Probably the one piece of electronic equipment I always see people traveling with, other than a digital camera, is an iPod. It makes perfect sense, too; traveling has lots of down time, and what better way to keep yourself sane during those ridiculously long layovers and train journeys than by listening to some tunes. What you might not know is that if you’re bringing an iPod, or something similar, there’s a whole lot more you can do with it than just listening to music.
1. Learn a language
There are free language guides all over the internet that you can put on your iPod before you head out or while you’re already gone. The language guides over at World Nomads are a great start. They cover some popular travel destinations, and go through situations you might actually encounter.
2. Back up your photos
With the right adapter, you can use your iPod to store digital pictures when your memory card is full. Many internet cafes will burn photos to a CD, which is also a good way to save them, but it’s a good idea to keep them in at least two places. On CD and on your iPod will help insure that you don’t lose some of those awesome photos.
3. Keep your travel documents handy
It’s a good idea to have copies of your important travel documents with you, but you can also scan them and either email them to yourself or put them on your iPod. Because iPods can work as external storage devices when hooked up to a computer via USB, you can store all kinds of data on there. Keep an extra copy of your passport, drivers license, and credit cards on your iPod in case you need them later.
4. Use Portable Applications
If you head over to portableapps.com, you’ll find a wide assortment of portable applications. These are trimmed down versions of helpful applications that you can take anywhere, without having to install them on a computer. If you put programs like Firefox on your iPod, you’ll always be able to use a secure web browser, no matter what the Internet cafe machines have installed. This gives you an added bonus of surfing more securely, since the cache is saved to your iPod, not the host computer. They have FTP, photo editing, word processing, and many more types of programs that you might wish to use while traveling, but aren’t likely to find installed.
5. Audio Books
Sometimes your music collection gets old, or it’s not convenient to read. Audio books are a great way to pass the time and do something besides listen to music. You can get many mainstream titles from services like Audible or the iTunes Store, or you can download free audio books from the public domain at LibriVox.
Less is more, as the saying goes, and never more so than while traveling. It’s a great idea to maximize the amount of use you can get out of everything you choose to bring. If you are wondering whether or not to bring your iPod on your next journey, remember that it can do a lot more for you than simply play music.