This little series of posts looks at the most efficient way to travel with your Apple devices. I am on the road often, flying across Europe and doing the odd trip to the US. When I travel I like to keep things light, but functional. Over the past 10 years I have learned many lessons and have incrementally improved by electronic travel setup. These posts cover aspects of my setup and those of fellow nerds.
It’s the little things. Like cables. They make a difference. For many years I carried around this muddle of different USB cables. All of us have some mobile devices like phones, cameras, external hard drives and what not and by Murphy’s Law all of them have a totally different connection plug: Micro USB, Mini USB, normal USB, 30-pin Dock, Lighting, …
What you end up with is half a dozen of cables that are typically too long or definitely long enough to constantly interweave with each other taking you 3 minutes to get the one out you actually need. This is why I was so please when I picked up a Incase Mini USB Cable Kit. Not Mini in the sense of mini, but in the sense of short. The relatively pricy pack of three 4-inch cables (25 US$) has your back for Micro & Mini USB and 30-pin Apple Dock connections. You can also buy these cables separately including a Lightning one, which Incase released recently.
There are other, similar and sometimes less expensive options on the market such as this set from Griffin.
Spending 20+ US$ on short cables sounds a little crazy, but those of you that live as much out of their bag as I do most of the week, you’ll appreciate the difference quickly. To keep everything tidy and organised my mini USB cables are stored in my Timbuk2 Clear Flexito Toiletry Kit (size S) together with some other bits and blips such as my power plug adapters for international travel.