David J. Danto

Business travel thoughts in my own, personal opinion

eMail: ddanto@IMCCA.org Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD

Holiday Treasure Hunt

As we rapidly head toward year’s end I thought it would be a good idea to let my readers know of some of the treasures I discovered this year. These are devices, tools, services and/or miscellaneous things that have made my life easier this year, despite not being very well known. I’ve included hyperlinks in the text so you can easily find them. (FYI – I have no interest in any of these firms or products, financial or otherwise.)

Streaming DVR: I found a service that allows you to make recordings from most streaming services – so that you can watch them later on portable devices without internet access. PlayOn uses a smart-device app to collect your log-in and password data for sites including Amazon Prime, HBOMax, Paramount+, Netflix and more, and lets you select a program to record in the cloud for future download as an MP4 file. The file is tagged with your name and IP address as an intelligent deterrent to piracy or sharing. I’ve used this service to watch movies and other content on flights and in other circumstances when accessing the internet was not practical. They have a couple of pricing plans to choose from, but for about $5 a month you can get great use out of the ability to carry content with you as you travel.

My Music On Alexa: Like many of you I own lots of music on CDs and I find it stupid to pay for a music service like Spotify or Amazon Music to serve up music I already own. Along came a service called MyMedia which I use at home. I pay something like $5 a year to put their software on a spare old notebook I have here at home, and connect my digitized music library to that notebook via a huge, external USB drive. (It was a significant task to capture all the CDs onto a drive, but I had done that before I ever found this service, so it was not a problem.) Now, instead of asking Alexa to “play Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys” I say “Alexa, ask MyMedia to play Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys.” All of my music is available on all of my home voice assistant powered systems at no additional cost.

Spoiled By Good Coffee: I do like (need?) a good cup of coffee in the morning when I wake up. Most hotels have a coffee maker in the room, but the selection of coffees for it can vary from bearable to terrible. In addition, sometimes the coffee maker is so old or dirty I wouldn’t want to even touch it. Then of course there are casino hotels that don’t want to give you in-room coffee makers so you’ll have to go to the casino to get your morning jolt. I’ve solved this first-world problem by buying my own K-Cup compatible, tiny coffee maker. The Chulux personal coffee maker costs about $40, packs really small, and lets me carry the brand of coffee I like to have in the morning regardless of where I find myself waking up. If that weren’t first-world enough for you, you can also get the device in a selection of colors.

Virtual Group Greetings: One of the many things we’ve missed during the pandemic is passing around a greeting card in the office for someone that has something to celebrate or needs some well-wishes. Honestly though, I, like many of you, didn’t live in the same city as many of my co-workers even before the pandemic – making ‘signing a card’ a difficult logistical process in any case. Along comes Kudoboard – a service that takes the entire process into the cloud. You can post your words of encouragement, a meme, a picture or a video and send it to your friends and/or colleagues. It becomes a personalized greeting – an on-line collage which can be viewed and played and/or printed and framed.

Control Your iOS Apps: After literally years of frustration with how closed the Apple iPhone / iPad / iOS ecosystem is I finally found some relief with an app called iMazing. I have a fantastic and perfectly working app on my iPad that for some unknown reason is no longer available in the Apple App Store. Everyone said I’d have to give it up when I moved to a new device, but this awesome software lets me download the app from the device it’s on and install it on another device. I bought the app…and it works with the current version of iOS…and I’m putting it on devices I purchased, so I’m finally happy to say screw Apple as I found a legal way around their closed systems to manage my devices. iMazing does some the mundane file organizing work very well too, but moving an app gets it the major kudos from me.

Environmentally Friendly Lights: This last one is not new to me this year but deserves mention. A small company called Mpowerd has been making awesome lighting devices that are portable, environmentally friendly and sustainable for years. Their basic “Luci” unit is inflatable, powers/recharges from built-in solar cells, and is powerful enough to use to read, illuminate a camping tent or use during a power-failure. They have versions that do white light, color lights, have phone chargers, Bluetooth speakers, and even one that can be purchased as a kit so young people can learn STEM skills. Their prices start in the low $20s, but you can also donate a light to global communities that can certainly use it for only $10.

As this year comes to a close I wish you and yours the happiest of holiday seasons, and a new year filled with health and happiness, peace and prosperity. My next blog will likely be about heading to the CES conference in Las Vegas, and/or a link to my coverage of it.

Please remember to stay safe as COVID is not done with us yet. Again:

· Wear N95 or KN95 masks when outside of your home and going indoors or being around a lot of people.

· Don’t eat in indoor restaurants unless they have fresh air / great ventilation.

· Get vaccinated and boosted ASAP!

This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal opinions.

All image and links provided above as reference under prevailing fair use statutes.

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As always, feel free to write and comment, question or disagree. Hearing from the traveling community is always a highlight for me. Thanks!