Stuff Geeks Want

You might have seen it in the news recently…this British backpacker got lost in the Australian bush a few weeks back and was missing for 12 days. He admitted to being “an idiot” and not registering with authorities before going bush walking (ya think?!).

“Hind sight is 50/50″ they say, but when his Dad ate him out for this bozo move, he should have handed him one of these…The Bushnell BackTrack GPS personal Location Finder.

So you’re out in the woods (heck, how about in an unfamiliar shopping mall and parking lot?) and you want to return to where you started. Your simply mark your starting point into the BackTrack, turn it off, go to your destination, turn it back on, and press one button to start your trek back. You then simply follow the arrow on its display back to where you started. The simplest ideas are so impressive.

If you’re in to the techie side of it, the unit uses a High Sensitivity SiRF Star 111 GPS receiver and a self calibrating digital compass. When you set your starting point, the information is stored on the unit’s built-in memory. You can store up to three locations.

It uses two AAA batteries and weighs about the same as a small cell phone. Bushnell says the batteries should last for about a hundred uses. It’s lightweight, small and a breeze to use.

Buy for $50 from Amazon