Posted Date: 1/4/2013

The Gadgets I Can’t Live Without: Joe Held

Joe Held

Senior Vice President and Global CIO Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.
Joe (pictured) has more than 20 years of experience in global IT and is responsible for the company’s technology worldwide.

A different kind of mobile gadget that Joe calls one of his favorites is the Aprilia RSV4 Factory superbike. He says. "Superbikes are currently in an arms race for electronics supremacy — similar to what you see in fighter jets and Formula 1 cars; helps keep you upright at over 170+mph on the racetrack. Aprilia, with Ducati and BMW, leap frog each other year to year — the ultimate high performance mobile computing platform."

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Alpinestars Air Electronic Airbag Suit
If I had this earlier in the year, might have avoided a trip to the hospital. The electronic airbag has very high-tech mobile electronics. The product website says, “There’s no tether, there is no electronic aid that needs to be synched between the bike and rider. It is activated (ready to fire) once the rider zips it up and starts to move on the bike. Once the system determines that an incident is underway the airbags are deployed.”

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Acer Android Tablet
Not the sexiest tablet, but it’s affordable, has a USB port  and makes good use of the Android operating system;  helps you break free of the Apple empire and the USB readily provides access to storage and other devices.

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Verizon 4G Jetpack (mobile hot spot)
The 4G geographical coverage and the ability to connect multiple devices are very helpful for business and personal use.

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iPhone 4S
For all the reasons my kids (who have the iPhone 5) love it and because they think I’m cool when I IM them; favorite app is Dragon’s dictation;  very accurate and saves a lot of typing time. (Cell reception, however, appears to be better in Siberia than in Connecticut go figure.)