Gizmodo: cold

Ski Resort Snow Report iPhone App Battlemodo

Brian Lam — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:20:00 EST

It's snowing all over the country and ski season in the US is kicking off hard this weekend. Here's my rundown on all major iPhone snow-report apps, and my pick of the worthiest.

OnTheSnow's Snow Reports
Using their own dataset, OnTheSnow's $2 app is my app of choice for checking the resort conditions, including time of update, trails and lifts open/total, a direct call number to mountains, weather, new snow depths over the last 3 days and base depth conditions. It looks nice, too. Includes conditions from resorts in EU, South and North America, and allows you to favorite 16 resorts and scroll through them with swipes. [iTunes Link]

Snow Report
The most simple app lets you favorite the same resorts listed in OnTheSnow's app, because it uses their data. The best feature in this no frills app is that it lists all the new snow depth from the last day from all resorts on a single page. You have to click through for surface type, and its $3 so not really recommended. Maybe if it was $.99 or free.
[iTunes Link]

REI Ski and Snowboard Report
I love REI, the outdoor gear co-op, but I hate their iPhone app made by Zumobi. You can only have 3 resorts on tap, it takes awhile to load, and 25% of the space is dedicated to shopping at REI and pushing Zumobi apps, none of which I feel inclined to do when I'm about to hit the slopes. The info is good — it has base and new snow over the last 3 days, lifts (but not run) data, and a link to weather and webcams. Same resort and dataset as OnTheSnow apps. It's worth it only because its free. But I will probably delete it soon because its ugliness offends me. [iTunes Link]

Snocator
It loads slow, but it has a few major things going for it: It is location aware, so can list your nearby resorts instantly, and can use the 3G's gps to pinpoint you on maps of resorts, so you can tell where you are in relation to trails. Clicking through gets you more than just base and new snow and temps: maps, mountain cams, weather, among others. They're building a friend finding feature, soon, too, they say. But a rather ugly app. Only US and Canada support and only 70 resorts are mapped down to the trails. Here's a warning: it costs $2.99, but expires end of the season. F-That! [iTunes Link]

Ski Lodge
OMG so beautiful. All the resorts are listed on one page (which I like) with base, temp, an icon for current weather, new snow over the last one or two days. It's also location aware, and can list your local mountains. Clicking through you get a detailed page with not only photos and websites and an option to view the place in the iPhone map app, but you can download official trail maps! They're highly detailed, so are about a quarter to half a megabyte each, so don't try this on anything but 3G or WiFi. (The good news is they cache for future reference.) But US and Canadian support and only metrics (CM and Centigrade) make it a potential deal buster for me. I also don't know where they're getting their data from. However, if they fix these minor beefs, I'm game. I think they can, so probably best to buy this NOW at $0.99, its current sale price. UPDATE: Settings for metric/standard measurements were in the iPhone system preferences page. Ski Lodge WINS. [iTunes Link]

SnoCountry
Just found this this morning, so I'll just give my brief impressions. Oh, it crashed. And thinks I don't have an internet connection now. Skip. I'll update if I get it working. But you should pass for now on this at 99 cents, or just try the free version which is limited to 2 favorite resorts. [iTunes Link]

We Ski - Ski Reporter
A simple app that uses snocountry's data, and is free. I like how it shows which resorts are open or closed with a green/red icon, but the font for new snow is small and hard to read. But it's free. [iTunes Link]

The Winners
If you've been following along, you probably guessed: Overall I recommend OnTheSnow's app. But if ~~metric measurements don't bother you and~~ you are limiting your skiing to the US and Canada, I'd recommend trying out Ski Lodge, especially at the current sale price.

I'm really looking forward to snowboarding this weekend.

Ice Cream Keeper Lets You Ice Cream It Up Anywhere

Jason Chen — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:20:00 EST

This Zak Designs Ice Cream Keeper could be the best thing I've ever seen. I mean, keeping up to a pint of ice cream cold so you can eat it in the car, on the toilet, in the office, in the office toilet and in public bathrooms? How is that not genius? The freezable gel insert is where the magic happens, and I for one am in for three. [Zak via Coolhunting]

Freehands Gloves Shield Your Soft Hands from Mild Winters

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:00:00 EDT

Freehands gloves are a cute idea: uncover the thumb and forefinger so you can operate capacitive touchscreens, like the iPhone's, without removing your gloves. Past touchscreen-capable gloves (like these and these) have some sort of attachment on the outside of the glove so you don't have to expose your fingers. I'm singularly qualified to explain the problem here, because unlike the other Giz writers, I've lived in Canada.

These gloves are made for wussy American winters. In a real winter, you can't be pulling out your fingers all willy-nilly to decide which Justin Timberlake track you want to bop along to. You make that decision before you leave the house, and goddammit, you stick with it. These gloves are an invitation to lose that iPhone-pointing finger to frostbite. Unless, of course, you live in the south, which I've now come to see as anything below Boston. You confederates will be just fine. [Freehands]

Good Times at the Gizmodo Reader Meetup

Brian Lam — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:17:00 EDT

The Gizmodo reader meetup happened on Saturday at Alpine Meadows and we had a great time. The snow was soft, the gadgets were plentiful, the beer flowed and no one fell on their head except Joe, who got a black eye when he face planted on the first run. The photos above were uploaded on Nokia N95s to a central share. I didn't upload many, but I did spend most of my day fiddling with a Zune preloaded with songs to ride to.

Most people were from around the bay area, Reno and Tahoe area, but Christian came all the way from Dallas. And Mike Zhao, only 16, spent I think his milk money to afford the trip. And then Randy, ski patrol at Alpine, gave us a pretty good tour of the place. About 50 people came in total everyone was the type of person I'd hang out with outside of work. I'd always said that gadgets aren't just for nerds, and here was the proof.

Of course, special thanks go to Kevin from JBL, Brian from Zune, Joe from Nokia, Mike from Olympus, Derek from SPOT, Greg from Smith Optics, Racheal from Alpine and Hagen from Vudu for giving away prizes.

We'll do it again next year! If you came and took photos, send em over so I can upload em.

P.S. Brian from Zune has some skills on the snowboard!

Ice Sauna Goes to 10 Below Zero, Causes Shrinkage

Sean Fallon — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:10:43 EST

Had enough of the heat? How about sitting in a snowy room where it is 10 degrees below zero? Now that is what I call relaxing. As stupid as this concept sounds, the "Snow Room" exists, and it was recently showcased in a Hotel Equipment Fair in Turkey. Plus, it will go on sale to all luxury hotels and spas starting this year.

The Snow Room was developed by MNK—a company that has made a name for themselves developing saunas. While the idea does seem strange, it appears that hot/cold therapy is common in northern European countries. So the idea of sitting in what is essentially a meat locker for relaxation (and to watch your penis die) may not be so far fetched after all. [Trendhunter via DVICE]

Cell Phone Steers You With Heat and Cold

msparkes — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:25:21 EDT

When you're in a strange city it's easy to get lost, but you don't want to miss the sights because you're glued to a map or GPS device. German and Swedish researchers may have created a solution - a cell phone that can give you GPS directions simply by heating up or cooling down the handset.

It uses a Peltier device to change temperature - the warmer the unit, the more on-track you are, but take a wrong turn and it will cool down. This odd feature could also be used in other ways, like telling you how important a call is - if it's your hot girlfriend it could get toasty warm to tell you to pick up, but if it's your boss then it could ice up to tell you that it's best avoided. [New Scientist]

Powerbrick Foot Warming Slippers

Travis Hudson — Wed, 23 May 2007 18:20:19 EDT

It may be the warmer time of the year (for most of us), but that doesn't mean we can't look ahead to the winter. This is a conceptual design of a footwarmer that is "powered" by a laptop power brick. They are regular slippers equipped with a pocket that can hold powerbricks of all shapes and sizes. Just boot up your laptop and let the brick do the rest.

This sounds like a solid way to heat your feet, but don't come running to us when you get third-degree burns on your feet because the slippers caught on fire from improper ventilation. Just for your own reference, this is from the same folks that brought you the hotdoll. –Travis Hudson

Feeladdicted [Via OhGizmo!]

USB Heating Blanket Keep You Warm, Actually Looks Like a Cape

Travis Hudson — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 11:49:14 EST

Global warming, schmobal warming. I don't know about the rest of the country, but it is cold as hell in the Midwest. And for those cold WoW session, this USB heating blanket should do the trick. It is available for $25 from Brando. Add in some USB heating gloves and slippers for the ultimate toasty computing experience. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via Red Ferret]

Matsushita to Produce Heat-Proof Batteries

Travis Hudson — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 12:08:25 EST

Matsushita, the out-of-wedlock mother of Panasonic, has announced that it will be producing spark-resistant laptops batteries. This is in response to the recent big-bada-booms caused by overheating Sony batteries. Matsushita already controls 13 percent of the lithium-ion battery market. I'm no kind of rocket scientist, so I'm still not very certain how spark-resistant and heat-proof batteries work. Maybe it is like one of those gel ice packs Ma used to put in my lunch pale, but with lithium-ions inside. – Travis Hudson

Matsushita to mass-produce heatproof batteries [Reuters]

Thanko Heated Mousepad Looks Odd, Gets the Job Done

Travis Hudson — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 10:27:12 EST

Just in time for the cold and blistery winter season comes this device from Thanko. It is quite possibly the weirdest looking mousepad out, but it gets the job done, so I'm not complaining. This fish-looking sleeping bag will ensure your hand stays nice and warm while mousing at the computer. Oh, you crazy Thanko. What will you think of next? – Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via Akihabara]