When heading into the great outdoors, it can be a good idea to leave a lot of your tech behind. But on the other hand, there are plenty of products that can help or enrich your experiences, rather than distracting from them.
Here are some recent gadgets that have come across my desk, which I’ve used and which I recommend, and which could be helpful on a late autumn or winter adventure.
Stoov Kokoon XL – $249
Why use up fuel to heat an entire area when you can just heat one very specific spot, i.e. your own body? That’s the idea behind pretty much all of Stoov’s products, not to mention a whole industry that produces heat patches, electric hoodies, neck heaters and so on. Stoov is a certified B Corp that uses infrared tech in blankets, cushions and other products to produce a very localised heat. I’ve previously used the company’s Big Hug XL, which is designed to be hung on a chair, but its new Kokoon XL is a much better choice if you’re planning to move around.
From the front, it looks like a puffy vest, with a toggle and pockets, but it’s more like a big scarf. It’s comfy to wear, and a button on the front lets you turn on the heat. There are three levels of warmth, the highest of which reaches close to 60 degrees, and it heats up quickly. The element covers your shoulders and the back of your neck, and although it’s an electronic kind of heat that doesn’t radiate at all, it combats outdoor chill very effectively.
The battery system overall has evolved a lot since I last tested a Stoov. The new design can be charged by USB-C rather than a specific AC adapter, which is very convenient, and it lasts up to 10 hours on a charge. The battery pack is also easily removable so you don’t have to leave the whole scarf wherever you’re charging it, and you could buy a separate second battery so you’re never without warmth. One niggle is that the battery pack makes the weight a bit unbalanced, but you can fix that by putting something in the left pocket.
Kobo Remote Page Turner – $45
When I first saw this device, I was nonplussed. It’s a Bluetooth remote for your Kobo eReader, with one big button and one small button, and all it does is connect to your device to turn pages backwards and forwards. I could see it as an accessibility aid, for people who have trouble holding the device and pressing to turn at the same time, but does it have any use beyond that? Maybe if you’re reading while running on a treadmill? Or while lying on your side, and you’re so close to sleep you don’t want to reach over to turn the page? I wasn’t sold.
Before I used it for myself, I did some research and found that this device actually comes after years of convoluted unofficial products, including clip-on mechanical nibs you can connect to Bluetooth game controllers for touching the screen remotely. And shortly after launch, Kobo sold out, so the demand is clearly there. The company’s marketing department thought it would be useful for reading while your hands are otherwise busy with wine or chocolate, which is not my usual reading situation. But I have found one use case for me; reading in the cold.
If you ever find yourself reluctantly bringing your hands out of your blanket or your hoodie pockets to turn the page, then the remote can genuinely add some utility. As long as your reader is sitting somewhere stable, you can hang onto the remote or keep it hooked around your wrist with the included lanyard, and control the pages with your thumb. It’s tiny and it’s comfortable to hold, and it works. A note for outdoorsy reading: most of the current Kobos are waterproof, but the remote is not.
Sonos Play – $499
Bluetooth speakers are great because you can take them anywhere, but many of them are lacking in the sound department. Beefy smart speakers are great because you can easily play anything from any service, but you have to be where they are to listen. Sonos has tried to put both strengths in a single product before, with the Move and the Roam, but I think it has finally nailed the brief with the new Sonos Play. It’s an excellent smart speaker for use at home, but you can lift it off its charging cradle and take it with you for adventures outdoors.
The Play is waterproof and weighs around 1.3 kilograms, which is may be a bit heavy for hanging off your pack as you hike around (though it does have a sturdy loop attached for such). But it is ideal for campsites, parks or just your backyard. When you leave your home’s Wi-Fi, it switches to Bluetooth and it has enough battery for around 24 hours of continuous playing.
It also sounds great and it is on par with the Era 100, which I usually recommend as a home smart speaker, although you pay $180 more to get the Play’s battery capabilities. Bass is plentiful, there’s more than enough volume, and the mids and treble are really well-rounded. Whenever you move it to a new stable spot, it calibrates its sound. The much smaller Sonos Roam still sounds pretty good if you need something that can fit into a cupholder, but the Play brings a true hi-fi quality to your outdoor music.
Insta360 Flow 2 Pro – $240
Taking good smartphone pictures and videos of your adventures doesn’t need to be expensive. There are plenty of simple mounts, tripods and selfie sticks available to make things easier. But on the other hand, spending some money on this robotic gimbal from Insta360 gets you the benefit of all of those things, plus automatic levelling, tracking and framing. It even doubles as an emergency battery pack in case all that filming drains your phone.
The Flow 2 Pro comes with a little metal clamp you attach to the back of any phone, which then snaps securely to the gimbal with a strong magnet. The front of the unit has a joystick, buttons and a wheel for changing settings and manual control, while the rear has a trigger to manage tracking. It takes a bit to understand what it all does, but the upshot is you can carry it handheld and have the device counteract your movements to make for smooth footage, or you can use the integrated tripod legs to track or pan or do full 360-degree sweeps. It’s easy to tell the camera to change orientation, or switch from front to rear lenses, and there’s a mirror on the back of the clamp so you can confirm you’re in frame. It also has a telescoping selfie stick built in.
You get the best tracking and most features using the Insta360 app, which I found did a fantastic job at stabilisation even if I was jogging, and it had no problem following me as I moved around, tracking running kids and even following animals. But the gimbal also supports Apple’s DockKit, meaning iPhone users can get a bit of extra functionality by using the Flow 2 with the native camera app, FaceTime, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Blackmagic Camera and more. The face tracking isn’t quite as good, but it means your robot cameraman can also help out in video calls and livestreams.
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