Tecno Bowl.

Upgraded the tech package a bit prior to the upcoming September trip.

Picked up a new 2022 iPad Air for the media blasting/Bluetooth hub duties on the trips. M1 chip, nice big screen, and 256 GB storage. Plopped it on my Apple card at 0% interest, plus about $200 off for trading in the Mini so only about $550. 

The iPad Mini served my well for a few years but the pitiful storage was just not cutting it anymore. After loading up all my music I only had room for a couple movies and not much else. 64 GB storage is just not doable for someone who likes to have stored copies of things. Especially when dealing with potentially spotty WiFi when traveling it's important to me to have downloaded copies of stuff ready to go. On this one I have all the music, about 20 movies and Alien Isolation loaded up with half the storage left to play with.

The Air is blazing fast, ridiculously thin and not much heavier that the Mini so I'm not really losing much portability. It still fits in my under seat bag too so no worries there. I got a Speck case for it to keep it safe from the occasional travel bump so it should Vegas well.

Sadly, earlier this year my beloved JBL Bluetooth on-ears died after about 8 years of trusty service. I played around on the last trip with the Pixel Buds I got with the 6 Pro, but they just don't sound that great or get loud enough for travel. I also didn't like the feel of having them in ear all the time, I like to be able to clear one or both ears fully when listening for airport announcements and such. So, I picked up a set of JBL 460NC's, which look and sound almost identical to the old 45BT's but with added active noise cancelling. Should be helpful in the airport and on the plane to block out screaming baby noise and got them for only $65.

The other tech is the same. Still rocking the trusty UE Boom 2 for in-room tunes. It still sounds great, is easily portable and the battery lasts the whole trip so I see no reason to upgrade it. It's been with me for well over 7 years and probably 3/4 of my trips, I'll probably keep it in the carry-on as long as it doesn't die on me.

Also still unfortunately saddled with the Pixel 6 Pro, which I hate. Trash phone; still almost a year after launch the fingerprint reader is garbage, the phone freezes up constantly coming out of apps, and the camera isn't even as good as the one I had on the Pixel 4 XL, which I should have kept. Completely hardware related issues and nothing software can fix, apparently. I'll never get another Pixel phone. Stuck with this one until I get it paid down enough to be able to pay it off and sell it or trade it in and likely get an iPhone. Maybe before the Xmas trip. It'll passably do the duties of holding the virtual tickets to everything though and keeping me connected to the world when I can't carry the iPad.

Also have my Aukey 2000 mAh power bank I can bring with me if I think I will need it, but since it's only a 1 1/2 hour flight time the iPad should have enough juice to get me to the hotel and a charger. I can probably find an outlet in the airport too if I have a flight delay.

So a couple upgrades and a stalwart will carry me forward into the future of the next few year's trips. In this world you've gotta be tech'd up and this package will do me well for a while.