Rugged

Few robotics categories are poised to benefit more from the events of the past year than construction. It’s a booming field that could benefit massively from automaton, a fact that’s…

There’s no shortage of portable Bluetooth speakers out there, but lord are a lot of them ugly. What I need is something that will not look amiss sitting on a…

DeWalt, a name familiar to anyone who loves power tools (and who doesn’t?), is jumping into the mobile market with the rugged MD501. It’s waterproof, has a good variety of…

Samsung is moving quickly to diversify its phone line, with variants of the S4 popping out of the woodwork left and right, including the Galaxy S4 Zoom, which features a…

The Contour family of cameras, which competes with GoPro and other small, hardened imaging devices, has a new member. The Roam rounds out the range at the low end, providing…

Let’s say you’re LaCie, manufacturer par excellence of mid-to-high-end external hard drives. Are you LaCie now? Good. And let’s say you’ve put out a Rugged hard drive and a Rugged…

You might remember the ContourHD rugged wearable camera we reviewed a while back — they updated later with GPS functionality and now (as we heard earlier) have a new camera…

Earlier today we saw Samsung’s W200 make its debut, and now Toshiba is entering the ring. That makes three newish candybar-style waterproof camcorders out there (don’t forget the Playsport). So…

Samsung has announced the W200, a vacation-proof 1080p camcorder that boasts a bigger LCD and faster lens than its natural enemy, the Kodak Playsport. I’m not sure the W200 is…

You guys may already be familiar with the ContourHD rugged sport-cam we reviewed and its GPS-enabled successor. It looks like the family may be getting a little bigger over the…

Flash drives are a dime a dozen these days, so if you’re going to actually spend money on one, it may as well be one that can take a little…

I managed somehow skipped Pentax’s rugged camera when I last did a rugged roundup, but I’m definitely not missing this one. The WG-1 is the “12th rugged generation” camera from…

Toshiba announced [PDF] the MK1060GSCX today, a 2.5-inch SATA type HDD with 100GB capacity that’s designed for use in “rugged operating environments”. The company says the hard drive can be…

There aren’t that many rugged laptops out there, and chances are if you’ve seen one around, it was a Panasonic. Their Toughbook line has been around for ages, and is…

It was just a few weeks ago that Ricoh released the G700, a rugged and rather disposable-looking point-and-shoot camera. Today, they’ve put out an upgraded version, the G700SE, which adds…

For probably two years now I’ve been using a Corsair Survivor thumbdrive, a reliable little guy that’s more or less waterproof and crushproof. I think it’s pretty tough, and whenever…

When Casio’s rugged digital camera, the Exilim EX-G1, came out last year, it received great reviews (for example, from us). And it appears as if the 12.1MP device sold really…

So we’ve looked at four rugged and waterproof cameras this week: the $150 Kodak PlaySport, the $200 Fujifilm XP10, the $300 Casio EX-G1, and the $400 Olympus 8010. Which, if…

Short version: This thing could take a bullet and keep on shooting, but its chunky form and average image quality don’t impress. However, if strength and resilience are your main…

Short version: The coolest-looking and slimmest camera in our roundup may also be your best bet. If only it had better video, the EX-G1 would be the best choice by…

It’s nice that these hard drives should be announced right in the middle of a week of rugged camera reviews. You probably remember LaCie’s Rugged XL series of hard drives…

Short version: The 1080p is pretty worthless, but if I had to pick one camcorder to take on vacation, the Playsport is the easy choice.

Short version: The price is right, and it is rugged, but form factor problems may sink this camera’s chances.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=10544706&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=ff9933&fullscreen=1 Before each of this week’s rugged and waterproof cameras gets examined on terms of usability, image quality, and so on, I had to check whether their makers were pulling…

Short version: Versatile but not particularly compact, the Vandal is a good choice for the hardcore urban biker/family man who needs to fit everything in his backpack, rain or shine.

We’ve been looking at leaked pictures of this thing for a week or so, but there wasn’t much to say without the specs and all that. Besides, the leaked picture…

Here’s a question. What use is an iPad if you live IN AN AVALANCHE? Even its high-quality multi-touch screen won’t help it there. And what if you like to SWIM…

See? That’s all. I reviewed the Rugged XL a little while back and my opinion is unchanged (a little expensive but probably worth it for peace of mind), but now…

Pretend you’re Gordon Freeman. Who am I kidding, you’ve been doing that for years — so this should be easy. The lab is self-destructing around you, a resonance cascade has…

You might remember the SwiMP3, an MP3 player designed specifically for use when swimming. Handy if you swim a lot, but what if you just like to run or bike…