Menu
Sign In Search Podcasts Libraries Charts People & Topics Add Podcast API Blog Pricing
Podcast Image

The Last Word with Matt Cooper

Tech Thurs: Personal Entertainment For Long Haul Trips

11 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.571 - 23.232 Matt Cooper

The Last Word on Today FM. It's time for Tech Thursday. Andy O'Donoghue is with us and he's giving us today what we might call road trip tech, personal entertainment tech, which isn't about the big TVs you might have at home. It's other smaller things that you might carry with you in your luggage as you go about your holidays this summer.

0

23.693 - 28.099 Matt Cooper

And let's start with, for many people, I think they love a Kindle.

0

Chapter 2: What personal entertainment tech is recommended for long trips?

28.119 - 31.523 Matt Cooper

An Amazon Kindle Paperwhite is what you're recommending, is it?

0

31.503 - 39.814 Andy O'Donoghue

It is, Matt. And sometimes we almost forget the Kindle because it's been around so long and people, you know, have them at home, they forget to charge them, but really there is nothing like it.

0

40.235 - 54.975 Andy O'Donoghue

And, you know, you talk about kind of road trip tech, yes, but even for commuting or on the train going home for a weekend or anything, the Kindle is fantastic and it just eliminates the need to carry all those books. There's nothing wrong with carrying books around the place.

0

55.336 - 59.341 Matt Cooper

I'm saying this, I've got a paperback edition of my new book just come out now. Anyway.

0

59.582 - 71.217 Andy O'Donoghue

Everyone will make room for one. But I think, but you don't have to carry six, you know, if you're going away for a couple of weeks. And the great thing, I suppose, about the Kindle is it is so light, it's easy to carry and the battery lasts forever.

71.257 - 83.312 Matt Cooper

Well, yeah, there's a number of things. I would sometimes use my iPad. I would download books onto my iPad. But it probably doesn't have, or maybe the thing is, it doesn't have all of the various features that the Kindle has, does it?

83.292 - 102.497 Andy O'Donoghue

It doesn't because it's not designed for that job, whereas the Kindle really is designed as an e-book reader. And the screen, of course, you know, we get that lovely kind of type style, book type style. And the Kindle Paperwhite has been around for a few years now. They updated it in 2024.

Chapter 3: Why is the Kindle Paperwhite a top choice for reading on the go?

102.858 - 117.296 Andy O'Donoghue

So this version, the current version is about 18 months old. If anyone is looking at buying a Kindle Paperwhite, just make sure you're getting the most up-to-date version. Which costs them But how much? It's less than 200 euros. Okay. Are they waterproof? Now, some of the Kindles are waterproof completely.

0

117.336 - 139.94 Andy O'Donoghue

They have good, but they're all... I don't mean like dropping it into the swimming pool, but if you get splashed by somebody getting out of the pool. Yeah. And so they work well in daylight and also, you know, in evening light as well. Very easy on the eyes. You know, the battery life is literally measured in weeks. So you charge it going on holiday.

0

139.96 - 159.78 Andy O'Donoghue

You probably won't have to charge it on holiday. And of course, instead of carrying loads of book, you can bring stuff that you might dip in and out of, literally thousands of books on your Kindle. And the Paperwhite has this adjustable warm front light. And that is lovely because it's just easy in the evenings. Really, for anyone who commutes, I think it's a great idea.

0

160.02 - 169.97 Andy O'Donoghue

But for going on holiday, fantastic. Can you put your audiobooks on it? It has a thing called WhisperSync, so you don't listen to the audio, you can listen along on Audible and things like that.

0

170.47 - 176.016 Matt Cooper

Okay, not necessarily recommended. You've got another one though, the Kobo Clara Colour, what's that?

176.116 - 197.379 Andy O'Donoghue

I do, and so Kobo make really good e-readers. They tend to be priced lower than the Kindles and people have this kind of idea, well, Kindle or Kobo. Kindle has, I suppose I would describe it as the apple of e-readers. It's a very polished ecosystem. You know, we know its name. Everybody knows what a Kindle is, even if you don't have one.

197.88 - 219.392 Andy O'Donoghue

And if you mainly buy your books from Amazon and you want something that works with minimal fuss, Kindle is the way to go. But Kobo, which is why I suggest this one, which is the Kobo Clara Colour, It is actually priced less than the Kindle Paperwhite I just mentioned, but it's a colour screen. And so it's ideal if you want to read magazines, travel guides, even comics.

219.432 - 234.176 Andy O'Donoghue

I've seen, you know, you can get on it. It works really well, as well as your books. It's waterproof as well. 16 gigabytes of storage, so loads of storage space for your books and up to six weeks of battery life. Which is incredible.

234.236 - 243.909 Andy O'Donoghue

And the reason you would get this perhaps is if you download PDFs, if you're an academic or you're at college, it's much easier to get your content onto the Kobo rather than the Kindle. Okay.

Chapter 4: How does the Kobo Clara Colour compare to the Kindle?

699.533 - 712.273 Matt Cooper

Okay, a speaker, which presumably you're not going to use at a communal pool if you're away, but if you have your own Airbnb or rented house or apartment, you might want a speaker for your music rather than leaving it on your personal headphones.

0

712.293 - 731.057 Andy O'Donoghue

Exactly. So you're on holiday with a significant other or a family. What do you do? The phone just isn't going to cut it when you want to listen to, if you listen to the radio or some music in the evening. So, you know, a decent speaker makes a huge difference. And the Sonos Roam 2 is really, we've mentioned it once or twice in the past, it really is so good.

0

731.377 - 751.917 Andy O'Donoghue

For €199 or less, you'll see them for. And you've got Wi-Fi, you've got Bluetooth. It's waterproof. It's dust resistant. They've improved the design. And so it now really is sturdy to move around with. And for €199 and sound quality and battery life, it's a great buy.

0

752.099 - 755.243 Matt Cooper

Give us a little 4K camera for holidays.

0

755.604 - 779.575 Andy O'Donoghue

I love this. This is the DJI who are famous for making drones, DJI Osmo Nano. So this is a new version of the Osmo. Costs €329 is the list price. You'll pick it up for less. But essentially, it is a tiny, wearable 4K camera. And it is absolutely designed for holidays or for days out. And those action shots where holding a phone is awkward,

779.555 - 798.988 Andy O'Donoghue

you're going to fall, you're going to hurt yourself, you're going to drop your phone, so use something like this. And smaller than a traditional action cam, and it's got a magnetic mounting system so you can clip it onto your T-shirt, wear it on a lanyard or a hat, and you'll get up to 4K video It's 60 frames a second, so it will shoot brilliant slow motion.

799.029 - 810.878 Andy O'Donoghue

It has this really wide degree, 143 degree field of view, so you get those big wide shots. It's waterproof up to 10 metres, so you can wear it when you're kayaking. It's great fun.

810.858 - 829.693 Matt Cooper

I'm going to finish there because you have a portable coffee maker as the last thing in your list. And in fairness, who's going to be bringing a coffee maker with them? I mean, wherever you're going to go, you're going to be able to find somewhere to buy a decent coffee. So I'm going to let it go there, Andy O'Donoghue. Thank you for joining us on Tech Thursday.

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.