Not long ago, I saw a traveler ranting on Yelp or Foursquare or some other social media site about inadequate electrical outlets at a hotel. He called the owners "stupid" for not adding lots of electrical outlets throughout the room, especially near the bed.

Of course, no property owner wants to provide inadequate electrical wiring for guests' needs, especially as personal portable electronics proliferate, but the ranter above has clearly missed the reality that hotels can't simply ...

TomTom, the popular GPS equipment and navigation software company, revealed this week that a "leap year" bug in the software installed on several models prevented the units from finding their locations. The company has released a "mandatory software update" for several models.

Starting on Sunday, April 1st, the glitch meant users couldn't use their TomTom devices to find their way. This left some users stranded without the ability to navigate around unfamiliar towns, or unable to ...

Do you remember NetZero? Back in the late '90s, the company offered free dialup Internet access if you were willing to view ads on a little strip on your computer screen while online, but here in 2012, they're offering free 4G cellular broadband connections.

Announced today, the NetZero 4G Mobile Broadband service allows up to 200 MB per month on a free plan, then offers paid service starting at $9.95/month for 500 MB, up to $49.95/month for 4 GB of traffic. There's no contract and no ...

Travelers need Wi-Fi. We're long past the point where just about any hotel can get away with having no Internet access at all, even if more and more travelers are showing up with devices that pack their own cellular connections. But are travelers who demand free Internet access getting only what they pay for?

I admit, I like choosing a hotel that offers complimentary Internet access. If I'm traveling on my own dime, I won't always splurge on the paid service. Travelers are rapidly ...

A couple of years ago, I bought a Splash O2 external battery case for my iPhone 3GS. It made the phone much bulkier, but made the battery last much, much longer. On busy travel, hockey game, or conference days, it sometimes made the difference between having a working phone at the end of the day, or not. So, I charged it up and popped it on the phone before such trips, but otherwise left it in a drawer.

Last fall, I upgraded to an iPhone 4S, but there was no obvious choice of external ...