Gadgets

Bring your own network with you, sun-powered sounds and adventure-proof cameras

[INDEX_BOLD]Seagate Wireless Plus Portable Drive [/INDEX_BOLD]As someone who ditched his hefty, ageing Mac Powerbook for a tablet, I know it’s only practical for work if you use the cloud and depend on wifi to hook up. Here’s a travel-friendly alternative: Seagate’s 1TB Wireless Plus Hard Drive. It makes its own wifi network, no router needed, and up to eight users can join. Designed specifically to work with Android and Apple’s iOS devices, it’s really for heavy media users, who want to haul big files with them. There’s a swiftish USB 3.0 connection to load it up to start with. Seagate Wireless Plus Portable Drive: about €200, seagate.com

Tom Kelly

Sat Apr 20 2013 - 06:00

Tom Kelly
betweenideas@gmail.com

[INDEX_BOLD]Pentax WG-3 Waterproof Camera[/INDEX_BOLD]Actually, it’s not just waterproof, within reason the WG-3 is also drop-, crush-, cold- and dust-proof. It also shoots full 1080p30 HD video, has its own six LED light ring built-in for macro-shooting and comes with GPS for accurate geo-tagging, plus an altimeter and compass. So it’s all-action for demanding, extreme environments like jungle hikes. Or Communion parties. Pentax WG-3 Waterproof Camera, €380 from pixmania.ie

[INDEX_BOLD]Eton Rukus Solar[/INDEX_BOLD]Makers of all sorts of off-grid electronics powered by solar and hand cranking, the Rukus is Eton’s foray into Bluetooth speakers. Like Logitech’s Boombox or Jawbone’s Jambox, this lets you stream music wirelessly from any Bluetooth-enabled player. Difference is, the Rukus is solar powered, with an internal battery that will give you another eight hours of environmentally right-on stereo sounds. It’s even got a USB charging slot to keep the player juiced-up too.Eton Rukus Solar, $130 from amazon.com

Amazon Android Apple Eton Jawbone Logitech Pentax Seagate pixmania.ie