Tech: Shoot a Better iPhone Adventure Video With Tips From Camp 4

If you spend any time watching adventure videos and films, then you know Camp 4 Collective. The powerhouse production team includes some of the world's best climber-photographers—Jimmy Chin, Renan Ozturk, and Tim Kemple—shooting in the world's most extreme, least seen places. Last week they released The Denali Experiment, featuring an all-star crew of mountaineers, skiers, and snowboarders blending their skills to climb up and shred down North America's tallest peak (definitely a must-watch). The Camp 4 guys are total pros—both at staying safe on the most grueling, exotic adventures and shooting incredible footage. 

Gillian Chase - iPhone 4s Music Video from Camp 4 Collective on Vimeo.

Recently, Camp 4 conducted another experiment: They shot a music video on a camera phone. While normally this would sound like a waste of time for filmmakers of their expertise, that was not the case. Shooting on the iPhone 4S, with its 8-megapixel camera and 1080p hi-def video, the team produced great results.

"The first digital video cameras we took with us into the mountains four years ago—to Pakistan—were shooting lower resolution and weighed significantly more," says Tim Kemple, who directed the music video featuring singer Gillian Chase. "But even bigger than that to me is the idea that you can always have this camera with you—no set up, no setting down your backpack." Pretty ideal for documenting your adventures.

Here are Kemple's tips—including how to stabilize your shooting, optimizing for iOS5 features, apps for extreme environments, tethering to send dispatches, and dealing with low light—so we all can shoot more like the pros. Just don't forget to put your iPhone in airplane mode. —Mary Anne Potts

iPad 2 For Travel: New Travel Apps, iMovie Trip Videos, Battery Life Tips, More

By Mary Anne Potts; photograph courtesy Apple

When the first iPad came out just over a year ago, we were sure it would transform travel: Apple's tablet computer married work and play utilities so well, it rendered a laptop excess weight on a vacation. Thirteen months later, our computing behavior has already evolved drastically. Everyone from VPs to restaurant sommeliers to preschoolers are using iPads everywhere. It did not take long for the tablet to find a place in our lives.

Since the second generation iPad was released a month ago, much has been said about the new lighter, smaller, faster model. And the fact that Apple has added significant new features to iPad 2—such as the front- and back-facing cameras—without raising the price (it starts at $499). Let’s consider what the iPad 2 does to further transform travel with its smaller size, new cameras, innovative new travel apps, and iMovie travel videos.

Travel Tech: Smartphones' Personal Hotspot Wi-Fi Saves Travelers Time, Money

By now, we’ve come to depend on our smartphones to be very smart, smarter than we are. They solve our every logistical conundrum: Where should we eat? (Yelp.) Where are you now? (Beluga.) Where am I? (Google Maps.) And a growing number of smartphones offer a new feature that cements these devices in the center of our lives: the personal hotspot, which turns the 3G connection into a Wi-Fi signal wherever you are. Any coffee shop. The airport. Your hotel room. A park bench. A park bench in London. Your campsite in Yosemite. A moving taxi. And with this feature comes a sense of relief that, finally, you will not need to hunt down a Wi-Fi signal to send an email, update the apps on your iPad, whatever. You are your own moving Wi-Fi zone.

For example, the long-awaited Verizon iPhone 4, which launched earlier this month, has this feature. Turn on the personal hotspot and you have a password-protected Wi-Fi zone for up to five devices. This mean your Wi-Fi-only iPad or tablet is suddenly so much more useful on the go. The 3G iPad, with its service fees, seems like overkill. Home Wi-Fi even seems unnecessary. Random Wi-Fi charges in airports and hotels are a thing of the past. Cut these to expenses from your life and you stand to save a good deal of money over time.

Travel Tech: A Case That "Doubles" Your iPhone's Battery Life

By Contributing Editor Steve Casimiro, editor of Adventure Journal. See more of Casimiro's gear recommendations in our must-have gear gallery >>

Back in the pre-digital dark ages, I’d pack for long flights by loading up with stacks of magazines and a book or two. Today I still load up, but it’s with batteries and extra juice to keep my laptop, iPad, and iPhone running all the way from Los Angeles to Johannesburg. Cause it sucks to be you when you’re eight hours into 24 hours of travel with nothing to ward off boredom but a tattered copy of SkyMall.

Mophie Juice Air Pack ($80) is the answer, at least for the iPhone. This case/battery combination snaps over the iPhone 4 and delivers 1,500 mAh of power, effectively doubling the phone’s capacity. Mophie says “virtually” doubles battery life, which is a nicely lawyerly way of putting it. And I say “effectively” because it depends on the usage. For relatively low-draw uses, battery life is spot on double. I ran the Pandora music at medium volume with Mophie’s battery assist and it consistently rocked the house twice as long as the iPhone battery alone. Higher-draw challenges, like watching videos while Bluetooth, 3G, and Wi-Fi gave me 80 to 85 percent more running time.

The Juice Air Pack battery charges via USB cable and weighs just 2.5 ounces. The weight isn’t much of an issue—but the bulk of the Mophie is. One of the best features of the iPhone 4 is its diminutive size; the Mophie turns it into a pocket-swelling 5 inches by 2.5 inches by .68 inches. Is that a deal breaker? No. Are iPhone owners spoiled by the size? Yes. But is the extra girth of the Juice Air Pack enough to make you think twice about taking it? Also yes. But then I think about the pain of reading and rereading about doggie orthopedic couches or foldable recumbent exercisers and it seems like a small price to pay.

Best New Apps: PeakFinder Makes Virtual Peak Bagging Easy

By Keene Haywood

How often have you stood before a glorious mountain range and marveled at the peaks and wondered: “What the heck are the names of those spires?” Just a few years ago you would have been out luck unless you had a good map—and some solid range finding skills. Enter recent technology advances into the picture. Enter the iPhone.

Like a lot of things, the humble iPhone has changed our view of things—and literally, in this case. Using technology such as GPS and the compass embedded into the iPhone, a new app will help you impress those around you with name of that obscure peak off yonder. And when they were about to ask why you brought that vestige of modern urban life with you into the backcountry, you can now give them a solid answer!

Just what is the app that can do this marvelous thing? It is called PeakFinder and actually comes in two flavors serving different parts of the worl: one for the Alps and the other for U.S.A. West. You buy the one most appropriate for your needs as they are actually two different apps/databases. Swiss developer Fabio Soldati has made it so the entire database is loaded onto your iPhone or iPod Touch. So you can be off in the most remote part of the American Rockies without nary a cell signal or wi-fi hot spot around and still get the name of the peak towering before you.

Travel Tech: EveryTrail iPhone App Review (Part 2)

By Keene Haywood
  
Yesterday I reviewed the Everytrail.com website and service that allows users to upload trail information from their GPS, annotating their travels with geotagged pictures, videos, and text. It is a very rich site offering many options for sharing and documenting your backcountry treks. One area where EveryTrail goes further is with their mobile app development. They offer apps for the iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry devices. Such an array of options gives just about every smartphone user the opportunity to use Everytrail on the go.

Today I will be looking at the iPhone app, in particular ,which does have many of the same features as the other smartphone apps. But it also has one that is unique to the iPhone, namely the ability to store Guides from the EveryTrail.com website. The EveryTrail app comes in two versions, a free one and a Pro version selling for $3.99 in the iTunes App store. A comparison link of the two versions can be found here.

If you are someone who spends a lot of time documenting your travels, then I would say the Pro version is money well spent. Among other things, the significant features of the Pro app is the ability to geotag video shot on your iPhone (the free app only does photos), sync trips with your account on the EveryTrail.com, download Guides and cache maps for offline use. This latter feature may be worth the $3.99 alone as many of us travel well beyond the reach of cell signals.

Travel Tech: EveryTrail Review -- Trail Mapping For Everyone (Part 1)

 
By Keene Haywood

Editor's Note: Read this review then find a hike in our Best Trails feature, with 30 weekend, city, park, and backcountry options.

In today’s world, our mobile devices almost always have the ability to provide location, giving us directions as well as many other location-based services on bright, sharp screens with good maps. Whether it is a dedicated GPS device or a mobile phone, location data has become an integral part of the data we now are used to dealing with on an almost daily basis. Like digital photographs and video, location data is becoming ubiquitous. We are starting to accumulate GPS waypoints, tracklogs, and what are commonly called POI’s (Points of Interest) by the handful. Until recently, there really has not been a great way to create, organize, and share one’s GPS data, especially when it comes to trails. You really had to know what you were doing to download this data, make sure it was formatted correctly, integrate it with a map, on and on. It took awhile but could be done by the determined.

This all began to change when a little mapping service opened its doors called EveryTrail. EveryTrail is both a web-based service and an application for your smartphone (iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry platforms are all supported). It has grown considerably in the past year or so and it keeps piling on the features. So, I wanted to give a review here of this most excellent service.

In Part 1 of this review, I’ll cover the main website http://www.everytrail.com. In Part 2, the iPhone app will be covered in detail. You can explore the website without an account, but in the end, I think you will find you will want to sign up. It is free so you have nothing to lose. On the site menu bar, you will find links to Guides, Find Trips, Destinations, Create Trip, My Trips, Mobile Apps and finally the Forum. I’ll briefly cover these to give you an idea of the features and then you can dive in and explore for yourself.  

Travel Tech: iPhone 4's iMovie App -- Insert Your Adventure Video Here

Cape San Blas, Gulf of Mexico. Music by Phoenix from Mary Anne Potts on Vimeo.

By Mary Anne Potts; Music "1901" by Phoenix.

Indulge me for a moment and pretend this video features your family, your favorite niece, and your beach escape to the Gulf of Mexico just after the country's worst off-shore oil disaster. Or your weekend of hiking the Presidental Traverse, bouldering Hueco Tanks, trekking below the rim of the Grand Canyon.

A few things are universally desired while on a trip—experiencing a unique part of the world, unplugging from everyday responsibilities, having meaningful experiences with family and friends. These trips are even better if documented just enough to revisit the best moments for years to come. But the documentation part, for most of us, only happens if it is easy and doesn't take away from the primary goals of having fun and relaxing. And if we're being honest, it usually never happens.

I have just departed from my family beach vacation at the Gulf of Mexico just after the historic BP oil spill. With me is this 3.45-minute video, made with the iMovie app ($4.99 in the App Store) on iPhone 4. It strings together the best moments of my trip in hi-res photos and hi-def video set to a great song, "1901" by Phoenix. I assembled the video throughout the trip, usually sitting on the couch or just standing with my sisters. No hours in front of a computer. No complicated editing. No instructions required to use iMovie—it's completely intuitive. I made my final director's tweaks during a before-dawn car ride to the airport. So now, my trip video is on my "done" list, and I'm not even home yet.

Travel Tech: Five Flight and Travel Apps to Keep You Sane and On Time

By Keene Haywood

Your bags are packed with tickets and passport are in hand. Do you have everything? Check again. Good. You’ve got it all. Breath a sigh of relief. Off to the airport. Did you remember your iPhone? Yep, you got that, but what about the apps? Huh? Yes, the travel apps. Did you pack those into your phone? Well if you did not, here are a few that may make your traveling just a little bit easier.

Below is a quick look at two new apps from the federal government and three established apps from third party developers which can help specifically with getting through the airport, tracking your flight information, providing itinerary and emergency information. The focus here is really getting you in the air and to your destination with a minimum of fuss. Let’s face it, airport time is rarely the highlight of one’s trip so the less time we can spend there, the better. These apps will do this and more to help you along your way.

Travel Tech: Mapping Geeks Start Your Engines - ArcGIS arrives for Apple’s iOS (iPad and iPhone)

By Keene Haywood

For those in the mapping know, the company ESRI is the Mount Everest of the field. It has long been the leading provider of software solutions for those who need to do heavy duty geographic information analysis. Such systems are referred to as GIS or Geographic Information Systems. Recently, ESRI has been getting into more of the consumer area of mapping by offering some easier to use web-enabled options for those who need to do mapping, but don’t necessarily need a geography degree to get it done.

This move took a big jump Wednesday when ESRI released ArcGIS for Apple’s iOS which runs the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. ArcGIS is the flagship GIS software for ESRI. They have done a wonderful job of streamlining the interface while still leaving it elegantly useable and efficient. The best part of the software is its deep catalog of maps that you can pull up and use from within the app. These are all excellent and offer a much wider array of imagery types than, say, Google Maps or Google Earth “out of the box.” For now, the software is basic, but it is a good foundation to build upon and a promising move. ESRI had ArcView GIS for the Mac platform years ago, but left it to focus on the Windows market, so the return is welcome.