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.

“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)

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.

Today’s touch screens are far different from those used on the Palm, Newton and the Sharp Wizard. Those were resistive screens that responded to the pressure of a pointed plastic stick. But they suffered from low resolution and reduced clarity of the display’s image.

Capacitive displays found on today’s tablets are completely transparent, have higher resolution, and are designed to respond to touching and gesturing using several fingers at once. But their biggest drawback is that they work only with a stylus that has a very large tip, typically made of a soft conductive material.

I first realized that a stylus would be useful when playing the hugely popular game “Draw Something.” It’s a game you play with others, much like the Scrabble-like “Words With Friends.” The object is to guess the drawing of a friend and for you to create a drawing that they can guess. You’ll quickly realize that using a stylus provides the ability to create drawings that are much more recognizable.

That led me to try other compelling apps that benefit from using a stylus.

Paper by FiftyThree

I love to draw and sketch, but I have always resisted doing it on a tablet or graphics tablet peripheral. Most of the applications have a steep learning curve and are designed primarily for professionals. They typically have scores of icons representing dozens of brushes and pens, colors, layers, and other settings. An example is “SketchBook Pro” from Autodesk, a versatile, well-rated app, but one that takes a long time to master. “Paper by FiftyThree” is just the opposite. (Note that there is another app simply called “Paper” that differs from this app.)

You’re presented with a simple notebook paradigm that you can leaf through, much like a Moleskine notebook, which it resembles. A simple gesture takes you from the notebook view to one leaf of the book that fills the entire screen. It’s all white with no other visible features. Touch the bottom of the display and out slides five tools and a palette of nine colors. The tools include a fountain pen, a pencil, ballpoint pen, marker and brush.

Drawing can be done with either your finger or a stylus. While today’s displays are not sensitive to how much pressure you exert, gliding the pen across the display at different speeds varied the line width, making it more realistic.

Each tool does a good job at replicating its real-life equivalent. Particularly satisfying is the watercolor brush that “deposits” a color wash, which becomes more intense as you move the pen more slowly.

The app supports the higher resolution of the iPad, and the drawings appear crisp, with all lines perfectly smooth. You also have the option of replacing the black notebook cover with one of your photos.

You can also email your sketches, although not the entire book of sketches. I found the app to be a great way to create simple drawings that I could easily send to others. That’s something you can’t do with a computer without using a scanner. This was the first drawing app that allowed me to express myself quickly and easily and have fun doing it.

The app can be downloaded for free, but beware. The free version comes with just a single pen. To get a full set you need to pay $8. For me it was worth it and added an unexpected new dimension to the iPad.

Notability

Notability is an app designed for taking notes. It has a load of features, yet is intuitive and simple to use. You can write with a stylus or finger, or type using the onscreen keyboard in both portrait and landscape mode. It’s perfect for use in meetings, because you can record the meeting while you write or type and then play back the audio in sync with what you wrote at the time. The voice recordings sound superb, although I didn’t try it in a large lecture hall.

You have a choice of notepaper forms, including colors and plain, lined and grid paper. Not only can you take notes, in paragraph or outline format, but you can also paste photos, Web pages and sketches into your notes anywhere you chose and then resize them. I used Notability in a meeting and took a few pictures of a whiteboard and a projected image, and then added it to the notes. You can also send your notes by email or to your Dropbox.

While the iPad comes with a simple Note utility, it has few of the features of Notability and can’t compare. This is the consummate note taker for the iPad. It costs 99 cents from the App store, but is worth many times more. (gingerlabs.com)

Pen recommendations

I used Kensington’s Virtuoso Touch Stylus & Pen when I tried these apps. The pen has a black rubberized body and a built-in roller pen. It worked well and rarely skipped, thanks to its heft and solid construction. Like all pens for capacitive displays, the need for a large tip means you can’t precisely see where you are writing on the screen; it’s like writing with a fat crayon.

Last week AT&T announced progress to the problem that “doesn’t exist.” It has reported a “reduction in dropped call rates in San Diego by 25 percent, as a result of investing nearly $700 million in its wireless and line networks over the past two years.” That investment represents 20 new cell sites or towers and improvements in capacity to another 20.

I’d love to hear from readers reporting on their experience with dropped calls, regardless of the carrier you use. I’ve had excellent results using my Verizon iPhone 4, although I do occasionally get a dropped call or two, a slight increase in frequency since I began using it a year ago. Email me at pbaker @ gmail.com.

The Volt has a range of 40 miles on a full battery charge. If you don’t travel more than that each day, you’ll never need to buy gasoline. But if you do drive farther, you can drive indefinitely using gasoline to power its onboard generator. What I also found so exciting about this car was that it was entirely engineered and manufactured in the United States, by Americans.

Work on the Volt began nearly a decade ago, years before GM filed for bankruptcy. Stories in Business Week and other magazines chronicled the challenges of its development team. It faced insurmountable odds and frequent setbacks and had to solve difficult technical problems and create new inventions. The team worked with the backdrop of always wondering whether the product would be killed because of budgetary pressures, especially as Detroit auto sales suffered.

Having been a part of engineering teams tasked with developing products that often meant the survival of a company, the story resonated. It reminded me of the wonderful book, “The Soul of a New Machine,” which chronicled the development of one of the early computers and the hero status accorded the development team.

Somehow the Volt team prevailed, and thanks to our government’s rescue of the automotive industry, GM survived to introduce the car in 2011.

When I reviewed the car in this column last year (May 3), I said, “It’s an exciting new vehicle on two fronts. First, it’s the most technologically advanced automobile that’s designed to reduce gasoline consumption. And second, it provides a sense of pride in showing that our country can still innovate in the automotive industry, an area where we’ve played catch-up for so many years. All the more commendable considering that the team that worked on the Volt did so under a cloud of uncertainty during the financial crisis that threatened to bankrupt their company.”

Other auto reviewers heaped similar praise on the automobile, several noting its positive effect in reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Others selected it as car of the year.

Last month, the Chevrolet Volt and its twin, the Opel Ampera, won Europe’s prestigious “Car of the Year” award. The 59 judges from 23 European nations described the automobile as a true technological step forward and “a mature product” that is “better suited to consumers’ needs than the conventional electric car.”

Earlier this year, a GM-owned Volt, while being stored in a GM facility, caught on fire three weeks after a laboratory-supervised crash test at that facility. The fire was caused by coolant leaking from the cooling system, which came in contact with the battery long after the crash and caused a short.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigated and concluded that, “Based on the available data, NHTSA does not believe that Chevy Volts or other electric vehicles pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles.”

At the time, Chevrolet offered to buy back Volts from any owner and provided loaner cars to Volt owners during the investigation. Chevy’s behavior went far beyond what it was required to do and demonstrated a huge contrast with Toyota’s abominable handling of its sudden acceleration fiasco.

But Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., was not satisfied with the NHTSA and GM investigations, and his committee recently held hearings in which it questioned whether NHTSA and GM were conspiring together to hush up the Volt’s fire. Issa implied that GM and NHTSA hid the Volt battery defect to avoid embarrassment for GM’s new car, a claim that runs counter to all evidence presented. And in an appearance on MSNBC, Issa compared subsidies for Chevrolet’s electric car to the Iran-Contra scandal.

Issa’s subcommittee’s staff report, sarcastically titled, “Government Motors: A Preliminary Report on the Effects of Bailouts and Politics on the Obama Administration’s Ability to Protect American Consumers,” states that the administration has provided taxpayer subsidies to produce the Volt and offered buyers of the Volt a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 per vehicle.

The implication of the report was that because GM was building the car, and GM was subsidized by the government’s bailout, NHTSA was somehow protecting the Volt, the showcase of the new GM. In fact, contrary to this “fact-finding” report, the $7,500 tax credit was passed by the 2007-2008 Congress under the Bush administration, in the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008.

So here we have elected officials doing their best to trash one of the most innovative products this country has produced, all in the name of politics.

I’ve written often about our difficulty in competing with China. One of the reasons is because the Chinese government heavily invests to strengthen important consumer industries. To compete with China, we need a government policy that builds up industries that are strategic.

AutoWeek, a respected automotive publication, said it best: “Message to politicians: Your childlike behavior is numbing, and it’s beginning to piss off all of America. The greatest problem with this particular witch-hunt is the message it sends to innovators in the United States, not to mention competitors abroad, when the crown jewel of a resurgent General Motors is attacked merely as a political salvo.”

Fortunately, some are pushing back. Lee Spieckerman, CEO of the conservative Spieckerman Media, has attacked the myths being propagated against the Volt. He also notes that the Volt was not a creation of the Obama administration and that it began two years earlier.

One would think we would all welcome and support innovative products and technologies that advance our country’s capabilities and reduce the use of oil. Apparently, some in politics would rather twist the truth to point blame on the current administration. Not only is this shameful, but it also undermines the effort to create American jobs. It’s behavior we’d expect more from our economic enemies than from those that we elect to represent us.

A friend of mine, an industrial designer who provides services to several of the major PC notebook companies, commiserated with me about how low a priority the industrial design was. Instead it’s usually more about turning out new models quickly and always doing it on the cheap. That’s why the bottom of the case is done quickly, adding cooling vents haphazardly instead of taking the time to develop advanced cooling solutions.

These PC companies’ corporate leaders failed to understand how important aesthetics is to their customers. Because these companies outsource most of their designs to multiple Taiwanese manufacturers, it was too difficult and too expensive, in their minds, to ensure that all of their notebooks had a common resemblance with compelling industrial designs.

With Apple’s hugely successful MacBook Air line of notebooks, that attitude is finally changing. Apple has proven that customers will pay for a beautiful design, particularly for a product that’s so personal, and one they carry with them much of the time.

In recent months, PC companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer, Asus and Lenovo have introduced new notebooks called ultrabooks. Intel defined the specs for ultrabooks and invested $300 million in marketing funds to get it off the ground.

Like the Air, the ultrabooks are characterized by a thin form factor, decent battery life and attractive aesthetics. Most are constructed of aluminum or other metal composite and weigh between three and four pounds. Currently they run Windows 7. Cost varies from just less than $1,000 to nearly $2,000. Most have 12- or 13-inch displays and solid state drives.

I’ve been trying out one of the new models, the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s Ultrabook. It’s a beautiful product, with its housing constructed of aluminum in a choice of bronze or orange finish. It has a 13.3-inch display (1366×768 pixels), an Intel Core i5 1.60 gigahertz processor, and weighs three pounds. It has a generous touchpad and a terrific, full-size keyboard. Unlike Lenovo’s ThinkPad models, there is no trackpoint.

The battery is rated at eight hours, but I got about four, still 30 percent better than my 11-inch MacBook Air. The model I tested has a 256 gigabyte solid state drive and costs $1,495.

One of the first things I noticed is how quickly the computer booted up and came in and out of sleep. It’s comparable now to the behavior of MacBooks.

One feature Lenovo is best known for is its keyboards; the U300 has one of the best I’ve used. The keys poke through cutouts in the aluminum chassis, like many of today’s designs, and have the same spacing as a desktop keyboard. But it’s more than spacing and layout that make a good keyboard. It’s the amount of vertical movement and how the force changes as the keys are depressed. The U300 seems perfect in this regard; as you type you can feel the firm over-center clicks in your fingers. The trackpad also exhibits similar properties. The left and right mouse buttons are built into the lower portion of the trackpad.

Apple pioneered the use of aluminum for its notebook and iPad cases. Each part, top and bottom, is machined from slabs or preformed pieces of aluminum. While normally such a process would be expensive and prohibitive, Apple set up factories full of computer-controlled milling machines that are programmed to machine each part to tolerances of a few thousandths of an inch. Apple uses thousands of these machines, each running 24 hours a day. As to how “ungreen” this process is, that could be something for another column.

The Lenovo housing is similarly fabricated and equally attractive. My only complaint is that there is a sharp edge along the top housing that had a couple of slight nicks from a previous reviewer.

The computer is a little more than a half-inch thick, consistent from front to back, rather than tapered like the Air and other ultrabooks. One of the compromises is that there are fewer ports than on normal notebooks. The U300 has two USB ports of the latest design (3.0) and an HDMI port for connecting to an HDTV. Unlike the Air’s 13-inch model, and like the 11-inch, there is no SD memory card slot.

Performance was excellent for all of the activities I tried, including writing, emailing, browsing, watching video and editing images. Unlike previous Windows machines, Wi-Fi connected with no complex setup required. The display was quite bright, but like nearly all Windows notebooks I’ve tried, there was a bluish cast compared to my MacBook Air. Photos also showed more burnout in the highlights.

The U300 is an excellent notebook computer and a particularly good choice for travelers. It’s sleek, sturdy and performs well, and it has a terrific keyboard, a long battery life and a good display. And when I turned it over, the bottom looked as good as the top.

It’s built around BMW’s iDrive technology, an interface that utilizes a large knob surrounded by four buttons for accessing navigation, CD, telephone and radio. Information is displayed on a wide 10 1/4-inch color display set deep into the middle of the dashboard to reduce glare. There is also a built-in 12 gigabyte hard disk drive used for storing navigation data and music copied from your CDs and memory sticks.

Shortly after the iPhone came out, BMW became the first company to integrate it into its automobiles and has been expanding its capabilities ever since. It now offers a wealth of features that, frankly, I’m still discovering. (The BMW will also work with other brands of phones, but without taking advantage of the iPhone’s special features.)

Learning all of its capabilities took quite a bit of time, mostly because it is so rich in features and there are so many ways for the iPhone to work with the car’s electronics. Still, some of the features are not always intuitive, and I’d often forget how to get to a menu item I had recently accessed.

The iPhone can connect three different ways to the BMW: by Bluetooth, a USB cable or snapping it into an optional dock in the center console.

Once paired to the car, the iPhone will always connect using Bluetooth each time you start the car. That allows you to make hands-free calls, accessing a name on your phone book by voice or by scrolling through a list. Like most voice systems, I found it to be hit or miss.

Moreover, every time Bluetooth connected, it updated the address book on the display. Outgoing call quality using the built-in microphone was excellent, better than in other cars I have tested; listeners didn’t realize I was on a speakerphone. Call volume, dialing and call termination can be controlled from buttons on the steering wheel.

If you connect your phone to the USB port in the center console, it will both charge and provide access to your iTunes music. However, there’s less flexibility to choose a playlist or go from song to song out of order. Songs are arranged alphabetically and are displayed on a second, smaller display directly in front of the driver, between the speedometer and tachometer. You can also listen to an Internet radio station using an iPhone app such as TuneIn Radio; once plugged in, it plays through the car’s speakers. But there was no way to access the app, because the iPhone’s display cannot be used.

If you are on a call when you arrive at a destination, you can turn off the engine and the conversation will continue through the car’s speaker. If you leave and lock the car, the conversation will transfer to the phone itself or to a Bluetooth headset.

But the tour de force of iPhone integration occurs when the iPhone is snapped into the optional deck in the center console. This offers many advantages over using the USB connector. When connected, the phone’s reception is boosted by using the roof antenna. Second, Apple’s graphic user interface, including album covers, appears on the car’s screen, allowing you to access all of your music in much the same way as you would do on the iPhone. You can access playlists, your favorites list, and search by album or artist. You can also scroll through songs on an album using a smaller display directly in front of you.

In addition, BMW’s free Connected app on your phone provides additional features. Most interesting is being able to use the app to play Internet radio stations and select your favorites that appear on the display, just as if they were conventional AM or FM stations. You can also access Pandora as if it were a real radio station in your car.

You can also display your calendar and access your Twitter and Facebook feeds. That’s probably one of the most dubious features, considering these are major distractions when driving.

The navigation system worked well, with clear controls and high-resolution maps. There is no touch screen; instead the iDrive control is used to select the options on the screen using a simple rotate to scan and push to engage motion. There is an on-board database of points of interest to help you locate thousands of popular locations.

If you elect to subscribe to the optional part of BMW Assist ($200 per year), you can access more POIs by doing a live Google search. The maps are exceptionally clear, although I’d like more street markings displayed. You can view in 2-D or 3-D, and the latter displays are quite attractive. Traffic information is shown using data from other BMW drivers; no connection to SiriusXM is required. Sensors monitor the wheels and the steering direction so navigation works even with weak signals, such as when driving in tunnels and indoor parking structures.

Radio stations are stored using the built-in radio with eight push-buttons. Each of these buttons can be set to your favorite stations, but also to almost any other function you choose. You just set the button after you’ve performed a function that you want it to memorize. For example, I set one of the buttons to call home, and another to call my wife’s cellphone.

BMW is known for producing vehicles with some of the best technology. I found that extends to its on-board navigation, phone and entertainment systems, as well. The only problem is the steep learning curve. But once mastered, you’ll find it does a great job at merging the best features of the iPhone with the car.

The improvements over the previous model are not obvious at first glance. The housing is nearly identical, and the changes, on paper at least, are mostly incremental: a faster processor, a better camera and a sharper display. Like Apple’s recent upgrade to the iPhone, the new iPad turns an excellent product into something even better.

I’ve been trying out the new iPad that’s actually called simply the “iPad,” not the “iPad 3,” as many had speculated. Of all the improvements, the most noticeable is the doubling of the resolution, quadrupling the number of pixels to 2048 x 1536. That’s equivalent to 264 pixels per inch. By comparison, the iPhone has 326 ppi, and a good notebook display has about 130 ppi. In addition, color saturation has increased by 44 percent, making the colors even more vibrant.

DisplayMate, a well-respected display testing and research company, found that “the new iPad’s picture quality, color accuracy and gray scale are not only much better than any other tablet or smartphone, it’s also much better than most HDTVs, laptops and monitors.”

I found small text easier to read and high-resolution photos and HD videos to be much sharper. Thin lines, just a pixel or two wide, are black, rather than gray. And I loved using the iPad to examine images I shot with a high-end camera. I’ve never seen them as sharp or as vibrant, even as prints.

Some apps have already been modified to take advantage of the new display. The e-magazine Vogue, as an example, is filled with incredible photos and ads that are better than any real magazine. Some companies, such as Tumi, are offering their catalogues as free apps, utilizing the new screen to display their products in great detail. My favorite among the apps I tried that take advantage of the display is Real Racing 2 HD, an auto racing game with photorealistic animation for $6.99. This display will raise the quality of images used all over the Web.

Other additions to the new iPad include Apple’s faster A5X quad-core processor, which makes everything you do on the iPad a little quicker. Zooms and swipes of the screen are instantaneous with no lag whatsoever, and new windows open up with no delays. Of course, in actual use, you’ll experience the same old waits when surfing and waiting for websites to respond, activities that are not dependent on the hardware.

To compensate for the more power-hungry display and processor, Apple has nearly doubled the battery capacity to maintain a 10-hour life between charges. In my testing, with the display set to about 80 percent brightness, surfing the web, reading and doing email, I got about eight hours. Charging takes much longer because of the increased battery capacity.

The iPad also has a 5-megapixel iSight camera that captures video and photos at 1080p HD. The improved camera provides much sharper images. Taking pictures with the iPad reminded me of using an old view camera, where the image is huge and can more easily be checked for focus and framing. The rearward-facing camera, combined with the large display, is great for FaceTime video calls.

The new iPad is two ounces heavier and one millimeter thicker than the iPad 2. Form-fitting plastic cases designed for the iPad 2 will not fit on the new model, but the new iPad does use the same iPad 2 optional folding magnetic cover ($39 for vinyl and a pricey $69 in leather).

While the new iPad doesn’t have Siri, it does have another form of voice recognition. You can touch the “mic key” on the keyboard and dictate instead of typing. It worked reasonably well, but still required a few corrections for each long sentence I dictated.

The new iPad models are available in a choice of a black or white trim, with Wi-Fi, for $499 with 16GB, $599 for the 32GB model (my recommendation), and $699 for the 64GB model. Models that add 4G cellular from AT&T or Verizon cost $130 more.

Apple will continue to sell the entry level models of the iPad 2 for $100 less — $399 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model, and $529 for the 16GB Wi-Fi and 3G model.

If you’re thinking about buying a tablet, both the new iPad and the iPad 2 are far superior to similar-sized Android tablets. Not only is the hardware better, but also the number of iPad apps has grown to more than 200,000, far more than in the Android Marketplace. And both the quality and shopping experience are far superior.

For those with an iPad 2, upgrading is not a must, but if you’re like my friends, you’re probably thinking about gifting your iPad 2 to justify buying the new one.

The introduction of each new product from Apple sets in motion a sprint among all of the accessory companies. They all vie to be the first to come out with the cases and covers custom-made for the new models. These companies are first in line to buy the new product and then jump on planes to China. One engineer explained to me that he begins his design when he gets on the flight, and by the time he lands, the design is done and the tooling can begin.

Exactly one week from the iPad’s introduction, Griffin was out with the first hard-shell back cover for the new iPad. Did they have an inside track? Whatever the answer, they won this race with this $30 product that works with the Apple smart cover.

Among the many gadgets and new luggage at the show, two products stood out. One is an unusual article of clothing and the other is a suitcase, but they both have something in common. Each provides a solution for making travel less of a hassle, particularly when it comes to carrying stuff onto planes.

Ever since airlines discovered they could turn losses into profits by charging us for checked luggage, we’ve all been challenged to see just how much we can bring aboard and save those fees.

Of course, at the same time, the airlines have been working hard to find new ways to gouge us. Spirit Airlines is now charging $20 to $30 for bringing aboard a carry-on bag, and British Airways is charging $90 for a business class passenger to select a seat prior to check-in.

Briggs & Riley new Baseline CX

Briggs & Riley introduced a new line of luggage called the Baseline CX collection. Each suitcase in the collection can transform into a range of sizes, depending on how much you’re carrying. Instead of a zipper to expand your luggage, the CX uses a completely new mechanism.

How does it work? When packing, you expand the luggage to its maximum capacity by releasing a latch on the inside. You then pack your suitcase as you normally would, zip the top closed, and then push down on the bag. A ratcheting mechanism inside the bag compresses the bag to just the size needed.

It’s the first luggage that, once packed and zipped closed, compresses to fit around your belongings. This prevents your clothes from shifting in the suitcase and becoming wrinkled, and lets you fit more inside. The design also gels nicely with Briggs & Riley’s mounting of the telescoping handle on the outside of the bag, keeping the inside bottom completely flat.

The CX range includes both carry-on and checked sizes from 18 to 27 inches for $399 to $549. I’ve been using its International wide-body size from its Baseline luggage line for years and find it’s perfect for traveling on both domestic and international flights. The 20-inch length makes it more acceptable to international carry-on requirements, and it fits into the bins on Southwest’s fleet of 737s with the wheels facing out. Yet it has the same capacity of normal 22-inch bags. That size in the new series is $449. The new CX line is expected to be available midyear. (briggs-riley.com)

Scottevest’s Transformer Jacket

Scottevest is known for making jackets and other clothes that have a huge number of pockets designed to hold just about everything, a godsend for techies who like to travel with their gadgets. This year the company has come up with what I think is its best jacket yet, the Transformer.

The softly lined jacket can be transformed into a vest nearly instantly, even while you’re wearing it. Unlike other jackets with removable sleeves that are held in place with zippers, the Transformer’s sleeves attach to the jacket using magnets. That makes adding or removing a snap (or in this case a click, click, click) and gives you a vest with the same storage capacity. And what do you do after removing the sleeves? Stuff it into the pocket designed just for them.

It’s the latest model in a constantly evolving line of products for men and women, and it’s popular with frequent travelers and the tech community. The 20 pockets, each uniquely sized, are designed to accommodate specific items. There’s a clear pocket for a smartphone that you can use without removing, and pockets for business cards, glasses, a camera and extra memory, travel documents, keys, and a water bottle. There are pockets for a USB drive, a pen and loose change. Lastly, there’s a pocket specifically made to hold an iPad.

Surprisingly, even when the pockets are full — yes I have enough gadgets to do that — the weight is well-distributed, and the jacket hangs neatly. It can hold almost the entire contents of a briefcase, allowing you to effectively break the two-bag limit that airlines impose.

The Transformer is available in three colors for $160 at scottevest.com.