10 Geeky Camping Gadgets

May 22, 2013

So you love roughing it in the great outdoors, but you still like to be caught up on all the latest gear for the bold outdoorsman? We feel you. Camping gadgets are some of the most useful gadgets around, especially if you love to spend summer weekends in a trailer in the woods, in the mountains, and camping on the coast. Here are 10 must-have essentials for campers who like a little geeky gear with their fresh air.

1. Earl ($249): Described as a backcountry survival tablet, Earl works where smartphones and tablets cannot. Ear operates on Android 4.1 with an energy-saving e-ink screen and the latest in GPS, weather sensor, and radio communication technology. The GPS chipset gives you precise reading of your location, direction and elevation.

2. PowerTrekk: This mobile charger runs on water. Seriously… on water! This 2-in-1 portable battery pack and fuel cell can operate as a regular battery, or can serve as a storage buffer for the fuel cell. Simply insert a fuel pack, add water, and the cell will come to life, charging devices over USB without every needing a wall charge.

3. Eton Scorpion ($50): This all-terrain unit is solar powered, crank powered, and does about a million things at once. Ready? Okay. It’s a flashlight, a radio, a USB cell phone charger, a bottle opener, and is possibly your new best friend.

4. SteriPen Water Purifier ($90): This handheld purifier uses UV rays to purify water, meaning you don’t have to deal with that weird medicinal test of iodine anymore! It destroys more than 99.9% of harmful microorganisms, an doubles as a flashlight.

5. Solar Camp Shower ($14): We’ll be the first to admit that the best part of camping is sleeping under the stars, being amazed by how delicious beans can be, and really roughing it. But, that doesn’t need to include your hygiene. This compact camping shower keeps up to 5 gallons of water heated and ready for 8 minutes of warm washing bliss.

6. BioLite CampStove ($130): This little stove packs a serious punch. The stove cooks your meals using nothing but twigs collected on your journey, meaning you don’t need to worry about carrying gas. It also converts heat from the fire into usable electricity, meaning you can charge your gadgets on the stove, even while you cook dinner. Pretty amazing.

Eton Mobius iPhone Solar Case

Solar Power Hour. If cords aren’t your style and you want to bulk up your iPhone with some solar energy, the Mobius is your jam. Now you can keep your iPhone powered up anywhere the sun shines.

8. Sherpa 50 Solar Kit ($400): For a little more solar power, go for the full-fledged Goal Zero Sherpa Recharging Kit. This little bugger can be full charged off the wall in 2-3 hours, 4-6 hours from your car, or 5-10 hours from the included solar panel. You can plug in camera chargers, laptops, tablets, etc. While we are all about staying unplugged on those weekend adventures, this is definitely a worthwhile investment if you’re a frequent camper.

9. Rechargeable LED Headlamp ($150): This bright headlamp is fully stacked with 4 brightness levels, an emergency strobe, and the ability to provide long-range as well as wide-angle, close-in lighting. On one charge, the lamp lasts for 18 hours and it can be recharged via USB! This means that all those cool gadgets we already wrote about can totally charge your headlamp. Awesome.

Nava Filtering Water Bottle

KOR Water, Nava makes ordinary tap water taste crisp as you sip, making it even easier to stay hydrated. We love the green aspect the most. Not only does Nava save you money (no more buying $2 Fiji bottles), but it helps conserve natural resources as well (bye bye plastic bottles!). This is great for car camping trips or anytime you’ll be heading somewhere where you know there’s water, but aren’t sure if it’s filtered or not.

Lady Gaga Goes Makeup-Free For 57M Instagram Followers With Adorable Selfie

If there's one thing I love to see, it's celebrities going makeup-free. And I'll celebrate it every single time! In addition to Drew Barrymore taking her makeup off on live TV (and throwing her extensions on the ground) and Millie Bobby Brown showing off her acne in selfies, Lady Gaga loves to go makeup-free. Remember when she performed at the Oscars with no makeup and ripped jeans?! Well the actress and singer just posted another adorable selfie without a stitch of makeup.

Here's what Lady Gaga had to say about "Die With A Smile" alongside her no-makeup selfie.

Lady Gaga is "so grateful" the song is #1.

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To celebrate "Die With A Smile" (her song with Bruno Mars) hitting number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, Lady Gaga posted a photo of her laying in the grass with a huge grin on her face — and without any makeup.

"Thank you to all of the monsters and hooligans for helping make 'Die With A Smile' #1 on the Billboard Hot 100! We love you and are so grateful," she says in the post. "Having multiple songs of mine hit #1 across three decades feels surreal, and I am overwhelmed by the love and support you have shown me from the beginning. I have so much more in store for you and can’t wait to share it."

Friends and fans flooded the comments with everyone from Noah Cyrus saying, "you’re so gorgeous," to a fan account adding, "Thank you for your art! So proud of you and Bruno. You deserve this!"

And she loved recording it with Bruno Mars!

The song was released on August 16, and in a statement to Page Six, Lady Gaga praised Bruno Mars as a collaborator. “Bruno and I have a lot of mutual respect for each other and were talking about collaborating,” she says. “I was finishing up my own album in Malibu, and one night after a long day he asked me to come to his studio to hear something he was working on...It was around midnight when I got there, and I was blown away when I heard what he had started making.”

After revealing they "stayed up all night” to finish both writing and recording it, Lady Gaga continues, “Bruno’s talent is beyond explanation. His musicianship and vision is next level. There’s no one like him." There's no one like you either Gaga!

Has "Die With A Smile" been on repeat for you? Let us know your favorite Lady Gaga song on Instagram!

The Most-Anticipated TV Shows Coming In 2025

Many people look for the new year to bring new opportunities and, in some cases, a fresh start altogether. But for me? As a longtime entertainment reporter, there is one thing I can’t help but get excited about when another year rolls around: the upcoming movie releases and, of course, the most anticipated television shows. While I'm looking forward to see what happens to Eleven and the rest of the Hawkins crew in Stranger Things 5 on Netflix, there are a bunch of new TV shows that have been at the top of my watch list from the moment they were first announced, including Suits: LA and It: Welcome to Derry.

Here are the 2025 television shows that should be on your radar (if they aren’t already!).

Severance Season 2 — On Apple TV+ January, 17 2025

Apple TV+

After Mark Scout, Helly, and Irving learn the truth about the “severance” experiment and manage to break free from its clutches in the Severance season 1 finale, the three coworkers (along with the rest of the Lumon Industries employees) are forced to return to work in the second installment of the series. Now that Mark and some of his peers know what the company was really doing to the Lumon staff, one could only wonder: What are Lumon Industries's hidden objectives? (And what’s with all the GOATS?!)

Severance season 2 premieres on Apple TV+ on January 17, 2024 and stars Adam Scott, Britt Lower, John Turturro, Dichen Lachman, Dichen Lachman and Patricia Arquette.

The White Lotus Season 3 — On HBO and Max February 16, 2025

Mario Perez/HBO

Pack your bags, White Lotus fans, because our favorite hotel residents are catching a first-class flight to…Thailand! While there are a bunch of new guests checking into a luxury hotel, there’s one returning guest who needs no introduction. Natasha Rothwell, who made her debut at Belinda Lindsey in The White Lotus season 1, is the only returning cast making a brief cameo in season 3. Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, here we come!

The White Lotus season 3 is coming in February and will star Leslie Bibb, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Carrie Coon, Parker Posey, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Blackpink’s Lisa Manobal.

The Last of Us Season 2 — On HBO and Max in April 2025

Liane Hentscher/HBO

I can’t be the only one still thinking about that bombshell season one finale of HBO’s The Last of Us! And apparently, I’m not the only one who’s eager to see the continuation of Joel and Ellie’s story in season 2. Fans of the video game adaptation have been keeping their eyes peeled for a new update about season 2. And one teaser later, we might have just gotten the news we’ve been looking for. Following the 2024 Emmy Awards, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content Casey Bloys toldDeadline that The Last of Us season 2 will premiere around “generally first half of the year [2025], I expect them to be in the Emmy window.”

The Last of Us season 2 will star Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, Rutina Wesley, Kaitlyn Dever, Isabela Merced, Young Mazino, Spencer Lord, Danny Ramirez, Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Wright, Tati Gabrielle and Ariela Barer.

The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 — On Prime Video in 2025

Erika Doss/Prime Video

It's almost time to return to Cousins Beach, and I have missed all the hydrangeas, fair rides, and ocean sunrises. We haven't heard for sure whether season 3 will be the end of the road for this series, but if it follows even a few chapters in the third book in The Summer I Turned Pretty series, We'll Always Have Summer, then we will absolutely be getting some drama.

The Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 premieres in 2025 and stars Lola Tung, Christopher Briney, Gavin Casalegno, Sean Kaufman, Rain Spencer, Jackie Chung, and Rachel Blanchard.

It: Welcome to Derry — On Max in 2025

Warner Bros. Entertainment

Bill, Richie, Beverly and the rest of the Losers Club members might have been able to defeat Pennywise in It: Chapter Two, but that doesn’t mean we've seen the last of Derry, Maine. Serving as a prequel series to the It movie franchise directed by Andres Muschietti, Welcome to Derry will delve into Pennywise’s origin story and how the child-preying clown arrived in Derry. But that’s not even the best part: Bill Skarsgård, who starred in It and It: Chapter Two, will reprise his role as the killer clown in the upcoming HBO series, which will be released in 2025. So until then, no accepting red balloons from creepy clowns, okay?

It: Welcome to Derry will star Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, Taylour Paige, James Remar, Stephen Rider, Madeleine Stowe, Alixandra Fuchs, Kimberly Guerrero, Joshua Odjick and Morningstar Angeline.

Stranger Things Season 5 — On Netflix in 2025

Netflix

I’ve been a fan of Stranger Things since it premiered on Netflix back in 2016, and come next year, longtime fans like myself will finally get to see how the story ends. Last time we saw Eleven, Mike, Will and the rest of the Hellfire Club crew, they were facing an impending apocalypse after Vecna’s devious plan came to full fruition. So, will the group of friends defeat Vecna and save their home? Guess we’ll just have to wait and see because Stranger Things 5 likely won’t premiere until late 2025. Now, all we need is that release date, Netflix…

Stranger Things 5 is coming to Netflix soon and stars Millie Bobby Brown, Noah Schnapp, Finn Wolfhard, Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Sadie Sink, Maya Hawke, Joe Keery, David Harbour, Winona Ryder, Amybeth McNulty, and Priah Ferguson.

Suits: L.A. — On NBC in 2025

David Astorga/NBC

Court is back in session! Only this time, our favorite lawyers from the OG Pearson Hardman firm are not on the case. Thanks to Netflix, the original Suits (which starred the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle) experienced a renaissance of sorts upon its arrival to the streaming service in June 2023. And as a result, NBCUniversal ordered a spinoff series earlier this year. But instead of the bustling streets of New York City, a new group of lawyers are setting up shop in the Golden State in Suits L.A.

The new spinoff will center around an entertainment and criminal lawler named Ted Black, who launches his own law firm in California after moving from the East Coast. Originally, Suits L.A was slated to be a part of NBCUniversal’s 2024-2025 lineup. However, according to Deadline, there was a slight change in the production location, making a Fall 2025 release more likely. So, who’s up for a Suits marathon?

Suits L.A. is speculated to premiere sometime in 2025 and is set to star Ted Black, Josh McDermitt, Rachelle Goulding, Victoria Justice, Troy Wingush, Bryan Greenberg, Lex Scott Davis, John Amos, Kevin Weistman and Alice Lee.

Wednesday Season 2 — On Netflix in 2025

Netflix

Looks like Jenna Ortega won’t be giving us another macabre number anytime soon because Wednesday season 2 won’t arrive on Netflix until 2025. In a new interview with Vanity Fair, Ortega teases the upcoming installment will be much “darker” this time around. “I think the feel that we’re going for is a little bit more horror-inspired,” the Beetlejuice Beetlejuicestar adds. “Not to say that suddenly we’re the goriest show of all time. I mean, there’s six-year-olds watching.”

“This season is going to be bigger and more twisted than you can ever imagine," Catherine Zeta-Jones says in the new Wednesday season 2 first look.

“If we showed you any more, your eyes would bleed,” Ortega says. “And I'm not that generous.”

What TV show are you most excited to see in 2025? Personally, I can’t wait for Sweet Magnolias season 4 to drop! (Margarita, anyone?) Make sure to follow us on TikTok and Facebook for more TV exclusives and latest news updates!

This post has been updated.

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Kate Middleton's "Remarkable" Birthday Tribute Celebrates Her "Strength" Following Cancer Battle

Kate Middleton has been top of mind for a lot of people over the last year after the princess announced in March 2024 she was battling cancer. "The last nine months have been incredibly tough for us as a family. Life as you know it can change in an instant and we have had to find a way to navigate the stormy waters and road unknown," she shared in a video update. "This time has above all reminded William and me to reflect and be grateful for the simple yet important things in life, which so many of us often take for granted. Of simply loving and being loved." And in honor of Kate's 43rd birthday, Prince William posted the sweetest tribute honoring her strength and perseverance.

Here's what Prince William had to say in Kate Middleton's birthday tribute.

Prince William celebrates "incredible" Kate Middleton's "strength."

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Kate Middleton turned 43 on January 9, 2025. In honor of the big day, Prince William took to Instagram to celebrate, praising his "incredible" wife.

"To the most incredible wife and mother. The strength you’ve shown over the last year has been remarkable," he says in the post. "George, Charlotte, Louis and I are so proud of you. Happy Birthday, Catherine. We love you. W."

And well wishers flooded the comments. "Happy Birthday Catherine, wishing you a wonderful year ahead surrounded by family and loved ones," one user says, while another adds, "Happy Birthday Princess of Wales! What a gorgeous photo. Wishing you a wonderful year 😍 xx"

And the tribute comes after revealing Kate was doing "amazing" following her cancer battle.

The birthday celebration comes after the prince shared an update on Kate in early November that had us all breathing a sigh of relief. “She's doing really well thanks. And hopefully, she is watching tonight. So cheering me on," he said before the Earthshot Prize awards (via People). “She's been amazing this whole this whole year. I know she will be really keen to see tonight be a success."

"From what I understand, Catherine is doing very well," royal author Robert Jobson added in an interview withHello!that same week. "She is back training at the gym and doing all the things she wanted to do."

We're sending Kate Middleton so much birthday love! For more about your favorite members of the Royal Family, check out Meghan Markle’s New Netflix Cooking Show Will Feature Some Of Your Fave Celebs.

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