Tech It With You

By Jeremy Caplan

Forget getting away from it all. These 24/7 days, travelers stay plugged in at airports, hotel rooms and, alas, beaches. At least they're tethered to home and office with ever more stylish and functional digital designs. Aiming at the growing army of wired road warriors, even upscale travel-gear makers like Tumi are crafting trendy tech gear. For those who want a Web fix everywhere they go, here are some of the season's most useful travel tools.

FINDING THE NET Turndown service is nice, but wireless is even nicer. To supplement old-fashioned amenities, some hotels are trumpeting free high-speed Net access that lets you log in without worrying about wiring. For a list of such hot spots, check wififreespot.com

SURF IN BED No wi-fi? No problem. This portable Netgear Travel Router converts your hotel Web access into a wireless connection so you can manage work from anywhere in your room.

PLUGGING IN Tumi is known more for luggage than electronics, but its new travel kit features a handy electric adapter that works for laptops, cell phones and small appliances in 150 countries.

SCREEN SAVER The newest Mac laptop, the MacBook Pro, has a built-in camera for videoconferencing. For the less sure-handed, there's a motion sensor to protect your files if the machine gets bounced in transit. This sleek laptop is an inch thin, although it weighs 5.6 lbs.

BAGGING IT Shaun Jackson Design's Higher Ground laptop bags are light, compact and cleverly configured to obviate the need for a desk. Several of the small company's cool cases are marketed toward students but serve business travelers equally well.

RETRIEVING SOME BYTES Leaving your shoes at home is one thing, but forgetting a critical file can ruin a business trip. Sites such as GoToMyPC.com can save the day. GoToMyPC.com lets you operate a PC remotely from any Web browser. A new version lets you drag and drop files from home onto your laptop.

TIPS FOR SUMMER TRAVEL

o DON'T GET SQUEEZED To avoid sardine-like plane seats and bedbug-ridden hotels, check seatguru.com hotelchatter.com or tripadvisor.com

o LISTEN IN The Lonely Planet has started offering free, informative Travelcasts, or travel-related podcasts, at lonelyplanet.com/podcasts o SPORTS TO GO For those who mix business with pleasure, ESPN recently launched a sports travel site: sports.espn.go.com/travel/