Posts Tagged Business Gear
Vivarati Designer Socks
Vivarati Sidebar designer socks
Dress socks can be plain and boring. As a frequent traveler, I am constantly having to remove my shoes at airport security. It’s time to spice up my feet with clever colors and designs!
Vivarati has a full line of colorful, designer socks produced with high quality and eye-catching style. The company’s motto is creating “socks for the modern man,” and these socks are both modern and hip. Vivarati believes that socks should represent boldness and confidence, and these socks certainly express personality.
They are produced with high-quality Turkish combed cotton fiber (meaning impurities have been removed from the material before use) and have a hand linked toe meaning there is no line at the bottom of the sock connecting the base to the toes giving it a snug, comfortable fit. Vivarati.com offers high resolution photos showing the vivid designs, which makes shopping for your favorite pairs a cinch. Free shipping is another benefit, and returns are happily accepted through the use of a prepaid return shipping label.
The socks are thick and comfortable with a padded base and reinforced heels. A problem I face is that my dress socks usually end up with holes because I am walking so much, but these high quality socks feel both durable and comfortable thanks to the combed cotton material. They breathe so that your feet do not become too hot, which is another thing that I find important. The material stretches for comfort and keeps them from sliding down your leg. These socks are neither too thin or too thick making them perfect for year-round use.
Designers have also given their insight on how to pair these colorful socks with various clothing styles and colors. These socks are one size fits all. My favorite design is the Rollover, which has a certain Mad Men vibe to it. The Sidebar pair is another playful combination of colors. The socks are delivered in a classy gift box wrapped in paper making an excellent impression.
Vivarati has turned a somewhat boring piece of clothing into a fun, vibrant personality statement that is sure to turn heads at work or airport security. Unfortunately, they’re hard to find at retail at this point (online or off), so you’ll need to order direct from their own site.
See more reviews of good travel socks here at Practical Travel Gear.
Posted by Ramsey in Business Gear, Travel Light on January 30th, 2012
Digital Foci Genuine Leather Hard Shell iPhone Case
Thud. Crack. #$%! Those are the sounds and subsequent words (in chronological order) of a person who drops their iPhone and knows immediately that their several hundred dollar investment just fell to pieces…literally. While iPhone cases should be a no-brainer, I have gone without one for a year. Until the day that mine fell on the floor and cracked right where my ear is when using it.
The trickery of the iPhone case has always beleaguered me. I refused to pay $20 for a piece of rubber at the cell phone store. Later, I discovered you could buy the same case for $1 on Ebay. That should tell you something about the quality of it. But, when I learned about and tested the Navjack designer iPhone cases distributed by Digital Foci, I became an instant fan.
There is more to these cases than just cheap rubber. I sampled a couple of their cases with my favorite being the Genuine Leather Hard Shell. The authentic leather surface has an elegant look and is sturdier than the traditional casing. Plus, no two cases are the same as the pattern and stitching on the leather varies for each. Even the most intricate details like the interior of the casing were considered when the case was produced so as to provide extra cushioning to protect from damage. Cutouts for the buttons are well-designed making it easy to use the phone when the case is on it. I have an iPhone 3G, but Digital Foci also produces cases for the iPhone 4G.
Another option is the Carbon or Glass Fiber case produced from 100% real carbon or glass fiber material, which makes it one of the most durable cases while also measuring in at one of the thinnest. The lightweight nature eases any effort to carry it with you in a purse or briefcase, which is very important for the frequent business traveler.
The retail price for these NavJack designer cases ranges from $19.95 to $49.95 (they are on sale directly at the Digital Foci web site), which makes sense considering the design and effort put into them. Makes me glad I never forked over for that cheap rubber one from the cell phone store. It’s true, we must spend money to save money in the long run when trying to protect expensive electronic devices. These NavJack iPhone cases distributed by Digital Foci make me glad that I waited to do just that.
Posted by Ramsey in Business Gear, General Gear on March 21st, 2011
Ecogear’s Black Tiger II Laptop Bag
We all want to do our part for the environment…don’t we? So we recycle, conserve energy, maybe even walk rather than drive to work. But, did you realize that your travel gear could do its own part? Enter Ecogear.
This company has done a tremendous job of introducing its own line of eco-friendly gear made with sustainable, toxic-free dyes that have a harm-free coating.
I tested the Tiger II laptop carrying bag and have taken it on more than two dozen trips in the past year. That’s just how versatile, light weight, and convenient it is.
My absolute favorite feature is the large pocket on the front flap, greatt for storing keys, a passport, pen, boarding pass, and loose change. Inside is a padded section for a laptop with a front compartment for cords and chargers. Two other large file, zip-top pockets are perfect for magazines, toiletries, and other items. The thick coating of the fabric keeps moisture out (ideal for when I am traipsing the city streets in the rain).
It’s a cinch to strap to the top of a rollaboard bag by tying the strap around the handle. Security is a breeze since I can whip out my laptop and toiletries from the same place while securing other things like my iPhone in the front pocket. On the other side of the nude-o-scope, I am on my way without wondering what I may have left behind if I am in a hurry.
Back to the environmental part. This durable bag is created from organic cotton, recycled bottles and nontoxic materials. It is PVC-free; polyvinyl chloride releases toxins when disposed. Ecogear was founded by entrepreneur Jimmy Chen who got his inspiration after spending a beach vacation with his kids and realized the importance of preserving our planet for future generations.
His company soon took flight and now sells its products online at Ecogear-Products.com. A variety of eye-catching colors and textures makes these items perfect for both the design-conscious and eco-conscious.
The black Tiger II bag sells for $69 on the Ecogear’s site and Amazon.com. It is more affordable than similar bags. During my travels, I often amass more than I realize, but this bag doesn’t fight back. It stretches to take my travel accessories thanks to an expandable strap in the front that keeps everything secured.
The company’s motto, “saving the world one bag at a time,” is catchy enough to make me buy these bags for all of my friends. And the affordable price helps too. Recycling has never looked so good!
Check Ecogear Tiger prices at eBags and Amazon.
Catch all our travel gear reviews – subscribe to the RSS feed
Posted by Ramsey in Business Gear, Travel Light on March 7th, 2011
SugarSync Program is a Life Saver for Frequent Travelers
If “your whole life” is on one laptop or smart phone, what happens if you lose it? If you use a desktop at home and a laptop or small netbook when you travel, how do you make sure you have all the files you need on both devices, in their most current form? What if you need to get one of those docs from a third device, like an iPhone or iPod Touch?
I used to sweat and worry about these questions before I discovered SugarSync a couple years ago (including when I had GoToMyPC, which was often a bust). Now I’m completely relaxed when I travel, knowing I can get to anything I need from any device anywhere. It’s a file sync program, an online back-up program, a file sharing program, and a photo upload program all rolled into one. At a price that starts at $50 a year for 30GB, it’s really cheap insurance and is cheaper than a sleeping pill prescription. If all my devices get wiped out in one day and the backup hard drive does too, I’ve still got my files and photos.
I seldom feel comfortable raving about a software program as there are always a few annoyances that keep it from being as useful as it should be and most of them let me down on a regular basis. I can honestly say this SugarSync one works like a dream though. You just tag the folders you want to share between devices and with “the cloud” and let ‘er rip. After the files, photos, songs, and videos are uploaded, each time you make a change to any of the folders on any device, behind the scenes this program makes the updates. It works in the background, seldom taking up much in the way of resources or slowing down your system.
Then you can access those files from either registered device or just log into your dashboard online and view or download what you need. You can also e-mail a file link to someone (like YouSendIt), attach a photo to send them, or share a whole folder of files/photos by invitation.
What’s really cool is, you can do all this from your mobile device as well. For the iPhone or Touch you just download the app, sign in once, then magically all your stuff is there. (You can even put files into a “Magic Briefcase” to get at them quickly without searching around.) If you take a photo with your iPhone, it’s automatically added to your “mobile photos” folder and it’s on every device you have registered—no cables required.
In case all that is not enough, the file syncs are done with SSL encryption so nobody snoops, plus they keep the last five versions of your files in case you make changes and then need the old version. And on top of that, you can show off photos from your home PC or stream music that’s on your laptop from your smartphone or Touch. How cool!
There’s almost nothing I wish this could do that it doesn’t and if you don’t believe me, you can take it for a 30-day trial run or test out a 2GB version indefinitely. To me that shows a lot of confidence in the product and it’s well-deserved.
Plans range from $50 a year (or $4.99 a month) to $250 a year for 250 GB. Here’s the pricing breakdown.
SugarSync Online Backup, Sync, Share – Try FREE for 30 days
Posted by Tim L. in Business Gear, General Gear on August 26th, 2010
