Thursday, December 20, 2012

TECH/ GADGET SPECIAL...WORLD'S TOUGHEST GADGETS



WORLD'S TOUGHEST GADGETS 

Gizmos that can take anything thrown at them 

ioSAFE RUGGED PORTABLE
    
If you value your data — personal photos, videos, or even confidential documents that are crucial to your job — then you simply must take a dekko at the Rugged Portable.
    These hard drives are, without a doubt, the hardiest external storage devices that money can buy. Consider, the Rugged Portable is crush-resistant up to 1100kgs, its HydroSafe Technology guarantees protection for up to 3 days in water to a depth of 10 feet (aluminum version) or 30 feet (SSD or titanium version), its EnviroSafe Technology protects data from continuous exposure to UV, blowing sand, dust, rain, salt fog, icing or freezing rain for up to 24 hours, while its ChemSafe Technology protects it during periods of immersion in fuels and oils to a depth of 12-feet for 1 hour.
    Overall, ioSafe Rugged Portable can easily survive 20-feet drops and it also comes with a free one-time Data Recovery Service (DRS) in case of accidental deletion, formats, corruption or disasters.

iosafe.com

• Price: Starts at $249


PANASONIC TOUGHPAD
    
The iPad is a really fancy slate, but if you want a tablet that won’t give up its spirit in the toughest of circumstances, meet the Panasonic Toughpad FZ-A1. Its certified all-weather design also makes it water-proof and dust-resistant. The 10-inch screen is scratch-resistant, anti-reflective and anti-glare; while its magnesium alloy chassis can survive falls from a height of 4 feet according to the US Military Standard 810G test.
    
And the specs arent bad either: a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB onboard storage, microSD slot, Wi-Fi, GPS, 5-MP rear camera, 2-MP front camera, a battery that promises 10 hours of usage, and Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich. We reckon it’s ideal for healthcare services, pharmaceutical and construction companies, aviation, the military sectors, and your inquisitive four-year-old.

• www.panasonic.com/toughpad

• Price: 75,000


PENTAX OPTIO WG-2
    
There are rugged cameras. And then there is the Pentax Optio WG-2. If you’re looking for a shooter to take along on hiking trips, kayaking or even on scuba dives, you might want to take a second look at this beautiful piece of engineering.
    Shockproof, coldproof, dustproof, crushproof, waterproof… well, you get the idea. WG-2 is as rugged as they come. It also has a durable lens cover made of tough mineral crystals to protect the optical elements inside the camera even during intense dust storms.
    And while the focus has been on ruggedness, the chaps at Pentax have ensured that the WG-2 still packs in enough to be more than a decent camera: It has a 16MP sensor, 5X optical zoom, can capture videos in 1080p fullHD, and comes with a battery that is rated to last around 260 shots.

www.pentaxwebstore.com/product/11737

• Price: $250


LIFEPROOF RUGGED CASES
    
The iPad, iPhone and iPod may not be rugged themselves, but there’s no lack of durable cases for the quintessential tablet, phone and MP3 player. Lifeproof does a great job of marrying style with toughness, with cases for all three of Apple’s portable products. They’re waterproof, so there’s no fear of spilt drinks and you can even shoot underwater movies (up to 6.6 feet). The cases can handle snow storms and snow sports just as easily. The beach is no match for its dirt-proof and sand-proof exterior. And drops and tumbles of up to 4 feet won’t jar your iDevice. Lifeproof has variants for all models from Apple.

www.lifeproof.com

• Price: From 3,800 to 7,000 approx


HANDHELD NAUTIZ X1
    
The Nautiz X1 is a superb mix of dependability and usability; and unlike other rugged smartphones, this Android device doesn’t look bulky or ugly, but is still fully waterproof and impervious to dust and sand.
    The handset meets exacting US military standards when it comes to moisture protection, altitude (up to 15,000 feet), drops (from up to 4 feet) and extreme temperatures (-20 degrees to 60 degrees Celsius).
    As for the phone itself, it has a 4-inch (800x480) touchscreen, 1GHz dual-core CPU, 512MB RAM, 2GB internal memory, microSD slot, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 5-MP camera, and a 1530mAh battery that can be swapped for an optional, longer-lasting 2920mAh battery.

www.nautiz.com/x1

• Price: $899


CORSAIR FLASH SURVIVOR
    
Hard drives aside, you don’t want that little pen drive to end up unusable, and its data unsalvageable, just because it fell into the pool or took some damage. In modern engineering, few things inspire as much confidence in ruggedness as the airplane. Well, Corsair just took aircraft-grade materials to make the toughest pen drive on the planet. And boy, does the Flash Survivor look the part.
    The anodized aluminium, which passes aircraft safety standards, is water-proof up to 200 metres and is resistant to vibrations and shocks. And the drive itself features the latest USB 3.0 standard for faster read and write speeds.
    Oh yeah, don’t forget to check out the cool, all-black Corsair Flash Survivor Stealth edition too.

www.corsair.com

• Price: 1,500 (8GB) – 5,500 (64GB)


GETAC B300
    
The Getac B300 is a notebook on steroids with its reinforced magnesium-alloy casing and caps and doors to keep all the ports protected from particles and moisture. Purring under the hood, it boasts of a 2GHz Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, an external VGA, an HDMI port, three USB ports, an IEEE port, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, as well as a fingerprint scanner for bumped-up security. But what’s the use of guts without the stamina — and even here the B300 doesn’t fall short with its battery life of up to 11 hours (with an option to add a second battery to take it up to 22 hours!). Surprisingly, this monster’s missing a web cam.
    Still, this rugged machine is one of the few notebooks in the world to have passed through the most stringent of US military standards: the MIL-STD 810 test that certifies it for extreme environmental conditions including temperature, rain, fungus, salt fog, sand, explosives, leakage, shock and vibration; MIL-STD 461 for susceptibility to electromagnetism to reduce interference with other transmitters; and the UL1604 to certify that this laptop’s electrical equipment won’t cause explosion after reacting with hazardous gasses or particles. True, most of us won’t have such exacting standards, but knowing that our laptop can withstand it all is a comforting thought.

us.getac.com

• Price: Starts at $3,100
MIHIR PATKAR, JAVED ANWER AND SAVIO D’SOUZA
TCR121208

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