Trail Maps App for iOS 4 devices

Great topo program from National Geographic.  I wouldn't call it Trail Maps.  I would call it Topo Maps.  The topo maps are very clear and excellent quality.  The maps can be downloaded to the unit to use when you don't have a cell signal.  I might break down and take my iPad on my next backpacking trip just to see how it does.

Recycling computer stuff at Goodwill

I just took four monitors, a laptop that I formatted twice, 2 desktops without the hard drives and a big printer to Goodwill. Dell is very cool to partner with Goodwill to enable recycling of computer equipment

Smart phone while backpacking or hiking

I have the original Droid but I use Peter Alfonso's operating system instead of the stock one.  Seems to have extended the life of this but I am wanting to get an iPhone now after watching the Apple announcement about iOS5.  I already have a MacBook Pro and iPad 2 so I figured I was destined to have an Apple device as a phone.

I have a Spot Connect, which is a personal locator beacon that sends your location to a website that you can share with family and friends.  You can also export all your waypoints to Spot Adventures where you can include a description of your trip, pictures and videos.  Pretty cool and the device stays connected to my Droid through bluetooth.  I can send messages to my family and Facebook.  Most of my trips have been one and two day backpacking trips so my phone seems to last to the end of the trip.  I keep it in "Airplane Mode" most of the time and take a few pictures.  Sometimes when I'm on a high ridge, I'll put the phone into normal mode so I can text my family.

There is an app on my phone called "Backcountry Navigator Pro" and another called "GPS Status" where I can get my GPS coordinates and even see where I am on downloaded maps.  I'm afraid to use them when I'm on these trips because I think the GPS will drain my phone all the way.  I've been toying around with the idea of a solar charger.  I hate having awesome phone features for backpacking but being afraid of running out of battery life because I'm using all the cool features away from an AC outlet.

Just got some Bose speakers for my computer

Great price at Sam's and the sound (of course) is very good.

Steripen Adventurer Opti (Water purifier)

I guess this is becoming a electronic gadgetry blog. This product worked great when augmented with antibacterial wipes.

You fill up a 1 liter Nalgene or water container in the river or stream. Push the button once to purify a liter (quart). When the green light starts flashing, you stick the glass tip into the water up the handle, the UV light turns on (take the lid off first). You swirl the water every once in a while and 90 seconds later, all the bad stuff is dead by the ultraviolet light. I could never figure out how you killed the bacteria and viruses on the rim so I use antibacterial wipes on the rim, threads and inside of the cap of my Nalgene. I used it for 2 days while hiking Segment 3 of the Colorado Trail (http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view/?trip_id=256318). At 4oz, it is a lot easier to use and a lot lighter than my pump type filters.

I had a little trouble at first, green light turning red. I think it was because I wasn't putting it into the water all the way up to the handle.

You can use the same device to kill the bad stuff in your water in 3rd world countries.

My Review of SPOT Connect Personal Locator Beacon

Originally submitted at Eastern Mountain Sports

Combining the technology of the Smartphone with the communication ability of the SPOT satellite system means you can keep everyone updated and safe when out of cell signal range.

SPOT Connect Personal Locator Beacon

Love the product overall

By ManiacJWJ from Colorado Springs, CO on 5/16/2011

 

4out of 5

Pros: Share trip with friends, Tracking, SOS ability, Sends messages to family, Analyze trip later

Cons: Missed sending one messag, Tracking inconsistent

Best Uses: Hiking in remote areas, Backpacking

Product tracked most of the time. It had two gaps where it didn't send. My first message that I sent to my family was never delivered. It did send my second message to my family and posted it on Facebook. It sent coordinates. I liked being able to export my trip to Spot Adventures, document things I learned and add pictures.

I'll have to figure out what to do with my cell phone's battery life going down quickly even though it was in Airplane Mode most of the time. I took my Droid out of airplane mode to check my status. It took too long to turn back on if I turned it off completely so I only turned it off completely a few times. Note later: I found out that turning it on and off was what drained the battery. Staying in Airplane Mode made it last a lot longer.

(legalese)

Mac Migration Assistant

The Mac's Migration Assistant, found at /Applications/Utilities/Migration Assistant, can transfer your software, settings and data from one Mac to another. You can actually transfer from another Mac, another volume on your Mac or from a Time Machine backup.

Mac OS X installation DVD

Following methods can be used to start your Mac from the Mac OS X install DVD:
1. Put in the DVD while your Mac is running, then select it as the startup destination
2. Turn on your Mac while holding the C key with the DVD inserted
3. Turn on your Mac while holding down the Option key while the DVD is inserted. It will fire up the Startup Manager.

With the Installation DVD, you can also reset password, set the firmware Password, check out your System Profiler and restore your entire system through a Time Machine backup.

Netflix App on iPad

Netflix's app for the iPad is amazing. The picture quality is excellent and there are SO MANY movies that you can view for free. I have a 10 Mbit connection with Comcast so the streaming is amazing. Every once in a while I switch out my one movie that comes in the mail but I mostly use it for the free movies online.

LogMeIn

www.logmein.com is a wonderful website. It allows you to download free software onto your computer which allows you to take over that computer (Mac or PC) from any browser. There are even apps for your iPhone and iPad called LogMeIn Ignition to take over your remote computer. You control it remotely as if you were right in front of it. Excellent!

There are corporate editions of LogMeIn Pro that you can remote control or do remote support for all the computers in your workplace. It isn't free but works great. They even have LogMeIn Rescue that with cooperation from the user on the remote computer, you can remotely control their computer without first downloading the software. But LogMeIn Rescue is about $1000.

Getting away from Windows more and more

I have Parallels software that allows me to run Windows 7 on my MacBook while I'm running the Mac OS. However, because Windows LOVES to say "Not Responding" when I need it most, I've been avoiding starting up Parallels with Windows as much as possible. I actually remote into another PC to run Windows-only software. My MacBook runs so much better.

I recently bought QuickBooks for Mac to replace the Windows version just so I could avoid using Windows for just one more program. I really like it except my Payroll website "Intuit Online Payroll (formally Paycycle)" won't successfully export into the Mac version because I have some of my wages as a Cost of Labor instead of an expense. The Windows version was cool with it. I'll figure out a workaround.

Mac startup disk

With a Mac startup disk, you can do several things.  If you hold down the Option key or the C key while booting up and immediately insert the Startup Disk, your computer will boot to the Startup Disk.  From there you can choose Options.  If you haven't already set a Firmware Password, anyone with a Startup Disk can change your passwords and access your computer.  You might think you are safe without a Firmware Password but you are not.

I bought my laptop from someone on craigslist.com.  He only has a Startup Disk for Version 10.4 and it didn't give me access to change or set my Firmware Password.  I'll see if I need the Startup Disk for Version 10.6 in order to do that or if I missed something.

iBooks and Kindle apps for iPad

Since graduate school, I've been a big book reader but I have found certain books that I like to read over and over.  One is the Bible.  Two I just started reading over and over again are "The Practice of the Presence of God" and the "Richest Man in Babylon".  They are both more practical books, teaching life skills.  The reason I like the iPad with these two apps are that I can carry several books with me.  It doesn't take up any more room or increase the weight I carry if I have 2 books or 20 books.  I just downloaded "Acres of Diamonds" and have started reading it.  It is starting to sound like a book I'll want to review often.

When you have books you want to read once and then give away, I don't think the book apps would be that great.  If you have a set of books that need to soak in with frequent readings, these apps are incredible.

SugarSync

SugarSync is a great alternative to VPN. You create a link to a folder on a server or remote computer then you create another link to a folder on your local machine. After that, you can make those folder replicate/synchronize to each other. All the files in that folder are copied to your computer and vice versa.

ABC app on iPad

The ABC television app is amazing. High definition television. You can access any episode from any season of the popular programs. I've started watching "Lost" from the beginning. Very cool.

Movies on iPad

Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, said that iPads had to do certain things better than other devices to become their own product class. IPads do movies incredibly well. There is something amazing about carrying a very good sized screen with incredible resolution that only weighs 1.5 lbs in your hand. I recently bought Avatar on iTunes and even though I originally saw it in 3D in the theatre, I didn't feel let down watching it on the iPad. The picture quality was so clear.

GPS Status application on my Droid

This is a great application. With a topo map, you can track yourself anywhere. This application works even outback when you don't have cell service, which i noticed many GPS or map applications stopped working.

WiFi iPad with rooted Droid

On www.droid-life.com, you can follow video instructions to give yourself superuser/administrator access to your Droid.  It is also called root access.  After you do that, you can install Barnacle Tether app on your Droid to make your droid into a wireless hot spot.  Pretty cool.  I use it to make my iPad more mobile.  I could also use it with my MacBook.  There is a less scary app called PDANet that you can connect to your Droid from MacBook to go out on the internet using BlueTooth or the USB cable.  That solution didn't work for the iPad so I took the risk and rooted my Droid.  Basically you replace your factory defaults that are saved on the Droid with Android OS 2.1 with root access.  Then you restore your phone to this version of Android OS instead of your factory defaults.

Am I addicted?

I originally bought my Macbook Pro on craigslist.com. It was my first one and since it was faster than most PC laptops, I didn't realize it was the 2006 model. It's battery only lasts 2 hours (which it has started dying within 10 minutes even after replacing the battery, wonder why guy sold it) instead of 8. Now I want new Macbook Pro. Funny!

Goodreader on the iPad

Another great app on the iPad is Goodreader. You can use it to copy PDF documents to your iPad and to read them on your iPad. It has several different methods to copy them and manage the documents. I used the wifi option to copy PDFs from my MacBook.