It's rare for a technology story to hold up four years later, but that's mostly the case with this 2018 Advisorator issue on travel tech.

I still use my Charmast battery pack to recharge phones, tablets, and game consoles from the road, and iExit is still my favorite way to find gas stations, rest areas, and quick food stops along major highways. My wife's family still uses Splitwise to divvy up major trip expenses, and I depend on my phone's mobile hotspot to connect my iPad and laptop from practically anywhere.

But with summer quickly approaching, I've also been looking to add some new tech tools to my travel arsenal. After sampling way too many travel-related apps and websites, here are a few that I think anyone will find useful:

As an alternative to clunky spreadsheets or endless email chains, WhoBrings is a brilliantly simple way to figure out who's bringing what.

Just type the name of your packing list into this free website, add some items, then share the link with the rest of the group. Anyone who has the link can then claim responsibility for an item or add new items to the list. You can also specify a number of units for any item—12 beach towels, for instance, or three packs of beer—and people can choose how many they'll bring.

The great thing about WhoBrings is that it doesn't require any registration, so anyone can use it with practically no friction. I'm looking forward to using it for future trips and sending far fewer emails in the process.

Check out WhoBrings →

If you use Google Maps, you might already know that you can download area maps for offline viewing. But unless you have an internet connection, you can't use those maps to get turn-by-turn directions.

That's where Organic Maps comes in. This free app for iOS and Android lets you download detailed maps from OpenStreetMap, complete with business names and other points of interest, and it provides turn-by-turn voice navigation without an internet connection.

The app is admittedly less intuitive than Google Maps or Apple Maps, but poke around, and you'll find some other neat features.

After searching for a location, for instance, try hitting the little arrow icon in the bottom right. This brings up a simple arrow pointing in the direction of your destination. If you're walking around, this gives you some freedom to explore while telling you generally where to go. (I've previously recommended an app called Mapless for this purpose, but Organic Maps has the advantage of working on Android as well.)

Check out Organic Maps →

When you're torn between staying at a hotel or in an AirBnB, CozyCozy can search across both at the same time (along with VRBO for good measure). Even better, its search results highlight the actual average price per night, including AirBnB's cleaning and service fees. (I learned of this one from my pal Doug Aamoth, who's compiled some other interesting travel apps over at FastCo)

A couple of suggestions, though: On CozyCozy's results page, uncheck "Instant Booking" to make sure you're seeing all possible results, and consider sorting by "price" instead of "price/value" to find the cheapest available options. You can always use the "Filters" tab to set a minimum rating on top of that, or to narrow down specific accommodations.

Check out CozyCozy →

Noise-cancelling earbuds have plummeted in price over the years, so consider grabbing a pair to help you tune out on long flights or car rides. I got this set of UGreen buds for $18 and found them to be surprisingly decent for the money, even if they're no match for Apple's AirPods Pro.

Email folders are a huge help for trip planning—something I took way too long to realize myself. Create a folder for each upcoming trip, and drop all your confirmation and reservation emails into it as they arrive. That way you don't have to fumble through your inbox while trying to look up basic information.

Text flight codes to yourself or others for quick reference, especially on an iPhone. In Apple's Messages app, you can long-press that flight code and select "Preview Flight" for a quick status check. (Via this post by Nikhil Vemu.)

Got Android instead? If you've enabled Smart features in Gmail, just summon Google Assistant on your phone and say "What's my flight status?" or "When's my flight?"

Download videos ahead of your next trip. Back in 2018, only Netflix and Amazon allowed this. Now, you can also download in Disney+, Apple TV+, Showtime, Starz, and Epix, along with the ad-free versions of Hulu, HBO Max, and Paramount+. Peacock also supports downloads, but only on its $10 per month tier.

Got any favorite tech travel tips I missed? I'd love to hear them. Just reply to this email to get in touch.

In case you missed it last week, I added a new guide to the members-only website, describing how you can give your web browser some new superpowers with bookmarklets. Many of these shortcuts are truly indispensable to me, and I hope you'll find them useful as well. Stay tuned for more guides on the website soon!

DuckDuckGo's tracker trouble: DuckDuckGo's web browser isn't quite as private as the company has claimed. As BleepingComputer reports, the browser has been sending data to Microsoft's LinkedIn and Bing domains, even as it blocks all other trackers. This is apparently due to a search syndication contract between the two companies, which DuckDuckGo now says it's actively trying to modify.

This exemption only applies to the DuckDuckGo browser, not the search engine. Still, it's a bad look for a company that just put out an ad about big tech companies snooping on you.

(Incidentally, I've been using Brave Search as my default desktop search engine for the past month, and it's working out pretty well. The recent addition of "Discussions" from Reddit and other forums has done a lot to close the feature gap with Google, especially for niche technical questions and troubleshooting issues.)

Ikea's Matter Hub: The DIRIGERA smart home hub from Ikea is not something that would normally warrant a news item from me, but its forthcoming launch underscores a point I've been making for a while now: With the industry rallying behind a new smart home standard called Matter, you should avoid making any major smart home investments in devices that won't support it.

Matter is supposed to provide a common way for all smart home devices to communicate, so you won't have to worry about what works with what, but the standard doesn't launch until later this year, and we're still learning how many existing devices will be compatible.

Case in point: Ikea's existing TRÅDFRI hub is now on the path to obsolescence. It apparently won't support the overhauled home control app that Ikea plans to launch alongside the DIRIGERA hub later this year, and may not support some future Ikea products either. Proceed with caution if you're giving your home a technological upgrade.

Amazon's tablet crackdown: I haven't seen much coverage of this anywhere, but a recent firmware update for Amazon Fire tablets appears to hinder Fire Toolbox, a program I've recommended for removing the company's bloatware. While you can still use Fire Toolbox to install the Google Play Store, the new firmware prevents users from eliminating lock screen ads, bypassing Amazon's home screen launcher, and preventing future firmware updates, at least not without elaborate workarounds.

Keep this in mind if you're in the market for a Fire tablet, especially when Prime Day discounts come around in July. I plan to take fresh look at this issue around then.

Faster text formatting: Google Docs just made text formatting a lot easier, as you can now highlight snippets from different parts of a document at the same time. To try it out, hold Ctrl (in Windows) or Cmd (on a Mac) while selecting separate chunks of text, just like if you were selecting multiple files on your computer.

This can save a lot of time if you want to change the styling of all your headings at once, or you want to apply a different color to specific words or phrases. Now that this is possible in Google Docs, I find myself wishing every text editor offered it. (Microsoft Word already does.)

Easier drag and drop: Speaking of selecting multiple things at once, DropPoint is a neat little app for copying files to other places on your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer. Just drag individual files into the little DropPoint window, then drag them back out again as one bundle. Once you've launched the app for the first time, you can open the DropPoint window through the system tray or with a keyboard shortcut (Shift+Caps on Windows and Linux, Shift+Tab on Mac).

I've seen some more sophisticated versions of this concept, including Shelfit for Windows and Dropover for MacOS, but I appreciate that DropPoint is a simple tool that doesn't bog you down with options. That, and it's completely free. (Via GHacks)

An early iTunes throwback: Music MiniPlayer is a free app for MacOS that replicates the classic iTunes interface. It works with any songs or radio stations that you play through Apple's Music app, including streaming tracks or your personal MP3 collection, and there's an option to keep it on top of your other windows.

It's the rare nostalgia trip that has actual utility. (Via 9to5Mac)

Somewhat relevant to this week's feature topic, Monoprice is selling a wall charger with four USB ports (two USB-C, two USB-A) for $33.10 with the code MPA15 at checkout. The USB-C ports can charge at up to 100W if nothing else is plugged in, so they can deliver a fast charge to practically any compatible laptop. (Check out this Advisorator issue for an explainer on fast charging options.) If you're traveling, it beats having to bring a pile of wall chargers with you.

Other notable deals this morning:

I hope you all had a lovely long weekend. If you have any questions about anything you've read here, or would like me to help you with any other tech issues, don't hesitate to reach out. Just reply to this email to get in touch.

Until next week,
Jared