Travel Tech

Up in the Air with In-Flight Wi-Fi

By Dick Jordan | June 30, 2017

We have an almost preternatural urge to remain constantly connected to our electronic gadgets, even while cruising in a “tin tube” six or more miles above the surface of Planet Earth.

Four years ago I wrote two stories about in-flight Wi-Fi: One about the topic in general, and another that reviewed Wi-Fi service available on Southwest Airline flights.

A trip to Phoenix last month gave me an opportunity to use the Wi-Fi and in-flight entertainment systems on Southwest during the Portland-to-Phoenix leg of my trip, and that on an Alaska Airlines flight back to Portland a week later.

Here’s what I learned.

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Smartphone Accessories For Shooting Travel Great Videos

By Dick Jordan | June 3, 2016

There’s an adage often quoted by photographers: “The best camera to use for shooting is the camera you have with you.”

And that well-worn saying applies to both still photography and video.

What this means is that even if you own “The World’s Most Expensive” camera, it’s worthless unless you’ve got it handy when the perfect “Kodak Moment” arrives, especially when you’re traveling away from home.

So what is the camera most of us always have with us today?

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Which iPhone Should You Buy For Travel?

By Dick Jordan | April 8, 2016

For the past few years, Apple has made choosing which iPhone model to buy pretty easy.

Each fall, a brand-new model was released, and you could probably still buy the one from the prior year, or maybe even two years back.

Then Apple threw us a curve ball during the baseball playoffs and World Series: New phones that were bigger and a lot bigger, beginning with the “6” and “6Plus.”

But one thing you could count on if you bought one of the latest phones: It wouldn’t be “obsolete” (or you wouldn’t be coveting a newer model) until next fall.

But using the baseball analogy, this month Apple came out with a “Minor League” model during major league baseball’s spring training season: The “SE,” which is smaller (and less expensive) than its “Big League” cousins, the 2015 “6s” and “6s Plus,” and the prior 2014 season’s “6” and “6 Plus.”

So if you want to take an iPhone “on the road” with you, which model should you buy?

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