The 2009 Outdoor Retailer show is officially underway — which means all the outdoorsy gadget blogs are going to have tons of great post ideas in the next few days, as manufacturers stumble over each other to show us newer and more expensive ways to do the things we can already do for free with knives, logs, and bits of twine.
Backpacker.com set up shop on the show floor and quickly discovered a new Platypus bladder designed specifically for carrying wine, which I guess could come in handy if you were throwing yourself a little wilderness bacchanalia and didn’t want to lug those glass bottles in and out.
The Gear Junkie got his first round of reviews in, which include toed-socks, a blindingly bright LED lamp, and an in-camp coffee maker that’s about as close to a plug-in kitchen top model as you’ll ever see in the woods.
Be sure to stay tuned — they’ll be plenty more new shiny things to lust after in the next few days.
That whole “recession thing” may be taking a toll on the horrible pastime of ‘glamping‘ — the glamorous resort camping trend that was all the rage last year — but it looks like gadget manufacturers are still hard at work helping our car-camping friends have an easier time when they venture into the Great Outdoors … that’s a few feet off the asphalt of their campground’s parking lot.
The Gear Junkie just wrapped up a two-part round-up on luxury camping equipment. Ten Essentials they ain’t — we’re talking things like a ten-person tent with three electrical outlets and a blender that runs on a 4 cylinder Honda engine.
Check out the write-ups for a list of things you’ll probably never, ever buy. Except maybe that water heater. And maybe the solar charger. And those pink flamingo tent poles …
If there was ever a gadget for this site to endorse, it’s this — the 4GB Brando USB carabiner thumb drive.
For 32 bucks, you can get yourself some stylish and outdoorsy flash storage in one of six colors. And it weighs just 32 grams, so it won’t weigh down your shoulders when you’re liveblogging your backpack of the John Muir Wilderness on a Macbook Air.
People do that, right?
Via GearLog.
The iHike article I mentioned earlier had a lot of good things to say about the Flip Ultra
— a lightweight USB camcorder that can record an hour of video at 640×480 resolution.
Now it looks like the gadget blogs have got their hands on scans of the line’s next product — the Minos. No one knows anything about it other than it costs 20 bucks more than the Ultra, looks a lot smaller and slimmer, and is due to hit store shelves on June 4th. Maybe.
If you’re looking to start taking cheap, easy video on your hikes, be sure to keep your eye out for these guys. Look for some decent upgrades, or otherwise check out the copycat-but-way-cheaper Creative Vado instead.
Via Engadget.
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