You’ll need a sweet set of iPhone speakers to keep the tunes flowing. We love the lightweight, Bluetooth-enabled, rocket-scientist designed 1 FoxL V2 Bluetooth ($199, soundmatters.com), which lets you keep your iDevice on you as you move around the campsite. And although it’s not much help at night, the 2 Voltaic Fuse ($129, voltaicsystems.com) is a 4-watt solar panel that straps to nearly anything—your backpack, your daypack, your tent, whatever. One hour in direct sun will get you four hours of talk time on your iPhone. Before you leave, charge up the 3 HyperMac Mini ($99.95, hypershop.com), a 7200mAh external battery that charges your iPad, iPhone, or other USB devices. And don’t forget extra lighting: We’re geeking out over the delightful 4 Play Visions Lego LED Torch flashlight ($19.99, playvisions.com) and 5 Lego LED Head Lamp ($13.99), as well as the versatile 6 Joby Gorillatorch ($29.99, joby.com), which has bendable legs that can stand it up or grip onto a tent pole, tree, or nearly anything else. (Get more details and more gear on the following pages.)
One of our favorite reasons to head into the wilderness is ’cause city-dwellers such as us just can’t see very many stars. So pack a stargazing app or three—one for every night of your trip, even. We love Distant Suns 3: Unleash Your Inner Astronaut ($9.99, universal), which is crazy-complete (it’s been around since 1985, when it was on the Amiga) and can teach you the mythology of each constellation. Star Walk for iPad ($4.99) is drop-dead gorgeous and even tracks satellites and the International Space Station. Starmap ($11.99, iPhone) lets you adjust the brightness of the sky and the stars to match current conditions, even pointing you to the best zones for glimpsing shooting stars. And Planets (free, universal) has both 2D and 3D views of the sky and won’t cost you a cent.
haam
June 24, 2011 at 7:11am
That's it. I'm SO SICK of paying for your magazine just to see the articles rehashed in your feed.
You just lost a paying subscriber.
chauncey007
June 24, 2011 at 12:45pm
You don't have to get upset ("SO SICK") about it. Just stop subscribing and view it online. That speaks loud enough. Not worth the Drama. By the way, they are still generating revenue off of you from their online advertisements. Isn't it really your fault for letting them double-dip on you all this time...
