If you’re coming to the event, I certainly hope you’ll consider attending my session. Camping geeks are as enthusiastic about their gadgets as technology geeks, and the two fields are converging in some pretty interesting ways, mostly thanks to the portability and versatility of the iPhone and iPad. Here’s a taste of what I mean.

Let’s start with navigation. Sure, the iPhone has a built-in compass, but I’m not here to try to sell you on using it — let’s face it; it’s pretty flaky. I’ll opt for a “real” compass any day, liquid filled, mind you, and if I’m expressing a preference, I’ll take a mirror compass; they allow you to see your bearing and line up your target at the same time. The mirrored top also acts as a lid to protect your compass and it’s compact enough that there’s no real advantage to leaving it behind in favor of the app on your iPhone.

More features than a "real" GPSr at about 1/300th the price.

No cell service? No problem. SPOT can fetch help by turning your iPhone into a satellite communicator.

There are dozens — maybe hundreds of apps that can be tremendously useful in the great outdoors — everything from apps that help you identify birds to apps that help you identify poisonous plants. There are even apps that will help you with first aid in case you didn’t do so well identifying the poisonous plants. And if you’re a star gazer, you already know how many more stars shine on a dark backcountry night; and you can name every one of them if you have an app for that. (I like Star Walk; $2.99 on the App Store.)

Solar panels: Because trees don't have electrical outlets.

Finally, on the non-Apple front, here’s one of the coolest ways I’ve seen to purify water yet. Traditionally, there have been three ways to ensure water is safe to drink: boil it, treat it chemically or filter it. All have their downsides: boiling water takes a long time and leaves you with hot, often flat-tasting water; iodine pills and other chemical treatments leave a bad taste; and pumping can be slow, labor-intensive and subject to clogging.

Rumor has it that Captain Kirk used the same thing to purify his Romulan Ale.

I’ll be talking about a lot more at my seminar, so I hope lots of TMO readers will be able to join me. It’s a session that probably wouldn’t have been possible without the new direction of Macworld | iWorld, so I’m very eager to see how it’s received.

Oh, and one more thing: IDG is letting me give TMO readers $15 off an iFan pass just by using this link.

I hope to see you there!

“The Great (Geek) Outdoors: Using your high-tech gear to get more out of your high adventure outings”
Friday, January 27th
10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.

It’s a lively hour’s worth of talk about what’s in the update, what’s not and a little digging into what’s important and why. Panels this large can tend to get a little unwieldy, but thanks to Chuck Joiner’s expert choreography and the terrific panelists, the result is a spirited, friendly and fun discussion.

If you don’t already subscribe to the MacJury podcast, you should. It’s a consistently relevant, interesting and entertaining look at the issues surrounding Apple and the Macintosh.

I really enjoy taking part in these podcasts. Podcasting is something I really wish I did more of and when I’m invited to participate like this, it sort of forces my hand. It also tends to get me “off the pot” with regards to posting on RandomMaccess (and now here too, I suppose.) I’d still like to do a podcast of my own, even if it’s not Mac-related (maybe it would be even better that way). Maybe something to do with Scouting. I’ve got a pretty decent podcasting studio set up in the basement now — it seems a shame not to use it more often.

Here are a few of the things I’ll be looking for:

1. Copy and paste. (Duh.) Seriously, though, if this one doesn’t finally happen — or if it doesn’t happen without a good explanation of why it can’t — I’ll be dumbfounded. It’s a feature so integral to using a computing device it’s just astounding that it hasn’t happened yet. Don’t get me started.
2. Flash. Please? There are just too many Flash sites out there for this issue to continue to be left unaddressed. Other phones are starting to get it (do any already have it?), and it’s ubiquitous enough that you can’t really make the claim that you get the “whole Internet” without it. I do, however, wonder about the implications and whether or not it’s those implications, rather than technical limitations that are holding this up. Would Hulu work, for example? It seems that with Flash enabled, Apple would have much less control about what the iPhone could and could not do.
3. Video recording/streaming. In addition to the recording aspect, I’d still love to see video conferencing work, at least in iChat if not Skype. The Flash question again, though: with Flash enabled, could these video recording/conferencing solution work even without Apple’s sanction or support?
4. More robust iApps. Mail and Address Book come quickly to mind, but most of Apple’s built-in apps are in much need of updates. Even the Apple Remote app seems unnecessarily hobbled compared to the physical version.
5. Better application management. One of the best arguments for the case that Apple never really intended to allow third-party app development can be seen in the iPhone’s launcher. The number of apps is limited (to nine screens, I believe); it’s ridiculously hard to move apps and completely impossible to group, sort or otherwise organize them.
6. Performance. I know, I know, it’s a phone and I should be (and am) grateful for all the wonderful things it can do, but the iPhone is still dog-slow at lots of processing tasks, with interminable user interface delays and hangups with no feedback as to what if anything is happening.
7. Background process management. Apple had good arguments for not including this capability, but it’s seemingly terrific compromise (the “push server”) never materialized. Lots of apps need to do things in the background to be useful, and hopefully Apple has now figured out how to accomplish this without tradeoffs in battery life, performance or security.

I have one more hope, and it’s admittedly a big (and selfish) one. I want all these new features to work on my first generation iPhone. That happened with the 2.0 update and I’m hoping that Apple feels it has enough of those devices still in the field to make that a non-negotiable. The fact that, other than GPS and 3G networking, the second-generation iPhone still has the same specs makes me optimistic: it seems unlikely to me that Apple will announce new software that instantly renders every iPhone in the field obsolete.

I don’t expect to get away without having to pay for this update, though. The software will be announced tomorrow, but don’t expect it to ship then. My guess is late July or early August, just after the original iPhones slip past the two-year subscription period Apple uses for accounting purposes. I think the iPhone 3G users will get this one as a freebie, but I’m expecting to have to pay for it. I’d love to get off with a $20 hit, but my guess is it will be closer to $40 for those who bought early.

How far off am I with all these predictions? We only have to wait a day to find out.