Courtesy Scosche

The freeKEY wireless keyboard from Scosche sells for $60, is made of flexible silicone, is water-resistant and can fit in a tech-savvy traveler's pocket.

Someday, say the evangelists at Apple and elsewhere, your smartphone will be so intelligent, it will be the only technology you need to carry when you travel.

That day is not here. But that’s OK because for those seeking better sound, hoping to shoot photos (not snapshots) or frustrated by virtual keyboards (Damn you, autocorrect!), this season offers up a slew of cool products that pack form and function into compact, travel-friendly packages:

Power up
Use your phone to make calls, watch videos and stream music and, sure enough, it’ll die when you need it most. Introduced in September, Smart Geek Products’ MyBlueBoost ($40–$50) is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack that provides up to 16 hours of on-the-go backup power for a variety of phones, mp3 players and other handheld devices. Fully charged, the unit itself will hold power for up to six months.

Courtesy XtremeMac

Dock and rock
There are plenty of portable speakers out there but most require batteries or an AC outlet. The new Soma Travel ($50) from XtremeMac needs neither as it’s powered by your docked iPhone, iPod or iPad. Introduced in November, it will work with devices when they’re in their cases, features a push-in/pull-out dock connector for protection during transport and was recently named a Design and Engineering Showcase honoree for CES 2012.

Compact keyboard
Virtual keyboard on your phone or tablet making a mockery of your typing skills? The freeKEY wireless keyboard ($60) from Scosche is a near-full-sized Bluetooth keyboard that provides a practical, tactile alternative. Made of flexible silicone, it’s water-resistant, works with a wide variety of devices and, best of all, rolls up to fit in a pocket or purse.

No more tangles
Multiple devices + multiple cables + multiple adapters = one big rat’s nest in your bag. AViiQ’s Portable Charging Station ($80) resolves the problem by creating a central hub that can charge three USB devices at once, plus sync a fourth, off a single AC plug. Weighing less than a pound, it provides up to 15W of power — more than enough to charge an iPad — and comes in a flat zippered bag for easy organization.

Courtesy Jaybird

No strings attached
Tangled earbud wires tying you in knots? That’s not a problem with the Freedom Bluetooth Headphones ($99) from Jaybird. With their tangle-free, ear-to-ear cord and push-button controls, the work- and workout-friendly buds let you wirelessly control volume, answer or reject calls and manage your music without touching your phone or mp3 player. A carrying case and three sets of secure-fit ear cushions are included.

Tyke-sized tablet
Not quite ready to drop $500­–$700 on an iPad 2 for the little techie on your gift list? The hottest tech gift for kids this season is the LeapPad Explorer, a five-inch, touch-screen device that works as a camera, e-reader and app library. Originally priced at $99, the device is proving so popular that retailers are charging whatever they can get away with; check NowInStock.net to see who currently has it in stock.

Courtesy Magellan's

Good Joe to go
Friends don’t let friends drink bad coffee, which is why caffeinated travelers will appreciate the Handpresso Wild portable espresso maker ($129) from Magellan’s. To use it, you simply pump the handle to create the right pressure, add an Easy Serve Espresso (ESE) pod or your own personal grind and fill the reservoir with 1.5 ounces of hot water. Push the start button and, voilà, you’ve got a tasty alternative to that dreck in the Mr. Coffee machine in your hotel room.

The big picture
With its 16-megapixel sensor, 5x optical zoom and Carl Zeiss lens, Sony's Cyber-shot WX9 packs a lot of power in a small space. Add Intelligent Sweep Panorama, which lets you stitch multiple images into extra-wide vistas, and full HD 1080p video and it would be a great gift at $200. Order now, though, and they’ll throw in a carrying case and 4 GB memory card, all for $150.

Courtesy Olympus

And ... action!
Even amateur videographers can elevate their vacation videos with Olympus’ LS-20M HD video recorder ($299). Weighing less than six ounces, the smartphone-sized unit shoots 1080p HD video, features a 4x digital zoom and records with better-than-CD sound. Four Magic Movie modes let you add special effects — think groovy ‘80s rock videos from a-ha and Golden Earring — while HD video compression makes it easy to upload the result to Facebook or YouTube.

Time for style
Oh sure, your phone automatically adjusts when you move between time zones but for stylish travelers, a good wristwatch is still required gear. Citizen’s Perpetual Chrono A-T ($575) is radio-controlled in five time zones — Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, New York and London — and is solar-powered so it never needs a battery. Available in titanium and stainless steel, it’s also water-resistant to 200 meters. Go ahead, try that with your iPhone.

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Rob Lovitt is a longtime travel writer who still believes the journey is as important as the destination. Follow him at Twitter.

If you’ve ever found yourself at the airport hunting for an available outlet or waiting on glacial-paced Wi-Fi, help is at hand. On Thursday, PCWorld magazine released its first-ever report on the Top Airports for Tech Travelers.

“The number of people who are carrying smartphones, laptops and other mobile and connected devices has really increased,” said Mark Sullivan, PCWorld senior editor. “We wanted to find out which airports were prepared for this new kind of traveler and which ones were lagging behind.”

Covering 40 airports around the U.S., the report named the top 10 as:

• Dallas-Fort Worth
• New York (JFK)
• Atlanta
• Detroit
• Sacramento
• Oakland
• New York (LaGuardia)
• Salt Lake City
• Baltimore
• San Francisco

To reach that conclusion, researchers hit 3,300 gates around the country, tested 17,000 electrical outlets, 5,000 USB ports and 1,350 charging stations, and monitored the speed and strength of Wi-Fi and cellular service.

Wi-Fi speed and the availability of outlets were double-weighted, said Sullivan, “Because we’ve all seen people at the airport walking around trying to find a free outlet or connect to the Internet.”

The report also breaks the data down by listing the top 10 terminals, the top 10 airports for Wi-Fi and the top 10 airports for cell service. A separate category for airlines compared the nation’s 10 largest carriers based on their terminal tech amenities, mobile apps, fleet-wide Wi-Fi and use of social media. The top three, according to PCWorld, are Delta, Alaska and Virgin America.

On the ground or in the air, such distinctions are likely to take on even greater importance because travelers are among the earliest adopters of new technology, said Henry Harteveldt, airline and travel industry analyst with Atmosphere Research Group. According to the company’s latest (October) numbers:

• 94 percent of travelers have a mobile phone; 51 percent of those phones are smartphones
• 74 percent of travelers own a laptop; 36 percent of them carry them on every trip
• 19 percent of travelers have a tablet, although only 18 percent of them bring them on every trip

“I expect that we’ll see massive changes in [tablet] behavior over the next few years as tablets shift from entertainment- and information-focused use to productivity/business use,” said Harteveldt.

In the meantime, the PCWorld report suggests that the demand for electricity and connectivity isn’t about to abate and that airports are going to have to invest in IT infrastructure to attract an audience that expects it be fast, free (or otherwise subsidized) and readily accessible.

“If you’re a business traveler and you’ve got the choice of three similarly priced plane tickets, you might want to know which terminal you want to fly out of,” said Sullivan of PCWorld. “If you know you have a good chance of finding an outlet and a good Wi-Fi signal, it might influence which ticket you buy.”

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Rob Lovitt is a longtime travel writer who still believes the journey is as important as the destination. Follow him at Twitter.

U.S. travelers who plan and book trips online are more likely to be early adopters of new technology, more likely to own a smartphone and take about three leisure trips a year, according to new research.

“The appetite for new technology is often coupled with a strong appetite for travel,” said Carroll Rheem, director of research for PhoCusWright, which tracks travel trends.

The findings were based on the soon-to-be-released results of PhoCusWright’s Traveler Technology Survey 2011, which surveyed 1,948 online travelers -- U.S. adults who have taken one leisure trip in the past 12 months that involved at least one flight/hotel stay and who planned their trip online.

PhoCusWright's Traveler Technology Survey 2011

According to the survey results, 47 percent of U.S. online travelers are on the cutting edge or are early adopters of new technologies.

Of those early adopters, 71 percent own a smartphone and take an average of 3.3 leisure trips a year, spending an average of $3,712 annually.

Of the 1,125 online travelers who access the Internet via a smartphone, 79 percent view maps or get directions, 62 percent research local activities such as restaurants or shows, 43 percent research travel products such as hotel rooms or flights and 42 percent reference existing travel information, such as itineraries.

The survey was designed to help companies better understand how consumers are bringing technology into their everyday lives and how that technology impacts their travel plans, Rheem said.

While the travelers surveyed were comfortable researching information on a smartphone, however, many were more inclined to switch over to a computer to enter credit card information. “They just naturally graduate to the right tool for the job,” said Rheem, noting that it is easy to mistype characters on a smartphone.

When it comes to online social networks, 79 percent of travelers said they participated in at least one, up from 70 percent in 2010.

“A vast majority of travelers are on social networks already,” Rheem said.

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Joy Jernigan is a senior travel editor for msnbc.com. Follow her on Twitter.