CYCLINGABOUT.com

Tag: tablet

  • Keeping Your Valuables Safe

    Keeping Your Valuables Safe

    When it comes to keeping your valuables safe, it's all about minimising risk. We have different locations on our bike for our gear depending on when we are in low or high crime rate areas. If a robbery is most likely to happen while we're riding (eg. Central Asia), we store most of our valuables in the hard-to-access places such as the rear pannier under our rackpack bag. If we believe it will be while we're not attending our bike (Eg. Europe), we store our valuables in our easy-to-remove handlebar bag.

    Cash / Credit Cards

    – Try not to carry more than a few hundred dollars at all times, although sometimes it will be essential to carry more (Iran).

    – If you are a travelling heterosexual couple, it is recommended that the lady carries the cash, as the assumption is normally that the guy will be carrying the money.

    – When in higher crime areas, keep your cash stored in a stuff sack with your clothes. Having the cash mixed in with your clothes is great for if you're camping or staying in dodgy hotels as it is hard to find for those dishonest enough to look for it.

    – It is also worth spreading your cash about your bags a bit, we leave a bit in my clothes bag, and a bit more in Kat's.

    – If you need to carry cash on you, it is best to have it in a money belt concealed under your clothing. Make sure you have your money in a plastic sleeve so that sweat doesn't get to it.

    – If you're in lower crime areas, leave your cash in your handlebar bag. You can then take it off the bike whenever you go to a supermarket, shop, restaurant etc.

    – If you carry a wallet, store it inside a closable bag. It is far too easy to get pick pocketed or have it pinched from inside an open bag.

    For more cash management tips, click HERE.

    Don't leave your cash laying about like this…

    Passport

    – When we're travelling through countries with higher crime rates, we like to store our passports at the bottom of our rear pannier bags. As these rear pannier bags are strapped down underneath our rackpack bag, there is little to no chance of rear bag theft on the road.

    – Make a copy of your passport page and laminate it. Store it in your handlebar bag and if asked to show your passport, you can show a copy rather than the real thing. For more read our detailled article HERE.

    – If you need to carry your passport with you, it is best to have it in a money belt concealed under your clothing.

    – If you're in lower crime areas, leave your passports in your handlebar bag. You can then take it off the bike whenever you go to a supermarket, shop, restaurant etc.

    Computer / Tablet

    – Keep it stored in a pannier bag which is hard to take off quickly. We use our rear rackpack bag.

    – Take it with you whenever you go into a supermarket/shop/restaurant.

    – Try not to use it in public areas if your destination is known for theft.

    Cameras

    – We store our cameras in our handlebar bag for easy access, and so that we can take them off the bike when we stop at supermarkets, restaurants etc.

    – Cameras are worth a bit of coin on the second hand market, so these are one of the most likely things to get taken from you. We recommend backing up your photos regularly. Remember, in the event your cameras do go missing, there is no way to replace all those precious photo and video memories.

    – Try not to wear your camera. Keep it hidden in a bag when you can.

    Do you have any other theft prevention tips for us?

     

  • Managing Digital Maps on a Tablet

    Managing Digital Maps on a Tablet

    We collect paper maps where we can, but don't go to too much trouble to find them because we have found that some good preparation on our iPad maps is enough.

    We use one paid app and four 100% FREE map apps to plan and assess our bike routes through the countries we travel. All of the apps offer something different, such as strengths in city navigation, altitude and gradients, attractions and hotels, and data plotting.

    Maps with Me – We use Maps With Me for most of our city navigating around the world. These offline maps look pretty darn good and seem to be accurate. They show the location of parks, restaurants and tourist attractions – an added bonus. You purchase the base app (with no maps) for $5.49 AUD, but with this you get access to high quality maps which are FREE to be downloaded and deleted at any time. We normally only store a couple of countries worth of maps at a time which saves our storage for other things.

    UDirect Maps – These are free maps available for the whole world. They are sizeable (sometimes over 1GB for one continent), however they are downloaded to our iPad and can be pulled out anywhere, anytime! We use these maps to work out altitudes and gradients in most cases, but rely on them for their offline content. We have found that the address function does not work and that the high level detail isn't necessarily accurate.

    Google Maps – We use Google Maps when we have an internet connection to work out accurate distances and routes between locations. These maps have also proven to be the most up to date in cities (a good compliment to UDirect) – great for planning a way in or out of large cities.

    My Maps – Before we left Australia we plotted lots of points of interest on the My Maps app. These give us a good idea for where the sites of interest are located spatially, allowing us to link this information into our travel route. More in our MyMaps post HERE.

    TrackMyTour – We use an app called TrackMyTour to plot our location for every day we stop. You'll notice our map on the website sidebar with our checked locations – this can be used by your loved ones to see you're doing ok!

     

  • Taking a Laptop vs Tablet on our Trip

    Taking a Laptop vs Tablet on our Trip

    We are currently trying to work out what electrical devices to take along with us. It’s a hard one and we’re always changing our minds. We would like to take one or two iPhones, as well as a Kindle or two aswell… but that might be excessive! Argh!

    Do we

    a. Take a small laptop (Apple Macbook Air 11″, Asus eeePc)
    b. Take a tablet (eg. iPad or Galaxy Tab)
    c. None of the above

    What are the main things we will we use it for?

    Uploading and editing photos for the internet
    Making awesome videos
    Writing diary entries and blog posts
    Posting stuff on the site

    A size comparison between the two shows that there is not much between them!

    Laptop

    Pros:
    + Will do everything we want it to and often in a manner better than a what a tablet is capable of
    + Can have current files from home on a computer with us

    Cons:
    – Relatively large size and weight (iPad 500g lighter and 6cm narrower)
    – Quite valuable (more than twice the cost of a tablet)
    – Will need to take a HDD for backup (additional weight of 228g)
    – More fragile than tablet
    – Protective case alone will weigh ~300g
    – Charger weighs 194g and will take up considerable space
    – Comparatively short battery life (5 hours)

    Total additional weight over an iPad:
    480g+228g+300g+194g = 1.2kg (a bit over 1kg once the iPad is protected well)
    We would save another 250g by using an iPad instead of a second Kindle
    So all together a 1.0-1.5kg difference and a considerable increase in bag space required

    Tablet

    Pros:
    + Relatively small size and weight
    + Editing photos and movies is simple
    + Able to be charged via dynamo hub
    + Long battery life (10 hours)
    + Can double as an e-reader
    + Takes a SIM card (albeit micro-sim)

    Cons:
    – Multitasking, copy and paste, dragging and editing writing is a pain. (So is the auto-correct on iPad).
    – Harder to transfer files to USB or another computer
    – Updating the device is difficult with no computer
    – No opportunity for backup of device
    – Easier for issues to occur and information to be lost
    – Typing takes twice as long as on an iPad
    – Website editing not as easy – in fact we’d probably want to do it in an internet cafe
    – App reliability inconsistent
    – Cannot stick a blue network cable into the side

    Take nothing

    Pros:
    + Saving of 1-2kg
    + Can type in internet cafes easily enough
    + Posting on the site will be not a worry in an internet cafe

    Cons:
    – Uploading and editing photos will suck
    – Paying for internet cafes will suck
    – Making movies will suck
    – Could be hard to find good internet cafes when we need them – time wasting and frustration will suck!

    I’m sure this will take another few months to sort out. We are currently liking the lighter weight, smaller and more resistant tablet option, however, we are struggling to know if we can live without a computer! (Too Gen-Y by far!)