Smart Holidays - technology from Switzerland on holiday
19.2.2017
Translation: machine translated
The holidays are coming up. What do you need to take with you? Mobile phone? Laptop? Camera? What else? The problem: How should it all be wired up? And what is suitable for what? I thought I'd give it a try. In Iceland. Because where better to do an endurance test than in the land of fire and ice?
Volcanoes, glaciers, harsh winters with short days. Iceland is a country that somehow seems out of this world. The sparsely populated island in the far north was my testing ground for technology from the Digitec range and some clothing from Galaxus in the depths of winter. I met with the product managers from pretty much every division and stocked up on technology.
In my luggage (including devices from my girlfriend and travelling partner):
- 1x smartwatch
- 1x Fitbit
- 2x camera
- 1x laptop
- 2x mobile
- 1x powerbank
This may sound like overkill now, but each device has served well and in the case of the laptop also saved money, as many tour providers offer discounts online.
The backbone: power supply and data transmission
Switzerland is a somewhat peculiar country when it comes to power sockets. We have a format that is not found elsewhere. Why is that? It is because it was, it remains because it is.
With six devices that need to be charged more or less every day, a solution has to be found. But as I don't fancy spending my first day in Iceland wiring up a 100-year-old house, I came to the following conclusion:
Power strip plus universal adapter and you're done. Quite simple. It may not be necessary to use a universal adapter everywhere, but if you have the 207 gram adapter in your luggage, then you certainly don't need to worry.
Since mobile and camera batteries are not really the cold's best friend, a solution had to be found, i.e. a power bank. Attention: Airlines have issued rules for power banks. They may or may not not allow power banks with a capacity of more than 20,000 mAh in hand luggage for safety reasons. Therefore, after consulting with product manager Mohy Abushady, I opted for a product that operates close to this limit.
With this setup, I never had to struggle with a flat battery.
In addition, I had an assorted tangle of cables so that I could charge the camera overnight at the socket and a battery charger with Quick Charge 3.0 as a feature. This charges mobile phone batteries so quickly that the entire battery is full in 100 minutes.
It's also practical that the same cables I use to charge my devices can also be used for data exchange. It's not exactly new, as USB technology has been on the market for some time, but I still appreciated it.
The camera
Iceland is known for its stunning images. Waterfalls, glaciers, lava fields. Films are shot in Iceland simply because the landscape is so enchanting. Only a few of these films are also set in Iceland. These include The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The barren landscape comes into its own in the longboard scene.
Incidentally, all the scenes in the film that take place in Afghanistan were also shot in Iceland.
Therefore, a camera is needed that can withstand a lot, is reliable and takes good pictures. For Product Manager Ovidiu Oprea, the case was clear.
The mobile
Although the mobile phone is more or less useless due to roaming, it still has to go. After all, smartphones can do much more than just make calls and "so Bitzli Internet". In an emergency, the mobile must be able to stand in for the camera and the GPS function has often taken me to places I would never have found otherwise. In addition, the battery must be able to cope with a lot despite the power bank, or at least the battery power must be optimally utilised by the device. The recommendation from our product manager Dario Pellanda:
The laptop
Small, light, powerful. That was the laptop I wanted to take with me to the land of fire and ice. That's all I really wanted. But Category Leader Remo Pascale put a product in my hands that exceeded all my expectations.
With this equipment, I survived the Icelandic winter technologically well and took all the pictures I wanted to take. In short: I can highly recommend this setup. Not just for cold climes. <p
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
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