say you want to watch TV but the jack is next to the desk, or you have a two-room suite," said Colby Perry, a technology consultant who spends about five days a week in hotels. "One thing I really hate to do is carry around a 25-foot Ethernet cable. If you trip over it you can make your laptop fall."

Instead, he plugs in the palm-size Apple AirPort Express router, which is not billed as a travel device but is small enough to justify a little extra weight in his computer bag to gain the convenience of creating his own wireless network when hotels do not offer Wi-Fi in the room. Ellison said NetGear, DLink, 3Com and SMC all sell travel routers for $100 or less that are about the size of a deck of cards, and are also useful when two people share a hotel room and both want to log on.

For those who envision a frustrating setup, Ellison says fear not. "These things are dead simple to set up," he said. "You plug it in and you turn it on."

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