Cords and Connections

Portable this, digital that, wireless connections and yet I find that I have to keep track of so many different connecting cables, power adapters and chargers that it feels like I have to have a second bag, apart from my clothes.

When going away with your devices, what do you bring? Of course, bring the charger(s) (wouldn’t be great if all used the same type.) It helps if all of the cell phones in the family are of the same model. Replacement batteries for the camera would be good but even more important is the transfer cable so that you can move or copy pictures off your camera card onto a friend’s computer and then a CD or flash drive, (especially useful if you don’t carry a laptop on vacation.) More importantly, you want to practice how to transfer your photos, especially from your phone/camera. Practice this ahead of time if you haven’t done it and figure out if you need to bring any special software for the phone/camera to talk to the computer. Bring a flash drive so that you can take those pictures with you, especially if you want to make prints at a photo store. For digital video cameras, you might want to bring that S video, RCA or HDMI cable so that you can show your raw footage on a TV.

If you have an iPod or iPad, bring that USB connector cable, if for nothing else so that you can charge it. But, you may also want to move things off and on your iPod/iPad with someone else’s iTunes software. The safest way is to ask them to set up a new user, PC or Mac, and then you won’t mess up their iTunes settings.

I find it useful to bring an extra extension but the main rule is to not rely on your friends or relations to have the cables you need.