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* Photo: David Clugston * Wires?! We Don't Need No Stinking Wires!
All hail the Sennheiser MX W1, the world's first truly wireless earbuds. There's no tether to your MP3 player, nothing connecting the buds to one another, and they play nice with any device sporting a standard 3.5-mm jack. Plug the matchbook-sized transmitter into, say, your iPod's headphone port, use the integrated elastic strap to fasten it to the player, and stow the bundle up to 30 feet away. The phones use a new wireless protocol called Kleer, which transmits uncompressed tunage at up to 2.37 Mbytes per second, more than enough for CD-quality audio. And don't worry about running out of juice. The earbuds' battery life is five hours, and their holster (pictured) doubles as the charger. Power up the case at home, and it will hold enough zap to treat the buds to three 15-minute quick charges.
MX W1: $600, sennheiser.com
Photo: David ClugstonTrail Hand
You are on the precipice of backwoods Babylon: powder untouched since the Cretaceous, the perfect run you hiked all day to get to and could never find again. If it wasn't 20 below, you'd remove your gloves, fish out your GPS, and mark the spot. But instead you avoid the frostbite and just bomb the hillside, settling for the memory. Garmin's Colorado 400t would never let this happen to you. Its click wheel interface is designed to be operated with gloves on, and the unit, which clips to your parka with an integrated carabineer, is waterproof to IPX7 standards should you tackle the slope on your face. Switch between navigation, a satellite-based compass, and a topological view that will confirm that you are, indeed, on top of the world.
Colorado 400t: $599, garmin.com
Photo: David ClugstonAction Hero
Your videocam's favorite subjects are often its deadliest enemies, like a gnarly wave or a sippy cup-flinging child. Don't go through life avoiding the action. You need a camcorder with cojones, one that won't shrink from a drooling Micromagnon whose battle cry is "Truck!" Panasonic's SDR-SW20 has got your back. Or, rather, you won't need to get its back. Drop it from 4 feet up, submerge it in 5 feet of water, or film in a dust storm with no ill effects. The camera is sealed, including an SD card slot with a gasketed hatch that looks like it came off a tiny submarine. It films in YouTube-ready standard def and captures VGA stills that won't overload your blog. And, should you not want to test its mettle, the 10X optical zoom lets you stay onshore — or far from the high chair.
SDR-SW20: $400, panasonic.com
Photo: David ClugstonPower Player
Even when your 50-inch plasma is dark, it's still sucking electricity. That's because it's not off. It's never really off. It's in standby mode, keeping the pixels warmed up to let it turn on faster. Same goes for your phone charger, your stereo, and so on: Electronics are vampires, bleeding you dry. You could run around unplugging them all whenever you leave the house, or you could pick up the Belkin Conserve, a power strip with an RF remote control that cuts the power to six of its eight outlets. Of course, some things always need to be on — like your DVR. So the Conserve has two plugs with constant power. Because even though the writers' strike means there hasn't been a new 30 Rock for months, you do need your fix.
Conserve: $50, belkin.com
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