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Tag "gadgets"
Bogota lock picks
Lost your key to the Connex? Serepick.com and Hardcase Custom Survival have come out with a handy new pair of custom lock picks that will open a padlock in seconds. The Bogota picks come in a set of two. Each pick is about as long as your index finger and toothpick thin. Both handles are L-shaped to serve as a rake while you use the other as a tension wrench. They are available in spring steel for $25 or in titanium for $37.50.
Read MoreGetting into something a little different than weapon design or components, Magpul has given us a new iPhone case in your choice of colors, as long as those choices are military colors. Think of Flat Dark Earth, Foliage Green, or basic black as new colors for your iPhone. Valentines day is right around the corner, and for under $10, your girl (or guy) can get their iPhone all tactical-ed up.
A few years back, one of our embeded staffers was dropped off outside an austere TOC. He unloaded his gear and went inside to meet his POC. When he came out a few minutes later, the sun was down and he couldn’t see his gear. As his eyes adjusted to the dark he finally found his freshly flattened pack. A humvee driver must have been taking a pull from his can of Monster and driven over the gear in the dark, trashing his laptop screen.
Gorilla Glass might have saved him from buying an overpriced HadjiBook at the PX. Manufacturers should use this stuff in any deploying gadget. Laptop screens, BFT/FBCB2 gear, PDAs, GPS… it might even save some weight if it can be used as a flashlight lens. If the stuff is optic quality, it could even find it’s way into eyepro and weapon sights.
Thanks, Gizmodo.
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Surefire M300 Mini Scout Light
N/A, $N/A
Details are admittedly sketchy on this one. Surefire gave us a look at this little burner while we were at the ADS Warrior Expo in July. It’s half the size of the popular M600 Scout Light, runs at about 80 lumens for 1.3 hours on a single CR123. That’s enough light for tactical use and a more-than-respectable runtime. But the reduced weight may not be worth half the performance of the already svelte M600. We’re sure this is an issue Surefire is investigating as they gauge reaction to the light at military industry shows. The M300 could be out within a year, or that prototype could just as easily end up a paperweight on Dr. John Matthews’ desk.
Leupold RX1000
Summer 2009, $429
At 4″ long, Leupold’s newest compact rangefinder delivers 6x magnification with 1000 yard max range and a trick variable brightness OLED display that you can adjust like an Aimpoint to prevent the display from overpowering the predawn light. The unit offers a choice of three reticles and has a continuous measure mode that displays the distance as you scan a scene. It’s also pretty tough, as it’s made from a single block of billet aluminum. The only downside, and it’s minor, is the battery. It uses a CR2, which is a little harder to find than CR123 or AA/AAA cells.
Black Diamond Titan Lantern
Fall 2009, $79.95
BD’s smaller lanterns racked up a few accolades from the backpacking magazines last year with their personal sized Orbit and Apollo lanterns. So, their latest battery lantern should rate a strong buy if you are in the market for a camp lantern that reaches a 45 ft diameter area.
- 250 lumens (max setting) and frosted globe produces a bright, ambient light
- Dual reflector system captures and maximizes light output
- Power meter displays battery level of 4D alkalines
- adjustable brightness
- Folds to 200mm (7.9 in)
- extended height is 250mm (9.8 in)
- Collapsible hang loop
The first-generation wrist-mounted GPS were all about recreation, and if you used one in the field or on missions, you noticed they came up a bit short. But now Garmin has taken the original and slimmed it down into sleeker, more powerful tool. GearScout got a final prototype to play with weeks before its release.
Garmin just announced their new top of the line Oregon 550t handheld GPS unit. $600 buys a 3.2 megapixel camera (slightly better than cellphone quality), a 3D compass that display a direction without having to hold the unit level and a new sunlight-readable display. Other than that, you get the usual Oregon touch screen, preloaded 100k scale US topographic map set, yadayada.
I don’t know if the Best Buy crowd is too excited about the 3.2mp camera –especially when point and shoot cameras are hitting 14.7mp. BUT- a small, waterproof unit that has the ability to PID a target or an area of interest with a geotagged photo may be interesting to ground guys and secret squirrels.
On the flip-side of the geotagging coin is the Nikon Coolpix P6000, a 13.5mp camera that will geotag your images. The camera won’t do navgation and it’s a more delicate device, but it will take far more useable photographs.
Still, if you regularly carry a GPS into the field anyway, a cameraGPS is better than nothing. It takes up less space and weighs less than a separate camera and is one less battery charger you have to keep around.
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Highgear’s new Axis watch is clearly aimed for you, dear active-lifestyle military person. If it’s coyote color doesn’t grab you, the feature list will. It combines standard watch functions with four sensors in a low profile package with a negative LCD and a user changeable battery for $160.
The watch sports an acrylic window and a poly-carbonate case, which keeps the weight down and gave Highgear a few more bucks to add in the altimeter, barometer, digital compass, and thermometer. Specs after the break.
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