Imagine going on a girls trip to XXXX Island armed with a slew of cameras, mobile phones and iPads, then being told that you would be restricted with charging options – our cabins only had one car charging slot for 4 people. For some people it wouldn’t have been the biggest drama, but my friends and I are bloggers and huge social media users, so it was definitely and issue we need solutions for. Which started me on my quest for multi-purpose technology that made blogging and social media on the go a lot easier. Here are our top 3 must-have items for your summer travels.
Samsung Galaxy S5 on the Telstra 4G network
Smartphones, there are so many on the market and each claim to do something better than the other. But there is one simple reason why you need the Samsung Galaxy S5: it’s waterproof. With the Australia summer all about the beach and pools, we knew this was a must-have item to take with us to XXXX Island, as well as on our trips to the beach. We shot some fun underwater pictures from our trip on this nifty phone and uploaded the picture to social media as we floated around in our kayaks and paddle boards right in the ocean. Check out some of our photos here.
So what about the camera specs? It’s a 16 megapixel camera, which isn’t too shabby either – our favourite functions on the camera has to be the selective focus option, which makes needing a DSLR camera unnecessary for on the go snaps. Sometimes times the background of your shooting subject is just not so pretty and you can blur it out with this built in functionality.
Also the Telstra 4G Network kicks some serious butt. We were on a remote island with no cell towers for miles around, but we still have 4G network to keep up to date with our emails and social media channels.
And the extra feature we discovered after a few days of use was the Heart Rate Monitor. With our new found love of fitness, the built in Heart Rate Monitor lets us measure our heart rate directly on to the phone during workouts. Just to make sure we are actually doing enough activity to drop some excess pounds.
Eton Rugged Rukus All-Terrain Portable Solar Wireless Sound System
We seriously could no love the Eton Rugged Rukus any more than we do now, because it is an All-In-One device for all your music and battery needs on the go.
- It’s a wireless Bluetooth speaker.
- It charges your smartphone via USB so you can keep playing those tunes and taking those fun snaps with your friends.
- It has a built in solar panel so you can charge your Rukus indefinitely when you’re in the sun, then when it gets dark, the internal lithium battery will keep the music going for 8 hours.
No wires. No docks. No hassle.
Nikon AW120 Camera
You would think with smartphones making point and shoot camera almost redundant, that we wouldn’t have needed the Nikon AW120. But with spec’s that included: waterproof to a depth of almost 18m and shockproof to survive a 2m drop, we couldn’t resist bringing it along to our holiday anyway. But not for its waterproof capabilities (we had the Samsung Galaxy S5 for that).
The number one reason we loved the Nikon AW120 was the built in Wi-Fi, which made sharing photos super easy. Since my friends and I didn’t bring a computer, transferring photos from the camera to iPad/phone would have required cables or attachments to read the SD card, but thanks to the built in Wi-Fi and the Nikon Wireless Mobile Utility App (available for free download at the App Store and Google Play), we could connect up to the camera and pull off photos we wanted for social media almost immediately. And thanks to the Wireless Mobile Utility App, we could also put the camera on a tripod on the beach and shoot remotely from our Samsung Galaxy S5 by simply being connected to it via Wi-Fi.
Handy!
The Eton Rukus was given to us for editorial purposes, while the Nikon AW120 and Samsung Galaxy S5 from Telstra were given to us on loan.
