Gear Patrol | Spirit of Adventure, Passion for Gear

Makes going topless classy

The Porsche Boxster is surely here to stay as evidenced by its success, critics’ raves and the fact that Porsche has done it up even better than before with an early taste of their all-new 2013 Porsche Boxster. Though the reworking is nothing earth-shattering, the sheetmetal is clearly an upgrade. It’s downright gorgeous in our opinion, especially that long and tall side air intake. Very Carrera GT. Plus the headlamps and taillights look far better than the last generation Boxster, the track is wider and the wheelbase has been extended. The base Boxster will have a 2.7 liter flat six with 265 horses and the S will belt out 315 hp with its 3.4 liter flat six. Don’t ignore the interior, either, with a similar layout to the new 911. And thank the Germans for keeping the manual gearboxes for both. We’re so old-school.

Buy Now: $49,500 (Boxster) | $60,900 (Boxster S) | (Available Summer 2012)

Esteemed photo journalist Vincent Laforet is considered a pioneer of DSLR video and his short film Reverie helped significantly boost Canon’s 5D Mark II camera into the forefront of the amateur digital film community. Hoping that lightening could strike twice, Canon gave Laforet early access to the EOS C300 to demonstrate the dynamic capabilities of their new video-focused jewel. Set in the harsh environment of the Mojave desert, Laforet used three c300s and composed shots by mounting the camera on tripod, sitting it on the road, tethering it to helicopters, and even used it as a hand-held. Despite running just under 12 minutes, the result contains all of the trappings of a typical summer blockbuster and follow the story of a photojournalist (wonder where that idea came from?) who stumbles upon a cartel execution and supernatural events in the “Zone of Silence” in Mexico.

All cylinders firing

Good news: we were on the ground at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show (aka North American International Auto Show). Bad news: our luggage wasn’t.

Trying to put together any editorial on an auto show without photography can be, well, a challenge and the last time we checked, our court-room sketching skills weren’t really up to snuff. So instead, we reached for the one device on our person, the iPhone 4S, fired up our favorite camera app, Camera+ ($1), and started shooting. The result is this post, which yes, is all about the cars but also a testament to just how far we’ve come with iPhoneography. Nothing will ever beat a trained eye with steady hands behind the lens of a traditional SLR, but for a phone? Things sure have come a long way.

This year, motor city saw an avalanche of new cars. Some new, some recently released, some conceptual. One facet, however, was immediately prevalent. Awesome design. The companies boasted it. The cars evidenced it. And at the end of the day, the Detroit Convention Center became a grandstand of not just people passionate about cars, but also amazing designs and incredible engineering. We’ve put together a list of our 20 favorite vehicular picks from NAIAS, which range from the highly-anticipated, to the revamped, to the clever, to the flat-out stunning.

Our picks, and iPhone photos, after the jump.

Tempo al tempo

With the annual watch trade show, SIHH (Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie) about to get underway in Geneva, now is as good a time as any to revisit one of the stars from last year’s show, the Officine Panerai PAM00372 ($10,400). For those who are new to the game, Officine Panerai was originally founded in 1860, and later went on to gain fame as a gear-maker for the Royal Italian Navy, providing divers with watches, compasses, depth gauges and torches. A rediscovery of the brand by none other than Sylvester Stallone in the mid-90′s sparked a renaissance that has since seen this vaunted Italian brand become a full-fledged purveyor of masculine, vintage-inspired timepieces that can be found on the wrists of celebrities, wannabes and die-hard collectors alike.

Continues after the jump.

By Adam Craniotes, Photos by Jae Yoon for Gear Patrol

Better late than never

After buying out Ericsson’s share of their joint venture earlier this year, Sony’s inaugural run of solo-branded smartphones shows the Japanese heavyweight has no intention of ceding the market just yet to Korean competitors like Samsung and LG without a fight. The Xperia S features a 4.3-inch 720p display with a 1.5GHZ dual-core processor, a 12 megapixel Exmor R camera sensor, NFC support, and PlayStation gaming certification. The similarly sleek Ion essentially boasts the same spec sheet, but bumps the display up to a massive 4.6-inches and includes LTE support for AT&T’s network. At launch time, both will ship with Android 2.3, but Sony has pledged that an upgrade to ICS will come to both sometime later. Howard Stringer and team still have miles of mountain to climb to truly regain their former perch as the company to beat when it comes to design, but as first runs go, these handsets are pretty promising.

Learn More: Xperia Ion | Xperia S

Gadget guardian angel

The long standing feud between your precious gadgets and their arch-nemesis, water, may be officially called off thanks to Liquipel. What is Liquipel exactly? It’s a potent combination of witchcraft and voodoo, or at least that was our first reaction after watching the demo video, which we’ve convienently embedded for you after the break along with more details.

Cuts like a knife

Just because an everyday carry (EDC) is all about necessity, doesn’t mean it can’t or shouldn’t have a bit of custom flair. The G. Wiseman Sodbuster Pocket Knife ($330), exclusive to Kaufmann Mercantile could be that special something in your pocket (cough). This “as good as they get” pocket knife is made by hand by knifemaster Gene Wiseman. Designed to be no-nonsense with its robust black Micarta handle, steel blade and handcrafted brass pins, it’s meant to be used and to last. And no, it doesn’t have a ubiquitous pocket clip. Rather, you can cinch a leather shoelace or paracord through the lanyard hole to make it look even more personal. And you won’t see “China” stamped on the blade because it’s all home-grown. Just don’t lose it. You’ll want to hit yourself.

More photos after the jump.

Buy Now: $330

Spice Kube

Beware, Porsche Cayenne. Your exotic SUV market share might dip a bit when the Maserati Kubang bows in 2014. The concept strutted its stuff in Detroit this past week, and it’s got some interesting background. First of all, it will be built in America (what??). It will be based on a Jeep Grand Cherokee platform (partially created by Mercedes), will be driven by a sweet Ferrari-based engine partnered with a Fiat 8-speed automatic. Talk about melting pot, eh? No word on output, but expect it to be at least a V8 and upwards of 500 horsepower. As far as design is concerned, you can see the GranTurismo front end and a very Lexus EX-like rear quarterpanel, which isn’t a bad thing, really. Look for a definite name change (thankfully) when it’s released for sale, something along the lines of ‘Cinqueporte’ — five door, in Italian. Pricing hasn’t been released yet, but it won’t be cheap.

More photos after the jump.

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Black bar banisher

We fawned over Vizio’s entry into the 21:9 fray last year, only to be bitterly disappointed when the set never made it to retail shelves. This year Vizio promises to actually deliver the ultrawidescreen goods to living rooms around the country with their updated 2012 line of 2560 x 1080 passive 3D HD displays. Besides the coveted ability to natively display the 2.35:1 CinemaScope format used by most filmmakers today, viewers can also make full use of Vizio’s V.I.A. suite of applications through a left hand side bar while still watching full HD 16:9 programming in parallel. So there’s no need to compromise your view of the game when the urge to check on your portfolio strikes. A clever universal remote control with an integrated QWERTY keypad that connects using Bluetooth (eliminating the need to point it directly at the TV) also makes navigating the set’s bevy of features easy.

Size-wise, a 50, 58, and a super carrier dwarfing 71-inch model will all be available sometime this year, with the smaller versions set to launch as soon as next month. It’s worth noting that the 50 and 58-inch models make use of the company’s edge lit LED backlighting while the 71-inch uses full array TruLED backlight with over 120 dimming zones for better black level performance and a ludicrous (although not necessarily relevant) 20,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. How much these beauties will cost is still under wraps, but knowing Vizio’s value-focused m.o., we expect them to be competitively priced with similarly-sized units.

Learn More: Here

Light the fires and kick the tires

IWC has fired their first volley of SIHH 2012 and it’s right on-target. Say hello to the new Pilot’s Watch Chronograph TOP GUN Miramar. Named for the birthplace of modern naval air warfare where the best of the best go to get better, this anti-magnetic timepiece sports an advanced in-house flyback chronograph movement within its high-tech, scratch-resistant zirconium oxide case and stays strapped securely to your wrist during high-g maneuvers with the aid of an olive drab textile strap that evokes military-grade flight harness webbing. Further reinforcing the aviation theme is an altimeter-inspired open date window.

Joining the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph TOP GUN on the flight deck are the Big Pilot’s Watch TOP GUN Miramar and the Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar TOP GUN Miramar, both of which feature impressive seven-day power reserves. Of course IWC wouldn’t be IWC if they were content to stop here, which explains why their entire Pilot’s Watch portfolio has been revamped in 2012, including the Spitfire and Classic Pilot’s model lines.

IWC isn’t calling this the year of the high-flyers for nothing.

Bottom line: If you feel the need for speed, IWC has your watch. Price TBD.

Learn More: Here

By Adam Craniotes

Give and take

Mobile devices have progressively borrowed features from cameras to boost their curb appeal — so why shouldn’t cameras reciprocate? That seems to be the logic behind Polaroid’s surprising SC1630 Smart Camera. From the rear, it’s easy to mistake the device as just another 3.2-inch Android handset, until you spy the 16-megapixel 36-108mm lens with 3x optical zoom and its dedicated exterior controls on the other sides. While the optics aren’t the greatest thing ever to hit the camera scene, when combined with 18 distinct shooting modes, integrated Wifi, optional cellular data, one touch social-media sharing, a large touch-enabled screen for editing, up to 32GB of onboard storage via microSD and over 400,000 apps available in the Android Marketplace, the complete package is a compelling offering for shareoholics looking for an ultrapocketable casual shooter. Checking your email, viewing your calendar, setting alarms, and in a pinch, acting like the office is calling you on it are just extra gravy.

All we know of in terms of release dates as of now is that this should land sometime in 2012 for a mysterious sum of money. Informative we know.

Learn More: Here