[Ti] traveling overseas need tech advice

[JFL]

Travelling with a digital camera is the way to go if you love taking 
pictures. I've been digital since the Apple Quicktake days, and the 
cameras today are far superior to film if you take pictures of 
EVERYTHING. Only problem with digicams are still the nagging prints, 
which get expensive to make both in cost and time especially after 
taking 500+ pictures. :-)  Some places are offering print services which 
are somewhat comparable to film printing in price. With the popularity 
of digicams, expect more services to pop up and the prices to pop down.

Have to disagree somewhat with the two Belkin products though -- they 
are great ideas that have a few nagging disadvantages. (And I do own and 
use both -- have iPod, will travel)

The iPod battery is one designed for the stop and go hard drive activity 
of MP3 playing, but if you force it to feed a continuously spinning 
drive, it doesn't last long. This is what the media reader does, and had 
the reader been a bit faster (a USB 1 card reader to the PowerBook HD is 
faster) and took advantage of its firewire connection, it wouldn't 
strain the battery so much.
The reader works and works well, but you can't ask it to transfer large 
files coupled with a large memory card. I've tranfered a 192 Mb card 
filled 4 megapixels images, and the iPod fully charged battery poops out 
at the end if not before. The AAA batteries in the media reader power 
the unit itself and don't do a thing for the iPod's power. And there's 
no way to pause the transfer of files to let the iPod battery recover. 
Only way to work it the way it should work is to transfer a handful of 
files at a time, but I don't do this -- once you shoot digital, you tend 
to take A LOT of pictures on a day's run around wherever being all 
touristy.

The Belkin external battery pack is just that; an external source of 
power to power the iPod. It does not charge the internal battery, nor is 
there a way to use it with the media reader.

(I do have version 1s of both products -- would appreciate any feedback 
to any improvements made to these guys.)

- J