Techie gadgets stand up to outdoor use
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BY JONATHAN TAKIFF / Philadelphia Daily News
This summer, it’s safe to go near the water with consumer electronics products you can drop in the sand or into the deep. Here are some of the coolest new gizmos designed for active outdoor use:
-- SANYO MAKES IT REAL: As a little kid, I liked to play in the bathtub with a Kodak Brownie camera, pretending I was Jacques Cousteau. I ruined that poor camera, of course.
This summer, I took a dip in the pool with Sanyo’s submersible Xacti E1, billed as the world’s first waterproof camcorder (and digital still shooter and audio recorder, too).
Small and smartly designed, this $499 cutie is easily gripped and operated with one hand. The flip-out, 2.5-inch LCD screen rotates 180 degrees for easy shooting.
There’s a minimum of buttons to confuse you when a flotilla of pretty fish scurry by.
Separate triggers are ready to snap a still shot or get the video going. (You can also shoot a still image in the midst of recording a video, with a slight blip interrupting the latter.)
And while the camera arrives in full automatic operation mode, features can be customized to your heart’s content. There’s a nice, 6X optical zoom, too.
One reason this camcorder is so small, light and tight? It’s tapeless. A tiny bit of on-board solid-state memory captures a few stills or seconds of video. To save more, insert a tiny SD flash memory card.
Truth is, there’s no good reason to dive into the ocean or a lake with this baby camcorder. That water’s so turgid you won’t capture much. But it’s reassuring to know you can wade into the surf and keep shooting without fear. And in a crystal clear swimming pool, you’ll get reasonably sharp shots in and under water. Just don’t go deeper than 5 feet, or keep the camera submerged for more than an hour.
-- HAPPINESS OF THE LONG-DISTANCE SWIMMER: Lap swimming is great exercise for almost any age or body type. But that back-and-forth business can get boring, unless you’re listening to music. Try the Freestyle Audio Sport MP3 player ($99).
Also good for snowboarders, skiers, boat paddlers and rainy-day runners, the pod-shaped, shockproof, 1 GB player weighs less than 1.3 ounces, is submersible up to 10 feet and floats to the surface.
The companion waterproof, in-the-canal-style earphones have flanged rubber tips and over-the-ear hooks that hold them in place reasonably well. And the Freestyle’s battery lasts about 30 hours.
On dry land, the music quality through those sport earbuds is thin and shrill—no competition for an iPod. But when you’re in the pool, the water seals the ear gaps, warming the sound as it increases the bass response.
-- BEAT ME UP, I DARE YOU: Never before has a high-tech product maker dared me to toss its gizmo down the stairs, throw it in a lake, warm it by an open fire or kick sand in its face.
But Casio wanted to prove the point that its new G’z One Type S mobile phone can take a licking and keep on ticking.
Available from Verizon Wireless ($99.99 with a new service plan), my sample had an outdoorsy look and feel akin to Casio’s popular G-Shock watches. Chunky, but cool.
A big loop at the end lets you attach the phone to a carabiner. A magnifying lens on the outside cover display makes it easy to check the time while you’re hiking. And an LED light (which doubles as the flash for the low-res camera) will help you get out of that dark cave you’re exploring.
Other than that, there isn’t much in the frills department on this phone. You can’t download videos or music, except ringtones. Messaging is slow, and, shockingly, the inside screen is so dim you can’t “read” it at all in direct sunlight.
But the phone reception is loud and clear and the battery long-lasting. When everybody else’s phone has melted from the heat or drowned in the flood, you’ll be tossing this baby around like a ball — and making calls.
-- HOME-FRONT PHONING: The Uniden WX1477 cordless phone is a rugged, water-resistant, 5.8 GHz handset and is the perfect backyard companion and addition to your home phone system. (You can use it in a network with up to nine other handsets, all working off one base station.)
I love its backlit keyboard—great for nighttime outdoor use—and the hands-free speaker-phone capability.
The rubberized, orange-and-black case survived drops on the grass and sidewalk. But after a prolonged float in the tub, the Uniden needed to dry out a spell.
-- RADIO PLAY: The hippest thing in indoor/outdoor FM/AM radio is the Tivoli Audio Songbook ($159.95), ready for the elements in a rubberized, water-resistant case in a variety of colors.
AC- or battery-powered, Songbook’s got great sound, station presets and a clock with alarm functionality. It also pumps up the volume from an attached music player.
XM radio fans will relish the Delphi Premium Sound System ($140 to $175), a new battery- or AC-powered boom box that docks any of several XM plug-and-play radios: the Roady XT, MyFi, SKYFI3 and latest Audiovox model.
There’s a hideaway satellite antenna that can be stretched up to 20 feet if necessary. Sound quality is decent, and there’s a handle for toting this baby to the picnic table. Delphi warns you to keep sand away from the speaker grill.
-- KIDS’ FUN: Why should grizzled beach bums have all the fun looking for buried treasure with their metal detectors? Get your kids ages 5 and up into the act with the downsized Wild Planet Explorer Ops Metal Detector ($19.99).
Powered by a 9-volt battery, the tech toy lights up and makes noise when it detects metal. Extension poles grow the handle from 7 to 13 to 27 inches tall.
Wild Planet suggests the device can be used inside and out for scavenger hunts, but we found it reacts to everything metal in a house — including floor nails — so save it for the great outdoors.
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