Remote Work “Gear List” and video from my WordCamp Orange County talk on Finding Work/Life Balance as a Remote Worker.

A bunch of people asked about the remote work gear I shared at the end of the talk and asked for links. So here is the Remote Work Gear List (yes these are Amazon affiliate links… I’m a horrible affiliate marketer, but I try a little).

Just to be clear my criteria for recommending things here is simple.
1) Have I used it day in and day out?
2) Would I instantly replace it if it was lost?
If the answer to both of those is yes, then I recommend it. All 4 of the below items absolutely meet both those requirements:

ASUS MB MB168B+ 15.6-Inch Screen LED-Lit Monitor
I strongly recommend hunting for and finding the MB168b+ rather than settling for the much easier to find in stock MB168b. The 168b+ is 1920×1080 (1080p HD) whereas the 168b is just 1366×768 (VGA). It makes a big difference in image quality and effective screen real estate.

HooToo® TripMate Wireless N Portable Travel Router with 6000mAh Battery Charger (USB Storage Wi-Fi Media Sharing, Access Point, Wi-Fi Mini Router & Bridge)
This comes in handy frequently when the WiFi at a guest house or hotel is strong to the door, but not inside the room, or when there is no wifi and I just want to network my iPad/iPhone to my laptop for syncing or streaming a movie. The battery powered option also means you get infinite placement options, some places I’ve even left it hidden outside the room at night.

Crumpler THE SINKING BARGE Laptop Camera Backpack
This is an old model, but it’s the one I love. I’ve looked at the newer replacements, but I’m not a fan of them. I love it because: it’s “just the right size” for me, it swings under my arm for easy access, it has a double laptop sleeve so it fits both my 15″ rMBP and my Asus MB168b+ and the lower portion is big enough for my dSLR.

Energizer XP18000AB Universal Power Adapter with External Battery for Tablets/Laptops/Netbooks/Smartphones – Black (XP18000AB)
This pretty much doubles the battery life of my rMBP. However, to get it to work with MagSafe I had to 1) get this free (with purchase of battery) tip http://www.xpalpower.com/energizer/pc06.php 2) get ahold of a now discountinued Apple Airline Adapter, 3) get a magsafe 1 to magsafe 2 adapter. Then accept the fact the the airline adapter setup will only power the laptop, not charge it, so reach for this when you’re battery is at 50%, not 5%.
(note: I’ve tried using that tip with an non-apple magsafe auto adapter and it didn’t work for me, the tip puts out ~19V and auto expects 12-14V so the auto adapter trips a protection circuit and turns off)

Finally, one bonus I didn’t share in the talk
Audio-Technica – QuietPoint Earbud Headphones ATH-ANC33iS
These are great active noise canceling earbuds. They’re not quite as good as the big bulky over the ear kind, but they do wonders for canceling out low frequency noises (airplanes, traffic, background noise). They aren’t wonderful at cutting out the noise from people talking around you though. They win in my book because they’re tiny and light.