Travel Tech: iPhone 4 Eliminates Need For Point-and-Shoot Camera

By National Geographic Adventure Contributing Editor Steve Casimiro, editor of The Adventure Life

With 1.7 million iPhone 4s sold in three days, you don’t need me nudging you toward the Apple store. If anything, I should be trying to pull you back, since I don’t have mine yet and supplies are short. But I want to add my two cents, because the reason I’m buying a new iPhone isn’t the sexy allure of a slimmer phone (nice, but so what) or the new operating system (already got it on my 3GS), it’s because it will eliminate one more device: my point-and-shoot camera.

Travel Tech: The Power of Mobile Power - Batteries to Keep You Going

By Keene Haywood

The pace of technology innovation can leave one a little out of breath. Just got a new iPad? Great! In six months to a year, it will be out of date. This is just a fact of tech life. Unfortunately, with our increasingly mobile computing lifestyles, the one area of tech innovation that has not progressed with head spinning pace is batteries. It has progressed at more of a snail’s pace. This little speed bump particularly affects you, the intrepid explorer, who hits the trail ready to map, photograph, video, GPS and otherwise compute your way into the backcountry. While it is great you can take your gadgets out into the wild, you may only get about two miles down the trail when you notice your battery on your phone or other gadgets may start to weaken. It’s a drag. And it’s usually the one thing we tend to forget about in the field until we don’t have any more juice.

What to do? Well the obvious answer is carry some extra power with you. Here are a few options for keeping your devices powered up while you are in the field. You may wonder why most of these options are focused on Apple mobile devices. The answer is simple. They don’t have removable batteries that can be swapped out in the field so these devices require a little external help.

Travel Tech: 5 Best Cases to Keep Your iPhone Dry When You Are Not

We love gadgets. Even more, we love gadgets we can take with us outdoors—which today means quite a few, what with the mobile technology revolution well underway. Leading the pack for the go-to device when you venture outdoors is, of course, the iPhone. Aside from its handy communication capabilities, the GPS chip and compass of the newer 3G and 3GS models make them ideal companions out on the trail and in the backcountry. The trouble with technology is that it is not typically made for the great outdoors, where events such as downpours, sandstorms, mud puddles, and the like can quickly turn your hundreds-of-dollars device into a paperweight. But never fear, where there is a gadget, an accessory is not far behind. Here are a handful of cases to consider that are built just to keep your iPhone high and dry in even the worst conditions.—Keene Haywood

Travel Tech: How Your iPhone's A-GPS Works in the Wilderness

The 3G and 3GS versions of the iPhone have dedicated GPS chips in them. They use a technology called assisted GPS to help locate you in the world. The assisted part comes from using a Wi-fi or cellular radio signal to triangulate your general position. Then, when the GPS chip gets a good satellite fix, it will take over and give you a more specific location. Your phone looks for a Wi-Fi or cell signal first and then switches over to the GPS, if it does not find either of these.—Keene Haywood

Mapping on the Move: The Best iPhone Mapping Apps

Two of the ten hiking essentials involve location: a map and a compass. Know where you are and where you are going, and things will be fine. Now, these two pieces are rapidly being replaced by their digital brethren in the form of smartphones, which are taking mobile mapping in entirely new directions.

The poster child for this innovation is Apple’s iPhone, with its GPS, accelerometer, and compass (available in the 3GS version). Since the release of the iPhone in 2007, maps in your pocket have taken on an entirely new meaning. With each new edition of the device, the iPhone has become a better player in the location space. And while the hardware is all well and good, it is the software that makes the device shine brighter in the backcountry. Here are seven apps that will make your mapping experiences a little more interesting (and fun).—Keene Haywood

How to Use Your iPhone Travel Apps While Abroad

Text by Laura Buckley

After reading our Top 20 iPhone Travel Apps story, many of you responded with a very logical question: These apps are great, but how can I afford them when I’m, you know, actually traveling abroad? Or as reader Brenda Fritz put it, “Is Wi-Fi covered by my standard contract with AT&T or will it be $100 for me to find a great steak place in Melbourne?” After three customer service reps, two hours, and one hang up (us, not them), we think we cracked how the confusing international charges work. The short answer: It’ll cost you extra to use these travel apps outside of the U.S., Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands.

First and foremost, the only surefire way to avoid crazy international rates that’ll give you nightmares is to turn off your data roaming. (Settings → general → network → data roaming OFF.) This will disable all of your data features, such as email, Web browsing, or apps—pretty much everything that makes an iPhone an iPhone. But, as reader Ra Williams put it: “I found it's cheaper and more enjoyable to simply ‘ask somebody’ when traveling abroad.” Absolutely, if you are not chatting up the locals to learn more about your destination, you might as well stay home.

But you bought an iPhone for a reason and you want to search the Web and use the nifty BuUuk travel app to find a great restaurant while in Beijing. Here are some pointers:

Follow National Geographic ADVENTURE on Facebook and Twitter!