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Beartooth

beartooth.com

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Re: Beartooth

#91

Post by aj_g »

ldayley wrote: post #75
roymurdock wrote: post #52

Just don't see a value prop to make this feasible. I go to festivals, skiing, camping with friends 2-3 times a year. At a festival, cell service is fine. Camelback with gatorade/water mix is the crucial piece of equipment. Just keep an eye on it, as random people will try to drink from your straw. For casual skiing we set times/places to meet up in case we get separated. Again, cell phones work fine on most mountains…

I don't think it is designed with this use case in mind, despite the marketing that mentions crowded festivals. I see a "Born in Bozeman" badges on the site, so I'm assuming this was born out of necessity for backcountry trekking in wild Montana and not hiking Mt. Tamalpais. I'm not far from Bozeman and I don't have to travel far from home before I lose network coverage from both Verizon and T-Mobile. Sure, I relish…

Yep. I'm from Bozeman, and can think of more than a few friends who could find this useful doing field research out here. And to anyone who is wondering, the name is in reference to the Absaroka-Beartooth wilderness, an absolutely gorgeous expanse of land near Bozeman

http://www.outsidebozeman.com/places/wilderness-areas/absaro...

Re: Beartooth

#92

Post by lfowles »

hammock wrote: post #88
roymurdock wrote: post #52

Just don't see a value prop to make this feasible. I go to festivals, skiing, camping with friends 2-3 times a year. At a festival, cell service is fine. Camelback with gatorade/water mix is the crucial piece of equipment. Just keep an eye on it, as random people will try to drink from your straw. For casual skiing we set times/places to meet up in case we get separated. Again, cell phones work fine on most mountains…

Air tube? I ski with beacon, probe & shovel, familiar with airbags but unfamiliar with air tubes.

I would assume even if it isn't long enough to break the surface, it will at least get the humid exhaled air away from your face.

Re: Beartooth

#93

Post by rtkwe »

elbigbad wrote: post #86
rtkwe wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Piggybacking here but the FAQ is painfully vague. On the question of what phones does it work with their answer is: > Beartooth pairs with both iOS and Android smartphones, as long as the operating system is up to date. Which is a pretty much useless statement on Android especially since they would know what API level their app targets... It certainly sounds like it'll use Bluetooth though and makes sense as a bridge…

My GoPro creates a wifi network and the phone just auto-connects to that to control the GoPro. So certainly the Beartooth could create a wifi network that the phone connects to and essentially sees the Beartooth as a traditional wifi network.

True it's certainly an option though for low rate text and data like the Beartooth is using WiFi is a bit of overkill and the power overhead makes Bluetooth more appealing than Wifi. That and how much they repeat 'pair' instead of something like tether made me think it was probably Bluetooth.

Re: Beartooth

#94

Post by mutagen »

anthonybsd wrote: post #40
vermontdevil wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also take orienteering class if you want to be an outdoorsy person. I took it and it was a blast. Now looking to join a local club and get into orienteering competitions.

Orienteering was mandatory in my school when I was a teenager. Interesting memories... :)

Interesting memories indeed. I took it as part of a special program in 6th grade. We split into two groups and the group I wasn't in found a corpse just off the trail, which cut our orienteering exercise quite short. I got to explain to the school psychologist that "No, I didn't see anything, I wasn't traumatized."

I should go do some more, I'm fairly confident in my map skills but I bet there are some assumptions of mine to knock down.

Re: Beartooth

#95

Post by caminante »

mathgeek wrote: post #83

On first load, all I see is the blatant "look at this person's butt in tight jeans while they insert a phone into their pocket" video clip. Drove me right off. Do we really need that sort of thing to promote a wireless device in this day and age?

Naw. You're over-thinking it. It's an appropriate viz for how it fits in your back pocket, which talks to its size.

My gripe with the video's how it hides volume controls.

Re: Beartooth

#96

Post by sharpercoder »

The websute us outright lying. It claims that it would connect to nearby beartooth users when you do not have a signal. As I do not see the beartooth device using cables, it must use a signal anyways.

Re: Beartooth

#97

Post by anthonybsd »

r00fus wrote: post #58
anthonybsd wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Orienteering was mandatory in my school when I was a teenager. Interesting memories... :)

Which school was this? I've never heard of such a requirement outside of say, Scouts or the military. Along with basic financials, I inclined to agree that'd be a very good add for required classes.

I grew up in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. It's a pretty hilly/mountainous region, so competitive orienteering is huge there. I was never really any good at it myself due to being bad at running and especially cross country running, but I enjoyed weekend trips to participate in competitions anyway.

Re: Beartooth

#98

Post by roymurdock »

hammock wrote: post #88
roymurdock wrote: post #52

Just don't see a value prop to make this feasible. I go to festivals, skiing, camping with friends 2-3 times a year. At a festival, cell service is fine. Camelback with gatorade/water mix is the crucial piece of equipment. Just keep an eye on it, as random people will try to drink from your straw. For casual skiing we set times/places to meet up in case we get separated. Again, cell phones work fine on most mountains…

Air tube? I ski with beacon, probe & shovel, familiar with airbags but unfamiliar with air tubes.

http://www.backcountry.com/black-diamond-avalung-ii

Most ski patrols use ABS to cushion the neck and buoy the skier above the snow, but this is supposed to be OK in a pinch if you can keep it in your mouth while tumbling down a mountain.

Re: Beartooth

#99

Post by __jal »

andrewljohnson wrote: post #44
jdietrich wrote: post #30

As with any smartphone product being marketed for use in wilderness environments, a note of caution is necessary. Rescue services have seen an increasing number of life-threatening situations caused by the unwise use of smartphones. Phones aren't sufficiently rugged and often lack user-replaceable batteries, so cannot be relied upon as a navigation tool or as a means of emergency communication. If you're considering…

I agree it's foolish to do a dangerous trip with just one navigation method. But that doesn't mean your phone isn't a good tool, or that we'd have less emergencies if they didn't exist. I develop an app called Gaia GPS, which a vast array of backpackers, wildland firefighters, and SAR use as a tool to navigate in the woods. They use battery packs and rugged/insulating cases with their iPhone and Android devices to ma…

It is hardly FUD. If you want more horror stories involving wilderness and technical failure, I can set you up with as many as you like. There have been hundreds of cases people suffering in various colorful ways due to reliance on cell phones, GPS, etc. which were not reliable in their chosen environment.

From my perspective, it is about redundancy and flexibility within my environmental constraints. I usually just have my cell phone with me, even when I'm doing some potentially sketchy things. That's because if I break/lose battery/lose my phone, there are always tons more around me.

When that isn't true, I'll usually have at least a handheld ham with spare batteries, a list of repeaters around where I'll be, and GPS andd/or paper maps (along with other things of use when one is remote).

Oh, my phone, too, 'cause it is fun and handy. I just don't trust my life to consumer-grade tools built for the home and office that can't even get wet or survive a small drop.

If you are not familiar with outdoors adventuring (and even if you are), one important exercise is to think through your gear, asking yourself how you get by without each piece. What do you do if your tent poles break? Two flat tires or a blown engine? Something gets your food? Your phone (meaning comms and maps, for the purposes we're discussing) breaks or your spare battery shorts?

Re: Beartooth

#100

Post by harlanlewis »

baldfat wrote: post #54
harlanlewis wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're both talking about FRS. Many commercial two-way radios support both GMRS (up to 5 watts - $65 for 5-year license) and FRS (up to 500 milliwatts - no license req'd). Most users just ignore the GMRS functionality on their 2-ways.

two-way walkie talkies I would have said two-meters if I meant those. My dad has been a ham since the 1960s. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001UE6MIO/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_d...

I'm not sure I follow. The model you linked is an FRS/GMRS two-way radio (aka walkie talkie), a perfect example of what I described (it's all right there in the product title). I think we're still talking about the same thing, although I did mislabel it as 'commerical' when I meant 'consumer' radio :)

Agreed, they're great.

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