Gizmodo: Vacation

Gadget Or the Girl Reality Show Makes You Choose Between iPod or iPoon

Jason Chen — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:40:00 EDT

A new show on Playboy TV asks the question that is on all our minds day in and day out: What would you choose, a girl or a gadget? Their Gadget or the Girl reality "program" will force contestants to choose between a weekend vacation with a girl of their choice—as in one of the contestant's providing, we assume, and not just them naming Evangeline Lilly and doing the biggest fist pump in the history of man—or a random high-tech gadget. What kind of gadget? Crave says it's going to vary between things like a 60-inch HDTV to an upright arcade box, but they won't know what it is until they made their decision. So tough! If only I could have Evangeline Lilly as a sounding board for this decision. [CNet]

Rumor: AT&T Says No Employee Vacations Between June 15 and July 12 For the 3G iPhone

Jason Chen — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:29:00 EDT

According to cellpassion, AT&T's pulling a similar move as Apple did last year, disallowing any employee vacations for a period from June 15 to July 12. If this is true, there's only one reason why AT&T would do this: the 3G iPhone. Why did they pick June 15 when the keynote for WWDC is June 9? Beats me. It seems more and more likely that the phone is coming, however, so don't buy anything until after June unless you want to be a sad sack. [Cellpassion]

Should I Bring My Email-Capable Phone On Vacation?

Brian Lam — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:10:38 EST

I'm going on vacation tomorrow, for a week. Hawaii. I don't know if I find the idea of news dropping while I'm away very relaxing. Should I bring my cellphone with me to check email? BTW, see you all in a few days.

Court Says Border Agents Have the Right to Search Your Laptop

Jason Chen — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 18:15:32 EDT

Customs agents already have the power now to search your luggage when you cross borders, thanks to a circuit court ruling, they have the power to inspect the data on your laptops as well. The decision was handed down relating to this case:

Stuart Romm boarded a plane in Las Vegas on February 1, 2004. When he got off the plane in British Columbia, Canada's Border Services Agency stopped Romm for questioning. After learning that Romm had a criminal background, Agent Keith Brown searched his laptop and discovered child porn sites in Romm's Internet history list. Canada then bundled Romm back onto a plane to Seattle, where US Customs agents had a chance to question him further.

We've heard of cases of 1-hour photo stores calling the police when they find people's pictures of their infants, semi-clothed, on vacation. Imagine the misunderstanding it will cause when customs agents find the same thing on your laptops—or possibly digital cameras as well. You may want to think twice about taking that shot of junior in the pool in Cancun. – Jason Chen

Can border agents search your laptop? Yes. [Ars Technica via ]

Quick Tip: Lose your Cellphone Charger on Vacation?

Travis Hudson — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 17:03:22 EDT

Our half-sister, Lifehacker, points out to a very convenient tip if you happen to misplace your cellphone charger while on vacation.

In fact, so many travelers lose their cell phone chargers, chances are that your hotel will have a few spares behind the desk. And, if it fits your phone, the charger is (usually) yours. Of course, this isn't an open invite to just go losing those chargers willy-nilly, but like the penny at the checkout stand, you know it's probably there if you need it.

The commenter, 3dogs, also points out that flea markets often have baskets full of chargers. Other commenter, RHazlett mentions that cellphone stores will sometimes let you use their chargers for a quick juice-up to last a couple more days until you get home. No need to drop money on a new charger when you can get the job done for free. – Travis Hudson

Lose your cell phone charger [Lifehacker]

Summer Vacation Gadgetry Contest Winner

Travis Hudson — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 12:52:54 EDT

Last week we launched a contest to give away a CoPilot Live PocketPC Device. After weeding through the entries—all of which were very impressive—we have a winner. Max S has won the CoPilot Live. He has a 2006 Mustang GT that is tricked out with gadgets all over the place. Hit the jump for his complete, and impressive explanation of his car gadget setup.

A big thanks goes out to everyone who entered. We had some really good entries. Still looking to win some Gizmodo swag? Here is a hint, get out that video camera, start warming up your singing voice and keep reading for more details to come.

When my wife and son travel we avoid flying and hit the road in comfort in our 2006 Mustang GT. When we're ready to leave I start up the Mustang remotely from the house with my watch (Camco Prostar Gold alarm) and let my Mac Mini (under the passenger seat and displayed on the sunvisor mounted LCDs) boot up. When we're heading to the car to load up our luggage I've got my hands full so my doors automatically unlock with the alarms proximity unlock sensor and I get us all ready to go.
On the road my wife connects to our Mac Mini via USB with our Verizon XV6700 over an EVDO broadband connection to browse the net and then connects to our Slingbox at home (connected to our Dish Network receiver) to finish watching a show my son was watching earlier on our 2 rear headrest mounted LCDs with wireless headset (so as not to disturb us in front). While my son watches TV my wife plugs in our iPod to the Pioneer Avic N2 head unit and we listen to some tunes and then switch over to our XM receiver to get the latest news. When I get a call I answer it with my Bluespoon AX2 Bluetooth headset and take notes with my Bluetooth Virtual Keyboard and when needed print out the info I need with my SiPix Pocket IR printer. Eventually my son will get bored watching TV so we pop in Lightspan games in the Playstation 2 under the passenger seat and let him play via the Predator Wireless PS2 controller. When my wife gets bored listening to music she fires up our 300GB external Seagate Hard drive to watch (via the mini on the sunvisor LCDs) one of over 200 of our favorite movies and tv shows ripped to divx on the drive.

When we make a pit stop and I'm waiting in the car I power up my Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop and get nostalgic with some classic gaming emulation playing all my favorite Super Nintendo, N64, Nintendo, Sega Master System, Genesis, Saturn, Turbo Grafx 16 and Atari Jaguar, all on their original controllers via retrousb.com's conversions and adapters.

When we're almost at our destination my wife sends a video email to our family to let them know we've arrived safely with our USB webcam (over our EVDO connection on the XV6700)

While waiting in the lobby my son watches a movie on our Initial portable DVD player and my wife films his antics on our video camera and catches those precious moments on our Canon SD550 7.2 MP digital camera.

My wife then checks our itenirary to see if we're on schedule on our Compaq iPaq 3835. As I'm waiting for my room key I turn on my NHJ TV Watch and catch up with some local tv.

At the hotel we do the same playing games and watching movies on the larger hotel TV screen via the S-video out on our Inspiron 6000 laptop and our 300GB external drive.

Summer Vacation Gadgetry Contest Update

Travis Hudson — Tue, 30 May 2006 16:57:02 EDT

Hot diggity damn! Some of you folks have more gadgets than us, and we own gadgets for a living. If you recall, we are giving away the CoPilot Live for Pocket PC. This device gives your Pocket PC enabled gadget a little bit of GPS goodness. The entries came flowing in and we are more than impressed with how much crap you people take with you on vacation.

Here is the deal. We want to see who has the biggest and best arsenal of vacation gadgets. Snap a photo of them, make it no larger than 520 pixels wide and shoot it over to gizmodobox @ gmail with "ON VACATION" in the subject line. The dead is this Friday at noon. Good luck competing with Alex D. and his arsenal in the photo above.

Prize Product Page [ALK]
Gawker Contest Rules
Contest: Summer Vacation Gadgetry [Gizmodo]

Contest: Summer Vacation Gadgetry

Travis Hudson — Fri, 26 May 2006 14:28:40 EDT

Yeah, it's been a while since our last contest, so sue us. Now we are giving away the CoPilot live. This accessory can turn any Pocket PC device into a GPS device. This is perfect for that summer road trip.

Here is the catch: We want to see who has the biggest arsenal of vacation gadgets. Load 'em all up, take a picture and shoot it over to gizmodobox @ gmail with "ON VACATION" in the subject line. The deadline is Friday, June 2 at noon. Please try to keep your images no wider than 520 pixels. Remember, you are trying to impress the editors here. So if you don't have a lot of vacation gadgets, just incorporate a "Your Momma" joke into your picture and it is sure to make JohnB laugh.

Prize Product Page [ALK]
Gawker Contest Rules