As I last wrote, last week I traveled around Lake Michigan, visiting family and friends, and I packed a fair amount of tech gear for the trip. Now that I am back in the friendly confines of my home, I thought I would write a quick follow up highlighting what I learned on the trip.

ASUS VivaTab RT Requires Its Power Adapter

I packed the ASUS VivaTab RT to show it off to some friends, but unfortunately that did not work because the battery died before I could even take it out of the bag. I did pack the USB charger cable, but it does not work with the Moshi Rewind, nor any of the other USB power adapters I had with me.

Apparently you must use the adapter that came with the VivaTab in order for it to charge. What a disappointment as I expected to be able to charge the VivaTab with the Moshi Rewind given that it charges an iPad. I would understand if it took longer to charge the VivaTab with other power adapters, but at least it should still charge.

Google Doesn’t Play With The HTC Media Link HD

I did successfully connect the HTC Media Link HD to the hotel television set that had an HDMI port, and I was able to connect my HTC One to the Media Link over both the hotel’s WiFI and via the point-to-point WiFi connection. The hotel’s WiFi access is not really designed for facilitating this type of connection, and I did experience some lag in the video quality when streaming either Netflix or the MLB At Bat app.

To fully test the point to point connection between the HTC One and the Media Link I needed to download a movie to my phone. Google Play is the best source for such movies because it enables you to download movie rentals. Unfortunately, Google has placed DRM on their movie rentals that prevents one from playing the movie if the Android device is connected to an external display. No matter whether the movie was downloaded or streaming, it would not play on the Media Link, although it would play just fine on the phone.

My Phone Is My Camera

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 I packed never left the bag because I took all of my pictures with my HTC One. In this case, it was really a matter of the phone being with me no matter where I went and forgetting to take the camera with me.