Chapter 33 - The rest of the iPad gear

There are more things that we might need when traveling longer with the iPad…

The rest of Michael’s Gear:
The rest of Augusto’s Gear:

This is the stuff we carry when traveling - in the hotel room or in the office. These are the things we need a lot (like chargers) or might need for specific purposes.

The rest of Michael’s Gear:

US adapter for Apple charger

When I’m traveling to Japan or the USA I use this small white adapter to convert my charger to a US-standard style.

iPad black leather Smart Cover

I still use the Smart Cover whenever I don’t need the external keyboard. It’s especially good for browsing the web and checking email. Call me boring, but my iPad is black, the external keyboard is black and my Smart Cover is black, too. ‘Black’ is also my favorite album by Metallica :-)

Lightning to VGA adapter

When I’m doing presentations on the iPad, I often need to connect to old projectors which don’t support HDMI standard. This is where the VGA adapter comes in. With both the HDMI and VGA adapters at hand, there is hardly any projector or monitor I can’t connect to. It just works.

Spare Headphones - Apple Earpods

Call me paranoid but should my main headphones get lost or break down, I carry a spare with me. For now, I carry the standard Apple Earpods that come with every iPhone.

Belkin 5-1 headphone jack splitter

It’s a great small device that enables me to connect more than one headphone to my iPad or iPhone. Especially useful for watching movies with my spouse on an airplane or anywhere else when we don’t want to disturb people around us with the movie we’re watching.

USB Car charger

When I’m renting a car or traveling with someone else’s car, this charger is a must, just in case.

Jack-to-jack audio retractable cable

I use this cable to connect to car stereo systems with my iPhone. Still many cars don’t have iPod docks or Bluetooth AirPlay but they usually have audio AUX connection - using this cable I can play the music on my iPhone in the car.

Apple HDMI cable

When I’m traveling to friends, almost everyone has an HDMI cable but in hotel rooms sometimes it’s very difficult to hook up to the existing HDMI cable. That’s why I carry this cable with me. It’s very slim and very good quality. Together with my Lightning adapter I can watch any movie in my hotel room directly from the iPad or even the iPhone.

TP-Link Nano Router + retractable LAN cable

It’s the smallest router I know. I use it in hotel rooms that don’t offer Wi-fi or when their Wi-fi connection is poor. I plug in the nano-router with the retractable LAN cable to the hotel’s LAN network and create my own hot-spot. As both my iPhone and my iPad are already pre-configured with this router, immediately after I’ve connected it all of my devices appear online.

Retractable USB to micro-usb cable

I need this cable to charge micro-usb devices such as my external keyboard, the nano router, my spare Android phone and any other device that is compatible with micro USB. I actually travel with two of these cables.

Micro-usb to Lightning adapter

In order to use one of these retractable cables and be able to charge my iPhone and my iPad at the same time, I carry this adapter with me.

iPod to Lightning adapter

Most of the cars and hotel room stereos have iPod adapters and not Lightning adapters. This way I can connect to these with my iPhone and play the music directly from them.

Micro-usb to iPod adapter

I don’t need it that much anymore, but in case someone needs it, I carry this adapter with me.

Bluetooth Sony microphones + KV Connection cable

When I’m recording the episodes of my Productive! Show I very often need an external microphone. For that I had to buy a KV-connection cable (which converts my iPhone jack output to a separate microphone input and headphones output). Later I plug the Sony Bluetooth wireless receiver to it and use the microphone to record videos.

Optional gear:

Seagate Media GoFlex Satelite 500GB

Recently I got this external hard drive. It works great when I need to copy movies from friends. It was especially helpful when I was reviewing my recent ‘10-steps to Ultimate Productivity Course’. I just had to preload everything (close to 50 GB of raw files) to the disk. The disk drive has its own battery and creates its own hot-spot so I can view the contents of the disk directly with the iPad.

The rest of Augusto’s Gear:

Bose Noise Canceling headphones

I love them. Unfortunately they are bulky; otherwise I would carry them all the time. I think they are fantastic.

Plantronics Noise Canceling headphones

This is what I use to record Podcasts, so if I am going to do just that, I bring it with me.

iPad Camera Kit for USB

It is how I connect the Plantronics to the iPad to record the podcast.

Belkin Surge Protector and 3 outlet

This little gadget is really convenient. It has a surge protector, two USB and three plugs. It has saved me in many, many places.

AirPort Express for Internet Connection

If I go to a Hotel, I always bring the AirPort Express. Cable internet in hotels is terrible, and people almost never use it, so I put my own Wi-Fi router and can quickly gain online access.

Headphone Splitter

I carry a headphone splitter in case my wife and I want to watch a movie. I may need to upgrade this soon to a splitter that can connect four so the whole family can listen to the movie if we wish.

Male to Male Headphones Cable

For Car Rentals, this is the best.

Unless I am going to do something that can only be done on the Mac, I leave the Mac behind and use LogMeIn to connect to it. If the Macbook is coming then the charger is always part of the deal.