The iPad might be good for Facetime and Angry Birds, but will it help actually save your life? Is there an app for that? Probably not, especially if there isn’t Wi-Fi, cellular towers and power. The Earl Backcountry Survival Tablet is for those times, and it is designed specifically for use in the wilds.
The 1,024×768 six inch flexible E-Ink screen, which provides visibility in direct sunlight as well as a “Lunar” mode for viewing at night, features a glove friendly infrared touchscreen as well as a gyroscope so it can work in a variety of conditions. The screen can even be used as a lantern during an emergency. Laminated solar panels provide up to 20 hours of battery, and the device can charge in just five hours of direct sun light.
The Earl Backcountry Survival Tablet features an IP67 rating and is waterproof, dust-proof, shock-proof and even mud-proof. It offers an internal weather sensor, a FRS, GMRS and MURS transceiver for use as a two-way radio; plus it offers a built-in AM/FM/SW/LW radio tuner. It includes GPS and Bluetooth 4.0, and it runs on Android 4.1 so yeah, it probably can even play Angry Birds while you wait for rescue.
At the end of the day golf is still a game, a potentially enjoyable game but still a game. Mastering golf is so much more, but the Game Golf looks to change that. This system utilizes a GYG device along with a set of club tags, which utilize GPS, NFC, compass, accelerometer and gyrometer. When heading out to the course golfers tag the club to the device, which records every shot.
Even in non-electrical powered bicycles there are more and more electrical gizmos and gadgets, and these include GPS devices and cycle computers. The “controls” for gear shifters and brakes are positioned within finger’s reach, but typically the controls for those electrical devices are not.
Currently in development through a Kickstarter project the BikeSpike is being designed as a bicycle GPS that could also offer automatic crash reporting. This small gizmo features a GPS chipset with a built-in antenna, on-board accelerometer and a connection to a global cellular network.
There are plenty of rugged cameras on the market, but the Nikon Coolpix AW110 Camo Camera stands out with its camouflage design that looks practically read for combat. It is a truly go-anywhere camera, and is waterproof, shockproof and freezeproof, while not being light on the features. It offers built-in Wi-Fi for fast sharing of photos, while built-in GPS tagging records the location of every shot. It features a 16MP sensor and also doubles as a Full HD 1080p video camera.
When out hiking or hunting it helps to have a GPS unit or compass close at hand and secure. The T-Reign ProCase retractable gear tether made in America, and is specifically designed for handheld gadgets and devices. The cases come in three sizes that can hold rangefinders, smartphones, GPS devices and even small cameras.
We’ve seen a number of products – including poles and even a UAV aircraft – that can provide a different way to film the action with a rugged action camera. The latest twist is the SoloShot, a device holds the camera on a tripod and automatically records a person wearing a small GPS transmitter.