Mobile is hot as can be right now. Google acquired Motorola to build mobile devices and Facebook stock has suffered because it has no mobile strategy. Mobile products, of course, refer to the technology we carry with us, including smartphones, notebook computers, tablets, eReaders, music players and more.

Accessories for these mobile devices is a category that’s also growing. But with so many companies producing so much of the same thing, it’s difficult to choose. Here are some of the latest accessories that I’ve tried and found worthwhile.

Kensington’s AbsolutePower portable charger is designed to simultaneously charge three different devices at the same time: your notebook computer, a smartphone and tablet, or a notebook and any two USB devices. It’s a significant engineering accomplishment in that it provides 100 watts from such a tiny, lightweight and attractive form factor. In fact, it’s smaller than most chargers that come with your notebook. It has a 2.1-amp capacity and comes with interchangeable tips for nearly all notebooks. Unfortunately, due to Apple’s unwillingness to license its magnetic connector, it doesn’t work with MacBooks. But charging three devices from one outlet is a real convenience. (About $95, kensington.com).

Just Mobile’s Xtand Go is a compact, well-designed mount for securing your iPhone 4 on your windshield or dashboard while you drive. It has built-in adjustments for holding it at just the right angle in either portrait or landscape mode. It’s great for use in rental cars when you want to use your phone as a GPS. ($39 at the Apple online store, xstand.net).

Have a spare cup holder?  Bracketron’s Universal Tablet Cup Holder Mount is an industrial looking smartphone holder that sits at the end of an articulating arm that can be positioned at almost any height and angle. The holder is adjustable, allowing it to fit nearly all smartphones with or without a case. It has an adjustable base that cleverly fits into any cup holder. It’s much larger and less elegant than the Just Mobile product, but provides greater flexibility.  ($50, bracketron.com).

M-Edge’s Incline Jacket is a folding suede and leather case for the new iPad that protects both the front and the back. The iPad snaps into its mounting system, a clear plastic bracket attached to the inside of the back cover. The bracket can rotate and slide, allowing the iPad to stand in three different positions in landscape mode and two in portrait, and take pictures with it in the case. ($50, medgestore.com).

Elago makes some of most attractive accessory products I’ve come across, and at very affordable prices. Its iPhone 4 cases, for example, are very minimalistic, with thin walls that add no bulk or weight to the phone. They’re beautifully molded and finished in a variety of colors and patterns, yet start at less than $10. I’m currently using its Breath case that costs just $8, but looks better than most $30 cases. Other products include a stylus for the iPad with a replaceable tip, tiny SD card readers, and bumper cases for the iPad. Products are designed both in their San Diego office and in South Korea where they are manufactured. (elagostore.com).

Styli for tablets seem to be a blossoming category, likely as a result of the Draw Something app from OMGPOP. Check out the stylii from Logiix, which makes a full line of these devices, even one with a built-in laser pointer ($40). They look good and work well. Prices start at about $20. (logiix.net).

Waterfield, which makes all of its products in its San Francisco factory, just introduced CitySlicker, a MacBook Air case that’s very thin, yet provides excellent protection. There are models for both the 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air, each with pockets for the charger, mouse and files or magazines. Its interior is made from three layers of material: impact-resistant plastic, neoprene, and a soft padded liner. The exterior is constructed of ballistic nylon and leather. Prices range from $129 to $149. (sfbags.com).

Waterfield makes another mobile gadget that’s worth noting. It’s the iPhone Wallet, a small leather zipper case that holds currency, credit cards and an iPhone. A window on the front of the wallet lets you use your phone while in the case. Behind the phone is a divider that keeps the phone pressed up against the window and separates it from the cards and bills. It holds about 10 cards and 10 bills. ($39, sfbags.com).

The iTwin is an unusual looking gadget that synchronizes files between two computers without the need to use storage in the cloud, the method DropBox, SugarSync and other software uses. It looks like a memory stick, but has 2 USB connectors, one at either end. The stick, however, separates into two pieces, each with a connector. Plug the iTwin into your home computer. Drag and drop files into the iTwin window to share them. Take the other half of iTwin with you or snap it into your notebook computer.  You now have instant access to your shared files, from your notebook or any other online computer, no matter where it is, with greater security than using the cloud. ($100, iTwin.com).

Expect to see lots more mobile devices released this Summer and Fall. We’re likely to see new tablets from Google and Amazon, smaller iPads, many new notebooks and perhaps a phone from Facebook.

Three years ago, a GPS, also called a personal navigation device, was the most sought-after gadget. Popularized byGarmin, device sales shot up as we discovered the magic it could perform: figuring out where we were and telling us how to get where we wanted to go.

But sales slowed dramatically as more cars offered built-in navigation and Android smartphones added navigation. The smartphone offered big advantages: It was free, and it was always connected online so you could use Google to search for the name of the destination, eliminating the pain of entering an address letter by letter. But Garmin has persisted with new models that add connectivity, better performance and bigger displays.

Garmin’s latest top-of-the-line offering is the 3590 LMT (Lifetime Maps and Traffic), part of its Prestige line of 2012 nüvis. It contains the best of all of Garmin’s features in a thinner form factor with a 5-inch display, new Guidance 3.0 navigation software, lifetime traffic data and online searching. (Lifetime maps means you are entitled to four upgrades per year. You can also purchase maps for other regions — for example, you can buy maps for Europe for $100.)

The Garmin looks a lot like a large smartphone with its 480 x 800, 5-inch touch display. It uses the same touch technology found on phones and tablets, which is much improved over the older resistive touch screens. It costs $400 at garmin.com.

The new user interface looks similar to that on earlier models, but numerous new features have been added, including quicker searches and better guidance leading through highway exits and intersections. While many models now display lane markings and traffic signs for the exits and junctions, this product displays photo-realistic images around these junctions and exits, using a database of 60,000 locations.

Traffic information is provided by an add-on radio receiver module, a thumb-drive-sized bulge that’s part of the power cord. So while the unit is thin, it will only provide traffic when plugged into your car’s 9-volt receptacle. The unit also comes with a suction cup window mount and charging cable.

In my week of testing, everything worked reasonably well. It acquired satellites quickly, except when I flew home from another city, when it needed a couple of minutes to access the local area. The display was bright and easy to read, except when bright light reflected off the screen. Maps were clear, much as on previous models. Controls to end navigation and turn off the audio are easy to access right on the display.

But even though it used a high-resolution display, the maps show limited details, similar to lower resolution personal navigation devices. At most magnifications, just a few street names were shown using black letters on white background patches. It has none of the fine details you’ll find on Google Maps. That’s OK when using it in a car to navigate, but less so when you carry the device outside of the car.

Traffic information, when it was available, was useful and displayed on the maps as well as in a list view of trouble traffic spots on major highways. The traffic service is free of any additional costs and uses data from a variety of sources, including other nüvi owners, historical traffic data and information generated by cellphones. In my use, I didn’t see traffic data on side streets, mostly just on highways, and on several occasions the data was inaccurate.

I found the nüvi to be much more convenient to use when driving long distances than using a smartphone, particularly with its 5-inch display. Its turn-by-turn directions and spoken street names were clearer, and its built-in mounting system let me permanently attach it to my car window. Also, navigation on some smartphones is suspended when the phone is in use.

The 3590 has its own built-in apps, including a Bluetooth speaker, trip planner, picture viewer, world clock, calculator, alarm clock, language guide and conversion tool. But most of these were fairly basic and not a reason in themselves to buy the device. The unit can also be used in portrait mode, convenient for mounting next to your rear view mirror or edge of the windshield without protruding into your field of vision. It also has voice recognition, which I did not try.

The unit comes with maps for North America. Updates and maps for other regions are downloaded using a serial cable through your computer.

While I’ve not reviewed them, Garmin makes many other models starting at $109. In fact, there are so many models that it’s confusing to figure out the differences. It seems there’s a different model name for even minor differences. You can get a model with nearly all the features of the 3590 for $100 to $150 less that sacrifices the lifetime features, voice recognition and display resolution. You’ll also find last year’s models at Costco and other stores, some with model numbers not found on Garmin’s site.

The 3590 and its siblings with a 5-inch display are excellent in-car solutions for those without a built-in GPS. It’s also a huge benefit for those traveling in unfamiliar countries and is less expensive than the exorbitant charges that the rental car companies charge to rent their GPS systems. And unlike the navigation built into smartphones, you don’t pay for cell data. Yes, there still is need for stand-alone personal navigation devices, particularly with some of the recent improvements.

At this time of year, when many of us are planning our summer vacation travels, figuring out how to stay connected while overseas needs planning as well. Data usage and phone calls could exceed the price of your flight if you’re not careful. It’s not uncommon to see cellular bills of thousands of dollars. That’s because cellular carriers and airlines are a lot alike. They both relish the opportunity to pile on extra charges.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Visitors from most other countries pay only a modest premium over their local rates when they travel. I’ll explain to you what our carriers don’t want you to know.

Short trips
First, you don’t want to use your cellphone overseas with the SIM card provided, unless it’s for just a few days where you can limit your calls and avoid using the phone for data (receiving email, using Google maps, going onto the Internet, etc.). Calls typically cost $1.49 to $3 per minute, and data is $20 per megabyte, the equivalent of sending or receiving a couple of dozen of photos. My advice is to turn off the phone’s cellular and roaming data connections and connect to Wi-Fi once or twice a day and use Skype to make calls.

Long trips
For traveling for more than a few days, you can save hundreds of dollars by using an unlocked cellphone with a country-specific prepaid SIM card that you can buy before leaving or from a cellular store in the country you visit. You’ll pay 20 to 50 cents per minute of talk time, instead of a few dollars per minute. Some don’t charge for incoming calls, while others have a small connection charge. The rates are low for both calling within the country or anyplace in the world.

Unlocking your phone
Unfortunately, all cellphones are locked if you bought them with a plan from a U.S. carrier. You can try to persuade your carrier to unlock it before leaving, but whether they do is their prerogative. I asked each carrier for its policies. Most of the responses were ambiguous, and their websites offered little or no information.

Instead, I found them eager to sell special international data plans that do offer lower rates. But beware of the gotchas. If you go over, the rates skyrocket, in one case going from 49 cents to $20 per megabyte. And if you take a cautious approach and buy a larger data package, you’ll forfeit the unused minutes, effectively still paying a higher rate. You need to sign up for it as a recurring monthly plan and then cancel it after the trip.

Most of the carriers will unlock some of their phones after 90 days, but iPhones are excluded, because it’s heavily subsidized. AT&T will unlock an iPhone after the completion of your two-year contract. Those who are in the middle of a contract can get their phone unlocked by paying an early termination fee of several hundred dollars.

Verizon and Sprint will unlock their dual band models, which work on both CDMA and GSM, after 90 days, but apparently not the iPhone.

Buying an unlocked phone
If you frequently travel out of the country, whether to Canada, South America, Europe or Asia, you should consider buying an unlocked phone as your primary phone, rather than buying a subsidized phone from the carrier. You can activate it with a major carrier without committing to a contract. I recommend one of the Nexus Android phones, available directly from Google for as little as $400, which will work on T-Mobile and AT&T.

Apple now sells an unlocked 16 gigabyte iPhone for $699. It works with any SIM card anywhere in the world, and on T-Mobile or AT&T in the United States. Another option is to buy an unlocked phone along with prepaid SIM cards from a company like Telestial, rated by its users as 4.8 out 5, according to Google.

The company has served 2.5 million customers using its own network, buying bandwidth from other carriers, according to Ken Grunski, the founder of Telestial. It offers a range of services and equipment, including an unlocked quad-band phone with a SIM card for $59, a SIM card for voice and data for about 49 cents per megabyte and 49 cents per minute per call with free incoming calls, and a data-only SIM card for as little as 21 cents per megabyte. Telestial’s data SIM cards can be used in an iPad that has a SIM slot, in a MiFi card, or in a USB or external data modem.

These rates can offer a huge savings compared to the U.S. carriers’ rates. How much? These are some examples provided by Telestial using the carriers’ normal rates that do not require a special plan: To send a 100 kilobyte photo, Verizon charges up to $2, AT&T $1.95 and Telestial 4 cents. Streaming one minute of music from Spotify costs $38 on Verizon, $37 from AT&T and about 78 cents from Telestial. Ten rounds of Words With Friends cost $19 on Verizon, $20 from AT&T and 39 cents from Telestial. Some of them will match Telestial rates, but only with a plan subject to the gotchas noted above. Telestial sells its products from its website (telestial.com) and in some of the airport stores.

MiFi portable Wi-Fi hotspot
If receiving calls is not important, I recommend renting a MiFi data device from XCom Global (xcomglobal.com). This creates a portable Wi-Fi hotspot that connects your computer or phone to the Internet. It costs about $15 per day for most countries for unlimited data. I’ve used it to avoid Wi-Fi charges in my hotel and to get email, access Google maps, and make Skype calls on my phone.

So, you need not pay the high rates and follow the complex rules our carriers create. With a bit of advance planning, you have some good alternatives that the carriers hope you don’t discover, giving you time to focus on your airline’s hidden charges.

I received “advice” (aka “orders”) from Jane, my wife and editor, not to just select gadgets for the kitchen as Mother’s Day gifts this year.

“After all, women are as tech-savvy as men these days,” she said.

She’s absolutely right, so I’ve selected an assortment of products that cover the full range.

First, a few gadgets from an innovative product development company called Quirky, a company that creates a wide range of clever products based on input from its online community. Members participate in the design process, ranging from contributing the ideas, to making suggestions, to voting their preferences. Many of the products that receive the highest interest are actually built and marketed. Those in the community who contributed to the product often receive a small percentage of the sale.

In deference to Jane, I’ll briefly mention only the Broom Groomer that Quirky calls “a sweeping improvement in dustpans.” (Also appropriate for Father’s Day!, says Jane) What’s unique about this product are the rubber teeth on the inside back of the dustpan that are used to comb out debris from the broom. ($13)

Quirky’s Mocubo is a 16-inch-by-11-inch bamboo cutting board with three slide-out drawers mounted under the board that become food prep containers. You’re able to slice, dice and cut, then slide the ingredients into the drawers. ($40)

Converge, the third product from Quirky, is an attractive docking station to store and charge a cellphone, tablet, e-reader and other devices — up to a total of four. The white plastic stand hides and routes wires from its built-in USB hub to each of the devices. ($40)

If you really want to offer your mom or wife a gift she will remember each day, install an electronic keypad lock on your front door. You unlock the door with your own four-digit code and can provide temporary codes to those you want to let in when you’re not at home. It eliminates the need for taking keys out of a pocketbook or pocket, just like automobiles with keyless ignition. The lock I’ve been using for several years is the Schlage Camelot Keypad Deadbolt (model number: BE365 CAM 505). Jane thinks it’s one of the best gadgets I’ve reviewed.

Another household gadget that I’m planning to install and review soon, and am quite excited about, is the Nest home thermostat. It replaces your old thermostat with something that’s quite extraordinary and actually beautiful. It’s smart enough to learn your patterns and adjust itself by turning the temperature down at night, up in the morning and down for periods when you are away. It knows when you are away with its motion sensor, and knows the outdoor temperature through its connection to your Wi-Fi network. It maintains energy history for your home and makes suggestions as to how you can save even more on your heating and cooling bills. This product is so disruptive and innovative that Honeywell, the company that makes the traditional circular thermostat and is known for litigating rather than innovating, is suing Nest. ($250)

The iZON Remote Room Monitor is a small vertical cylinder with a built-in video camera that lets you view and listen to activity in a baby’s room or anywhere else. It’s also useful for monitoring your pet’s activities when you are out of your home. You can view it anywhere you happen to be, on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. It works using Wi-Fi and is simple to set up. You can set it to alert you of unexpected activity in the home. Stem recently upgraded its software, and the image quality is greatly improved. ($129, steminnovation.com)

Don’t let your mom or wife drive with a phone in her hand. The Plantronics Discovery 925 Bluetooth headset provides the best combination of performance and good looks. It’s designed to reduce the visibility of the body yet provide superior talk performance. It comes with a clever carrying case that charges it when stored. (About $50, plantronics.com)

All of the above are useful gadgets, but do they really count as “gifts” that your wife or mom would be excited about? Jane thinks the following would be more romantic.

A gift that’s brand-new for this year’s Mother’s Day is the amazing Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight e-reader from Barnes & Noble. It’s the first e-reader that can be used anywhere, regardless of the lighting conditions. Its built-in solid-state lighting allows reading in bed while not disturbing others, and it works equally well outdoors in the bright sun with no glare. Reviewers have universally praised it as the best e-reader ever and a real breakthrough. ($139 from bn.com. Full disclosure: Barnes & Noble is a client, but this product is both too cool and too hot to omit.)

The Canon PowerShot Elph 300 HS is one of the smallest, least expensive ultra-compact cameras, and it takes terrific pictures. It has a 12.1 megapixel sensor, takes HD video and has a 5X zoom lens that starts at a very wide 24 millimeters. Best of all, it’s priced at about $180 and comes in black, silver and red.

One of the hottest categories continues to be the coffee and espresso machines that use single-serving coffee that comes in sealed capsules. One of the most advanced is the DeLonghi Lattissima Plus Nespresso Capsule System. Its best feature is DeLonghi’s patented milk container that stores in the refrigerator and slides into the front of the machine to make steamed milk. Drop in the capsule, and with one touch make your drink. Cleaning is equally simple — just touch the clean button for a few seconds. ($400 at Sur La Table, Williams-Sonoma and other online retailers)

Finally, not surprising, one of the most desirable gifts for this Mother’s Day is the new iPad. The product has so many uses, including emailing, surfing, playing word games and creating a family photo album. ($499 and up)

Nokia is in trouble. The company has failed to develop phones that can compete with Android or the iPhone. Seeing sales slip at an alarming level, the directors replaced the company’s CEO with an outsider, Stephen Elop, a relatively unknown executive with stints at Boston Chicken, Macromedia, Adobe and Microsoft. He quickly made massive cuts in employees, closed factories and killed much of the existing product line.

Elop then made a bet to shift to phones that would run Windows Mobile 8, Microsoft’s new mobile operating system that was still in development. Many questioned his strategy, because he could have chosen the Android OS that was available, rather than wait for nearly a year for Microsoft’s software to become available.

Now that the new Nokia phones are out, the company is hoping for a turnaround. But from all the evidence so far, it’s proving to be too little too late. Its market share is continuing to shrink, and the company is losing the loyalty of its older customers.

It’s not because these new phones are inferior. In fact, they’re superb, with some very innovative and useful features. Other than having far fewer apps than their rivals, they’re in the same league as Android and the iPhone. And most importantly, they’re fun to use.

I’ve been trying out Nokia’s latest top-of-the-line phone, the Nokia Lumia 900, along with the smaller and less expensive Lumia 710.

The Lumia 900 is thin and solid, as if carved out of a solid block of material, and is available in black, teal or white. It has rounded edges along each side; is squared off on the top and bottom; and has a large, vibrant 4.3-inch OLED display with a high definition 800 x 480 resolution. Like the iPhone, the battery is sealed in the phone, but it has the capacity to get you through a full day.

Its controls are located along the right side of the phone: From top to bottom is the volume rocker, the on-off button and the camera button. When you turn on the phone, the home screen displays two columns of four square tiles each, eight in all; you can scroll down for more. Each tile represents a function or app, such as the calendar, email, settings, browser, maps, people, etc. The tiles can be rearranged, removed or new ones added. A list of all of them in alphabetical order is available by swiping you finger to the left, revealing the screen to the right.

Many of these tiles are “living,” meaning they constantly change what’s displayed. For example, in “people” you see tiny images of your friends who have recently commented on your Facebook page. The email tile displays how many new messages you have. The advantage of this design is you can check on those things that are of particular interest right on your home screen with a single glance.

This new Microsoft “Metro” interface, as it’s called, offers some advantages over Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, which each use smaller static icons. As you accumulate apps on those phones, it’s sometimes difficult to find them. Not so on Metro, because the important ones are on the home screen and they all reside in a single alphabetical list.

The other attractive feature of Metro is the graphics treatment: the use of modern type fonts, with mainly white characters on a black background. Some of the text was huge, making it easy to scan and read. Overall it has a classy, futuristic look.

Call quality and data performance were excellent. The 900 phone uses AT&T’s 4G networks (both LTE and HSPA). The one disappointment was the images taken with its built-in 8 megapixel camera. Pictures with flash sometimes had a red cast, and non-flash pictures often had a blue cast. Contrast was low in some instances, and the auto focus sometimes missed. Hopefully, Nokia and Microsoft will offer a software fix.

The phone is available from AT&T for $99 with a new contract, making it the best bargain in smartphones today for a 4G phone.

The Nokia Lumia 710 is Nokia’s entry-level model that’s been available for several months longer than the 900. It’s available from T-Mobile for $40. It’s about the same size as an iPhone, although slightly thicker, and more bulbous with rounded corners and a concave, plastic rubberized back.

Its operating system, Windows Phone 7.5, is a half step back from Windows Phone 8, but the differences are hard to find. The 710’s user interface is just like the 900. It has a removable battery, a 5 megapixel camera and a 3.7-inch display. The phone runs on what T-Mobile calls its 4G network, although it’s not as fast as AT&T’s. Overall it’s one of the best phones for its price and would be a great first phone for younger family members.

With these new entries, Nokia and Microsoft have succeeded in giving us a third choice for our smartphones. It’s a good enough product to keep Microsoft in the running, but whether it can save Nokia is questionable.