National Geographic Traveller UK - 04.2020

Tech trave  er

TECHNOLOGY REPORTER FOR BBCCLICK AND

AUTHOR OF WORKING THE CLOUD,

KATE RUSSELL PICKS THE LATEST INNOVATIONS

Consider these tech tips for

beating jet lag.

TIMESHIFTER.COM

Developed by scientists, Timeshifter

lets you create a personalised plan

for adjusting to a new time zone.

Visual prompts and notifi cations

will tell you when to sleep, expose

yourself to bright light and avoid

sleep inhibiting habits.

JETLAGROOSTER.COM

Jet Lag Rooster is a simple web app

that gives you a plan to reduce jet

lag by suggesting hours for you to

expose yourself to light and shift

your sleeping pattern before a trip,

which you can begin up to two days

before you leave home.

AVOID BLUE LIGHT

Blue light sources can interfere with

the production of the sleep hormone

melatonin, so watching movies

on a fl ight to a new time zone can

be disastrous. Blue-light blocking

reading glasses are a great solution

— they’re widely available online for

under £20. amazon.com

Unless you take content with you on

your mobile phone or tablet, fi nding

things to watch on your hotel TV

can be a struggle. One of the easiest

ways to feed this to the big screen

TV is through a wireless casting

app like Miracast on Android and

Airplay Mirroring for iOS, which

you’ll fi nd pre-installed in the lock-

screen menu on Apple devices.

These apps can search for nearby

devices to cast to when asked.

IMAGE: GETTY

STREAMING TV ON THE GO

@katerussell

katerussell.co.uk

There are plenty of apps that oΠer

real-time language translation,

but it’s not always a smart idea to

get your expensive phone out and

start waving it around. You might

also fi nd you have battery issues

if you’re using it to communicate

with locals all the time too.

PocketTalk is a neat solution that

provides two-way speech and text

translation for 55 languages, with

GET THE GADGET

TOP TIPS FOR...

beating jet lag

PocketTalk Translator

A FEW GADGETS AND TIPS CAN HELP YOU TAP INTO MANY STREAMING

SERVICES WHEN YOU’RE AWAY

Unfortunately, not all hotels

allow wi-fi access to their TVs,

so I always pack a wired cable

for ‘just in case’. These are easy

to buy from Amazon or your

preferred electronics outlet.

Search for your connector type

(such as lightning cable or USB3

to HDMI adaptor cable). That

should connect you to most

modern TVs, but if you want to be

doubly sure, you can also grab a

a further 19 languages in text-only

mode. The built-in data option

can be used in 133 countries,

making this independent little

pocket communicator a great

way to have real conversations

when there’s a language barrier.

RRP: £219. pocketalk.net

‘your connector type’ to VGA

adaptor, which should work

with older style TVs.

Remember, you’ll still need a

reliable internet connection if

you’re streaming content from

your phone. Many streaming

services — like iPlayer, Netfl ix,

Amazon Prime and YouTube

Premium — let you download

content to watch o¢ ine, which

will give you the smoothest

and most reliable results.

If the hotel you’re visiting is

modern, it might have smart

TVs in the rooms, so you

can simply log in with your

streaming account and watch

without faŒ. Be sure to log out

of this device when you check

out, though.

The gadget fi end’s solution

would be a portable streaming

stick, like the ones available

from Roku. These plug into the

TV’s HDMI port and provide

streaming services without

casting directly from your

phone. Roku has a range of

sticks from an HD player at

£29.99 to 4K HDR at £49.99.

roku.com

TRAVEL GEEKS

April 2020 161