8 Crucial Things You Should Know Before Travelling Abroad With Your Phone, Tablet, Or Laptop

8 Crucial Things You Should Know Before Travelling Abroad With Your Phone, Tablet, Or Laptop:
If you’re about to go international with your smartphone, tablet and/or laptop there are a few things you should know before you go. You might need extra peripheral devices and plugs, entertainment and maps pre-downloaded, a new SIM card for data, and to prepare for a few important security scenarios.
Wherever you go and whatever your trip will involve, these tips will prepare you for things as best as possible. The last thing you need is to lose a smartphone full of data with no way of protecting yourself! Here’s what you need to know.

Work Out What International Plugs You’ll Need

Since the standard electrical socket type is different wherever you go in the world, it’s handy to have the right plugs for the places you’re going. There are useful websites you can use to find out which type of socket to expect though, like PlugsMap. Also, remember to pack your USB charger and car charger into your cabin bag as you can sometimes find places to charge devices on the plane or in airports.

Ensure You Don’t Use Expensive Wireless Data Plans

When you’re travelling internationally it’s worth noting that your regular data plan will probably cost you a fortune. Turn 3G off, disable notifications and push services, then do not touch it even for a minute unless you know you’ve got a good deal. Most people are horrified at how expensive international data costs are.
If you’re travelling through lots of different countries, you might consider getting an international data SIM. If you’ll spend most of your time in one country, it might be better value to get a data SIM for that one country or rely on a local hotspot network. Ask your current provider if they have any preferred partners in the country you’re heading to as you could get a better rate. Whatever you do, hunt around for the best deals before you choose your method.

When considering your SIM choice, don’t forget to get the correct size SIM for your device! The iPad and iPhone 4 use a micro SIM, while most other devices use a full size SIM. You may also want to bring along any custom-made tool you need to remove your SIM.
Another data-conserving tip is to download as much as possible to your devices while using free Wi-Fi. Use apps like Instapaper to save websites you want to read in advance, while also adding music, movies and books to your device well in advance.

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• New Skype WiFi iOS App Provides Pay-Per-Minute Global Wireless Hotspot Access [News]

Plan Ahead & Get Offline GPS Maps

There are a huge range of maps available for smartphones and tablets. Ideally, what you need is one which allows you to get the maps you’ll need in advance and then find your location using GPS, without data access, later. Google Maps is very good at this, but there are plenty more you can consider too.

• The Top 3 Free Offline GPS Apps For Android

Bookmark All The Best Travel Deal Sites & Tourist Info

When you’re in a new area, apps like Foursquare can be a great way to find out about the best restaurants and bars. But most tourism offices have applications these days too, so do some research and get hold of them if possible. If there’s no application, they may at least have PDF versions of travel guides you can download and read while in transit.

You might also like to check out these great sites for hotel deals and other useful travel information:

• 10 Best Hotel Search Engines To Get The Best Deals When You Travel
• 8 Best Websites To Find Summer Retreats You’ll Never Forget
• 6 Most Useful US Government Websites For International Travelers
• The Best Travel Deals Sites To Save Cash On Your Next Vacation

You May Need Wireless Peripherals

If you’ve tried to cut down on the amount of luggage you’re bringing and are therefore travelling with a tablet, you may think you don’t need a keyboard or mouse. But what happens if you’re suddenly required to do a few fiddly things for work or to make a Skype call? Would your tablet keyboard and microphone be good enough? Maybe it’s worth packing a few peripheral devices in your main luggage just in case. I also like to carry a headphone splitter so that I can share the sound for movies or music I’m enjoying.

• Need An Affordable Keyboard For Your Tablet? Here Are Some Good Options
• 4 Excellent Mice For Everyday Use Under $50
• 5 Quality Headphones That Cost Less Than $50
• Better iPhone Audio & Video: Adapters, Microphones And Accessories For Superior Sound [iPhone]

Travelling Tablets Need Protecting

You might not need a case for your tablet for everyday use, but once your travelling things are different. You need free hands to go through airport security and carry luggage, so those tablets are going to be shoved into bags and possible handled by people other than yourself. Get a case if you want to protect your tablet properly.
Extreme changes in temperature may also affect your tablets, as it allows condensation to form inside the device. Also, extreme cold may affect the battery life of your device. For best results, keep your tablet insulated when travelling in extreme weather.

Protect Yourself Against Theft Of Your Devices & Data

Travelling will take you to busy places, some of them more notorious for crime than others. Regardless of the area, as a traveller you are a prime target. There are several things you can do to protect yourself against device theft or to help in the aftermath:

• Carry your devices near your body.
• Don’t get too distracted when using tablets or phones in public spaces.
• Purchase insurance for your devices (and make sure you are covered internationally and for potential work usage).
• Keep your devices locked when not in use. You might also consider the risks of leaving your applications logged in on your device.
• Don’t log into sensitive accounts while using public Wi-Fi.
• Back up your devices before you leave and when staying with friends while travelling.
• Keep back-ups on-the-go by syncing with web storage like Dropbox or Box.
• Install applications to help you retrieve a lost phone or tablet – or to delete the data remotely (for iPads, enable the “Find This iPad” feature before you go).

Also note that many border security agents have the power to examine your devices and sometimes to ask for you to decrypt partitions. If you’re security paranoid, it’s best to bring only devices with clean installs and no personal data on them whatsoever (definitely nothing illegal!). This goes double for workplace devices.

Protect Against RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) Skimming

Here’s another travel tip for the technically minded. When you’re in a busy place like an airport carrying all your most vital identification and credit cards, you’re at risk of having that information stolen by RFID skimmers. Many passports and credit cards these days have RFID chips in them, which are vulnerable to being read by identity thieves who are carrying a portable card reader.

It’s possible to buy an RFID blocking passport protector from places that sell anti-theft and travel security goods. It’s also an idea to put your credit cards in there while you’re in busy places.

More Great Travel Tips

Since you’re a techy who loves travelling, you’ll probably appreciate these articles too:

• How To Create Your Own Online Proxy Server In Minutes
• 3 Tools to Control Your PC from A Distance Using Remote Access

What are your best travel tips for travelling with tech gear?
Image Credit: Shutterstock, Shutterstock, Shutterstock, Shutterstock, Shutterstock

The 2 Best Applications For Keeping A Time Limit On Yourself

The 2 Best Applications For Keeping A Time Limit On Yourself:
Keeping productive and on track with yourself is important. Today, there’s no longer a need for physical alarm clocks or sticky notes. If that’s your thing, keep it up! However, the wonderful powers of the Internet make staying on track effortless. All you need to do is find the right application or web service and you’re set.
One thing I like to do is set time limits and other assorted timers for myself throughout the day. It shouldn’t take me more than an hour to do this or that, and if it does then I know I’m slacking off. That added bit of pressure creates a sense of urgency and importance when it comes to completing a task.
Today, I’ve got two awesome applications for you – one a Windows application and another a web application – that will assist in doing just that.

SnapTimer

SnapTimer is one of the many applications on our Best Portable Apps page. I love SnapTimer because it’s lightweight, simple, and very straightforward with its features.

SnapTimer serves a single purpose, and that’s not to say that it’s limited or some sort of primitive and shallow software either. It’s a simple countdown timer with all of the features and cleanliness to get the job done. Simply enter a time limit, in minutes (does not support seconds), and click the play button. You can optionally click the interface to start the timer. You can click again to pause it.

Under the Edit menu, you’re able to save your timer and edit some of the program’s options. Let’s look into those.

I’ve really got a thing for apps that dock to the Windows system tray. I hate having a cluttered taskbar. SnapTimer can do this.
As you can see in the screenshot, there are a handful of other very basic functionalities that you can enable or disable also.

SnapTimer supports alarms also, and I love the way that it handles them. You’re able to configure a display message, tray tooltip, sound file, or run an application after a time limit.

E.ggTimer

E.ggTimer is already extremely popular and has been featured in the MakeUseOf Directory, but it’s really necessary to include a web application in a post like this. As of right now, I only run Windows but I think it’s really important to involve the Mac and Linux crowd in the mix.

Like SnapTimer, E.ggTimer is incredibly simple but just as effective. Navigate to the website, enter a time limit (supports hours, minutes, seconds) and launch that timer. You’ll then be taken to a page that displays nothing more than the countdown timer. At the top and bottom of the page, there is a progress bar that allows you to visualize what percentage of time you’ve got left. Very minimal and straightforward.

Another little perk of E.ggTimer is being able to set your timer by the URL. Typing in a value like “5 hours” or “40 seconds” will automatically start up your timer.

At the end of your timer, you’ll hear two beeps and you’ll receive a popup telling you that the time has expired.
Which of these two do you prefer? Let me know in the comments!

Design and create with nanoCAD, a totally free CAD solution

Design and create with nanoCAD, a totally free CAD solution:

nanoCAD is a free, full-featured 3D CAD solution for all your CAD needs. Designed to replace the big name retail CAD programs, it stands out among free CAD programs as one of the best.
CAD programs are some of my favorites to mess around with, without actually producing anything useful from them necessarily. I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of creating or re-creating objects in three dimensions on the computer, ever since I saw my first example of a vector graphic in the early 80s. I enjoy just messing around with them, seeing what I can come up with, but I also know a few people who use them on a regular basis for work and other endeavors. It is therefore always of interest to me to find a new CAD program that is both full-featured as well as free. nanoCAD is both of those things and it’s definitely one of the more impressive CAD tools I have seen, never mind the fact that it costs nothing to use or download and the wide online community and support on the home page.

The install process is bereft of toolbars and junkware, which is always preferable. In order to use the program, you will need to get a serial number and register a license. but this costs nothing but time to fill out the forms. You’ll need to provide an email address, which they send a link to which allows you to download the product. Then you will also get an email containing your login information and after installing the program itself a registration wizard will lead you through the process of getting that free license number. It’s a bit complex, with all those steps just to get the program running for the first time, but the end result is worth it and the whole process is an indicator of what using the program is like all around. From beginning to end, it is easy and user-friendly, but with many steps along every way. This is to be expected, however, when using a CAD program, really, since the whole idea is to create 3D objects from digital nothingness.

Once up and running, you will have a couple of graphic options asked of you at the start up and you will be ready to begin using the various functions of the program. While I admit that many of the functions are beyond my skill level and understanding, it is worth noting that the sheer amount of options, features, tools and functions is pretty impressive and almost overwhelming. This is especially true when comparing nanoCAD to a few different free CAD tools I have used in the past. Specifically, nanoCAD uses the .dwg format so you can be sure of compatibility, as well as a number of key features that go above and beyond what you might expect from a free CAD utility. nanoCAD is really an ultimate 3D CAD solution, not just a tool to manage or manipulate. The drawing tools are exceptionally robust, and the interface is easy and familiar for anyone who has used some of the more popular retail programs for CAD, like AutoCAD. Additionally, since the program is an open API project, it is possible to develop or modify it for your own needs, if you should decide to. You can use the open coding, essentially, to develop you own applications and programs built around or with the nanoCAD system itself. I was also impressed with the ability to modify the right button context menu based on the current environment, as well as the auto-complete features that make everything faster and easier.

Overall, after my exploration of nanoCAD, I sort of think of it as the gimp of the CAD world. Whereas gimp is to replace Photoshop, nanoCAD can easily replace AutoCAD in most respects. There are too many tools and functions to go into all of them, and unless you are a regular user of 3D CAD programs, you wouldn’t know what to do with them anyway, but I can reliably state that nanoCAD is a decent replacement or free alternative to any of the retail cost CAD programs out there now. I would put it in the same category of quality and expectations for future usability with programs like OpenOffice.org. So, if you have need of a free CAD solution, or just want to see what the alternative to using an expensive program has to offer, check out nanoCAD, you won’t be disappointed.
[Thanks go to reader Panzer for the tip about this great program].
Get nanoCAD here (registration with a valid email required).

3 Fast, Clean, & Efficient Online Image Optimizers To Shrink Your Images

3 Fast, Clean, & Efficient Online Image Optimizers To Shrink Your Images:
As a blogger and a normal guy who is running out of space on his hard drive, I am always on the lookout for a good image compression program. My software of choice for all image editing needs is of course, the Big Daddy of them all – Adobe Photoshop. If I have to plonk down my money, I would go for a nice little piece of freeware called RIOT (Radical Image Optimization Tool).
Sometimes, I am loathe to fire up Photoshop for a simple image compression job. Then sometimes, I am mobile and away from RIOT too. Thanks to the plethora of image editing apps available on the web, I am spoilt for choice.
What I am looking for are fast, clean (i.e. uncluttered), and efficient image optimizers that are dead simple to use. I have found three so far…

JPEGmini

JPEGmini welcomes you with a very attractive homepage that instantly says something about its potential quality. Not surprisingly, it is also available as a Mac application. But we will be looking at the web version here. JPEGmini can reduce the size of any JPEG file by as much as 80% without affecting image quality. JPEGmini uses its image quality detector and its unique JPEG encoder to achieve optimum image recompression rations without any visible image artifacts to spoil the quality of the image.

Here are some key features:

• Single photos do not require any sign-ups, though batch uploading of full photo albums requires free registration.
• On JPEGmini each album that you upload can contain up to 1000 photos, and can be up to 200 MB in size.
• You can upload as many albums as you want.

Yahoo!Smush.it

Smush.it is also a lossless tool like JPEGmini. It compresses images and photos without any noticeable difference in their visual quality. The optimization method of Smush.It strips unnecessary bytes from image files and then gives you a downloadable ZIP file with the optimized image. Smush.it also tells you the savings you can achieve with the image compression. Privacy of your uploaded images is assured to degree because the files are only temporarily cached on the site. They are removed after a certain time. We have taken a deeper look at Smush.it when we saw how to Optimize and Compress Pictures Online with SmushIt.

Here are some key features:

• Smush.it works on JPG, GIF, and PNG images that are up to one megabyte in size.
• Smush.it converts GIF files to PNG files when the resulting PNG files are smaller.
• Smush.it preserves the meta-data of the photos during the compression process.
• Smush.it handles individual image files. It still does not have the feature to compress a folder of images in one go.

Kraken

Kraken is that terrible but mythical sea monster that you probably last heard about in the Pirates of The Caribbean. Here, Kraken serves a very useful purpose as a neat free and online image optimization tool. Kraken is actually a set of tools, where the image optimizer is one part of the set. The image optimizer also gives you browser extensions you can use with Firefox and Chrome. You can browse to the images on your hard drive and attach them, or drag and drop them to the Kraken interface. You can also use the URL paster option to enter multiple URLs and process them all as a batch. Kraken comes with two optimization levels – Advanced and Extreme. In the end, you can download each file individually or collect them all in a ZIP file.

Here are some key features:

• Kraken supports JPEG, PNG and GIF files.
• Kraken Image Optimizer allows for 1 MB file size limits. You can process 20 files in one single batch.
• Kraken also gives you PDF optimization report that shows the level of compression and other data.

Conclusion

I used the same single image originally sized at 515 KB and passed it through the three compression programs. Without any discernible difference in visual quality, JPEGmini gave me the best compressed image. But do try it out with your own set of images too and tell us the result.
Do you use a desktop tool like Photoshop or an online web app to compress your images? If you bother about image optimization, tell us about the tool of your choice? Is it anything like the three simple ones we have covered here?
Image Credit: Hand compresses a colour sphere via Shutterstock