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There’s nothing particularly fancy inside, but it is all functional and each piece fits its required role perfectly.

The Bag

Like Simon, I’m a big fan of the backpack. I’ve had a Targus Sport for going on five years now and it is holding up quite well. Easy to sling over my shoulder, well padded for the laptop and filled with miscellaneous pockets for all sorts of supplemental stuff. Padded shoulder straps make it a comfortable carry even on a long walk.

The Laptop

My current laptop is an IBM ThinkPad R50e, which I’ve had for a few years. I prefer a 15-inch screen for a good mix between portability and usability. I’ve bumped up the RAM to the 2GB maximum, but otherwise it still works quite well for everything I can throw at it.

I’m a big fan of the ThinkPad line of laptops in general. In my experience, they have proven to be very reliable and offer a lot of functionality at a good value. I imagine my next laptop will also be a ThinkPad.

A lot of people tell me I should go Mac, I say I’ll consider it when I can get one with a TrackPoint , as I honestly can’t imagine my primary machine not having one (yes, I’m “the guy who likes the TrackPoint,” mock away…) My current model doesn’t even have a touchpad, which is ideal for me.

I do have an extra battery I bring along for long trips and a power brick that is easily accessible.

The Connection

For connectivity, I use the Sprint Mobile Broadband service in conjunction with a Novatel S620 card. The coverage here in my area is excellent and the speed is good enough to avoid any frustration. It’s nice to not have to worry about finding hotspots and just knowing that I can connect anywhere. I wish I could avoid the monthly fee but on more than one occasion it has proven to be indispensable.

The Phone

I just recently moved into the smartphone era with the purchase of a Samsung BlackJackII . In addition to phone calls, it also works quite well for handling my other data needs. It syncs beautifully via IMAP with Gmail, my calendar is kept up to date with the help of GooSync, and Tiny Twitter keeps me connected to my friends there. I don’t do much browsing on it but I do recommend the upgrade to Opera Mobile, which I prefer over IE Mobile. My phone was cheap through AT&T and has proven to be a good mobile companion.

I have a Bluetooth headset but I find it so horribly uncomfortable that except when I’m obligated by law to use it (like when driving in Chicago) I tend to forgo it. The lack of a good headset tends to keep me off of the phone while driving, which is probably a good thing anyway.

The Camera

I’m not much of a shutterbug, I guess. I take the miscellaneous photo with my phone or for “heavy duty” needs I’ll borrow the Nikon E3100 from my wife.

The Tunes

To keep myself sane in a noisy environment or to grab myself some entertainment, I use a set of either Shure E2C or E3C sound isolating earphones which do an amazing job at both. They have been discontinued, but the SE210 appears to be the logical replacement. Honestly, you can’t go wrong with them.

I also have an ancient MPIO FL100 MP3 player which continues to serve me well for the limited times I need it.

The Extras

I also keep handy various power bricks and adapters to keep things charged. I’ve got a USB key with PortableApps on it which can let me be productive on someone else’s machine if necessary, and there are always a couple of blank CDs handy as well.

The Non-Tech

I take advantage of the multiple pockets in my backpack to carry along the basics like notebook, pens, tissues, mints, hand sanitizer and I usually try to remember to bring along a book for “offline” time.

That’s what I carry. What’s in your bag?

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In a nutshell, GooSync facilitates an over the air synchronization of your Google calendars and contacts with up to 4 mobile devices. It is possible for each device to have separate settings to control specifically which calendars or contact categories are synchronized, but they all must connect to the same Google account.

A free account is still available but multiple device support is just one of the really nice extra features of a Premium account. It runs about $40/year, a real bargain in my opinion for the ability to stay up to date no matter where I am.

Is multi-device support important to you?

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As nice as the mobile interfaces for these apps are though, I found I did miss the benefits of having this information stored in my phone’s native apps, specifically for caller ID and visibility from the main screen without needing to launch a browser.

So with a bit of online research, I was really pleased to find the GooSync service from the folks at Toffa.

Different than the GoodSync application I also recently reviewed, The GooSync service is designed to allow you to synchronize your Google Calendar with just about any mobile device. It is available as both a free service as well as a Premium offering which adds considerable functionality, including the ability to connect to multiple calendars as well as contact and task sync as well.

For simple single calendar synchronization the free option will probably work well enough for most folks, but for me the upgrade was a no brainer. I have multiple calendars in use for both personal and business and being able to have them all available is a necessity. Add to that an auto-sync function and I’m sure to always be up to date even when others are adding items to my calendar for me, which is frequently.

The contact synchronization option in the premium service can be set to connect to either your Gmail contacts or to a web based database. Given the sheer awfulness of Gmail contacts, I opted for the latter.

Because I use another app for contact management, the sync process isn’t quite as seamless as it is for calendaring. I think I’ve managed to make it pretty easy, and seem to have found my first use for DejaClick as well.

An export from Batchbook (or most any app really) provides a .csv file that is easily imported into a GooSync account, and then the autosync takes over. My full contact database is loaded up and available in my phones contacts app. I’m hoping that future upgrades will allow direct sync between various web services but for now this is a workable solution.

There is task functionality included as well, but with no Google counterpart, it’s GooSync specific. I haven’t had much use for it but for keeping track of simple to do items, it seems workable.

On the security side of things, I like that it is able to connect to my calendars using Google’s own authorization process rather than my needing to provide them with my Google login information.

Setting up the service is relatively easy: Create your account online, choose and configure your mobile device, and then start syncing.

As mentioned, there is a free plan available while the Premium service runs £19.95 (about $40) yearly. It does sync over air so data charges from your provider may apply.

How do you sync your desktop to your mobile device?

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