Before 2009, I had never taken a plane, never understood what a painful task it is to pack for airport security and long hours of sitting in an airplane confined to a small space. Then, all of a sudden, between 2009 and 2010, I had 16 airplane travels, and the reality of frequent travelers downed on me: it is an unpleasant lifestyle to say the least.
Being the gadget freak that I am didn’t make it easier either, as many times I have had to unpack around 4-5 phones, an external hard disk, a camera, an iPod Touch and my laptop while passing through airport security, then repack everything in less than a minute while not messing up my organization and while still looking relaxed enough to not raise any security threats. Also, the first few flights I took, I had to sit and suffer through the excruciating pain of using the airplane-provided earphones which are incredibly hurtful on the ears, to a point where a few times I decided to pass on the in-flight movies and load my own on one of my phones to be able to watch them with my personal Sennheiser earphones. Needless to say, I knew I needed better solutions and fast, so I turned to Proporta for them.
The Proporta Airline Headphone Adapter Review
This accessory is as simple as they get. It’s a small adapter that converts the airplane’s dual socket into a 3.5mm headset plug. Simply plug this thing in your airplane’s audio out, and you can use your favorite earphones to listen to the in-flight entertainment, be it movies or music or gaming sounds.
I fell in love with this little gem the moment I started using it. As the stewardess offered me the dreadful/painful/omg-i-can’t-believe-someone-can-tolerate-them flight earphones, I said “no thanks”, pulled out this Proporta adapter, plugged it in, and hooked my Sennheiser CX-500 to it. All of a sudden, crisp sounds came out, and I was able to watch 2 full movies of action and romantic comedy without feeling like ripping my ears off. A bliss, I tell you.
I also remember during a flight from Switzerland to Germany, a steward passing a couple of times by my seat and ogling the adapter, until he once stopped and asked me “what is this?”, and I explained that it lets me use my own earphones for better sound and comfort, and he was ecstatic with it. I found it weird that he had never seen any of these before, maybe he was new, but it sure looked to him as a perfect solution.
You can get the Airline Headphone Adapter from Proporta for $5.95 and for this price, if you’re a frequent traveler and want to use your own earphones, it’s a no-brainer recommendation from me. Get. It. Now.
The Proporta Gadget Bag Review
It’s a bag, but it’s much more than a bag. It’s THE bag for gadgeteers the world over.
The Proporta Gadget Bag is actually made of 3 units (one large and two small) that zip and click together to make one final consistent bag. Each of these is made from super nice black material with internal padding, so you know that even if you drop it, the shock on your gadgets inside is quite diminished.
Another nice perk is that each unit also has a plastic aperture so you can keep your device protected inside but still hook your earphones or charger to it.
The main compartment comes with two elastic bands which you can use to hold certain cables or a tripod for example. It also has a velcro surface on which you can install/remove an internal compartment. This lets you organize your small items (memory card readers, USB keys…) securely without them getting caught with the big gadgets.
The two small units are detachable, and you can attach one or two of them to the main unit, and lock them together. They are large enough to house 6 phones for example, yet small enough to be easily portable on their own.
Iomega 500GB HardDisk, iPod Touch, Nokia E71, N97 Mini and C7, all fitting snugly inside one of the small units.
The Gadget Bag also comes with a shoulder strap so you can easily carry it around.
For me, the main advantage of the Gadget Bag while traveling, is the easy way to organize my different gadgets, their chargers, cables and accessories, without many tangles or issues. I normally put the actual phones/camera/ipod/hard disk together in one of the small units, that way, if I get asked to take them out while passing airport security, they’re all a zip lock away. Everything else goes into the other compartments, as they are very unlikely to cause any security issues. It also helps that when I arrive to my destination, I can unzip the 3 units and carry the stuff I need in one of them. Add the shoulder strap, the padded protection, the plastic apertures, and you can clearly see that you can’t fault this gadget bag at anything.
The Proporta Gadget Bag is available for $35.95 and is by far one of the accessories that made my life easier and that I constantly use, not only for long airplane travels, but also for short road trips, or when I need to carry several gadgets at the same time for weekends in our mountain house and such. Needless to say, it’s also a recommended buy from me if you’re always trotting around many gadgets and feel the need for a simple solution.