Forget warp drive, Mr. Fission and flying cars. For a real glimpse of tomorrow's technology today, it's hard to imagine anything cooler than charging your iPhone with a tablespoon of water. Contributing Editor Chuck La Tournous looks at the PowerTrekk -- a hydrogen fuel cell that's barely indistiguishable from magic.

As any good scout will tell you, the best way out of a bad situation is to be prepared. But how do you call for help if your adventures take you beyond the reach of the nearest cell tower? As Contributing Editor Chuck La Tournous discovered, a company called SPOT offers a clever way of combining the reach of a satellite communicator with the power of your smartphone. And it might just save your life.

One can have rugged protection for an iPhone — if you don’t mind carrying around a brick. That is, until Scosche’s RAILkase came along. With thoughtful features and a stylish attention to detail, it’s serious protection you won’t mind carrying around every day.

The new Mac commercials aren’t cool; they’re not “Steve” ads; and Chuck La Tournous doesn’t like them. But they may be appeal to “non-Apple” folks, and if that works, that’s fine. They’re also the first Mac-rather-than-iOS-device-ads he’s seen since the “I’m a Mac” spots, and he thinks that makes them a good thing. 

Consider: an earbud set perfectly paired to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch? You know it’s not the pair Apple gave you. With a tangle-resistant cord, great sound quality and accents to match your i-device, a-JAYS Four just may have out-Appled Apple.

Two Macworld|iWorld exhibitors offer cases that keep your iDevices dry and usable in the Great Outdoors. And if you’re at the show, you can get discounts that keep your budget from getting all wet too.

A funny thing happened on the way to Macworld|iWorld. Without pending Apple announcements to speculate about, the media have come back in full force to cover what’s actually going on at the conference — and that’s a lot.

Looking for something to do after your Macworld|iWorld sessions? The Hess Memorial Party List is updated for this year’s event, with a comprehensive look at where the Mac elite meet and greet.

Can high tech and high adventure coexist? TMO Contributing Editor Chuck La Tournous speaks geek (camping geek, that is) in his upcoming session at Macworld|iWorld. Get a sneak peak now, and a discount on an iFan pass to hear the rest next week in San Francisco.

Like many of you, Contributing Editor Chuck La Tournous installed the first over-the-air update on his iOS devices yesterday. But it was a different update that gave him that “living in the future” feeling and got him wondering: have mobile devices reached First Citizen status?

Following the passing of Steve Jobs last week, Your Mac Life host Shawn King gathered up his friends and colleagues in the tech community to share their thoughts and stories about Apple’s co-founder. The Mac Observer columnist Chuck La Tournous was among the people Shawn spoke with for the special “Tell Me a Steve Jobs Story” show.

“Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or come with me and change the world?” Thirty-some years after he asked the question it’s clear Steve Jobs didn’t just change it once, but several times: computing, music, movies, mobile phones and now the tablet are all vastly different because of one adopted kid from the orchards of Silicon Valley. Now that Jobs is stepping down from his role as CEO of Apple, Contributing Editor Chuck La Tournous posits that Apple’s success in a “post-Jobs” era all comes down to one question: Is Steve Jobs Apple or has Apple suceeded in becoming Steve Jobs?

Is that a recording studio in your pocket or are you just happy that IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube iRig means no more lugging the amp up from the basement? Contributing Editor Chuck La Tournous finds the iRig and its companion app makes playing so convenient, it just may be time to get the old band back together.

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Now you can use an iPad app to track a deadly asteroid as it hurtles within a hair’s breadth of Earth. Sky Safari’s latest update will let you keep tabs on 2011 MD and if you hurry, you can do it for half price.

On the heels of  “Towel Day,” it seemed fitting to title an article on Mac malware after one of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books. Contributing Editor Chuck La Tournous takes a brief look at the recent outbreak of Mac malware and concludes that it’s still the user connected to the keyboard that poses the greatest vulnerability to the Mac.

Is Apple’s new MacBook Air just a hypocritical me-too answer to the netbooks the company’s mocked in the past? Not quite, says TMO Contributing Editor Chuck La Tournous. Apple is answering the net book makers alright. Butwhat they’re saying is “you’ve been doing it wrong.”

Tired of choosing between lousy hotel programming on a big flatscreen TV or limitless content on your laptop? Newer Technology’s Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter gives you the best of both worlds — if you’re willing to pay the price.

It’s the geeks who waited in line to buy the iPad, but it’s the mass market that’s making it a runaway hit. TMO Contributing Editor Chuck La Tournous realizes that the “killer app” he was looking for on the eve of the iPad’s introduction was there all along: Apple turned a computer into a toaster and replaced technology with magic.

Not only did IDG World Expo achieve what critics said was impossible, they may have created an even better Macworld Expo. TMO Contributing Editor Chuck La Tournous looks at the Cinderella Story of the tech year, and why the exhibitors who sat out this show to play it safe may have made the riskiest move of all.

Are you a fanboy or a hater? The lines have been drawn in the battle of Apple's iPad and what it means for the future of computing -- and Apple. TMO Contributing Editor Chuck La Tournous looks at the warring factions and discovers that there's room for some thoughts in between the extremes (and as a bonus, tells you how to become a millionaire.)

Is an Apple-less Macworld a slippery slope to doom for the Mac community's biggest event? TMO Contributing Editor Chuck La Tournous looks at the pitfalls and opportunities of a Macworld Expo without the big booth in the middle.

With the countdown to Apple's presumed "table computing device" announcement drawing to a close, TMO Contributing Editor Chuck La Tournous weighs in on what Apple's new "one more thing" could -- and won't -- be. Will Steve Jobs be unveiling something that fills a gap in your tech life you never even knew existed?

Never content to let the rest of the TMO staff get the last word in, Contributing Editor Chuck La Tournous chimes in on how he uses his iPhone, and seriously messes with our article numbering scheme in the process. (Part III of II -- what does he think this is, the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?")

As Apple’s Phil Schiller delivered yesterday’s keynote address at Macworld Conference and Expo, the company may have been trying to deliver the message that it didn’t need Macworld anymore. But what I took away from seeing the “Steve-less” keynote was that the company could do just fine without Steve Jobs.

It's amazing. Even without the benefit of iCal or blogs, the ancient Mayans managed to come within a hair's breadth of correctly predicting the end of the world. It came not in December of 2012 as they calculated, but a mere four years and one week earlier. Tuesday, in fact, when Apple announced that Steve Jobs would not deliver the keynote speech at the 2009 Macworld Conference and Expo, and that the conference would be Apple's last as a participant.

TMO Contributor Chuck La Tournous took a few years off to bask in the glow of his stellar record of 2004 prognostications (although some might merely call it "quitting while he was ahead.")