The last thing you expect to smell at the Consumer Electronics Show amidst the should-to-shoulder crowds is fine Italian leather. Squeezing off the tram and buses and shuffling down the aisles, attendees are more likely to smell like that morning's bacon and eggs, or maybe even the garlic from the Italian dinner they had the night before escaping through their pores. I tried not to think about it nor breathe in too deeply, but as I edged ever more deeply into the rear of the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, a faint odor that reminded me of my childhood and the fragrance of my mother's closet of the finest leather handbags and shoes stopped me in my tracks.

So, what's new in tech aside from snake-up-your-nose 3D TV sets. What digital bling turned the heads of the 150 thousand gearheads who descended upon Las Vegas last week for the Consumer Electronics Show? What might be of interest to the traveler? We plunged into the chaos so you didn't have to.

We're off to CES, the  huge Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where we will be reporting on the latest apps and gizmos of interest to travelers. Every year the good folks who stage the event give journos a tote bag, a rollaround or a backpack. We have started a collection of them and they do come in handy. Only problem is, though adorned and festooned with all kinds of company logos, they all look alike. That means that our carefully collected company brochures, camera gear and throat lozenges could very easily be picked up by another well-meaning scribes thinking it was theirs whilst we are shooting a story or watching a demo.

While a room full of identical knapsacks or suitcases might resurrect the last scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, fear not.

They say that learning to juggle enhances the grey and white matter in your brain. I've been juggling for years - multitasking, that is, and I'm a great fan of multiple monitors for that very purpose. A survey by Jon Peddie Research showed that adding an extra monitor increases your productivity by 20 to 30 percent and I'll vouch for that. Sometimes I just use the extra display to shove data aside...kind of like cleaning your office or throwing a pile of papers on the floor so you don't have to look at them. But typically I dance between my multiple displays with online research, email, word processing and spreadsheets all open at the same time.

While my laptop has a generous enough display, much of my work requires that I work with more than one full screen of data pretty much all the time. And that's when I really miss having a second screen. Or a third...maybe even six. I'm not kidding. So when I'm on the road and limited to a single screen on my laptop, I feel as though my productivity is constrained as well.

The portable, durable 15.4-inch backlit LED Field Monitor Pro from Mobile Monitor Technologies is designed for travelers like me. It slips easily into a suitcase and at just four pounds it has a swivel clamshell design that protects the display and opens up to reveal an integrated keypad for spreadsheet work. The USB connections come in handy for mobile peripherals. You can use as many as six of these displays together with easy set-up of USB connectivity using DisplayLink multi-monitor software. I was impressed with the 1280 x 800 bright, crisp resolution and ability to use it at any angle, enabling me to share my presentations with a small group and avoiding shared tuna breath when bunching up with others to view a single screen.
Price: $289.00

Available: Mobile Monitor Technologies www.mmt2.com

Now, after decades of subservience to the lords of Nikon and Canon, who locked us into their predictable products as surely as MacDonalds imprinted our DNAs with Big Macs, the serfs have crashed the gate of the castle: cameras are again hackable.

Is Junior driving a bit fast? Is your dog accused of stealing kids' lunches at the local school? Is your youngster on a field trip abroad for the first time ever? Has your golf bag left the club house without you? At The Connected Traveler Technology Showcase, Thomas Gudsnuk showed how Traxxitt Technologies has created an attractive bright and shiny personal tracking device that fits in a pocket or on a keychain and emits a signal that shows movement in real time and can be viewed on maps on smart phones or computers by parents, spouses and tour group leaders. The Traxxitt 360 gives everyone peace of mind in a mobile world.
http://www.traxxitt.com

So much better than a backseat driver! As of March 31 2011, TeleNav has told 23 million people where to go (and how to get there). And very likely they're the provider behind the navigation that's pre-loaded on your mobile phone right now. (It's on 600 types of mobile phones.) At The Connected Traveler Technology Showcase, Todd Witkemper demonstrated TeleNav's rich cloud-based services with real-time gas prices, Lane Assist, places to see and commute alerts.
http://www.telenav.com

Once you've used a second monitor, you simply dread going back to just your single laptop screen on a trip. Well dread no more. At The Connected Traveler Technology Showcase, Kimberly Stowe showed how you can get that added 30 -- 50% more productivity by using sub 4lb. highly portable add-on displays from Mobile Monitor Technologies. Accountants and spread those spreadsheets, salespeople can wow their prospects, and bloggers can work with images and text on a big two-display canvas.
http://www.mmt2.com