If you are using a DSLR camera which uses Compact Flash (CF) cards to store pictures, it is time for you to consider upgrading to Sandisk’s latest offering: The Extreme Pro. Why? Here are some good reasons to (and I can vouch for these with a delightful personal experience):

• Capacity: These come in 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB. Do you realize how many images these can add up to? Especially if you shoot in RAW or capture HD video with cameras like Canon’s 5D Mark II? Figure out the math depending on how much memory is required by images on your camera. For many a shooting assignment, you may not even need to carry a laptop or any other device to empty your CF card; come back home and do it. Marked prices vary from Rs. 17,499 – 57,499 but street prices can be lower if you look around.
• Safety: A higher capacity means you don’t have to shuffle cards, lowering the probability of losing them after you take them out of the camera. It has not happened to my memory cards, but I have dropped lens caps into raging rivers from a rope bridge. Disasters can take a worse form.
• Speed: These cards read / write at 90 MB/sec. Forget the technology behind it – look at the advantages. When you are shooting in a continuous burst mode of someone skiing or any other action, you need not miss that crucial moment just because your buffer was being emptied. Likewise, great for HD video.
• Handling extreme weather conditions: You may be shooting the upper Himalayas in winters or the dunes of the Sahara desert in June, and can be confident of the CF card not giving up on you. It is designed to handle a temperature range of -25 to 85 degrees Celsius. Their RTV Silicone coating means added protection against moisture and humidity. Drop from nine feet high and they will bounce back smiling. Don’t believe it? Hold Sandisk to their lifetime limited warranty.

Proof of the pudding? I went to Nagaland recently where I would be out from early morning to late evening shooting pictures. And I could not lug my heavy Mac all day long. That’s where Sandisk’s high capacity came handy. And taking shots of the Naga dances in a continuous mode meant I could capture just the expression I wanted. For a change my memory lasted longer than the battery.

Is it for you? Of course. Even if you are an amateur.

Want to know more about the card? Click here.

GPS or Global Positioning System is a means for finding the accurate position of a person/device through a receiver anywhere on the Earth. GPS provides a Latitude/Longitude for position that can be used in a wide variety of applications from Navigation to getting Yellow Page Information in a neighborhood.

GPS is owned and operated by the US Military and was opened in the 80’s for civilian commercial use and is free of cost to use for anyone who has a GPS receiver.

GPS constellation

It consists of an orbital constellation of a minimum of 24 MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) Satellites that keep orbiting the Earth. As long as a user is not inside covered buildings or under thick forest cover, they should be able to detect at least 3-4 GPS satellites, enabling the receiver to calculate it’s current position. Basically, signals are sent to the GPS receivers that are visible to the user. The receiver calculates the time taken to reach the GPS satellite and back and uses a trilateration method to arrive at a lat/long position. There are methods to increase the accuracy of the GPS (pinpoint accuracy) using AGPS (Assisted GPS).

GPS is used in a wide variety of environments – Route Guidance for cars, Marking hiking trails for hikers, for measuring distance travelled by runners, for mapping areas by surveyors, for tracking fleets by Corporates etc..  GPS receivers used to be the size of a hockey puck in the early 90s. Today they are small enough to be integrated into mobile phones and handheld devices.

Can I get GPS in India too?

GPS is available as a service globally and will work as long as a user has a GPS receiver (which can be in navigation systems, mobile phones etc..). For travelers, GPS devices used in navigation applications offer 2 key functionalities:

• Basic Route Guidance will utilize Digital Maps to provide Directions from Point A to Point B highlighted on a Map. The route will be highlighted on a Map between Origin and Destination and a location icon may trace the map as the traveler is traveling on the road. Earlier systems provided these “Dot on the Map” systems without turn by turn instructions.
• True Route Guidance with Turn by Turn instructions. This technique would use dynamic positioning to keep verifying a person or vehicle’s current location and will provide the user with Turn by turn instructions to a destination as the person is traveling.  Another view provided could include the route not only  be highlighted on a Map, but a location icon will trace a path on the Map as one moves on the road along with turn by turn instructions. Other information such as overall distance, countdown distance to destination, visual and aural clues and a list of directions to get to a destination may also be provided.

GPS devices also offer a variety of other information such as how far one has travelled, current speed and average speed, estimated time of arrival to a destination etc.. In addition, Navigation systems are tied to Yellow Page information and Points of interest making it easier for people to get to key locations easily.

A key ingredient to making navigation work in an area is the availability of digital Maps in order to overlay the Positioning information on devices. Thanks to companies like Map My India and SatNav, India now has fairly robust coverage of digital maps for use in Navigation systems. GPS when overlaid on Maps can be used for showing Routes from Point A to B and in more advanced systems can be used for Turn by Turn Guidance. Indian Maps are now a lot more accurate than people think, thanks to companies such as Map My India and SatNav who do periodical updates to the Digital Maps.

How does this benefit travelers in India?

Travelers can now use their own Mobile Phones (with GPS) or have the choice of  dedicated Navigation Systems that can be used in cars. A dedicated Navigation system in a car is easier to use and comes with other functionalities such as multiplying as a hands free system by serving as a Bluetooth Speaker & entertainment device in a car. Navigation systems also come with mounting equipment and car chargers to allow for long distance trips. Full fledged Navigation Systems for use in cars are available from companies such as Map My India and Sat Nav.

While a number of different phone models now come with GPS and associated Route Guidance Software, the functionality and ease of use will vary from phone to phone. The latest development in mobiles is free Route Guidance software that is built into Android 2.0 OS that will enable a range of phones to offer full Navigation compatibility in the near future. Popular GPS based mobile handset models include the iPhone, a range of Nokia devices and other manufacturers.

Summary

While GPS Navigation systems are common in a lot of countries, it is still at a nascent market stage in India. Not too long ago, Indians only had a choice of physical maps for planning journeys and these were often outdated. While offline route planning aids are good enough to plan routes, stops etc.., nothing will beat real-time route guidance systems as one never has to get lost and this offers great peace of mind in unfamiliar locations. Imagine finding restaurants closest to one’s location in a new town or hotels to stay in or a petrol station – the Navigation system will guide the user there. For avid travelers, a Navigation system greatly enhances travel to new destinations and is a worthy investment to consider.

The life of a travel writer and photographer often hangs by a thread. One mishap, and all the hard work can morph into undecipherable bits and bytes. I am talking about all the photographs taken and features written – a labour of love and costing a lot of money to put together. What does one do?

Back up all data on the go. Even if one is using a reliable and sturdy Mac like in my case. The option is an easy one, right? Go to Nehru Place (Delhi’s wholesale computer market), buy a regular internal hard drive meant for desktops, put it into an external casing with a USB connection and you are done. Easy? Yes. Cheap? Doesn’t get cheaper. Reliable? I am not betting my career on it.

It makes a lot of sense to pick up an external drive meant to be taken around. It is designed to be sturdy. Not one designed to stay at one place on a desktop. If you are one of those whose hard drives have ever crashed, you will be getting the sentimental drift. In my case, some right advice came my way and I picked up a Seagate FreeAgent Go 250 GB.

For starters, it is Time Machine ready (Mac users know this; for others it is a software on Mac that creates a replica of your applications and data on an external disk whenever you sync to ensure you do not lose anything if the Mac crashes or its lost). Just plug it in and leave it to work like you insurance agent. Did you know it is a pain formatting a disk on the new Macs? Try it.

And then I travel a lot. Over all kinds of terrains. Mostly the rough kinds in places like Ladakh. The weather too swings from snow to burning sun depending where you are at a given time. The Seagate FreeAgent has gone with me everywhere, taken all the bumps, the vagaries of weather too and come out with its embedded lights blinking whenever I plug it back. Touchwood, all is well so far. And it has been like this for a while.

The drive is light to carry around, transfers data is double quick time, comes with a dock to make it easier to work when back at my desk and includes a neat carry case. Want to know more technical specifications? Click here.

Its form factor, with its sleek silver finish, is what you would call a neighbour’s envy. If Seagate would pay me a dollar for everyone who stopped to give it admiring looks or even ask about it while I used it in my hotel lobby, I would have bought myself a new SUV by now. Ok, I am exaggerating here, but certainly another Mac. Maybe I should send Seagate a bill for evangelist services rendered?

If you are out a travel trip, and enjoy taking snaps, have you ever encountered situations where you have run out of battery or memory just when those great moments and sights were waiting to be recorded? Or did you lose your camera or memory sticks with all the great photos you were waiting to show off when you got home?

Here are some tips from personal experience to keep the smiles intact:

1. The obvious – carry extras: This is the easy one: Carry extra memory and battery. But you did not need this article to tell you this. But still think about it.
2. Take Back-Ups: Another obvious: If you are carrying a laptop, download images whenever you can. If you are not planning on carrying your laptop, but are travelling by a personal vehicle, carrying the computer may be worth the extra baggage. Better than spending on extra memory.
3. Back-up on CDs at a cyber café: This is what I did on Mcleodganj once: Most cyber cafes, especially in tourist locations, have facilities to download images and burn them on a CD for a nominal sum usually under Rs. 50 for a CD. They usually have all kinds of card readers, but it is always a good idea to carry the USB cable you got with your camera to read directly from your camera. No, you don’t need any drivers or software to read the card. Make sure you open and check the images recorded on the CD to ensure they are fine before deleting the same on the memory stick. But many remote or poorly connected places may not have such facilities.
4. CD Back-up as insurance if you lose the camera: Even if you have enough memory, taking a CD back-up when you can may help in case you lose your camera or memory cards.
5. Upload to Flickr: The best insurance for your snaps are uploading them on to a photo sharing site like Flickr, or any other server space you have. You may need high speed internet access for it though, available only in limited areas.
6. Charge batteries even when you don’t need to: If you used the camera since the last recharge, put it on charge again even when you don’t need to yet. Electric supply at many of the places you stay can be erratic, and you may not be able to charge when you really need to.
7. Carry your charger with you: If it is not too bulky, carry you charger with you when you are out for day excursions. You may need to get some juice flowing while taking a break for tea or a meal somewhere.

Happy clicking!!

The following post is a column I wrote for the Hindustan Times, a leading daily in India. You can access its web version by clicking here. It has a strong Indian context to it though.

Rohini Sharma wanted to go on a family holiday over the Easter weekend to Lansdowne, a hill station in Uttarakhand. The family was all set to go with accommodation tentatively booked at the Retreat Anand at this charming, colonial hill station, when the plan was changed to stay instead at the Bird House in Dehradun. Why? Because reviews and images posted on the Internet by other travellers did not paint a pretty picture of Lansdowne.

Instances like these are becoming more a norm than an exception as travel planning enters the Web 2.0 era. The Internet is full of reviews and opinions posted by travellers, and many people are using these as a key reference source when planning any trips. Such User Generated Content (UGC) is being seen as mostly credible and trustworthy, with the ‘authoritative’ voice of a professional writer no longer the last word when it comes to deciding one’s holiday.

“When planning a trip, I always check on the reviews and satisfaction levels of other customers. And then I also blog about my experiences so others can plan their trips. This is the future of travel,” says Rajat Nagpal, travel consultant and founder of TravelVidya.com. The result has been the phenomenal success of global sites like TripAdvisor.com and WAYN.com. UGC has seen them emerge among the most visited sites on the planet. In India too, significant investments are being made in sites like HolidayIQ.com, OkTataByeBye.com and Raahi.com. The last two have been promoted by MakeMyTrip.com and Yatra.com, both online travel service providers.

How do you choose the site that is right for you? “UGC has a cultural context to it. For example, Indians tend to travel in groups of four and above and they are seeking very different experiences compared with, westerners. You may thus want to visit sites where your unique needs are addressed,” says Hari Nair, Founder and CEO of HolidayIQ.com.

As reviews by fellow travellers become more ubiquitous, covering the remotest of locations and obscure properties, it is not always a simple exercise to use such content. How do you grapple with issues of data overload, credibility, half-baked postings and quality? Here are some tips to get reliable advice from the Web.

• Do not rely on only one source. Look for multiple perspectives, use your commonsense and follow your intuition. If there is one bad review about a hotel, take it with a grain of salt; if there are many within a short period of time, it is best to seek another.
• Start bookmarking sites and writers whose words you find trusted and credible. Sometimes, lesser known websites and personal blogs may be better than the bigger brand names. Be sceptical; this will help you spot posts written in sheer anger or out of a sense of revenge, as well as those ‘goody-goody’ ones posted probably by those with a vested business interest.
• Look out for pictures. These convey a lot because many reviewers do not have the gift of expressing themselves lucidly through the written word, even with the best of intentions. In fact, after reading mixed reviews, it was the images posted on the Internet that finally convinced Sharma not to go to Lansdowne.
• It may also be a good idea to check out the “blogosphere” for traveller experiences. These are often written with a greater effort than if one were writing for a third party UGC site; after all, the credibility of the reviewer is at stake on a personal blog. Of course, there is no guarantee that these reviews are the final word; the opposite can also be true, as Ruchi Tandon, a manager at ICICI Bank, discovered. “I have tried referring to sites like oktatabyebye.com, but the reviews can be misleading or biased sometimes. For instance, one review strongly dissuaded me from visiting the small seaside town of Guhaghar, for reasons including bad food at the resort the reviewer stayed at. But I still visited the town, and found it to be very nice with good clean beaches,” she says.
• Even if the reviews cannot be very descriptive, they are very useful for getting tips and basic information on weather conditions, the right clothes to wear, local culture and social behaviour, modes of travel, costs, security issues and other small points always invaluable to a traveller, suggests Tandon.

“I get a good sense of a place by reading reviews from people who have been there; I have found such content to be useful guiding points to what to look for,” says Shashaank Awasthi, an entrepreneur.

Who does not want a little publicity? But when public relations professionals cannot exercise at least a certain degree of control and restraint on what gets written about their companies, like in the case of UGC, then it can be a challenge in itself. With everyone having unrestricted freedom to write what they like, how do you keep the bad news away? “It’s worse when there are half baked reviews on halfbaked sites,” says Nair.

While blocking views may not be possible in a free world, this also means an opportunity for the travel trade in many ways. A negative post can be read as an early warning sign, and those who care for their customers can take corrective measures in time. If a bad review is without justification, or a result of a misunderstanding, companies can join in the conversations on forums where the travel notes are posted to present their view before such opinion can become common belief. This also means a closer bonding with customers, leading to increased loyalty and sales.

Of course, when feedback is positive, then companies can actually show them off. And even when these are on not-so-known blogs or websites, the power of the Internet kicks in. All such content is indexed by search engines like Google and Yahoo, and thus made accessible to prospective customers seeking such information.

For smaller businesses, engaging with customers online can offer benefits that traditional communication may not offer. This could be in the form of setting up groups on social sites like Facebook, publishing blogs, responding to posts on other blogs and websites and even writing on third party Web properties. “Smaller hotels are beginning to realise the value of such reviews,” says Nair.

All this means travel related businesses need to keep a track of themselves on the Internet. Surprisingly, few have fathomed the power of UGC. “We are trying to build trust with the travel trade too, and telling them we have no axe to grind when we allow user content to go up on our site. We invite them to react to reviews, but they have yet to start doing so,” adds Nair.