Winter
”Wii Fit Helpin' Us Ski This Summer
With the snow season practically over, we are starting to miss those winter days of snowboarding and hot tubbin'. This summer when the snow is long gone we might actually have an outlet for our snow-sport deprived lives. The Wii Fit. There is a whole set of mini-games that take place on the mountain. With games that range from ski jumping to snowboarding, it makes us wonder if it will be enough to kill the mid-summer, snow-missin' blues. More »Good Times at the Gizmodo Reader Meetup
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. More »
Lightning Review: Electric Socks
In honor of the upcoming Tahoe reader meetup on April 5th at Alpine Meadows, I'm going to be doing end of season reviews of some outdoor gadgetry that's been floating around the cabin. First up, these electric socks originally designed to keep North Atlantic fishermen warm.
The idea: Wool/Poly blend Socks with wiring and thin resistors that run from the D cells mounted in the top of the sock liner to under the ball of the foot. Sweaty feeling, and any activity causes sock droop as the batteries overpower the elastic. Yet, warmish. And $22.
ski tech
O'Neill NavJacket Shows the Way with GPS, Integrated Audio/Video
O'Neill is offering its European market a glimpse of the snowy future with the NavJacket, a GoreTex parka with a stitched-in GPS receiver, speakers in the hood, and a "flexible display sleeve." We don't have any demonstration video (but damn do we wish we did). In fact, this is really the only picture floating around. But here's what we know: More »Porsche Kinderbob, for Only the Most Chic Kids
It's not hard to find items with the Porsche logo on them lately—heck, we're thinking that soon you'll even be able to find Porsche dildos. If you'd like to have just one thing with a Porsche logo on it in your household, this little bobsled for your kids might just qualify. It costs $115, and that's a whole lot less than a Porsche car, or even the Porsche cellphone. It doesn't look half bad, either. [Porsche Design, via GeekAlerts]
outdoors
Polarpak Moflow Canteen doubles as a Pressurized Shower
This water carrier for outdoorsy types includes a pressurizing hand pump that works to improve the design of ye old camelback-canteen in several ways: First, you won't have to suck on the straw to get hydrated, an inflated reservoir doubles as a pillow, and mounted high, it works as a pinch shower. Joel notes that the hand pump could be easily lost, to which I agree. [Polarpak via Boingboing]Alu Sled Shock-Absorbs Your Butt on Bumpy Downhill Slopes
In the world of snow fun, there are sleds, there are tea-trays and there are even plastic bin bags (if you are a suicidal sledger, as I was in my teenage years). And then there is this, the Alu sled. Built from aluminum, the shock-absorbent silver slider has plastic runners, a handbrake, and packs up into a sexy little carry case when you're done tobogganing (see below).
O'Neill H4 Campack is a Self-Contained Ski Video Shooting Studio
If you want an easy way to record your skiing adventures, this O'Neill H4 Campack hooks up to its own helmet-mounted camera, letting you control its portable media player/recorder with a huge record button on the shoulder strap. The player nestled inside has enough battery power for recording four hours of your winter sports hijinks. It's packing a paltry 512MB in its internal flash drive, but then you can insert a 2GB SD card and record 160 minutes more. Besides all that video goodness, it also functions as a roomy backpack. Shooting those videos for YouTube was never easier, but it's certainly been cheaper—this backpack configuration is around $422. [O'Neill, via Talk2myShirt and Dailymotion]
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With the snow season practically over, we are starting to miss those winter days of snowboarding and hot tubbin'. This summer when the snow is long gone we might actually have an outlet for our snow-sport deprived lives. The Wii Fit. There is a whole set of mini-games that take place on the mountain. With games that range from ski jumping to snowboarding, it makes us wonder if it will be enough to kill the mid-summer, snow-missin' blues.