Electronic Tools need Tethers

love my electronic tools but I seem to need a better way of holding on to them.  So far, I have lost three cell phones (including my current Blackberry) and I thought I lost a Kindle (Amazon book reader), although it mysteriously reappeared several months later, after I had replaced it.

The problem is I have entirely too many things to keep track of.  On my last trip to Europe (a boondoggle to Amsterdam where my hosts, tool providers Servoy, were incrediblly hospitable while they showed us their software, toured us around Amsterdam, and fed us wonderful lfood), I had my Sony Viao laptop (with its accessories), my Kindle (ditto), and my Blackberry.  I didn't take my digital camera because it was just too much to carry (and I thought I would take snapshots with my phone). 

The phone disappeared somewhere between my house and the gate at Philadelphia airport when I hunted for it, wanting to make a last minute call.  I assumed it was at home, but unless it was keeping company with the recently reappeared Kindle, it's gone.  I have to go shopping for a new one this week.

I couldn't use the Sony or the Kindle in my Amsterdam hotel because none of the conversion plugs I had carried with me (a whole bag full) would both fit into the Dutch outlets and connect to my plugs.  Fortunately, Servoy's gracious marketing person, Brenda Christiansen, came to the rescue, with hotel-supplied conversion plugs. 

I feel like I"m back in the early 80's when I once gave a speech about the importability of portable computers by carrying one onto the stage together with a large suitcase, filled with all the stuff you might need to use it -- modems, wires, tools to get into the phone's innards, and so forth. 

I want freedom.  How about a device for the road that does it all so I don't have to carry all this stuff?  Or some little chains to tether one tool to the other?

I know it's not realistic to think that I'd like to speak into the same device that offers an adequately sized screen and keyboard, but I think I'd be willing to make some compromises--and soon, please!

Comments

[Brenda Christensen]

Amen to your post, Amy...we need to do so much better in our "wireless" world...let's start with usability basics like common plugs! Hopefully some day a vendor will "get it" and figure out how to REALLY tether together our tools so we can truly become UNtethered. :)