iPhones in the World

At home there’s always the iPhone versus Android debate, where folks will deliberately NOT use an iPhone because they are Apple haters. We definitely haven’t seen this trend around the world. In many countries we’ve noticed that using an iPhone is akin to driving a nice car or toting an LV bag- it’s a status symbol of sorts. While on the hunt for an iPhone case, we saw that Vietnam in particular had nearly zero iPhone cases for sale (we met up with my cousin in Saigon and all his friends had no cases on their iPhones) and in Thailand, many of the iPhone cases had either a hole in the back that showed the apple logo, or the cases looked exactly like the back of an iPhone, just in more vibrant colors. Of course there’d be the requisite typo, we saw a case that spelled “California” incorrectly. It’s like wearing a Tomy Hilfiger shirt or carrying a Guggi wallet!

I never thought that a cell phone would be a status symbol, but now it makes sense! In case you’re wondering, here’s my new case:

Just kidding.
Here’s really what my case looks like:

Okay, I’m kidding again! I just wanted to show y’all how ugly and tacky these iPhone cases are haha. PS you can see the hole where the apple logo would show.
For the last time:

It took me forever to find it, but it was worth it! Gotta love useful souvenirs!

Electronic Equipment

We’ve finally decided on our electronics gear for the trip.

iPad 16gb
iPad camera connection kit
2x iPhone 4s 16gb
Panasonic TS2 waterproof camera
Nikon D7000
Nikon 17-55 f/2.8
Nikon 35 f/1.8
SD-to-USB card reader
8gb USB stick
4x 32gb SD cards (2 in the Nikon, 1 in the Panasonic, and 1 which holds every single episode of Big Bang Theory and Friday Night Lights, plus a dozen movies)
2x Petzl Tikka Plus 2 headlamps (not pictured)
Monster 4-port travel power strip
Monoprice audio splitter and 2x earbuds
Outlet adapters for all regions of the world
Various cables and chargers

Any last minute suggestions on additional things to bring? We leave in 5 days!

Tech Logistics

During the planning process, a question that came up was how we were going to manage our photos/videos and stay connected on our trip.  The idea of lugging around a computer didn’t really appeal to us, however, there’s a lot of compatibility issues to work out when NOT carrying a computer.  So we decided upon the iPad to become our blogging and media processing tool of choice.  Plus an iPad is so, so, so much lighter than our Macbricks…ahem books.  I’m still trying to get used to the idea that you can’t just “plug” in the camera to an iPad and “dump” the “files” onto a “desktop.”  No siree, we had to pick up these little suckers.  I guess it means less cords to lug around, but Apple, really?  You couldn’t have stuck a USB slot there?

Currently, our travel tech equipment consists of a Nikon D7000 (along with a 17-55/2.8 and a 35/1.8), a Panasonic TS2 waterproof camera, the iPhone 4S and the aforementioned iPad. We were finally to sell our D300 (faithful to it for nearly 4 years, even celebrity marriages don’t last that long!) and switched to the D7000 for its lighter weight (notice a trend we’re going for?) and dual SD cards, and we switched to the iPhone 4s for its world compatibility (it was pretty easy-peasy getting Verizon to unlock our phones).  I gotta admit, I was anti-iPhone for the longest time because I am an avid user of Google products and as we all know Apple + Google ≠ BFF.  However, I have quite warmed up to it and have found unofficial apps to access my beloved Google products.  Anyone got any additional app suggestions?

So the Cliff Notes version of this post is, we don’t really have an excuse to not blog or share pictures of our adventures.