The 9 Best Electric Skateboards You Can Buy

Longboards are better with a motor. And there are a surprising amount of skateboards that are electric—with seemingly more popping up every year. It’s getting to the point where it takes some serious innovation to stand out in the electric skateboard field; features like regenerative braking and in-wheel motors. And that’s exactly what you’ll find here: the very best of the best electric skateboards. It’s crazy how each company takes a totally different approach to the same idea and I can really appreciate the time and effort that went into developing these awesome boards. Whether you’re looking to cut down on your commute or just surf the pavement, the coolest electric skateboards are here for you to check out

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The 15 Best iPhone Apps For Experiencing Nature And The Great Outdoors

Yes! It’s finally warming up outside and that means it’s time for adventure. If you want to capture the best Instagram photos, have the best quality time with your friends and family, need the best break from work or just need to scratch your itch to explore you’re definitely in the right place (unless you’re an Android user—sorry). This list contains the best hiking, mountain biking, camping and exploring apps for iPhone. 

Personally, I’ve been going on a weekend excursion every week for the last month and a half or so already. It gives me a chance to get away from the computer and desk and move my legs, smell fresh air, see new things and get completely exhausted—which is a good thing.

In all honesty, I’ve had a pretty good time just opening up Google Maps and zooming around to find fun places to explore. I actually highly recommend it—it’s led me to some really cool out of the way places that aren’t written or talked about much. But after researching this post, I’m definitely adding many of these maps to my arsenal!

1. Yonder – Plan your next adventure. Connect with inspiring people, places and experiences.
2. The Clymb – Get mobile-exclusive discounts via private sales up to 70% off trending outdoor apparel.
3. AllTrails – Hiking and mountain biking trails; browse guides with photos for 50,000 trails and more.
4. Recreation.gov Camping – Find available campsites.
5. National Parks by National Geographic – Guides to 25 of America’s top national parks.
6. goFlow Sports – If it’s an outdoor sport, this is where you connect with other enthusiasts.
7. komoot – For hikers and bikers; topo maps, navigation, recommendations on where to go, etc.
8. Spyglass – Essential GPS toolkit for outdoors and off-road navigation.
9. Gaia GPS – Offline topo maps and hiking trails for when you don’t get service.
10. Nature Passport – Motivates kids to get outside and explore through missions.
11. Backcountry.com – “We get people who get outside.”
12. Oh Ranger! Park Finder – Find nearby parks; filter out those you don’t want to see.
13. REI – Shop outdoor gear from your phone.
14. Map My Hike – Hiking tracker and trail finder.
15. Peak Finder Earth – Get info about mountains before you hike/climb.

Featured image via Flickr.

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The 5 Best Gaming Laptops Available NOW

Look, nerds, I’ll admit I’m not much of a PC gamer. In fact, I don’t do a lot of gaming outside of my iPhone these days. I used to love Xbox/console games, but life became busy. Even so, the first games I ever really played were, in fact, computer games. The original Starcraft and Command & Conquer definitely got me started (yep, that old). But for those of you just getting into gaming now and looking for the best possible gaming laptop, I’ve gone ahead and picked out some of the meanest, fastest, most beast-mode machines on the market. Yes, some of them are ugly as butt—most of them, in fact—but if you’re looking for extreme performance and power, that’s what you get. Leave me a comment and let me know which is your favorite or what other machines you think should have made the list.

Digital Storm Behemoth

The Digital Storm Behemoth gaming laptop takes it’s name seriously; this thing is HUGE. That’s because Digital Storm wants this to be the ULTIMATE gaming laptop. To that end they’ve packed in a desktop-class Intel processor, the ability to fit an astounding 32GB of DDR3 memory, up to 2 NVIDIA graphics cards (SLI), a multi-color and very unique backlit keyboard, Thunderbolt technology and even Hi-Fi speakers. You can get a “good” configuration for $2,305 but can upgrade to an “ultimate” configuration which will set you back $4,021.

MSI GT80 Titan SLI (GTX 980M SLI)

Dual next gen SLI GeForce GTX 980M graphics cards mean theMSI GT80 Titan SLI gaming laptop has blazing performance. Gaming laptops with this much power necessarily need to stay cool which is exactly what the 8-heat pipe cooling solution is for. If you’re looking for a precise and comfortable gaming keyboard in your laptop, it’s going to be hard to beat this one; the Cherry MX Brown switches ensure your keystrokes register—no ghosting. Did I mention the awesome touchpad that doubles as a number pad and that this machine was made to be upgradable?

Alienware 17″

The Alienware 17″ gaming laptop boasts power and performance in a nice looking package. Alienware has long been known as a gaming powerhouse. Known for crazy designs and powerful performance, Alienware was the gaming PC company to beat for a long time. Now there is definitely more competition, but Alienware is still a respected name. And, as it turns out, Alienware makes some of the more affordable gaming laptops you can buy (of course you can trick them out and make them pretty pricey). Serious gamers will want to add the optional graphics amplifier to this quad-core gaming setup.

Origin EON17-SLX

The Origin EON17-SLX gaming laptop features a 1080p HD display, the ability to upgrade to a whopping 4TB of storage space, Thunderbolt connectivity, up to 32GB of DDR3 RAM, a 2MP video camera, and—importantly—24/7 lifetime service and support. But what really sets this rig apart from other machines listed here is the ability to customize it and make it feel like your own. You can change the color of the wording and logo to match your own personality. Plus—dual hard drives.

Lenovo Y50 Ultra HD

Personally, given the choice between all of the gaming laptops listed here, I’d go with the Lenovo Y70 Touch. Why? It’s a bargain, for one thing—and that’s without sacrificing the latest technology. For another thing, the design is understated. It’s not trying to look gnarly or crazy—it’s a bit more debonaire. While the other machines here are trying to look like the Incredible Hulk or something, the Lenovo Y70 Touch is more like the James Bond (weird analogy, I know). With premium display options and speakers, uncompromising power and performance boosting storage, there’s a lot to love about this option. You can also choose between a touch version or an Ultra HD version.

Featured image via Flickr.

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The 100 Best, Most Interesting Blogs and Websites of 2015

Every year I release a list of the best, most interesting blogs and websites I have encountered in the previous 365 days that I think other people should know about in the coming 365 days. I’ve done this for 3 years straight—this will be the 4th. As in years past this post was literally 1 year in the making (although it took a mere 2 days to organize and assemble).

How do I choose which sites make the cut? To be sure, website and blog owners tweet and email me suggestions year round (as do impartial third parties): but the funny thing is, with few exceptions, I only include sites I come across myself organically—making this list a sort of extension of myself. I look for sites that are well designed, unique in some way and, plainly put, addicting. There’s nothing scientific about these lists: they’re merely full of sites I think are interesting or cool for some reason. Yes, many of these sites have been around for more than a year—it’s just that I really discovered them and took an interest in them this year. See my picks from previous years:

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