The Travel Cords Edition
Our own Noah Brier reveals his entire on-the-go cable set-up.
Noah here. I’m back on the road, quite a bit more than I have been the last few years, and with that have been working on optimizing my travel setup. Specifically, I find everything is a whole lot more chill if I have cords and toiletries ready to go (most anything else I forget can easily be picked up in whatever city I’m in).
Why is this interesting?
To that end, and in celebration of Prime Day, I thought it might be fun to do a little share of what’s in my bag of cords.
From top to bottom, left to right:
Peak Design Unisex Tech Pouch Sage One Size One Size: Lots of little pockets and pouches. It’s a bit big for my taste, but was better than trying to stuff everything into a smaller bag.
Anker Prime 6-in-1 USB C Charging Station: I love this thing. It’s super flat, has two regular plugs, two USB-C, and two USB-A. Pushes enough power to charge your laptop (even a big MacBook Pro) and phone at the same time.
Long braided USB-C to USB-Mini: I don’t know what brand this is, I hardly ever need this cord, but when I do it’s nice to have.
Random hotel pen + Apple Pencil Pro: The hotel pen is just a nice clicker, the Pencil Pro is for the iPad Mini I usually have. I honestly don’t use it that much, but it’s nice to have around when I need to take notes.
Apple USB-C to Magsafe: I hardly ever use this, but it’s nice to have a non-USB option once in awhile when I need it. To be honest, I could probably leave this out of my bag and never notice.
Apple USB-A to Lightning: My kids have older iPads, so I’ve got to have a lightning cable around. Surely you already have 30 of these in drawers around the house.
VCE HDMI Extension Cable: I bring my own Roku to hotels because I’m a bit weirded out by signing into all these TVs. Once in awhile it’s not convenient to get to the HDMI slot and this solves the problem.
Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter: For the very rare time I need some other input that my computer doesn’t have. I could probably dump this too and never notice.
Oura Charger: (This is a link to the newer version I’d buy if I needed a new one.) I wear an Oura ring and occasionally need to charge it on the road.
Anker 6-in-1 USB C Hub with 65W Power Delivery: Very nice when you find yourself working for the day at some random desk in an office and want to make it easy to hook everything up.
Anker MagSafe Compatible MagGo UFO 3-in-1 Charger: Almost definitely my favorite new purchase, this folds up into the little ball you see, and then unfolds to do Airpod, iPhone, and watch charging on USB-C.
Kensington Wireless Presenter with Red Laser Pointer: I’ve had this forever and it has come in handy so many times. When you find yourself in an awkward conference room situation and it’s better to click slides instead of sitting at the computer.
Glasses/screen cleaning cloth: I’m sure there’s some great version of this, but this is just a normal one.
USB-C to USB-A adapter & USB-A to USB-C adapter: The latter is needed for the Kensington, which has a little USB-A thing that has to go in the computer. I can’t remember why I bought the other one but I needed it at some point.
Batteries: Self-explanatory, mainly for Roku remote and Kensington (though I just realized you can turn the Kensington off so it doesn’t accidentally run out of batteries in your bag).
1Mii Bluetooth 5.3 Music Receiver: Now that I no longer have corded headphones, this is a good way to use my own for movies on the plane.
Roku Streaming Stick 4K: Like I said, I don’t like signing into TVs with my accounts if I can avoid it, so this is a nice solution.
Not sure why I numbered this, it all comes together.
Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, Wayfarer: I never take photos with this thing and hardly ever use the crappy AI, but I love having glasses with headphones. I just think of them as AirPods for my face.
Anker Cable,4FT 2-in-1 USB C to USB C Cable: If you just buy one thing from this list, this should be it. Having two cables makes life so much easier. Charge your phone and computer at the same time.
Anker battery: I’m not even sure they make this anymore, I can’t figure out which model it is. It’s fine? At some point, I’ll probably upgrade to this nicer one from Anker. (NB)
Oh my god. The sane and the sensible actually wear Facebook on their face? When people start accessorising with corporate surveillance, you know the Black Mirror writers are out of ideas.
God help me, I read the headline in my inbox and thought, "Corduroy pants?"