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Marriott Offers Electronic Tools For Travelers

Marriott's got a great new setup for business and recreational travelers, letting you use an in-room, 32-inch display for your laptop computer, DVD player, camcorder, and gaming systems. You can also use plug your MP3 player into the in-room audio system. Sweet!

Warning: The Web site has annoying auto-play audio.

Our Antone Gonsalves has more details.

Hoteliers, here's my pet peeve: Not enough electrical sockets conveniently located. Often I have have to crawl around on hands and knees just to plug in my stuff. Many hotels now have desk lamps with electrical outlets in the base. That's a start. But it's just not good enough. Much of the time that outlet doesn't work, and, besides, there's only one.

Hotels need rows of electrical sockets at tabletop height.

These days, I travel with two lightweight power strips in my luggage, one for the desk, and one for the nightstand or somewhere else.

Still, things have vastly improved, hotel-wise, since I started traveling on business in 1989, when hotels were actively hostile to guests using laptops. Many hotels literally glued their phone jacks into the wall, so you couldn't unplug the phone and plug in a modem. And there were never enough electrical sockets; you often had to move the bed to get access to electricity, which was just what you wanted to do after getting off the plane from a cross-country flight and riding across Boston in a cab filled with the overwhelming, nauseating smell of cherry-scented air freshener.

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