LiveTrekker
We have so many new smartphone travel apps offering to help us plan, monitor or track our trips, just keeping up with the latest ones could be a column by themselves. Here’s one that’s positioning itself as the ultimate journal, mapping your journey with GPS as you go, and offering the opportunity to collect and organise notes, photos and videos along the way. Of course you can share this with your friends - the modern digital equivalent of the family holiday slide show perhaps - with it all being held in the cloud. It’s got a useful feature to support this, working offline until you’ve decent broadband to upload your latest instalment.
Free from Google Play/App Store
Raden A Series Luggage
It’s probably a bit of a stretch to call it the next big thing, but there’s no doubt we’ll soon be seeing more smart luggage on the airport carousel. Like this luggage set from Raden, most concentrate on a couple of key features. Having weighing scales built-in. Tracking your bag in increasing busy airports. And charging your growing phalanx of mobile gadgetry. (Nothing wrong with a growing phalanx I say.) Raden’s A Series starts with a 22-inch wheelie, with its tough Makrolon Polycarbonate shell making for an interesting springboarding suitcases video demo.
From $295 at raden.com
Pods Tents
Channeling moonbase-chic, Pod Tents’ designs combine modular living spaces with interconnecting tunnels. So a gang of friends or a couple of families can zip themselves up together for a communal camping experience. The pods come in different sizes from the (not so) Mini, which is over 2m tall to the Maxi - 5m in diameter and almost 3m high. Erecting your tent towers will take a bit of concentration compared the the average pop-up, but promises many an envious side glance if you’re festival clamping.
From about €510 to get started, see podtents.com.
@tomtomkelly
