Comment by futureshock | Hacker News Reader

Comment by futureshock | Hacker News Reader

I like this question because I come at it from a very different lifestyle. I’m a digital nomad and I have mostly lived out of a backpack and carry on for the past 10 years. My philosophy is that things have to be worth carrying and they should be very easily replaceable if anything gets lost, stolen or breaks. A few of my under $100 favs:

Universal GaN travel adapter: One of those square bricks that converts from any AC outlet to any AC outlet and has 3 or 4 USB charging ports built in. I got enough wattage to charge my usb-c laptop as well, so one brick takes care of all my devices.

Backup android phone: Our phones are so critical that I keep a hot swappable spare phone on me, currently a Moto G 2025. It’s already logged into all my apps and 2FA. I could throw my iPhone into the Seine and keep on trucking. It even has backup NFC credit cards. I keep a cheap travel eSim plan active on it so that if I am somewhere sketchy I can leave my main phone at home.

Logitech MX Keys Mini: Great portable keyboard. Backlit, usb c and multi-device. Typing this post out on my phone now.

GL-iNet Beryl: The do anything travel VPN router running OpenWRT out of the box. Great for securing and extending sketchy WiFi connections or if you have to work off your phone’s hotspot all day.

Decathalon Quecha Escape 500 23L: Such a great personal item size backpack for the price, less than 40 euros.

The backup phone is a good idea, I do this too but unfortunately some banking apps refuse to allow more than one "authorized device" for 2FA :/

+1 I tried the backup android phone thing and I got blocked from logging into my Chase and Fidelity apps on my phone!!! Took like 2 weeks with support and a visit to a physical bank branch to resolve the issue.

My workaround is I use SMS 2 factor for banking and use my Google Voice number.

Same here with the GAN charger. I got myself a 145W GAN charge with one Type-A USB port (charges mouse, bluetooth speaker, toothbrush, body trimmer etc, max 18W) and two Type-C USB ports (45W (charges N100-based Tablet), 65W (charges Ryzen 7 -based HP Laptop)) - it can charge all these things at the same time, while generating almost no heat, no electrical noise. It weighs much less than the 3+ chargers/cables needed by the original setup. I'm amazed about how efficient the GAN charger is. My only irritation with them is that when you plug something in, it re-negotiates all the connections to decide how much power to deliver to each port, so when that happens the devices see a disconnect/reconnect event which can be irritating at times (which can also happens when a device reaches 100%.. and then dipping to 95% and then reaching 100% again.. over and over). But overall best money I've spent on my tech backpack goodies. And maybe 240W/8K/20gbps USB-C cables.

This is a fantastic, fantastic backpack. I use it when flying and it fits perfectly in the Ryanair & co limits. I took one for each of my kids and all together we pack everything needed for a week+.

Isn't Ryanair limit more like 40l?

This is a personal item size bag for under the seat. The max size on Ryanair is 24 liters. You are thinking of the cabin bag which is more like 44 liters. This Decathlon bag is great because it maxes out the personal item size really optimally.

I use the 32 L (https://www.decathlon.fr/p/sac-a-dos-de-randonnee-multi-poch...) as the "under the seat" luggage and it fits into the metal template.

I use the 32 L (https://www.decathlon.fr/p/sac-a-dos-de-randonnee-multi-poch...) as the "under the seat" luggage and it fits into the metal template.

Well, small cabin bag is now 40x30x20, so that 32l is too big: https://help.ryanair.com/hc/en-gb/categories/12489112419089-...

Hmmm. I flew last week and it was fine. They were checking most of the bags (they now have an incentive to find bags above the limits) and asked me to put mine in the metal case. It went in (reluctantly) and after shaking the whole device to get my bag out I was let go.

Universal GaN travel adapter" I actually realized that it's better just having simple adapters, which take up very little space, because the brick tends to fall of the plug.

I'll save everyone two hrs of research: rolling square currently makes the worlds SMALLEST 65w GAN adapter, game changer for macbooks and travel or everyday carry bag

It's about an inch square in all dimensions with a folding plug - amazing.

Awesome list. Do you publish more somewhere? Great stuff and thought processes.

Backup phone, vpn router, etc.

Thank you

Great list (totally agree with backup phone). I now want to know your 100+ gadgets

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