Outdoor Technology Tags
These Bluetooth-enabled ‘tags’ will let you listen to your tunes wirelessly and if used with a phone you can take or make calls. The minimal design works well – just a small volume control – that doubles as a transport control – and separate multifunction button for call-answering (or ignoring), mute and also voice dialling. The OT Tags seemed just as happy with a crusty old mobile as with a modern smartphone. The ear-buds come with alternative bud sizes and sit tight in the ear. So if you’re inclined to hang off a climbing-wall whilst with Cliff or The Edge playing, you can still listen out for that important call.
Reg Rating 75%
Price £60
More info Outdoor Technology
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT3
Built-in phone cameras won’t do justice to any location, especially that beautiful vista you’ve spent half a day climbing to see. The Lumix DMC-FT3 shoots detailed, clear pictures with some very good colour reproduction; plus it includes lots of extras for adventurous types. The indestructible-looking construction is tough enough to withstand a 2-metre drop (at least) and, for watery types, it can be submerged to a depth of 12 metres. The built-in compass, altimeter and barometer attach all manner of data to your pictures, but perhaps most impressive is the GPS function that will display your precise location live across the viewfinder – Panasonic claims there are over a million landmarks registered. Quite remarkable and rather spooky.
Reg Rating 80%
Price £330
More info Panasonic
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COMMENTS
Suggestion for reviews like this
I have a suggestion for reviews like this: please tell us WHAT THE HECK THE THING IS in the title.
Consider the Knog Nerd 12 - The picture doesn't immediately tell me this is a bicycle computer, and I was 2 sentences in to a 4 sentence review (albeit one of those sentences is quite long) before I knew what it was.
Would it be so hard to have the title be "Knog Nerd 12 Bicycle computer"?
Or the Liquid Image Impact HD720P - "Oh, goggles. No wait - goggles with a camera!? Now I understand what HD720P refers to!" Given that manufacturers love to put random strings of numbers and letters after product names it's not worth trying to parse them. "Liquid Image Impact HD720P Goggle/Camera"
The Real World
Invented so geeks could have somewhere to use GPS.
Top ten outdoor gadgets?
0) Water
1) A good pair of boots
2) Multitool
3) 7"Ka-bar
4) Fire starter
5) Good hat
6) hooks & line
7) Salt
8) 3x4 metres of 8 or 10 mil visqueen
9) Clothing appropriate for weather conditions
30 metres of quarter inch nylon line, a cooking pot, bedroll, good map
& compass, signaling mirror, small flashlight, basic medical kit, small handgun etc. are also handy, but hardly necessary. I've crossed the Rockies with no more than my top ten ... Survival training isn't exactly a walk in the park ;-)
Ah. So ...
"One could make a case that ability to move and store water is the single thing that made civilization possible."
So ... you meant containers, not water. Still not gadgets though.
"Try to get along without it for a fortnight or so ..."
Better put "oxygen" as the minus first item on your list.
But those are gadgets for people who will actually go ... you know ... "outdoors".
The article is aimed at cellar-dwelling ITboys whose idea of wilderness is when they drop out of 3G coverage.
