Author: Peter Suciu

Battery Powered Boots Means No More Cold Feet

Years ago I heard someone say, “if they can put a man on the moon, you’d think they could make boots with built-in warmers.” Well, man did indeed walk on the moon back when Richard Nixon was President and when VHS wasn’t even yet a rich man’s toy. Now in the era of Blu-ray movies we finally have boots with a power source.

The Columbia Bugathermo Techlight Boots are ready for the showshoe trail or just ready to tackle an average American winter. These boots built on Columbia’s BugaBoots, which use a Omni-Heat membrane to reflect body heat back at your cold toes, and the new Bugathermo model feature a built-in heating system. These boots, which made their debut last season – and were not surprising a huge hit – now feature a waterproof Nubuck and split suede leather upper, along with a three-temperature heating system. On low setting the boots can provide extra warmth for eight hours, or three full hours when you need to turn up the heat to maximum

The boots are ready for mountain trekking or even Arctic exploration according to Columbia as these can provide underfoot insulation that is rated to -25 degrees F/-32 degrees C. With these boots you should never get cold feet again!

Columbia Bugathermo Boots Official Website

Stick it To ‘em

It might be easy to dismiss all hockey sticks as one and the same, but nothing could be further from the truth. Last month we reported that wooden sticks have completely vanished from the NHL, and last week The Wall Street Journal offered an interesting take on how hockey sticks are becoming as unique as “fingerprints.”

Seriously, the days of taking a stick off the rack, putting your own custom brand of tape on it and hitting the ice it seems is long over. With many materials now allowing for ever so slight adjustments hockey sticks have gone high tech – in low sort of ways. Players had traditionally made small tweaks back in the day of wooden sticks, but now players can adjust their composite and graphite sticks – and even have the manufacturer run off a batch.

However, notes the WSJ, the sky is not the limit on what tinkering can be done:

“Of course, there are limits to how much tinkering the players can do. The NHL stipulates that no stick may be longer than 63 inches from knob to heel, unless the player is taller than 6-foot-6. And, more importantly, the blade may not be curved more than three-quarters of an inch—a number that refers to the distance between the top of the curve and an imaginary line drawn between the heel and toe of the stick.”

But even with simple tools like a blow torch and a sander, hockey sticks are truly become custom tools for the game on the ice.

[Via The Wall Street Journal: Fiddling With Their Sticks]

Lose a Finger to Snap a Photo

There are plenty of gloves out there to keep your hands nice and toasty whilst you ski, snowboard, skate or partake in other winter wonderland activities. But try taking a photo… not so easy is it? The solution offered typically just involves removing the glove.

But the POW Pho-Tog Gloves were designed with input from action sports photographers, and feature a convertible finger as well as pocket on the backhand. This allows the thumb and point fingers to go “fingerless” for easy camera access. The gloves feature hook and loop cuff closures for easy adjustment as well, and are made of softshell and neoprene, with a Clarino Synthetic leather palm, so they’re keep you warm up to 32 degrees.

And while designed for using a camera, these will be good for using a portable music player, making phone calls or just anything else that would require you to take off your gloves. We like that a lot.

POW Gloves Official Website

Won’t Dry Your Eyes But Will Warm Up Your Feet

Walking through really cold wet snow means wet cold boots. It is the kind that could practically bring you to tears. There isn’t much that you can do about that, except maybe warm up the boots in the car in the car. DryGuy offers a line of  boots/shoe warmer and dryers including one model that offers AC/DC power (Model – DG00301). These won’t exactly dry your eyes, but better still they can warm up your boots, and do so from the car! These use a ram-air ventilation system so that air can be forced through the shoes to remove wetness or warm up cold boots in a short amount of time.

DryGuy also has a line of regular boot drivers as well, so no need to throw the boots in front of a heater anymore. You can call the DryGuys instead.

DryGuy Official Website

CES 2011: MP3 Player Would Be U-Boat Commanders

This week Fitness Technologies Inc. will show off the world’s smallest waterproof MP3 player. Given that there aren’t all that many MP3 players out there that are truly waterproof we didn’t know what small meant. An MP3 player smaller than a U-Boat could be considered small!

But UWaterG2, from FitnessTechUSA, is far from submarine size, let it can dive to 10 feet/3 meters. The micro-sized player is just 0.4-inches by 1.25-inches by 1.75-inches. It is available now in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB sizes, as well as five colors. It features “Twist & Lock” earphones to completely seal out water, and provide againt corrosion. Best of all at less than $60 this MP3 is priced for the able seaman yet is worthy of a U-Boat commander.

FitnessTechUSA Official Website

CES 2011: GammaTech Gets Tough

There are times when the going gets tough, and in some of those times you need to keep the computer going. At this week’s Consumer Electronics Show GammaTech will roll out its line of military-grade rugged notebooks and tablet computers.

Among the line of products to be shown include:

*  The D12C – 12.1″ mobile rugged, convertible notebook computer
*  The D15C – 15.6″ rugged portable notebook computer
*  The MT10L – 10.4″ Intel Health Mobile Clinical Assistant tablet PC

So move over iPad, you might be great for the living room. But for those who need to do more than sit on a couch, GammaTech is the name to beat.

GammaTech Official Website

Step This Way

While many people probably walked miles during the pre-holiday season while shopping, many more probably let their fingers do the walking instead. One downside to e-commerce is that it makes it all too easy to click away and have gifts shipped right to your door. And then during the holidays chances are walking wasn’t high on the list.

Now with a New Year hours away it is time to get the legs moving. To help keep track of the distance you put in, Omron Healthcare has now released a new pedometer that utilizes dual-accelerometer technology. The Omron HJ-112 Pocket Pedometer can accurately count steps. The small device can be place vertically or horizontally on the hip, or even stashed in a pocket or in a bag.

“At Omron, we want to empower Americans to achieve and maintain personal fitness goals by providing easy-to-use and accurate fitness products,” says Jill Person, product manager. “The fresh start of a new year serves as the perfect time to set goals, start tracking steps and stay motivated with the HJ-112 so you can achieve your personal best.”

The Omron HJ-112 GOsmart Pocket Pedometer can track steps, time and distance, as well as calories and fat grams burned. It even stores the last seven days of data so you can track a full week’s worth of your exercise. It is available now for $34.99 from Omron, as well as Amazon.com. So click away with your fingers, but get out and get walking.

Omron Healthcare Official Website

Shimano Ultegra To Go Electronic in 2012?

Our friends at BikeRadar.com noted that rumors are circulating that Shimano might introduce electronic shifting for its stepdown Ultegra group. This follows reports from various blogs that the group would come out in 2012. BikeRadar followed up on the story, but so far it just remains very much something that is only spinning round in the rumor mill. Dare we say that the electronic Ultegra is just vaporware at this point?

For now riders can use electronic shifting with the Dura-Ace Di2 (Digital Integrated Intelligence), and there is certainly nothing wrong with it. As has been noted, it has received acclaim from racers, riders and the press. The downside is that the shifting system will have you shifting a lot of money in the process, as in more than $3,000.

So unless you want the absolute best, and need it to be electronic, you’ll have to do the non-electronic shifting in 2011.

[Via BikeRadar.com: Is electronic Shimano Ultegra on the horizon?]

Shimano Dura-Ace Official Website

CES 2011: Kodak to Roll Out Burton Snowboard Branded Camera

Next week’s Consumer Electronics Show won’t have any shortage of cameras, but one camera is already leading the pack in style. This week Kodak announced a new marketing relationship with Burton Snowboards, and this will include the release of a special KODAK PLAYSPORT Video Camera, Burton Edition. It features the orange pixilated design of Burton’s popular Custom 154 Snowboard. So for the fashion forward boarders, it will practically be a match made in heaven.

The camera will be bundled with a camera holster that can be worn on the arm or leg, thus making this an easy camera to access during a day on the snow. It comes with a remote control, rechargeable battery and a 4GB SDHC Memory Card.  This rugged HD video camera should prove tough enough, and it is waterproof for up to 10 feet, and can capture 1080p HD video as well as 5megapixel still images. It features electronic image stabilization and LCD Glare Shield, along with built-in software with USB output for easy editing – so you can put your “dailies” up to YouTube and Facebook. The only catch for those looking to grab one is that it won’t be available until later in January from Burton.com or Kodak.com (MSRP $199.95). In the meantime, if you head to Las Vegas next week you’ll be able to see it at the Kodak Booth.

Kodak Official Website

Burton Snowboard Official Website

CES 2011: Bluetooth SIG Looks at Digital Healthcare

While we’ve been seeing press releases for all sorts of new (and supposedly innovative) products that will utilize wireless technology, including Bluetooth, most leave us scratching our heads. Does the world really need a Bluetooth Cooking Thermometer? Probably not, but we do think that Bluetooth has many health and fitness benefits. Continue reading CES 2011: Bluetooth SIG Looks at Digital Healthcare

Burn it Up With Your iPad

The holidays are a time for many things, including seeing family, visiting with friends, eating too much and basically blowing off exercise. That’s probably why come January 2 many people vow to “do it right” and pledge to turn over a new leaf. Maybe one way to start the New Year off right is by better managing your food intake.

One problem say experts is that you can easily shed pounds by reducing intake, but as soon as you go back to old habits – which die hard and quickly – you’re likely to regain the weight. Additionally, people who reportedly lose weight more slowly while increasing the exercise tend to keep the pounds off.

Brian Young realized this, and he’s worked to develop an app that helps you track and burn, hence the Tracknburn app for the iPod and iPhone. It incorporates the BMI formula that “is accurate as it gets,” says Young, who further notes that one of the most popular ways to determine how many calories are needed to sustain the same body weight is to use the body mass index (BMI) and current activity level. Subtract 250 calories a day to lose 1/2 pound per week.

Sounds simple, but Young notes that this formula also changes as you lose weight, making it hard to track over time. The Tracknburn essentially picks up on this, and does the weight loss math for you. This app takes a users individual profile, along with weight goal and helps make responsible choices. It can be used a food log with more than 140,000 common foods to choose from, and by tracking what you can eat, you can more easily lose at the same time. Now that sounds like a winning solution.

Tracknburn Official Website

Your Buddy for the Golf Course

Golf is one of those of things that is better done with a friend. It is enjoyable to take in the fresh air and shoot the breeze, and a friend can come in quite handy when you have to find a lost ball.

And now you can have an extra buddy on the course with GolfBuddy World Platinum Edition, the first GPS rangefinder to offer preloaded courses with no annual membership. The new version can store up to 40,000 courses, and it arrives preloaded with courses from around the globe, with no membership fees and no hidden costs. It is almost like the next best thing to a personal valet or caddie.

“It’s truly a technological marvel,” said Harry Jung, CEO of GolfBuddy. “We’ve added several new features that have never before been seen in GPS Rangefinders and made it just as easy to use as our previous models. The World Platinum’s name depicts its power. It puts the world’s courses in the palm of your hands.”

The handheld device features a high resolution color touch screen, which was developed with the serious golfer in mind. The screen offers an intuitive interface that makes it easy to navigate and best of all can be used whilst wearing a golf glove. With 50 channel satellite reception users can get quick response and data on the current course. The GolfBuddy World Platinum Edition further features several views of the hole as well as four player score tracking, along with full statistical analysis module. It is all enough to make your golf friends jealous of your new buddy.

GolfBuddy Official Website