A new digital camera you can drop in tarns, take sea-kayaking and kick sand in the face of is about to hit the high street. The 6-megapixel Minox DC 6033 WP is waterproof to 10 metres, dust-, sand- and salt-resistant and capable of capturing your adventures on video too. 
It weighs 230g and measures 78 x 120 x 43 mm and runs on AA batteries, making it a cinch to power even when you're miles from a mains socket (and why would you want to be anything but?). It has a 2-inch screen on the back, 16mb memory as standard and an up-to-2gb SD memory card slot.
On sale for Euro229 in Germany right now (UK prices are yet to be set) it compares pretty well to its rival the Pentax Optio W30 (£150, right). The Minox gives away 1 megapixel in resoltion but gains 7m in underwater depth and for our money looks the more rugged.
More on the DC 6033
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Friday 6 July 2007
NEWS: Ultimate outdoor compact digital camera launches
Thursday 5 July 2007
TECH: Worst gear ideas of the week
We love gear and we're hungry for innovation, but amazingly some new gear ideas still manage to turn our stomachs. Here are the three worst to cross our boughs this week:
1) Electric tents
Tent firm Eureka! has launched three new tents (from $160) featuring built-in rechargeable power-packs. The batteries, which secure to the tent in a polypropylene case, take 12 hours plugged in at home to charge, and then kick out enough power to supply the tent's E! Power reading light for 9 hours. And this is better than a headtorch how?
More on the Eureka! N!Ergy range: click.
2) The ultimate breathable shirt?
Our wallets are always standing by for the next step in breathable gear technology, but this? Designed by an ex-Sony employee and on sale in Japan for $159, this air-conditioned shirt uses a fan to blows fresh air round your sweaty body. It's powered by 4 AA batteries, or (for the deskbound) a USB lead and is available here. 
3) Weather-forecasting umbrella
Words fail us. This umbrella from Ambient Products is the ultimate in clever-stupid. Connected to a remote network via a transmitter in the handle, it downloads local weather reports from a central server and uses the information to turns the handle blue when rain it's about to rain.
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Wednesday 4 July 2007
NEWS: Nokia fix to offer faster N95 GPS functionality
Nokia's N95 mobile sounded like a major milestone on the road to full GPS/phone/camera convergence, but in practice its slow acquisition of satellites make it a pain to use. Waiting time ranges from a theoretical best of 40 seconds to a soul-destroying 15 minutes. Now Nokia's acknowledged the problem and is about to offer a free download fix via its Smart2go mapping partner site. The patch allows the handset to use 'assisted GPS', a system whereby the network gives the device its general location, so it only needs to lock onto a single satellite instead of four. It should mean acquisition times drop to around 30 seconds.
The N95's in-built GPS doesn't come with built-in mapping of any use to the hill-walker, but can really be brought to life with ViewRanger's digital mapping software (inset pics), available from £20.
The fix will be available to download here.
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Tuesday 3 July 2007
NEWS: 2007's best gear? You'll be the first to know
Europe's biggest outdoor gear awards are being judged on Thursday (5 July) and the entire industry's on tenterhooks. But YOU'LL be the first to know the winners. How do we know? Because Trail Technical Editor Graham Thomspon is on the judging panel - the only British journalist to be afforded such an honour. 
The OutDoor Instury Awards, run by the International Design Forum, are the most presitigious and influential in the business, and a gold medal can bring overnight success to winners. They're designed to reward genuine innovations in design and quality and identify budding trends: only brand new products displaying tangible advances are eligible.
Last year's winners included the new Paramo 3rd Element jacket, Terra Nova Laser Lite Competition (below), Teva Karnali Wraptor sandals and Arc'Teryx Naos 70 Trekking Pack (left). You can see full lists of previous years' winners by clicking here. Stay tuned to the Trail Gear Blog to find out what's top of the pile in 2007...
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NEWS: MSR's Jetboil rival delayed after failing tests
The lauch of MSR's stunning Jetboil rival - Reactor - has been delayed indefinitely after some of the stoves failed key carbon monoxide level tests. In a statement issued by MSR yesterday the firm said: "As we increased production of the Reactor stove, we observed that, despite the majority of units meeting our demanding testing standards, a minority of units were falling short of consistently meeting one of our most stringent testing protocols. During worst case combustion condition testing, some stoves produced higher than desired levels of Carbon Monoxide (CO)."
The move, at the height of the camping season, is a major blow to what looked like Jetboil's first really serious rival. Prototypes were claimed to boil 1.5 litres of water in under three minutes - compared to Jetboil's four minutes - while using less fuel than its rival.
The stove works by using its burner to heat a broad metal plate, which then heats the pot above, reducing the vulnerability of direct-flame heating to wind.
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Monday 2 July 2007
NEWS: The ultimate avalanche safety aid?
A Swiss firm has launched a lightweight emergency airbag which could help you ride out an otherwise fatal avalanche. The Snowpulse Life Bag weighs just 1.3kg, can be integrated with any rucksack and inflates at the yank of a handle. The inflated airbag keeps you at the surface of the avalanche, and protects your head, neck and airway, drastically increasing your chances of survival. According to independent statistics 95% of people who remain on the surface survive, while 66% of people who get buried die. Should you get buried, the air bag automatically deflates to leave a 150 litre air pocket around you - increasing the time searchers have to find you. Snowpulse hopes to have the Life Bag on general sale early next year.
Visit the Snowpulse website.
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