A mobile hard drive that has a compact, rugged shell and a fast interface? Can’t get any more awesome than that. Well, maybe you can if you replace the mechanical innards with a solid state drive, but an SSD that packs 500GB to 1GB would be so expensive, it won’t even be funny. So here’s a nice solution: LaCie has announced the Rugged Mini, which is basically the mini-fied version of their existing LaCie Rugged, giving you the same levels of protection, the same fast USB 3.0 interface, but in a smaller form factor.
Here’s something everyone might have a need for: Western Digital just introduced the WD Nomad, a rugged case designed to protect your vanilla WD My Passport drives from 7-foot drops and the elements. It’s basically a shell builtwith a “tough polycarbonate exterior” and a”soft elastomer cushion lining” for keeping your data safe when the going gets tough, and is built to MIL-STD 810G military standards for keeping it safe from dirt, dust and moisture.
Pentax has just introduced the 14-megapixel Optio WG-1, a rugged point-and-shoot that’s considerably tougher than your average tough cam. Like every other rugged cam in the market, it also comes with a body that’s dustproof, freeze-proof and shockproof for surviving 5-foot drops, but adds water protection that allows it to go down to 33 feet. That’s good enough to take on a dive if you were so inclined to take a point-and-shoot down with you. And just so it doesn’t crack from pressure in case you do decide to take it down, this thing’s also rated to take on up to 220 pounds of pressure.
If roughing it is your thing, then Panasonic’s new cam is something you’re going to want in your pack (for more extreme trips where you can’t bring your DSLR, of course). Like the existing TS2, the Lumix TS3 still comes with the usual layers of protection, such as water, freeze and shock protection, but adds a number of new features that could prove very useful for people who like to go off-grid. Specifically, this outdoor cam goes all-out with the outdoorsy features, adding a GPS for geotagging your shots, plus an altimeter, barometer and compass.
