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Review: Kelty Pathfinder 3.0 Baby Backpack
- The Kelty Pathfinder 3.0 is loaded with safety and comfort features assuring a safe and happy baby and in this case, a comfortable and happy Dad.
I recently tested the Kelty Pathfinder 3.0 on a hike with my seven month old daughter Rosemary. It was our first experience hiking together and we had a great time. The pack performed great and most importantly, I felt that she was perfectly secure and comfortable thanks to the pack’s many safety features and well thought out design.
The Pathfinder 3.0 is relatively lightweight (7lbs 10 oz.) and has adjustments that allow you to distribute the weight of the child between the shoulder straps and the hip belt. It took a little time to get it right, but once I adjusted the hip belt properly, which is easily done with the pull of a pin, and adjusted the shoulder and sternum straps, the pack felt comfortable and natural on my back.
There are multiple fit adjustments for both baby and adult, all of which are easily made. The padded adjustable child’s seat allowed me to easily position Rosemary so that she was able to see over my shoulder. She needed the highest of three adjustment points, so there is a lot of room left as she grows. The shoulder straps and leg straps are nicely padded as well and are easy to adjust. Once she was properly adjusted and strapped in, she began to coo, assuring me that she was comfortable and felt safe. It was her first time being carried in a backpack and there was no question that she was delighted.
There are a lot of great features including an under-seat storage pouch, which is great for diapers, a detachable day pack, which has plenty of room for all the food and supplies necessary for a nice picnic, and a hip belt storage pouch, perfect for the camera. The detachable sun hood, which stores nicely in the detachable daypack, is a feature that my wife especially liked. Rosemary liked it too, especially when we encountered a swarm of black flies, which the sun hood sheltered her from.
The Kelty Pathfinder 3.0 is a nice pack that is comfortable and well made. For long day hikes or trips around town, it is a star.
GreatDad.com Review Policy: The featured product for this review was provided to us, at no cost, by the manufacturer or representing PR agency for the sole purpose of product testing. We do not accept monetary compensation for reviewing or writing about products. We only review products that we have personally tested and used in our own homes, and all opinions expressed are our own.
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Levi Johnston to be a Dad Again
I won’t say anything more than that I hope he can be as good and present a father as he can be to both of his kids.
Round two of diaper duty for Levi Johnston!
After fathering son Tripp, 3, with ex-fiance Bristol Palin, the news-making Alaskan, 21, is going to be a dad again, his rep confirmed to Us Weekly on Tuesday.
[From Levi Johnston: Yes, I'm Going to be a Dad Again - UsMagazine.com]
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Off-season football for dads: Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 on DVD
If you haven’t seen Harvard Beats Yale, get it and watch it with your kids. As much a documentary about this amazing game played in 1968, it’s a look backward at a different time. The director of this documentary, Kevin Rafferty, spends easily a third of the interviews with the players discussing the anti-war movement in 1968, the politics of the two different campuses and the sexual revolution.
I won’t give away the ending, but even knowing the score because it’s in the title, does not diminish the suspense going into the final minutes of this documentary.
Using both old color film from the game and the color commentary by the Yale and Harvard players, the key moments of the game are relived with the benefit of 40 years of experience by all involved. Yale, the superior team by all accounts, as such a commanding lead that the Yalies goof off during half time and most of the way into the fourth quarter because a Harvard comeback isn’t even possible in their imagination. Each player on both sides relives especially the last minutes as if the event was a religious experience or some shifting of the cosmos.
Almost all of the players are charming, humble, and generous in their assessments of the game and their roles in it. And, of course, it being Harvard and Yale, they make offhand references to famous people they were dating at the time (Meryl Streep) or rooming with (George Bush, Al Gore). Tommy Lee Jones was an offensive tackle on the Harvard team of 1968 and has a major role in the film, though his are dreary appearance since he appears grumpy about the story for some reason.
The film is also a fun football highlight reel of some stunning college ball for those of us Jonesing for some Monday Night entertainment during the long months of Spring and early Summer.
Kids will be pulled into the story because of it’s David and Goliath like story and ending, and dads will enjoy the look back at a simpler time in America when all the men wore hats and these two all-boys schools had male cheerleaders.
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Review: iZON Remote Room Monitor
I’ve been waiting for this gadget forever, though unfortunately now about six years to late to use it to monitor my son’s crib. The
iZON is one of many new monitors finally making the scene that use WIFI and the internet to bring images back to you rather than short distance broadcasts. Devices like this have existed for at least three or four years, but were all built on preposterous business models involving a big upfront cost followed by a long term monthly hosting charge.
iZON and some others are finally using the magic of open connections on Skype or WIFI networks to do the same thing. While the $129 MSRP for the iZON is not small, it’s a one time cost (apparently a more feature-packed subscription plan was dropped). And, in this case, the iZON uses the magic of the iPhone and iPad iOS to bring the video to you wherever you are in the world.
But there are quite a few other reasons this is a magical little toy. From the moment you start opening the box, you know that people who love design are involved. The packaging, which secures the mini-camera, is actually fun to open with sliding doors and intelligently designed stabilizer holders. The camera itself is also pretty to look at. It’s a simple and small white tower only about four inches high. It’s base is magnetic, so you can position the camera at an angle if you wish, making the iZON look like a mini Tower of Pisa.
The instructions though were my favorite part. They are about four steps long and dead simple to follow if you are at all familiar with hooking your phone up to your home WIFI network. All you do is plug in the iZON, connect your phone or iPad to it’s WIFI signal, sign in to the iZON system, and then log back into your own home WIFI again. That’s it. No hiccups. In literally 60 seconds, I was watching myself on video on my iPhone (I have read other mixed comments in Amazon reviews however, so your home network may not be as easy).
The video is crisp, but with VGA and 1.5 Mbps, don’t expect High-Def cinema quality. Additionally, video quality degrades with lower light, though the camera is meant to take pictures in rooms lit as dimly as with a common 7.5 watt nightlight.
The iPhone interface is easy to use and allows you to set up the camera to start up with sound or light triggers. You can also record up to 30 second movies onto your phone or on to a private YouTube account.
Video delay can be up 20 seconds which might be frustrating if you’re witnessing a crime that has already happened, or worse, a baby who is in distress. A faster near real-time update to the software is expected in Spring 2012.
MSRP: $129.95
Tech Specs
Video:
Stem:Connect v2.0 for iZON supports 300 kbps (kilobits per second) bitstream, QVGA video at 10 frames per second for video playback*. iZON supports up to 1.5 Mbps, VGA video at 30 fps — an app update is in development to unleash the full playback capabilities of iZON. The viewing angle for iZON is 60 degrees.
Video playback when on the same local wireless network as iZON currently has a 20 second delay. Remote video playback may be impacted by your network strength and data download capabilities. An app update in development for early Spring 2012 release will provide near real-time video playback for viewing over local networks.
In order to provide optimal quality for video at all levels of illumination, iZON does not have IR (infrared) capability for full-dark environments. Unfortunately, IR capability not only improves night-time viewing but also tends to wash out the video under normal lighting conditions. iZON has enhanced low-light capabilities and is able to automatically adjust to a broad spectrum of lighting conditions while preserving image quality under normal illumination. iZON is sensitive to light levels as those found in a room lit by as little as a 7.5-watt bulb (an average night-light).
Audio:
Mono, 40 Hz – 8 kHz, sample rate 16 kHz. iZON responds to sounds at levels from 35 dB to 95 dB.
Power:
iZON connects to a standard power outlet (100/240v) using the included USB power supply and the 9′ USB-to-USB-mini cable with optional safety/breakaway adapter.
Recording:
Stem:Connect v2.0 for iZON supports QVGA recording with upload to your free, private YouTube account. Motion or noise detection alerts can record clips that begin 5 seconds prior to the triggering event and end at least 5 seconds following the event, up to maximum of 30 seconds. Manual recordings are initiated from the “Record” button in the Live Camera View and automatically record 30 second clips to your YouTube account. Specifications:
Dimensions:
80mm x 194mm x 55mm
Weight: .74 oz. (334g)
Power: 100/240v
GreatDad.com Review Policy: The featured product for this review was provided to us, at no cost, by the manufacturer or representing PR agency for the sole purpose of product testing. We do not accept monetary compensation for reviewing or writing about products. We only review products that we have personally tested and used in our own homes, and all opinions expressed are our own.
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Why I’ve been away
The GreatDad blog has been a wasteland for the last few months and I apologize for the lack of interaction. Family life goes on, the kids keep growing up, and I keep having reactions to things, but haven’t had time to blog. Instead, we’ve moved and relaunched a magazine (the venerable Pregnancy magazine lives again!). And still, there have been doctor and dentist appointment, parent teacher conferences, as well as 7 colds (2 for kids and me, and one for my wife) and one 4 day long bout with the the norovirus, a noxious vomiting virus that affects some 20 million people each year I’ve come to learn.
I also attended Dad 2.0, the first successful attempt to bring a lot of blogging and media dads together to discuss the cultural and commercial role of dads in the internet age. And what a time that was, meeting and catching up with friends from Dadlabs.com, MrDad.com, Howtobeadad.com, TheSpohrsareMultiplying.com and many others. We drank too much but enjoyed being around a bunch of guys who all share the same belief in the importance of fathers.
I’m back, with no less pressure in my day job, but a desire to keep on writing about things that matter to me as a dad, especially since my editors won’t let me write about anything on pregnancy.
See you around.
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