rugged

The release date for the Samsung Galaxy S10 is barely upon us and we're already seeing tempered glass for the hardware. This morning's set of leaks utilize a number of photos from South Korea and China of accessories for the next-generation smartphone. It would appear that the Samsung Galaxy S10, in its two standard editions, will likely have a bit of a frontside earpiece speaker for which glass covers will need to make room. Also they've got some massive displays, massive indeed.

Continue Reading

Three GoPro HERO7 cameras were revealed this morning by the go-anywhere action camera brand. There's the GoPro HERO7 Black, Silver, and White to choose from, each of these coming with their own set of specifications, features, and price levels. GoPro upgraded the lot, but their emphasis this round or releases is on simplicity. They're trying to do what works and make what works simple to understand - and subsequently buy.

Continue Reading

Rugged smartphones and tablets are nothing new but throughout their history, these niche devices all have one thing in common. They’re built like tanks and often look like one, too. Designed for use in industrial settings, these mobile devices eschew consumer aesthetics for features that will allow them to be used in any kind of condition or weather. Panasonic is now trying to say you don’t have to sacrifice looks too much for that. The new Toughbook FZ-T1 and Toughbook FZ-L1 are just as tough as their older brethren but don’t look half as bad as a smartphone and a tablet.

Continue Reading

Cameras can do a lot of magic, especially when you’re talking about smartphone cameras. Mobile cameras, on the other hand, are pretty limited in where you can take them. And while action cameras like the GoPro are more rugged, they have even more limitations in what they can do, especially once the sun has set. Enter the SiOnyx Aurora, a one of a kind consumer action camera that has the uncanny ability to bring light even in the darkest of nights.

Continue Reading

Panasonic has announced the Lumix FT7, a new compact camera aimed at the more adventurous among us. This is a rugged camera, meant to be used outdoors and perhaps in turbulent situations. At the same time, Panasonic doesn't want its rugged nature to mean that it has to compromise on resolution, granting the FT7 4K capabilities.

Continue Reading

Post-it Extreme notes were announced this week as the most hardcore Post-it notes ever made. While we are inching in on April Fools Day, these Post-it Notes are not a joke. They're serious business - and in the business of leaving serious notes. They've been announced by the Post-it Brand from 3M, straight out of St. Paul, Minnesota, where the most extreme of notes need to be left in the most hardcore variety of weather conditions and odd locations.

Continue Reading

There is no shortage of car makers who lend their names and their aesthetics to smartphones. Many of those, however, are not only expensive but are sometimes just as fragile. In that regard, the Land Rover Explore is a class apart. Made by the Bullitt Group together with Land Rover, the Land Rover Explore phone is built for the great outdoors and has both the design and the features to match your off-road SUV. Preferably a Land Rover, of course.

Continue Reading

An Android that can see in the dark and has a built-in laser sounds like something from a Terminator movie, but it's actually Caterpillar's new Cat S61 smartphone. Upgraded the trade-friendly Android handset with a higher-performance thermal camera and better internal specs, the new Cat S61 also promises to oust some hardware from your toolbox.

Continue Reading

BlackBerry’s return to the stage has not been without its share of drama. The Canadian company practically handed over the smartphone-making to licensees like TCL, preferring to say in the software arena instead. The TCL-made phones had mixed reception, somewhat befitting their inconsistent styles and build qualities. And from the BlackBerry PRIV to the KEYone, these newer ‘Berries fared imperfectly under JerryRigEverything’s durability test. Fortunately, the latest and so far last BlackBerry, the Motion, has a somewhat different story to tell.

Continue Reading

Durable and long-lasting. Those might be the two traits that many users probably wished their laptops had. Sadly, those two seem to also be antithetical to the trend of laptop design. Not unless your laptop is the new Panasonic Toughbook CF-20 Mark 2. Sounding like something straight off a sci-fi world, the company’s latest rugged mobile computer steps up from its predecessor in more ways than one, including whopping 17-hour battery life laptop users would kill to have. Not literally, of course.

Continue Reading

Rugged or “active” variants of smartphones don’t often make headlines. They’re already expected to be tough anyway. The Moto Z2 Force, however, did make quite a splash when it was chastised for having a scratch-prone plastic layer on its screen. The Samsung Galaxy S8 Active apparently has something similar, practically a plastic polyurethane screen protector. While that may be damning or not, depending on your take, the situation might not be as simple as it sounds and may even have an advantage for users.

Continue Reading

There are still a lot of things going for dedicated digital cameras, even the simpler point-and-shoot ones. The one argument against them, however, is their lack of a dedicated Internet connection. Even worse for those compact cameras that can’t even connect to your phone. That’s why, a year after it launched the FinePix XP120, Fujifilm has come out with, what else, the FinePix XP130. It’s almost a dead ringer for the older model except for one important new feature: Bluetooth connectivity.

Continue Reading