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rugged

Panasonic bulks up its rugged compact with the Lumix TS3

GPS on a rugged camera makes perfect sense. After all, it's tough to mark down where you were when you took a picture when there are no street signs. Panasonic's latest rugged model, the Lumix TS3, gives you that GPS for geotagging your photos and video as well as built-in compass, altimeter, and barometer.

The TS3 is tougher than its predecessor, the TS2, too. It is now waterproof to approximately 40 feet under water, shockproof to approximately 6.6 feet, freezeproof to 14 degrees Fahrenheit, and dustproof. It's not crushproof, though, so you'll still have to … Read more

IoSafe's Rugged Portable drive vs. a shotgun

LAS VEGAS--How often does a journalist fire a real gun in the line of duty? Let me tell you, not often. But that's just what I did today. And no, I wasn't taking an anger management class.

It was just another demo by IoSafe, maker of disaster-proof storage solutions like the IoSafe SoloPro. These are extreme types of devices and, it seems, their maker believes they deserve some over-the-top demonstrations.

For that reason, it's now somewhat of a tradition that IoSafe stages grandiose product demos during CES. The company did a crazy fire and water demo during CES 2009 for the IoSafe Solo and an even crazier one during CES 2010, which included a 35,000-pound excavator, for the Solo SSD.

This year, the demo of the IoSafe Rugged Portable, while smaller in scale, was much louder, literally. It involved firing live rounds to prove just how rugged the Rugged Portable is.

According to Robb Moore, CEO of IoSafe, the Rugged Portable isn't designed to be bulletproof but just to withstand a significant amount of impact. "There are types of bullets that can go through any electronic devices we make," he says. "I believe, however, the Rugged Portable can survive multiple rounds of shotgun. Still, I keep my fingers crossed."… Read more

IoSafe pitches Rugged Portable drive

LAS VEGAS--If you're looking for a hard drive that can withstand fire, water submersion, being crushed by a 35,000-pound excavator, and so on, there are none better than IoSafe devices such as the IoSafe SoloPRO, which is based on a regular hard drive, or the Solo SSD, which is based on a solid-state drive.

They all have one problem, however: their physical size. The drives are generally huge and weigh tens of pounds thanks to layers of protection. This means they're not even in the vicinity of portability, which is something most of us want these days.

Well, that's now changed. The company announced today its very first portable drive that offers similar levels of mishap-resistance as the rest of its products, the IoSafe Rugged Portable external hard drive. By the way, this is the product IoSafe has been being mysterious about in the weeks leading up to CES 2011.

The Rugged Portable comes in three flavors, including aluminum HDD, aluminum SSD, and titanium SSD. The HDD version is available in capacities between 250GB and 1TB, while the SSD versions are available in capacities of either 256GB or 512GB. All versions are based on a standard 2.5-inch drive and support USB 3.0 with backward-compatibility to USB 2.0. IoSafe says the drive will support Firewire connectivity by March.

IoSafe claims that the Rugged Portable provides physical security features including:… Read more

Kodak PlaySport refresh gets more 'proofing'

The first-generation Kodak PlaySport minicamcorder (announced at CES 2010) may have looked rugged, but in reality it was only waterproof to 10 feet. The second generation, however, is shockproof, able to withstand a 5-foot drop. That might not seem like much, but it's actually pretty good for this category.

As for general specs and such, this new PlaySport picks up where the old one left off. It still captures at up to 1080p, has a 2-inch LCD, and is loaded with Kodak's EasyShare software for quickly sharing on sites like Facebook and Twitter and international sites like Yandex … Read more

Kodak EasyShare Sport waterproof camera announced

Rugged and waterproof cameras are growing segments of the point-and-shoot market, but most of them will cost you more than $200. The 12-megapixel Kodak EasyShare Sport, however, is less than $100 and is waterproof down to 10 feet. Unfortunately, the camera is otherwise unremarkable.

Despite the appearance of a zoom rocker on back, there is no optical zoom on this camera; it's digital zoom only. The LCD on back is small at 2.4 inches, too, and the Sport seems to have a bare minimum of shooting options.

Look for the EasyShare Sport in spring 2011 for $79.95 … Read more

Another Otterbox competitor: Gumdrop Drop Series for iPhone 4

The success of Otterbox's Defender cases has a lot of smartphone accessory manufacturers scurrying to go rugged. The latest rival to say it's taking Otterbox on at its own game is Grumdrop, with the freshly announced Drop Series, "made to withstand gnarly falls and still leave the iPhone 4 as handsome as ever."

While the case certainly looks tough and has several layers of protection, what's amusing is that Gumdrop has included the Otterbox name in the Web site address for its new Otterbox case competitor. We assume that's for SEO (search-engine optimization) purposes, … Read more

Sanyo's latest Dual Camera Xacti takes a dive

If the waterproofing and full HD video capture of Kodak's Playsport interests you, but you can't live without an optical zoom, check out Sanyo's newest Dual Camera Xacti, the VPC-CA102YL. (Oh Sanyo, you come up with such clever, memorable names.) Waterproof to depths of 10 feet, its pistol-grip design accommodates a 5x zoom lens that the candy-bar-style minicamcorders simply can't.

Sanyo says it records at "full HD," but depending on your definition of the term, that may not be true. It does capture video at a resolution of 1,920x1,080 pixels, but it'… Read more

Digicam deluge: New cameras from Sony, Fujifilm, Panasonic, Samsung

As I mentioned back at the end of June, camera manufacturers are beginning to announce models for the second half of 2010. Sony, Fujifilm, Panasonic, and Samsung have made their announcements, three of them doing so early Wednesday morning.

Sony and Panasonic are launching mostly high-end models as well as a couple updates to older, popular models. Samsung refreshed its flagship DualView cameras and introduced a 7x zoom ultracompact for $180. And Fujifilm announced replacements to three models that were barely six months old as well as a significant update to its groundbreaking F200EXR.

Here are links to all the … Read more

Panasonic's TS10 is a little rugged for less money

There are apparently two types of rugged camera buyers. One type is willing to hand over $300 to $400 for a pocket camera that's waterproof down to 33 feet, shockproof from drops up to 6.6 feet, and freezeproof to 14 degrees Fahrenheit. The other type wants something more durable than a regular ultracompact: waterproof to approximately 10 feet, shockproof to 5 feet, and freezeproof to 14 degrees Fahrenheit. Of course it should be less expensive, too. Panasonic's DMC-TS2 is covers the former, while the DMC-TS10 is perfect for the latter.

The TS10 is similar in design to … Read more