You Can Take It With You

Personal technology has come a long way since the time we bought our first calculator and multiplied a large number by another for the quick thrill of seeing yet an even bigger number pop up on a tiny, shiny screen.

Now, we’re quickly approaching that point when people will be wearing ear studs that are telephone receivers and nose rings that act as telephone mouthpieces. And we all know that it’s only a matter of time before we all sport an e-mail watch and drive self-steering cars.

But blasphemous as it sounds, some of the handiest tools available to today’s business traveler are relatively low tech and often overlooked in the frenzy to find a paper-thin laptop or a palm-size computer with gigabytes of memory. Here is a look at a few of the gadgets on-the-road warriors might want to consider the next time they upgrade their arsenals.

* It doesn’t help your professional image if your business clothes reek of cigarette smoke and are speckled with lint and hairs. But sometimes you might find yourself on a business trip running low on fresh business attire and yet having to don a jacket or other garment that you’d usually send to the cleaners. The Ionic Clothes Freshener, available from Sharper Image (call [800] 344-4444 or visit the Web site, https://www.sharperimage.com; $49), is a battery-powered, brush-size lint remover that gently blows odor-neutralizing ozone through fabric to remove lingering smells. This gadget is particularly well-suited for businesspeople who find themselves in smoke-filled rooms and don’t like carrying the stale odor with them the rest of their trip.

* James Bond would have been pleased with Q had the gadgets guru equipped him with the Pocket Recorder available from Hammacher Schlemmer ([800] 543-3366, https://www.hammacher.com; $179.95). The easy-to-use digital audio recorder closely resembles a plump Mont Blanc fountain pen, from the gold clasp to the black body. But inside the “pen” there’s a chip that can record 99 spoken messages totaling 70 minutes. And, located just above the play, record, erase, skip, fast forward and reverse buttons, there’s a tiny liquid crystal display window that displays message length and battery life. The microphone and speaker are built in. It’s a perfect device for brilliant ideas you don’t want to forget before you’ve had a chance to enter them in your personal electronic organizer.

* Feeling secure in a hotel room should be a right. But if you are someone who, despite all the locks on your hotel door, worries that a stranger could slip into your room during the night, you’ll be pleased to learn about the Motion-Sensor Security Lamp available from TravelSmith ([800] 950-1600, https://www.travelsmith.com; $34). This small, lightweight lamp with an attached cord is activated by motion. Simply turn on the device before retiring and dangle it from your doorknob. If the door moves even a tiny bit, the lamp instantly illuminates your room. If you tend to get up during the night and stumble into things, consider putting the lamp in the middle of the room so it comes on when you stand up. A three-way switch allows you to use the unit as a flashlight.

* Dialing a string of calling-card numbers isn’t just annoying; in public places it also can be a security issue. It’s common these days for thieves to steal phone card numbers by spying on unwitting souls as their fingers tap away on public pay phones. Safety and convenience are combined in the Geo Dialer, available at Distant Lands in Pasadena ([800] 310-3220, https://www.distantlands.com; $19.95). Just hold the small device against the mouthpiece of any push-button phone and press a pre-programmed key to generate the exact tones of your phone card as if you were pushing the buttons with your finger. The Geo Dialer is also good for programming other lengthy number sequences that you need to punch into a phone pad, such as your bank or brokerage accounts. The device can hold up to 13 entries with a maximum of 16 digits each that can be accessed with a one- or two-digit code.

* As most road warriors know, business is often conducted on the run. Now there’s an agreeable way to brush your teeth on the run too. Dental Dots, billed as the first fingertip toothbrush, offer a convenient method to clean your teeth and freshen your breath between meetings when you don’t have the time to whip out a toothbrush. The dime-size fabric disks, available from Reseda-based Dental Dots ([800] 700-9409, https://www.dentaldots.com; $2 for a package of six), are treated with just enough dry toothpaste to do a thorough job and have an adhesive backing that keeps the disk secure on a fingertip during brushing. Just press to your teeth and brush away--no moistening or rinsing is necessary. The dots are individually wrapped and come in two minty flavors.

* Some of the niftiest items for business travelers not only come in small packages, but they are also inexpensive. Such is the case with the Cord Caddy produced by Austin House and sold by specialty-travel stores such as Distant Lands in Pasadena ([800] 310-3220, https://www.distantlands.com; $10.95). The Cord Caddy is a retractable telephone cord for laptop computers that somewhat amazingly manages to get 8 feet of cord into a sturdy case that’s no bigger that a pair of dominoes resting side by side. It includes an RJ11 adapter that allows you to extend the length of a hotel-supplied phone cord. Models that fit either U.S. or European phone jacks are offered.

* This column was going to steer clear of high-tech wizardry, but because we’ve already introduced the micro-pen recorder, why not tell you about another innovative business aid. It’s the Extreme NoiseBuster, available from Magellan’s ([800] 962-4943, https://www.magellans.com; $59). NoiseBuster, which resembles a Walkman, contains a tiny computer that analyzes sound waves of the offending noise, duplicates their frequency in the opposite phase, and then electronically sends this anti-noise signal to a cushioned pair of headphones to meet and cancel out up to 95% of the offending noise. NoiseBuster is perfect for those long flights when you really don’t want to suffer the constant hum of a jet engine. NoiseBuster headphones are high quality and can be used on standard portable radios and tape players as well.

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The Times is interested in hearing about your experiences and any tips or advice you have to share as a business traveler and as someone doing business in the international marketplace. Please contact us at [email protected].