Like it or not, summer is officially upon us. No matter how you like to spend your summer days, be it at the beach, the mountains, your backyard, or even in a constantly temperature controlled environment, there are plenty of new gear and gadgets out there to enhance your warm weather excursions (or, likewise, enhance your warm weather sitting around doing nothing time). We’ve gathered some of the best new products that will keep you connected, entertained, safe, and informed, as you make your way through the doggiest of dog days.
- PULSE Hybrid Charger– ($70) PULSE is a charging device that uses solar panels to recharge itself while you’re partaking in your favorite outdoor activities. It was created by Live Work Play and comes with a 5000mAh internal battery, which is enough power to charge an iPhone5 fully 3 times. It is approximately the size of an iPhone and can charge two devices at once. It can also be plugged in to recharge, when you’re not outside.
- Sony Digital Recording Binoculars ($2000) Birdwatching has never been cooler. These binoculars from Sony can zoom to as much as 25x magnification. They are dustproof/rainproof and offer full HD and 3D video recording capabilities. It uses Optical SteadyShot™ image stabilization and By Pixel Super Resolution for super clear images.
- Earl Backcountry Survival Tablet – ($299) Meet Earl. Earl is the first tablet engineered to withstand extreme environmental conditions. It was named after the creator’s Italian Greyhound, and the first prototype was built using e-reader development platforms by Freescale Semiconductor coupled with a multitude of sensors from Sparkfun and Adafruit Industries. Earl was originally crowdfunded, and is now available for sale.
- The Dash Wireless Headphones– ($299) You’ll never again have to worry about getting tangled in your headphone cords during your early morning runs (not that I would know anything about this…I never run early in the morning). These wireless, biosensing headphones from Bragi offer freedom of movement paired with great sound. It has a 4GB integrated music player and capabilities to track your performance and vitals. You can even wear them underwater!
- Swimmo Smart Swim Watch – ($189) Swimmo is a smart watch that lets you track your swimming workout. It has a built in Intensity Coach, Pace Keeper, and heart rate monitor. Swimmo successfully completed a Kickstarter campaign, raising over $184k, or 472% of their initial goal. It also syncs with platforms like Facebook, Strava, and RunKeeper.
- Wristboom Wireless Wearable Speaker – (Under $20) Wristboom is not widely available yet, but they’re in the middle of an IndieGoGo campaign that could make the device soon available for under $20. The product itself is pretty self explanatory. It’s a speaker that you can wear on your wrist (or ankle, or tied to a beach umbrella or bike handle) like a watch. We recently dedicated an entire article to it. You can read more about it here.
- Otterbox Resurgence Power Case – ($100) Waterproofing is more important in summer than any other time of the year. Otterbox has a new case for the iPhone 6 that combines waterproofing with external charging. The case has a 2,600 mAh battery, which will double the longevity of your phone and it comes with Otterbox’s standard military-rated drop protection.
From my research (read: Google searches), it could be said that we’ve entered the summer of “how many ways can we wear our music?” Seriously, it would have been much easier to create a list of all of the wearable speakers that are out right now, for example, how about a speaker that doubles as a lovely pendant? Sure, most everyone loves music, however, my goal was to introduce you to unique gear and gadgets to enhance all of your myriad of summer activities. If you’re happy with what you’ve seen here, please feel free to gift me any of the above to show your gratitude (I’ll even accept the pendant speaker).
Image Credit: PULSE Hybrid Charger