… I didn’t have to carry so many leads, cables, gadgets and plugs. Even a short trip away, just a few days means:
– The charger for my Treo (average battery life, 1.25 days); proprietary connector
– The charger for my ipod (average battery life, several days but always runs out when I least expect it to); proprietary connector even though Apple have moved away from firewire and rely on USB
– The charger for my shiny black DS lite-training my brain to be young again. It will take a while of course (average battery life – ds not my brain – unknown as it’s too new); proprietary connector that looks disarmingly like USB (I nearly did a jig), but it isn’t
– Charger and PC interface for my Forerunner 305 (average battery life about 10 hours); USB connector but you need an odd little cradle to charge it or connect it to the PC (unlike the 205 that plugged straight into USB)
– Power unit for my Sony Vaio TX1XP
– Charger for my Nikon S3 camera (average battery life unknown, I haven’t let it run down yet) – never go anywhere without a good camera and the Treo is 4 megapixels and a decent lens away from that; proprietary connector, even though it has an SD card that plugs straight into my laptop (i actually did a jig when Sony finally supported a standard that wasn’t its own)
– Charger for my Blackberry 8700 (average battery life 3 days, a little less with heavy screen usage); USB connector but it seems not all USB connectors are created equal as some others that I have won’t charge the BB (the RAZR charger, for instance, doesn’t work with a BB).
– My wireless presentation mouse and spare batteries (average battery life unknown but it always runs out just before I go on stage)
Is it just me or has the world got more complicated? No wonder there are so many delays at airports – how can you blame the x-ray folks for insisting that everything comes out of its bag and gets put in a plastic tray?