GoPro Hero HD cam: HD video, mounts for helmets, chests, boards — even cars — make it pretty easy to share high-def versions of your adventures back home or on the internet. $US270 [Review; GoPro]

The cheapest MP3 player you can find: Everyone has a nice one. But if you’re roughing it up outside, you want to bring a crappy one and you want it to be somewhat disposable. SanDisk has some on Amazon. I used to use an iPod shuffle ’til they removed the buttons. For sports involving gloves, things with big buttons are best. A good stocking-stuffer, but explain it as such so you don’t look like a cheap arse. [Amazon]

Nike + iPod Sport Kit: If you like running, the Nike Plus informatics system will track and log and compare your mileage with that of your friends. (I hate running.) $48 at the Australian Apple store [Review; Nike + iPod Sport Kit]

Remember, though, that Nike doesn’t map your routes. If you’ve got an iPhone, I recommend Motion X GPS Sport app for tracking all sorts of outdoor activity routes. $4 [iTunes Store]

Rugged Cameras: The W80 Pentax is pretty compact, takes OK photos and videos, and is shockproof to a few metres, cold-proof to -10C and waterproof to 4.8m. I like it for winter sports. $US300 [Review; Pentax]

The larger Lumix DMC-TS1 is only cold-proof to 0C on paper and waterproof to 3m, but it takes superb images and videos. $US400 [Review; Panasonic]

Don’t forget to recommend your own favourite outdoor adventure gear in the comments.

Seriously though, somewhere in this image is an outdoor shower that heats water up to 60 degrees Celcius in two hours using solar power. Of course, now all you can think about is a cold shower right? Well, the product page will bring you crashing back down with the imagery conjured up by the following line:

“you and your family can take several showers consecutively before the tank needs to reheat.”

That is so wrong. [Herrington via Red Ferret via DVICE]

Weatherproof TVs are nothing new, of course, but this one pushed the envelope in terms of size with its mammoth 65-inch HD LCD screen. It’s also wireless, with a transmitter that allows campers (people) and camper (Winnebago) to be separated by more than 50 metres of wildlife, lush green lawn or, in the case of my house at the ol’ alma mater, patches of dead grass, beer cans, and the occasional prone body or two.

Alleged “glare reduction coating” helps when viewing the outdoor TV behemoth in direct sunlight, but the equally large $US35,990 price tag doesn’t really help anyone but Innovizion. Seriously, if you’re going to spend that kind of money anyway, might as well buy a few dozen “normal” HDTVs in a smaller size. As they burn out from moisture, dirt or the rain, simply replace them with a reserve. Stupid, yes, but so is spending $US36,000 on a TV. [Innovizion via Born Rich]

And the best part is that the vast majority of these apps are free or very inexpensive. To be honest, I’m actually surprised at how much cool stuff is out there. I mean, I didn’t know there was an app focused specifically on knot tying. There is even a kayaking version that includes 11,000 stream-flow gauges across the United States (you might want to invest in a heavy-duty waterproof case for that one). [The Adventure Life]

Gore-Tex’s most capable shell materials have always had to be stand alone, making them a little bit like wearing a crinkly sheet or garbage bag (without the sweat build up, of course). They’re taking their 3 layer shells and bonding them to interesting inner liner materials in an extension of their “comfort mapping” tech. So, if the chest and back need insulated, they can attach a piece of fleece there; or padded armour on elbows and shoulders; or antimicrobial liners on armpits. The sub brand isn’t new, but before, comfort mapping involved sewing, opening up the potential for unsightly seams and water leakage. Now they heat press the new layers in, so that there are no extra punctures in the outer layers, and things like pockets can be sewn now into the inner materials without causing punctures, either. The materials will be breathable, but not as breathable as the naked Gore-Tex layers we’re used to now. But it would be nice to have a jacket while peeling off a few undergarments. (I’ll take some pants with built in butt and knee padding, please.)

The other tech is called X-trafit. Most multi-layer gloves get some parts turned inside out when you take them off. Also, multi layer gore gloves have reduced mobility, grip and finger feel because of the slipping of each layer against another. X-trafit gloves fuse the inner and membrane together, while a grippy material between the inner liner and the outer shell makes the entire thing feel as if it’s one piece of material. The only downside is that these gloves are not going to be as warm as those with many different components.

The Price: Varies but around $US375 for jacket and system

The lowdown: The idea of a heated jacket isn’t new. But neither is the perception that such a set up would be heavy, bulky, sweaty and involve making sacrifices in the core material, features and breathability of the garment itself. Not here! Here’s what Ardica’s system is, and here’s why it works and why I want it so badly.

The Ardica system is, basically a battery pack powered heating system that manufacturers can build into their jackets.

Ardica the company has a background in fuel cells, but they knew that making a consumer jacket heating system would require it to work in the real world at a relatively affordable cost, today. So the entire system is built around a power source of lithium ion batteries arrayed in a soft pack that looks like a waffle, and that fits in the upper back between a person’s shoulder blades, in a pocket in the heated garment. The power source is 10 watts, enough to heat a person’s core — and therefore their whole person — for 3-8 hours. 10 Watts of juice goes to the jacket’s 2 elements on a wearer’s front chest and one on their back, or through a USB jack which can power a USB device directly, or a 1watt sub-battery that can charge devices with its ipod/iphone and usb mini jack variants. The heat output is controlled via a LED lit waterresistant switch that toggles between three settings.

I still wonder what happens if the system gets drenched. Lithium ion packs have advanced management in them, but that management is electronic, and, can be foiled as we saw with all the exploding laptop stories from a few years back. What if you fall on this a lot?
You’d think that such a system would be uncomfortable, but within a few seconds of wearing it and turning it on, it had all the coziness of heated seats in a car on a cold winter morning or sitting next to a roaring hearth or napping in the sun one summer afternoon after a cold dip in a pool. The weight of the battery is about that of a large laptop battery, and since it’s placed on my back, it was not noticeable, nor did it swing around while I moved. (Maybe while wearing a backpack I’d notice it.) The jackets are going to go for $US375 with the system and a premium jacket. A little steep for an regular, non waterproof jacket which you’d wear as a layer under a shell, but the potential for comfort in the cold is well worth it and the fact that the system will be built into brand name gear like Mountain Hardware and Marmot makes it a little more bearable.

BSoDs, yeah, those are harder to catch unless you make sure your signage app is bug-free and memory-leak free. Virus alerts, on the other hand, are another story. Seriously, virus alerts? You shouldn’t be using this machine for anything else besides displaying this banner, so where the hell did the virus come from? Either the machine’s already been infected (a big possibility) or somebody’s going to broadcast his Gmail login for prospective customers of Restaurant Basha. [Thanks David!]

AU: Obviously the US hasn’t had to suffer through water restrictions like we have in Australia. Looks pretty good, although doubt we’ll see it in Oz…

[RainwaterHOG via PopTech]

[CollegeHumor]