I recently flew to San Diego to give a gadget presentation at the National Association of Black Journalists convention and seized the opportunity to test some gadgets in flight and while traveling. Here are some random notes from my experiences.

• Using an iPad on the plane is so much easier than using a laptop.

• If you travel with an iPad, be prepared to answer a lot of questions about it because many people still have not seen one.

• I used my iPad for more than four hours in flight, and when I arrived in San Diego the battery was still at 70 percent. Can you do that with a laptop?

• Having a Scottevest travel vest is like having another carry-on. It holds lots of gadgets with 22 pockets and one large enough to hold an iPad.

• There are lots of cool gadget stores at airports, but the prices are insane. Take a photo of the gadget you want or use a barcode scanner app and shop for it later.

• On US Airways I used Gogo Inflight Internet and it was unbelievably fast. Even though I understand how WiFi and satellite Internet technology works, it still blows my mind that the connection can be so good at 36,000 feet while flying in a moving target. The service was $12.95 for 24 hours and could be used on multiple flights if you stayed on the same airline. Other plans are available. Facebosaging, streaming video ... all of them worked.

• I have been testing an iPhone/iPad app called AirVideo. It basically lets you store movie files on your computer at home so you can stream them to your iPhone or iPad. The server software is free and works on PCs and Macs. Works with your iTunes library, too. I was watching "Dodgeball" on the plane, streaming from my iMac at home. Unbelievable!

For more information:

iPad: apple.com

Scottevest travel vest: www.scottevest.com

Gogo Inflight Internet: www.gogoinflight.com

AirVideo: www.inmethod.com

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