Digital maps and iPhone applications. GPS and PSPs. Laptops, flip phones and BlackBerries — and their rats’ nest of power cords and chargers.
These things have so transformed the way we travel that it’s tough to remember a time without them.
“I think of my father going on business trips, and I’m hard-pressed to think of any technology he traveled with,” says Jonathan Spira, who serves as technology editor for Business Traveler magazine. “I know one of his toys was a two-zone wristwatch that had two clock faces on it. He certainly didn’t have to worry about having the right charger for the right device.”
The proliferation of technology to ease our travels sometimes threatens to overwhelm us, but the best stuff pushes convenience to the forefront while making its inner workings seem natural — and saving us from hours of research.
And these days, the best travel technology isn’t just about gadgets and gear.
“Electronic word of mouth such as online ratings, reviews (and) blogs have been prevalent in the travel industry . . . and have influenced the way travelers make decisions,” says Iis P. Tussy- adiah, associate director of Temple University’s National Laboratory for Tourism and eCommerce.
Word of mouth is important because buying into new technologies — particularly during stressful, tightly scheduled trips — is understandably tough for many of us. We don’t want to waste valuable time experimenting with a new e-ticketing service or hotel finder when we don’t even know if it works.
But the breathless sprint of innovation usually slows to where the consumer can catch up to the technology — or vice versa.
“The earliest smart phones that had any sort of Internet browsing capability in the late ’90s weighed a pound and a half and had a battery life of an hour and half,” said Spira, who has traveled the world the past two decades as chief analyst at New York research firm Basex. “But look at how far we’ve come. They’re incremental changes, and you shouldn’t really notice technology when it’s done well.”
To that end, we picked 12 of the latest and greatest travel technologies to help with your next trip.
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com
