Tool 4: the Sony CLIE
I've carried a Palm OS handheld for about three years now, starting with an IBM Workpad. I'm now on my third, a Sony CLIE 770 (at http://www.sonystyle.com/micros/clie/). It makes managing my expenses easy, as discussed in the April 2001 issue of DominoPower at http://www.dominopower.com/issues/issue200104/dpexpenses001.html. It also means that I have contact details, a date book, and a notepad instantly available, and more to the point, the same date book and contacts as I have in Notes. If you use one of these things, you know what I mean. If you don't, then get one.

You can also use your Palm OS device as an alarm clock. You can do that by setting alarms in your calendar, but a better way is to download BigClock from the Web at http://www.gacel.de. It's free and rather more flexible. It also has better, longer lasting alarm sounds. It does have the downside that to be sure you set it correctly, you need to adjust the time zone in your Palm handheld or Sony CLIE, which then means you have to remember to set it back again as well. When will the Palm OS have the locations idea that Notes and NetSwitcher have? Just make sure that before you trust yourself to the CLIE as an alarm, check that it is actually loud enough to wake you up!

To the traveler, however, you don't want to carry anything more than you have to. So whatever handheld you have, make sure that you can HotSync it using infrared. This saves carrying the huge cradle that most of them come with, or having to buy an add-on HotSync cable. However, infrared does make for a much slower HotSync.

Handhelds now all seem to use rechargeable batteries, so you do need to get to know your power usage patterns. The CLIE, just like the other Palm OS devices before it, will easily make a three or four day trip away from home without me having to carry the charger. If I'm away for any more and likely to need the charger, then it's probably something I can carry in checked baggage anyway. But at least the CLIE charger cable just has a plug on the end to connect to the CLIE and doesn't need the cradle carried about. One CLIE snag is that when the battery charge in a Sony CLIE runs out, so does all the data in the machine. A HotSync will restore to the previous HotSync, but you lose anything in between. In my experience, Palm handhelds keep the data alive for about a month after the battery dies. If you don't want the risk, don't buy a CLIE.

Tool 5: the mobile phone
Just as everywhere else, key attributes in selecting a phone are size and weight, followed closely by battery life. I use a Nokia 7110 (at http://www.nokia.com/phones/7110/), which will operate happily for a three or four day trip without carrying a charger. But better than that, the phone will also talk to my ThinkPad through the Infrared port, so I can use it for a data call without carrying any cables. I try to avoid using it for data calls, because data on GSM in Europe is so slow, but it's better than nothing. Again, you can use a mobile phone as an alarm clock, but that means leaving it switched on all night, and I don't want the battery drain. Nor would I relish the thing ringing at 3 a.m.!