A gadget lover’s guide to the great outdoors

If you could guarantee you’d have plenty of power and super-fast Wi-Fi, where would you work? You might pick the backyard instead of the office. Or you might throw your laptop and some clothes in the car, and take your Zoom calls in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Just for the day. Maybe the year. Maybe forever.

That dream is becoming increasingly possible — and The Verge’s Thomas Ricker is starting to live it. On this episode of The Vergecast, Thomas joins to tell us about his latest vanlife adventures, including converting a Sprinter van into the perfect mobile apartment / office setup. He’s been testing the Starlink Mini, has lots of ideas about solar panels and batteries and how to keep everything charged an online, and even has strong feelings about the new Peak Design backpack that promises to make it all portable. As he prepares for a long trip out of civilization, Thomas takes us inside his new setup.

After that, The Verge’s Andru Marino joins for another mic test. This time, instead of earbuds or fancy headphones, he’s testing the wearable mics from companies like DJI and Rode, which promise better audio for your social videos with almost no additional work. Andru shares his takeaways from his tests, his favorite features from each mic, and more.

Finally, on the Vergecast Hotline, we answer a question about web browsers. Which are all different... and all the same. By the way, don’t forget: we’re doing a meta episode of The Vergecast next Tuesday, all about The Verge, The Vergecast, the future of media, podcasting, which mics we use, and everything else you want to know. So call 866-VERGE11 or email vergecast@theverge.com, and share all your questions big and small.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, beginning with adventure gear:

And in mic tests: