Outdoor

Festival goers rejoice – no longer do you have to spend the first several hours of your week struggling to master the jigsaw that is tent-pitching!

Quechua are selling this cool tent that springs out of its carrying bag and pops up fully formed – 2 seconds is the claim and looking at the video I can believe it.

Now re-packing it… that’s another story! Still, it looks like a neat idea for the occasional camper.

More details (and cool videos) at Quechua.com

Anybody who cycles a lot will have had the experience of a flat tyre – it’s inevitable given the condition of our roads and cycle paths. So after you’ve repaired the hole you could:

a) spend 10 minutes with a hand pump trying to put a decent amount of pressure back in the tyre, or

b) Use one of these handy CO2 inflators from Topeak to blast gas back into the tyre without the effort.

The cartridges are strictly single use but they should last forever in storage and it seems like a far simpler way of getting the job done to me.

Flat-pack tableware – useful for camping, not so much for your everyday evening meal. If you do like the outdoor life though, the Orikaso range of self-assembly bowls, mugs and plates should be on your shopping list.

The idea is simple but well executed – using pre-folded and cut plastic sheets you can carry around a set of eating and drinking accessories for next to no weight and because they fold flat you can tuck them into a corner of your rucksack and forget about them.

No need to worry about fragile plastic hinges either – you get a 10 year guarantee against failure. Prices seem to vary, so look on Amazon to see what they’re currently doing.

Digital mapping software is starting to become more common with the growth of more powerful phones and PDAs. Effectively replacing an entire pocket full of Ordinance Survey maps, “Quo” from Mapyx is the latest to join the lineup.

Quo is a simple application to use and (more importantly) it’s free to download. Once installed, you can plan routes using the tool which can then be exported to GPS waypoints. A Windows Mobile version of the software is also included, which will display your chosen route on your smartphone/PDA.

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Joby have been making the GorillaPod for a few years now – with it’s unique flexible leg joint arrangement it can hold a camera on just about anything.

Taking that idea one step further is the GorillaTorch – a hands free light using the same articulated leg design.

It looks like a nice solution to the problem of portable hands-free lighting. The legs have been fitted with magnetic feet for additional mounting options and the light itself has variable brightness, using the latest LED technology for up to 80 hours of illumination.

At £34.99 it seems like good value to me – Joby are taking pre-orders on their online store now.

The SPOT GPS tracker is one of those things that you buy hoping you’ll never need, but if you do end up using it you’ll be glad you invested.

It’s a personal locator which at the press of a button sends your location in an SMS or email to your chosen recipients (or the emergency services). It uses satellites to transmit the message so it will work anywhere in the world and doesn’t need any mobile phone services to be present.

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Olympus have launched this new compact camera aimed at the outdoorsy/action-oriented (or just plain clumsy) market – It has been engineered to withstand a drop of 1.5m, temperatures down to –10 degrees Celsius and can be submerged to 3 meters.

A 12MP sensor means detailed images while a 28-102mm lens should provide enough flexibility for most needs.

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Chainsaws will occupy a special place in the heart of anybody who’s been around long enough to remember ID Software’s genre-defining game, Doom. (or, indeed, any fans of the Evil Dead series)

With the advent of the i.Saw USB chainsaw you can bring your space-marine/zombie hunting fantasies one step closer… or at least you might be able to in September when they actually start shipping the things.

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With Glastonbury around the corner this fantastic futuristic concept tent is being touted by Orange (yes, the mobile phone people) as the next “must have” for festivals. Which it would be, if it existed, and that’s coming from somebody who doesn’t even like camping.

To start with the outer shell is made of a photovoltaic material (solar cells to you and me), to recharge all your toys.

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