Michigan Cuts Jobless Benefit by Six Weeks

Democrats and advocates for the unemployed expressed outrage that a such a hard-hit state will become the most miserly when it comes to how long it pays benefits to those who have lost their jobs. All states currently pay 26 weeks of unemployment benefits, before extended benefits paid by the federal government kick in. Michigan?s new law means that starting next year, when the federal benefits are now set to end, the state will stop paying benefits to the jobless after just 20 weeks. The shape of future extensions is unclear.

The measure, passed by a Republican-led Legislature, took advocates for the unemployed by surprise: the language cutting benefits next year was slipped quietly into a bill that was originally sold as way to preserve unemployment benefits this year.

The original bill was aimed at reducing unemployment fraud and making a technical change so the state?s current long-term unemployed could continue receiving extended unemployment benefits from the federal government for up to 99 weeks ? benefits that would have been phased out next week without a change in the state law to make the unemployed in the state eligible to continue receiving benefits. Republican lawmakers amended it to cut the length of benefits starting in January.

?It turns the clock back 50 years at a time when unemployment is at historic highs since the Depression,? Representative Sander M. Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said in an interview, adding that he worried that the state would set a precedent that would be followed by other states, including Florida, that are thinking of curtailing their unemployment programs. ?I think that Michigan should not be to unemployment insurance what Wisconsin has become to collective bargaining.?

But Republicans and business groups said that cutting benefits was necessary, because the unemployment trust fund, which was ill-prepared to cope with the recession, is insolvent. The state owes the federal government $4 billion that it borrowed to keep its program afloat, and unemployment taxes on businesses have already been raised, and will need to be raised more, to repay the money. The Michigan Chamber of Commerce called the new law ?a huge win for job providers,? and said it could save up to $300 million a year.

Mr. Snyder issued a statement after signing the bill trumpeting the fact that it would preserve the extended benefits this year ? and making no mention of the fact that it would cut state benefits beginning next year. ?Snyder Signs Bill to Protect Unemployed,? was the headline of the news release that his office sent out. ?Now that we have continued this safety net, we must renew our focus on improving Michigan?s economic climate,? he said in the statement.

Sara Wurfel, a spokeswoman for Mr. Snyder, said in an e-mail that he signed the bill because 35,000 Michiganders would have lost their extended benefits this week, and an additional 150,000 would have lost them by year?s end, if the state?s law had not been altered. She said that about 250,000 people collected more than 20 weeks of benefits in 2010.

Advocates for the unemployed called it a bad trade. ?We have a temporary change to help some jobless workers that is imposing an indefinite or permanent cost on future jobless workers,? said Rick McHugh, a staff lawyer for the National Employment Law Project, which opposed the law. ?And that does seem doubly unfair when the temporary help for current jobless workers is almost totally paid for by the federal government.?

But business groups saw the state?s need to change its unemployment law as an opportunity to make the cuts to benefits that they have long sought.

?The business community, the chamber included, were opposed to a one-sided benefits increase,? said Wendy Block, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce?s lobbyist responsible for health policy and human resources initiatives, and unemployment insurance. She said that while the extended benefits were currently paid for by the federal government, the money comes from a fund that is financed by federal unemployment taxes on employers. ?Employers will ultimately see higher federal unemployment taxes to pay for this,? Ms. Block said.

More than half the states together owe the federal government more than $46 billion that they borrowed to pay for their unemployment programs during the downturn. Many states had salted away too little money in their unemployment trust funds during good times ? often because they cut taxes on employers ? and saw their funds depleted by the length and depth of the recession, and the slow pace at which businesses have begun hiring again. Now some other states are thinking about reducing unemployment benefits.

In Florida, where the unemployment rate hovers at 11.5 percent, even higher than Michigan?s current rate of 10.4 percent, lawmakers are zeroing in on a similar bill. The Florida House also approved a bill this month to reduce the number of weeks unemployed workers could receive benefits to 20 weeks, from 26, and make it easier for businesses to deny benefits to applicants. A Senate bill takes a less stringent approach and does not cut the number of weeks workers can receive benefits. (It is unclear how the differences will be resolved.) Doing so would undo a consensus that emerged in the years after World War II that states should pay up to 26 weeks of unemployment benefits. And it would come as the average length of unemployment has risen.

Richard A. Hobbie, the executive director of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, said ?at a time when long-term unemployment is worse than ever, it doesn?t match up well with the trends in the labor market.?

One of the unemployed Michiganders who was warned that her extended benefits could run out next week without action was Melissa Barone, 42, who lost her job with a software company in August 2009, and has been collecting unemployment since then. She has gone back to school to train to be a nurse.

?Maybe what they need to do is look at giving businesses more incentives,? Ms. Barone said, ?rather than taking from the guy that is unemployed and needs those funds.?

Lizette Alvarez contributed reporting from Miami.

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Rogers accidentally throttling World of Warcraft players

Canada's second largest cable Internet provider has fessed up to throttling non-P2P traffic. Last month, Canadian gamer Teresa Murphy wrote to the country's telecom regulator (PDF) accusing Rogers of throttling games like World of Warcraft, rendering them unplayable.

Investigating the matter, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) contacted Rogers over the complaint and the ISP replied last week, admitting that its service has been throttling certain game-related traffic -- albeit unintentionally.

"Our tests have determined that there is a problem with our traffic management equipment that can interfere with World of Warcraft," said Rogers. "We have been in contact with the game manufacturer and we have been working with our equipment supplier to overcome this problem."


The provider explained that it introduced a software modification to solve the issue, but a new problem has arisen following changes to the game. Rogers will have to issue another software tweak to address the new problem, but this won't be ready until sometime in June.

Although the service is mistakenly throttling WoW traffic, Rogers says this anomaly only occurs when users are running P2P applications at the same time. Murphy insists that she doesn't use any P2P software and "many" of her applications remain affected by the issue.

That said, it's worth noting that Blizzard's patch client may be the culprit as it uses P2P technology to distribute game updates among players. You can disable P2P connectivity in Blizzard's Downloader by going to View > Preferences > uncheck Enable Peer-to-Peer Transfer.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/43027-rogers-accidentally-throttling-world-of-warcraft-players.html

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Netflix gets subscription TV rights to Paramount movies in Canada

Netflix has announced a new five-year licensing agreement with Paramount Pictures, which is owned by media conglomerate Viacom, in Canada. The deal means over 350 new movie titles, including the exclusive subscription television rights to all first-run films, will be added for Canadian Netflix members to watch instantly on their computers and TVs. Titles include The Last Airbender, Iron Man 2, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Titanic, Defiance, Zoolander, Wayne's World, The African Queen, Sabrina (1954), and Terms of Endearment.

In September 2010, Netflix finally launched in Canada, marking the first country to get the service outside of the US. The arrival meant Canadians could get unlimited streaming for $7.99 CAD per month.

Unfortunately, the selection for Canadians is still not as good as what Americans get, but Netflix has been working hard on fixing this. Three months ago, the company announced licensing agreements with content providers All3Media International, CBC, FremantleMedia Enterprises, Global TV, and Maple Pictures. The result was hundreds of new titles for Canadian Netflix members.

Canada is somewhat of a test for Netflix to see what it needs to do in order to successfully expand its service outside of the US. This year, the company is considering an overseas expansion, though details on this have yet to be confirmed.

"We are committed to constantly expanding our selection of top new movies and TV shows for our Canadian members," Ted Sarandos, Netflix chief content officer, said in a statement. "This agreement will allow them to watch some of the latest hit Paramount films as well as an incredible range of the studio's recent and classic favorites anytime they want. Netflix and Paramount enjoy a great relationship and are proud to bring such a terrific array of films to Netflix members in Canada."

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/43023-netflix-gets-subscription-tv-rights-to-paramount-movies-in-canada.html

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Microsoft Courier iPad = Taposé

Do you remember the Microsoft Courier? Most of us had already forgot about Microsoft?s short lived prototype but a Seattle-based developer refuses to let the idea die.

Benjamin Monnig hopes to revive the Courier by mimicking its split screen functionality through an iPad app called Taposé .

Within the app, users will have the ability to use the split interface to drag and drop elements from various applications such as Safari and Google Maps. If you can recall from the Courier videos, it appeared as though users were able to seamlessly drag objects like contacts and images between split screens. Taposé will use the same type of functionality.

Monnig is looking to the Kickstarter community for the funding he needs to get his project off the ground. He?s obviously betting on the fact that people were as inspired as he was by the Courier?s divided interface.

If the developer is able to earn $10,000 in funding Taposé will be released by late summer of 2011, according to Monnig. Making a $10 pledge towards the Taposé Kickstarter project will earn you a copy of the app and top backers that spend $1,500 or more will receive a free iPad 2 for funding the project.

Below we?ve posted a comical video (produced by Monnig) that explains why he?s bound and determined to unite the Courier with the iPad. We?d love to hear your thoughts, does the iPad need a Courier-like app?

Here?s the list of Taposé features.

Split Interface
Drag and drop from Safari
Drag addresses to Maps for directions
Drag contacts over collections to share
Finish calculations without leaving Tapose
Full screen capabilities
& much much more

Middle Separation Bar
Place images, sticky notes, maps, and more into the middle separation bar which acts as a temporary holder
Allows easy organization and movement between pages and collections
Slide to adjust the view sizes

Our wish is to create and release Taposé to the tablet world and bring this innovative product to market for everyone to enjoy. The initial goal is to launch Tapose for the iPad, with hopeful releases for other tablet devices if we exceed the goal funding. ? Benjamin Monnig

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/03/29/microsoft-courier-ipad-tapose/

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SharePoint Tries to Keep Up

The collaboration tools discussed this month in Business Impact all have one thing in common. One way or another, they will run up against the market leader: Microsoft's SharePoint software, which is used by more than 100 million people around the world.

SharePoint's success can be attributed to several factors. One, it does a lot: among other things, it lets employees share documents, search internal files, coördinate tasks, and send each other instant messages through a central portal. Second, customers like the fact that it works well with other widely used Microsoft products, such as Exchange e-mail and the Office software package. Third, Microsoft offers a basic version of SharePoint free to companies that run servers with Windows software. 

SharePoint is also customizable?according to a 2010 study by the Association for Information and Image Management, 28 percent of SharePoint users add third-party applications to it. Cognizant, an IT consulting company whose 100,000 employees exchange information and blog about their work through SharePoint, built its own version of Twitter, called Cweet, to work with the Microsoft platform. Cognizant's chief information officer, Sukumar Rajagopal, says the staffers who blog perform better on average and are more engaged with the company. All these blogs and "cweets" become part of the company's searchable knowledge database, accessible by anyone looking for information. Rajagopal argues that such tools "can be used to build collaboration across layers much more effectively than you currently are able to with traditional communication techniques."

It's difficult to imagine another maker of collaboration software replicating all SharePoint's services. Instead, software from many startups is designed to work alongside SharePoint rather than replace it altogether. But competitors still have a big opportunity in collaborative software that is hosted remotely, "in the cloud." Offering such services could give them an important advantage, because one of SharePoint's major flaws is that it doesn't store data efficiently, argues Mark R. Gilbert, a research vice president at Gartner. That can make the user experience sluggish. A company can be forced to undertake significant IT work or buy extra servers and memory to make sure the program runs smoothly.

"If you don't have a good-sized IT shop, taking full advantage of a SharePoint server license can be difficult," adds Forrester Research analyst Rob Koplowitz. As a result, he says, "smaller organizations that have the luxury of starting with a blank slate are turning to the cloud." Microsoft's closest rival, IBM, already has a cloud offering with LotusLive Notes, and three million companies are using online applications offered by Google.

Microsoft recognizes this threat and has begun offering a remotely hosted version of SharePoint. Royal Dutch Shell plans to start using it in April so its employees can collaborate on documents worldwide. Later this year, Microsoft will launch an online package of products that has a version of SharePoint built into it.

"The cloud is picking up steam and will explode this year," says Jared Spataro, Microsoft's director of product management for SharePoint. Overall, he adds, Microsoft isn't complacent about its market position. "A hundred million licensees feels like a lot," he says, "until you realize that's only one out of every five information workers in the world."

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Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=7212aa88d84d4a361cb1e6a69b0841cd

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Gates and Clinton Unite to Defend Libya Intervention, and Say It May Last Awhile

The comments by President Obama?s two top national security officials, made on multiple political talk shows on Sunday, offered a striking illustration of the complex calculus that Mr. Obama faced in committing the military to impose a no-fly zone over Libya ? one of the greatest gambles of his presidency.

It was a rare joint appearance by Mr. Gates and Mrs. Clinton, improbable allies who started out with sharply different views of what to do about Libya but have converged in the belief that the brutality of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi demanded a military response.

Both officials acknowledged that the operation could drag on for months or even into next year.

Practically completing each other?s sentences, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Gates projected the kind of unified message prized by the Obama White House. But that unity came only after a fraught internal debate, in which they and other senior officials had to weigh humanitarian values against national interests.

Their joint appearance laid the groundwork for a speech to the nation by Mr. Obama on Monday night, as the administration tries to answer critics in Congress and elsewhere who say that the president has failed to explain the scope, command structure and objective of the mission.

And the open-ended nature of the campaign drew fresh criticism from Republicans, including Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Mr. Gates and Mrs. Clinton said the allied airstrikes had scored early successes, sealing off the skies over Libya and averting a rout of the rebels by Colonel Qaddafi?s forces in the eastern city of Benghazi. Rebels are pushing Qaddafi forces back toward the capital, Tripoli, they said.

On the key question of whether Libya constituted the kind of vital national interest that would normally justify military intervention, Mr. Gates offered a blunt denial ? one that hinted at the debate among Mr. Obama?s advisers about whether to push for a no-fly zone.

?No, I don?t think it?s a vital interest for the United States, but we clearly have interests there, and it?s a part of a region which is a vital interest for the United States,? Mr. Gates said on ?This Week? on ABC.

When Mr. Gates repeated that answer on the NBC program ?Meet the Press,? Mrs. Clinton jumped in to clarify that the United States was obliged to act after allies like Britain and France, for whom Libya is a vital national interest, had requested that the international community respond.

?Let?s be fair here,? she said. ?They didn?t attack us, but what they were doing and Qaddafi?s history and the potential for the disruption and instability was very much in our interests, as Bob said, and seen by our European friends and our Arab friends as very vital to their interests.?

For all that, Mrs. Clinton emphasized that the administration did not view the Libya intervention as a precedent. Speaking on the CBS program ?Face the Nation,? she ruled out military action in Syria, where security forces killed dozens of protesters on Friday. She noted that lawmakers who visited Syria described President Bashar al-Assad as a reformer, in contrast to Colonel Qaddafi.

?There?s a difference between calling out aircraft and indiscriminately strafing and bombing your own cities,? she said, ?and police actions that frankly have exceeded the use of force that any of us would want to see.?

Indeed, the administration has watched violent crackdowns in Bahrain, Yemen and other Arab countries without intervening. Only after Colonel Qaddafi launched a ferocious counterstrike against rebel forces did Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Gates stake out their different positions.

Mrs. Clinton, hearing the growing chorus of calls for a no-fly zone, particularly in the Arab world, argued for a stronger international response. Mr. Gates, worried about the overstretched military getting entangled in another war, warned Congress about the risks and costs of a no-fly zone.

Mr. Gates said his remarks were not intended to derail the push for a no-fly zone, as many in Washington believed at the time, but to debunk arguments that it would be a surgical operation.

?I said, ?Let?s call a spade a spade,? ? Mr. Gates told reporters last week. ?It was that a no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya. I think that was a pretty accurate statement. What I?ve tried to do is really just make clear what is involved in this, and that it is a complex undertaking.?

Officials close to Mrs. Clinton said she, too, made a point of telling Arab officials like Amr Moussa, the secretary general of the Arab League, that a no-fly zone would require destroying Libya?s air defenses. She developed her views about no-fly zones from the 1990s, when Bill Clinton, who was then the president, worked with European countries to impose one over Kosovo.

The relationship between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Gates was cemented during the debate over Afghanistan, when they both argued for about 30,000 additional troops ? the position that Mr. Obama would later adopt.

It has proved remarkably resilient, officials close to both of them say, weathering strains over the leak of confidential State Department cables from a Pentagon computer system and harsh public criticism of the military?s conduct from a former State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley.

Mr. Gates, officials said, was outraged when Mr. Crowley said that the military had mistreated Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is charged with giving cables to the antisecrecy group WikiLeaks. Mrs. Clinton quickly forced Mr. Crowley out, defusing any potential friction.

She and Mr. Gates will share the burden of selling the Libya policy at home and abroad, though with differences. When Mr. Gates was asked on ABC about NATO taking over command from the United States, he said, ?Hillary?s been more engaged with that diplomacy than I have.?

Mrs. Clinton planned to travel to London on Tuesday to work out other details with Britain, France and other coalition members. Mr. Gates is just back from a trip to Russia, Egypt, Israel and Jordan, during which he encountered criticism by Russian leaders that the operation was killing civilians in Libya.

Mr. Gates said that the United States had no proof of civilian deaths from the airstrikes, and he made a startling charge. ?We do have a lot of intelligence reporting about Qaddafi taking the bodies of people he?s killed and putting them at the site where we?ve attacked,? he said.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=5557614ac3ce953984599ba4c8156a1a

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Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s now available from $699

First unveiled at CES 2011, Lenovo has officially launched its new Edge series notebooks. The 14-inch ThinkPad Edge E420s is now available online with a starting price of $699, while the 12-inch E220s is slated to appear on Lenovo's website by April 8 for roughly $899 according to a company roadmap (PDF) discovered by Engadget.

The base E420s packs a 1366x768 LED-backlit display, a 2.1GHz Intel Core i3-2310M with an HD Graphics 3000 core, 4GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM and a 250GB 5400RPM hard drive. If desired, you can upgrade the system with a Core i5-2410M (2.3GHz to 2.9GHz), 8GB of RAM, and a 320GB 7200RPM HDD or 128GB SSD.


All units come with a fingerprint reader, an optical drive, an HD webcam, 802.11b/g/n connectivity, and a 48.8Wh battery. Depending on your budget, you can choose between Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional 64-bit as well as Bluetooth 3.0 and a few WWAN options including a Centrino chip with WiMAX support.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/43021-lenovo-thinkpad-edge-e420s-now-available-from-699.html

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MIT?s Great Libboo Experiment crowdsources novels to get kids into science

?In the western world the number of kids going into science is declining, funding is going down and the barrier to entry is proving difficult. We need to make science fun, we need to let kids know it?s not that hard.?

-Christopher Kevin Howard, Libboo Co-Founder

Christopher Kevin Howard is a researcher at MIT, a part-time physics instructor at Harvard and the Co-Founder of a company called Libboo, a free community of inquisitive readers and writers around the world, created for the purpose of publishing online literature. Howard and Richard Wiseman, a noted science writer created Libboo to explore exciting ways to make writing fun online.

In 2009, after Howard received his PhD in Computational Science in 2009, he became disillusioned with academia. While presenting on how the Internet can be used to get kids into science at the Nobel Academy in Stockholm, Howard came up with the idea of getting young students to crowdsource their own science textbooks. Shortly thereafter, he was offered a research position at MIT to spearhead this initiative. First, Howard is testing the experiment in online literature with a crowdsourced fiction novel. Last December, ?The Great Libboo Experiment? began.

Richard Wiseman wrote the first chapter, an eery murder mystery set in East London. From there the community of writers can either continue the story from its existing branch, or create a new story line, resulting in a tree-like shape with multiple branches. Every part of the story is written by a team of editors and the writing phase will last around 2 months.

The science behind the project is impressive and its findings will hopefully provide Howard with the information he needs to lead crowdsourcing textbook projects in the future. Howard?s team measures the relationship of how people read through the tree. When someone creates a new part from a previous part, there?s a relationship which is created and that relationship has an associated strength to it; as people read from point a to b to c, the relationships are then strengthened. In the end, the thickest branch is the most successful story.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/03/27/mits-great-libboo-experiment-crowdsources-novels-to-get-kids-into-science/

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Packing List for a Gadget Junkie

It started with CTIA Wireless in Orlando Florida. It will continue for the next 45 days through Techstars in Boulder, Colorado. What is it? 4 trips and 3 countries in 60 days, all for the love of what we do here at The Next Web.

While some people count out precisely how many pairs of socks and underwear to take with them on a trip, I?ve never found that to be a challenge. For me, the moment of panic sets in when I realize that I?ve left a charging cable or a memory card at home. I am a gadget junkie.

Getting ready for a trip requires me to spend about 5 minutes throwing clothing into a bag. Then I will meticulously prepare all of the rest of the things that I?ll need. So what does my ?go bag? consist of? Here?s my current list, and a few notes about what I wish I could do to make it better:

Kodak Playtouch

You can read a blog post about a subject time and time again and still not get the immersive feeling that a video can bring. I?ve tried a few different solutions over the years and, while I?d love to shoot my videos on a Canon 5D, both its price and its size have prevented me from making that jump.

I?ve tried a few different cameras over the past year and the Playtouch has stood out as my favorite. Though I still highly recommend Kodak?s older Zi8 model, the Playtouch is what you?ll now find in stores. It shoots up to 1080p video, saves to a standard SD card and is the only model on the market with an external microphone input. In noisy situations (like a convention floor) this is absolutely imperative.

iPod Touch + Mikey 2G

It might be more convenient for me to purchase a dedicated voice recorder, but my iPod Touch also keeps me from being bored to death on long flights. The addition of the Mikey 2G allows me to do audio interviews, but also lets me easily record TNW?s Daily Dose while I?m on the road. For the price, it?s probably the best option on the market.

Blue hasn?t yet been able to make a 3rd-generation Mikey that would work with the iPhone 4 or 4th-generation iPod Touch, but I?m told that it will be coming soon.

MacBook Pro

Here?s the part of the list where I have to mention the things I?d rather have. While my Pro is probably overpowered for what I do while on the road, it?s also the only computer that I?d take with me right now. We?ve have a handful of netbooks and even a Cr-48 sitting around, but they don?t fit the bill when I need a mobile office. The closest that I?ve found was Dell?s Vostro v13, but even it has seen its better days.

What would I rather have? A MacBook Air, of course. While my Pro is great, it?s also terribly heavy after a few hours of being slung over my shoulder in a laptop bag. Add a few ounces to the bag for the cameras, microphones and the rest and I start looking like The Hunchback of Notre Dame by the end of the day.

While the Air is notably the lighter choice, it?s also the more convenient one. TSA lines at the airport are a pain enough without having to take out my computer. The Air has been given the pass to stay in your bag (as long as it?s the 11-inch version)

Targus CitiGear Messenger Bag

It?s worth noting that my Pro is a 15-inch model, and I could step down in the size of the bag that I carry. However, about 4 years ago I purchased this Targus messenger bag and I have had a really hard time finding anything that compares to it.

Not only is it heavily padded and protective, it also has a boat load of extra space where the things that I carry seem to fit perfectly. Cables, batteries, memory cards and the devices themselves all have what seem to be custom-made pockets that keep everything handy and well-protected. I?ve beaten the life out of this bag, then turned around and used it for a pillow. It?s going to be hard to replace.

Generic Apple Earbuds

Crazy, I know. For someone who claims to be an audio geek, I should be ashamed (and I am) to use these things. They?re positively the weakest audio piece that Apple has ever sold. The problems is that I have about 4 pairs of them laying around the house, and I don?t care if anything happens to them. For the ear buds that I want, I?d care if I lost them, if they got crushed or some other horror befell them.

I used to pack my TMA-1?s with me when I traveled, but they?re far from bag-friendly. They just sound so good that it?s hard to give them up. Screaming baby? No problem! 60-year-old fighting couple? I?m sorry, I can?t hear you? And yet, for the past 3 trips, I?ve packed the Apple ear buds.

What do I want? A decent sounding pair of in-ear monitors that doesn?t break the bank. Give me something that sounds good for under $40 and I?ll buy them. If you include some sort of storage case for them, I?ll be even more happy. For now, I?ve not found a set that is worth the $40, unless they actually cost $80.

My Wish List

Every time I travel, I end up spending time looking around at things that I?d love to have. Whether it is something on the show floor, or in the possession of another traveler, I have a constantly-updating list in my head of the stuff I want or will soon have.

While I?m still lusting for my single-device solution, it?s not out there just yet. What I do want is thinner, lighter and easier, and we?re getting close. I?d absolutely love a point-and-shoot camera that was thin and could do great 720p video. I?d love to have a single device instead of switching back and forth between my Playtouch and my old, trusty Canon A560. So far, I?ve not found one that does video that?s even close to comparing.

I?m also in the market for a better bag. I don?t check bagage, ever. That means that my ?suitcase? is actually a rolling backpack made by Eastpak. I might have found a better solution, in something called the JetCart Ultralight from Walkin? Bag. But I?ve not yet done a trip with it, so the jury is still out.

I?ll let you know as my search continues. I am, after all, a gadget junkie. I?m pretty sure that even if I had a 1-inch thick 5D and a MacBook Air, I?d still be looking for other options?

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2011/03/27/packing-list-for-a-gadget-junkie/

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