DIGITAL PROJECTORS that fit in your pocket. Speakers the size of gingerbread cookies. Virtual keyboards small enough to hang from your key ring.
The business travel market is flooded with tiny gadgets. Sure, executives want the biggest seat on the plane. But when it comes to gadgets, it’s often the little devices that have the greatest mystique. Some, like flash drive cuff links, are micronovelties. Others fit easily into the palm and help jet-setting executives work more efficiently, all the while silently signalling their status in the elite traveller pecking order. One of the strongest sellers from Brookstone, the retailer with 50 shops in more than 25 major airports, is a $449.99-projector that’s about the size of a McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish sandwich. The Pocket Projector Pro (which claims a brightness of 200 lumens) enables the business traveller to beam presentations, HD movies or videos on to a screen with a diagonal up to 100 inches from his or her smartphone, tablet or laptop (Apple devices require an adapter, sold separately). The device has two built-in speakers and can run up to two hours on a single charge.
The trend is lighter, thinner, more compact and more efficient, says Craig Grayson, the operational vice-president and divisional merchandise manager for Brookstone’s travel and airport merchandising.
Another palm-size gadget that recently began appearing in Brookstone stores is the 5,200 mAh USB Backup Battery ($69.99), a new twist on the company’s dual-port pocket battery.
It’s not the teeniest backup battery on the market, but those ubiquitous lipstick-size backup batteries are not as powerful. They can’t charge two devices such as a tablet and a smartphone at once, or fully charge a phone multiple times. The 5,200 mAh USB Backup Battery recharges using folding prongs that plug right into a wall so no need to carry (or remember to carry) an adapter and yet another cable to recharge.
Among the most buzzed-about new chargers is Mophie’s Space Pack ($149.95 to $249.95). Introduced earlier this year, it’s a backup battery-cum-phone-case for iPhone 5 and 5S that doubles the life of your phone and can also provide up to 64 GB of additional media storage.
That’s more than 30,000 photos, 28 hours of video and 18,000 songs on your smartphone thanks to a case that’s about 2.6 inches by 5.7 inches. Any file type can be stored using the Space Pack, making it ideal for business executives.
Christopher Olshan, the chief marketing officer for the Luxury Marketing Council, a trade group with chapters in more than 40 cities worldwide for product and services companies, says his go-to travel devices include an external telephoto wide-angle lens and a fisheye lens for his iPhone—accessories that are little bigger than marbles and are available from various makers.
To access the Internet whether delayed in an airport or on a road trip, there’s the new LaCie Fuel, a narrow, 4.5-inch square that can let you store and view more than 500 movies or thousands of photos, songs and documents (it includes 1 terabyte of wireless storage for $179.99; 2 terabytes for $249.99). Up to five devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac) can wirelessly access the data simultaneously, and the company says the battery can last up to 10 hours.
Of course, some paraphernalia do not require batteries or chargers. “I still pack too many books,” says Gregory J Furman, founder and chairman of the Luxury Marketing Council. “I haven’t converted,” he adds, referring to tablets and e-readers. “I just like the feel of a book. I write in the margins.” Nonetheless, in a world of shrinking accessories, he proposes a way to keep with the trend. “Take lighter books,” he says.
Stephanie Rosenbloom
