THIS WEEK, we have an intelligent, online travel organiser – and an almost MacGyver-esque penknife but, sadly, no one to do your packing for you.
TripIt Travel Organiser
As a sometime (that is, most of the time) pedant myself, I have to admit, TripIt is not really a gadget. Strictly speaking, it’s not even that new. However, from recent conversations it appears that very few people seem to know about it – and that, combined with some new features and the flexibility of mobile apps means, well, it’s gadgetesque. And rather smart.
In essence, TripIt is an intelligent, online travel organiser for the casual or business traveller. Setting it up is as simple as forwarding a travel confirmation email – say, from an airline or online agent like eBookers – to plans@tripit.com.
For example, electronic confirmations from Aer Lingus, Ryanair and Aer Arann all work, as do those from over 1,000 other travel-related sites. And you’re off.
TripIt automatically sets up an account for you using your email address; it starts building an itinerary and sends you a link to it. Then as each subsequent element of your trip comes together, you simply forward on that confirmation too and it gets integrated into a master listing, all in one place – car hire, hotel bookings and so on. TripIt, for its part, pulls in maps of your destinations, driving directions, weather forecasts. It’s like having your own personal Miss Moneypenny sorting it all out. A group function lets companies organise big trips.
There’s a TripIt app for each of the main smartphones so you can access your itinerary on the move and it integrates with social networking sites to keep whoever you want in the loop about wherever you’re going.
So TripIt is useful, sure, but here’s the clincher: it’s free. There is a $50 (€39.5) Pro version that has more bells and whistles, such as alerts for delayed flights, but for many of us, the free basic model will have us organised beyond our dreams. And no computer papered in yellow sticky remind-its. Now all you’ve got to do is sort out the packing . . .
CostFree; see tripit.com
Victorinox Presentation Master
It has often been the gadget addict’s first hit: a Swiss Army penknife. The ruby-hard casing. The inlaid flag motif. Mysterious tools spring-folded away. (Is that really a special blade for cleaning your pipe?) There are two Swiss Army product makers – Wenger and, more familiar to us, Victorinox. This is the latest from the latter.
The name Presentation Master is hardly one to set hearts racing, especially not for a pocket knife with a laser and a super-secure, self-destructing flash storage device. Because data on this USB drive is deep encrypted, with fingerprint recognition to access it and, apparently, a tamper-proof, self-destruct capability (which, regrettably, I haven’t had a chance to test). So that PowerPoint presentation for the Joint Chiefs of Staff will remain your secret.
I’d love to tell you the laser can burn through 10mm steel, but it’s actually just a presentation pointer (awww!). It does have a Bluetooth remote for PCs and, of course, the usual set of personal tools, blade, nail file, scissors, etc. No flame thrower on this baby though.
Victorinox has a suite of variations on the Secure theme, some with LEDs, not lasers, and others without the tools, so-called Flight models. Otherwise you’ll end up bitterly handing it over to airport security (although you can detach the USB).
Launching this, Victorinox is rumoured to have offered a team of hackers £100,000 (€119,500) if they could get at a sample drive’s files within two hours. They didn’t. It’s claimed the AES 256-bit encryption is virtually unhackable. What is a little hard to hack are the prices of these, with the 32GB version coming in at around €300. Keep it safe.
** Victorinox Secure Presentation Master Encrypted USB Drives – 8GB, 16GB and 32GB, from £98 (around €120) upwards at amazon.co.uk