Several times a year , my family and I drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles to visit my wife ’s parents . It ’s an eight - minute drive . Back when I was a kid , that would ’ve meant eight time of day of boredom . But our kids actually look ahead to it these days . They can watch TV shows and pic on a video recording iPod while my wife and I stay entertained by music and podcasts from an iPod mini wired into the motorcar ’s CD - auto-changer plug .

Meanwhile , stuck to the splashboard is a portable GPS pass receiver , which updates us on our estimated arrival meter and let us sleep together where the close eating place or flatulency post is . In my pocket I ’ve draw a cell speech sound that will let me surf the Web and make and receive calls . Occasionally , I bestow along a cellular modem for my MacBook , so I can check my einsteinium - post when we ’re hold back in traffic . It have you wonder why we ever exit our cars .

The distributor point is that technology has changed travel forever . There was a time , not too long ago , when being on the road stand for being out of tactile sensation . Sometime in the retiring ten years , that exchange . The isolation of the route has receded in the rearward - survey mirror and disappeared into the distance . These day , our technical puppet keep us in touch and in comfort — and aid us get where we ’re going — no matter where we go . This calendar month ’s “ Macworld ’s Summer Travel Guide ” ( Thomas Nelson Page 48 ) has 53 such tool : Mac - favorable ironware , software , and Web site that ’ll make your next trip eas - ier and more fun .

Disturbing the peace

Yet , for all my enthusiasm about these raw mobile technologies , I can also understand complaints about how engineering has changed the construct of getting away from it all .

Every summer , I go to the Lair of the Bear , a ingroup for University of California alumni in the Sierra Nevada mountain . The entire estimation of the Lair is for families to spend a calendar week in the woodland , away from the insanity of our busy lives . And yet , over the years , that hideaway into the forest has become less of a retirement .

We ’ve all sustain our electric cell phone . There ’s wireless cyberspace admittance at the main agency . Even the sounds of the woods have been augmented by iPod verbalizer systems .

Do I overdraw ? Only a second . In realism , Lair of the Bear campers tend to keep their gadgets under control . I seldom see motor home mouth on cell phones . ( It helps that only one immune carrier provide reception at the summer camp region . ) Early in the morning , I might occasionally see the Windows XP bug out - up song wafting through my tent window , but the figurer users keep their work under wraps most of the meter . In other words , the technology is there , but most people have enough sense to keep it to themselves .

The always-on life

Technology has advanced to the point that you neverneedto be out of touching . If youwantto be out of jot , you may turn off your cell phone and get out your MacBook at home . You decide . Unfortunately , some of us have a operose time letting go of our oeuvre lives . ( And if your boss insist on calling you when you ’re on holiday , might I urge that you conveniently leave to pack your mobile phone phone ’s battery charger on your next trip ? )

And if you ’re infuriated by the sound of Radiohead playing off in the distance while you adhere your toes in a mount current , all I can do is apologize on behalf of all my fellow iPod substance abuser . If we need to bring our iPods with us , that ’s our concern . But we should keep our noise to ourselves .

Nothing illustrates the fact that fluid technology is a two - edged sword more than my own plight this summertime . Our camp reservation ( made far in procession , so they ’re not chatoyant ) are for right after the iPhone is due to be released . In the old days , this would ’ve been an intractable situation : I would have either had to cancel my head trip , stay at place while my family went to the stack , or shrug it off and go away for a hebdomad at the height of Apple ’s most important new product release in age .

The good news is that now I do n’t have to opt . I can go to clique and still be in touch , perhaps even compose about the iPhone from a folding president in front of my tent ( adopt that I bring an iPhone with me and that it is n’t carried off by racoon ) . The tough news , of course , is that I may finish up working during my supposed vacation . Oh , technology , why must you be such a vicious mistress ?

Now if you ’ll excuse me , I ’ve get to go . I just got an IM from my booster Phil , who ’s on vacation in Hawaii . Yes , it ’s true — iChat in paradise .

[ Got a news report about technology on the route ? Post it in our forums . Or sink me a note . ]