We live in exciting times – the past couple of years saw some of the best technical innovations in ages. Best of all, many of these new innovations have been great for travelers. We’ve seen touch screen smartphones with fantastic travel applications, smaller laptop computers and speedy 3G mobile Internet. So, what will 2010 bring for travelers?

Better Battery Life

The world of portable computers is an odd one – computer speeds double almost every year, but battery technology has barely evolved in the past decade. Back in 1988, the Compaq SLT/286 (considered to be the first laptop with a hard drive and a high resolution screen) ran for three hours on its battery. Anno 2010, most laptop computers from your local electronics store have the same battery life, even though they are up to 500x faster than that old Compaq.

Thankfully this is all slowly changing – in part due to new battery technologies. One other major development is the move to low power computers and netbooks. These smaller computers make use of low power processors, smaller screens and no optical drive, greatly reducing their battery load.

The first computer to break the ten hour battery mark came out last year, and several computers now offer up to 12 hours. To clarify – these are real hours, not the “estimates” some companies provide, offering no more than 6 or 7 hours in real use.
As technology evolves, 14 and 16 hour battery packs will show up, and sooner or later we’ll finally have a laptop that really can last for a couple of days on the road.

Faster Speeds with 4G

Many travelers only just recently hopped aboard the 3G bandwagon, but the new kid in town is 4G. The “G” in these products refers to its generation – 3G was the third generation of wireless mobile Internet, so 4G obviously refers to the new fourth generation. With each new evolution, speeds increase by 3-4x. The first 4G service in the nation comes from Clear – a partnership between large corporations like Sprint, Comcast and Clearwire.

The Clear 4G service uses a technology called Wi-Max – a form of Wi-Fi with a very long range. Speeds on Clear are substantially higher than on 3G but because the service is so new, coverage is still quite limited. It took most operators 4 years to install their 3G towers, so don’t expect nationwide Clear 4G any time soon.

Thankfully, Clear caters to travelers with a dual 3G/4G adapter. This small device plugs into your laptop, offering speedy 4G when in the coverage area, and slower 3G when Clear is not yet available. Clear 4G service can be found for as low as $25/month from www.clear.com

Tablets and the New Apple iPad

The beginning of each New Year is always exciting for Apple fans – it is when the CEO of Apple gets up on stage to announce the latest and greatest new product from his company. This year, Apple announced the iPad. The iPad is important for several reasons;

•    It is a new product from Apple – and Apple products tend to be pretty great.
•    It acts as a wakeup call to other companies.
•    The iPad has the potential to become a travelers best friend.

Tablet computers are most certainly not new, and despite Apple telling audiences that the iPad is “magical”, the device is not much more than a large iPod Touch. Not that there is anything wrong with an iPod Touch.
As for the competition – just like with the iPhone, all successful products from Apple act as a wakeup call for others to innovate past their usual standards. If it were not for Apple, we’d still be stuck using the same bulky phones we used five years ago.
New ways to carry your ticket

Developments in the aviation world often take place at a snail’s pace. It took airlines about 8 years to completely make the switch to online check-in, but now they have realized that they can save a ton of money with new technology, they are introducing new ticketing systems pretty quickly.

Some airlines already offer smartphone boarding passes, which allow you to save a barcode to your phone, and have the security checkpoint and boarding gate scan the screen on your device. Other airlines are experimenting with biometrics and special printers that can print your boarding pass on your frequent flier card over and over again.

More Inflight Wi-Fi

In November 2008, the first domestic US planes took to the skies offering wireless Internet. At the end of 2009, there were almost 700 planes offering the service. Inflight Wi-Fi has taken off at an amazing pace, and in 2010, even more planes will be outfitted with the equipment required for Internet access.

Getting online is reasonably cheap (under $10 for a flight under 3 hours), the speed is decent, and you can connect with almost any Wi-Fi enabled device.

Since airlines have stopped investing in better entertainment, being able to get online and either do some work, or keep up with social networks is a great way to kill the time. Speeds on the plane are surprisingly fast, and future updates will include access to movies and music on your laptop from servers on the plane.