Gear Patrol

There exists a direct correlation between the adversity of a particular situation and the coolness of a photograph. The worse a situation, the better the photo. The problem is, your camera may not be up to snuff and there’s no worse enemy to a camera than water. Moisture or worse, immersion, are total dealbreakers for…

Blackstone Bags designed their Urban Quiver Camera Bag ($125) to serve as the ultimate day companion for the wandering photog. Unlike the ubiquitous pouches and messenger bag clones that dominate the market, the Quiver’s skinny design compliments the natural length of most camera gear — making it perfect for walking through busy areas. Since the…

Were you lucky enough to get a hold of the most talked about tablet since the pair handed down from Sinai? Or perhaps you had the saintly patience to wait for one after pre-ordering from Apple. If so, picking up Minoit’s Real Wood iPad 2 Cover ($70) will guarantee your sleek new gadget doesn’t get…

Professional camera bags are a must for hauling your prized-optics collection from shoot to shoot, but they can be overkill. That’s why the ONA Roma Camera Insert and Bag Organizer ($60) fills such a nice niche. Measuring 10.5L X 7H X 4D, it’s designed to fit inside most medium-sized bags to make sure your camera…

The idea of making a wireless phone wired is admittedly strange, but nostalgia for the familiar often drives people to do crazy things. The iFusion ($150) is essentially a Bluetooth speaker dock in traditional telephone clothing. Thanks to A2DP Bluetooth streaming, the iFusion can playback both call audio or music over its internal speakerphone. The…

Now that the iPad 2 hysteria has passed — at least until launch day, it’s worth circling back to focus on its companion Smart Covers. Apparently Steve Jobs was upset that the old iPad case hid the beauty of the original iPad’s industrial design, so Apple went back to the drawing board to develop an…

Are you the guy that drops his iPhone every time he turns a corner, and then manages to kick it into a puddle foul of dirty rain water? Are you the guy that can’t even muster up a lousy layup, but when it comes to landing iPhones into beer mugs, you might as well be…

A far cry from your high school TI-82 (or for you honors students, the TI-85), the TI-Nspire CX ($165) may. The new TI centers around a new 16-bit 320×240 high-resolution color display with powerful 3D graphing capabilities. A bevy of classroom and lab-centric features and adaptors will also be available including an in-classroom wireless network…

Let the onslaught of Thunderbolt enabled devices begin. And like clockwork, LaCie is at the head of the pack. The design-drive company’s venerable Little Big Disk (we actually have a couple of these around at GP HQ) will be receiving the Thunderbolt treatment this summer endowing it with workstation-class 10Gbps I/O. Huge audio and video…

Technology geeks bring up “the cloud” about as much as Mel Gibson drops slurs on voicemail. When you parse through all the hype and dreaming, though, securely accessing files remotely from any computer you come across isn’t exactly easypeasy yet. Owning an iTwin USB Remote File Access ($99) system can change that — as long…

If the idea of pairing your Mac’s keyboard and trackpad using wood isn’t your thing, then consider TwelveSouth’s minimalist MagicWand ($29) a suitable alternative. The keyboard and trackpad snap into the MagicWand for left or right hand use, turning the two devices into a single extended keyboard, which we still don’t understand why there’s not…

Burton’s reputation in snowboarding needs no introduction, so we’re sure that the F-Stop photo backpack can meet all of the crazy demands of professional photographers tasked with documenting the acrobatics of legends like Shaun White. Even if you haven’t mastered the skill of shooting while edging down the mountain, the F-Stop bag still looks like…

Home theater computer owners take note. If you haven’t already figured out how to turn your smartphone into touch pad mouse, the Logitech Couch Mouse M515 ($50) may be your best back-saving alternative. That’s because it’s designed to work on all manner of surfaces including blankets, cushions, carpets — or even the back of your…

Wireless router. Now that’s a pair of words completely devoid of sex appeal. Still, that hasn’t stopped Linksys from pushing the design envelope with its dual-band E4200 ($180) wireless router. In fact, on looks alone we’d expect its slick black silhouette to blast out beats from our iPhone. Its real purpose, however, is to deliver…

Toting around your SLR, a couple of lenses and the multitude of other accessories you need to get your Terry Richardson on can be a bulky proposition. The Cocoon Tribeca ($50) aims to ease your pain. The bag features two main compartments, one for your DSLR and a second to hold up to two additional…

You spent hours researching it and threw down stacks of cash to get that perfect camera setup. When the gear arrived, you attached the included strap to your rig, stuck your neck through, and immediately realized you’d transformed into Clark Griswold. Now that wouldn’t be so bad if a young Beverly D’Angelo appeared too, but…

Now that you’ve got your Philips Cinema Display hanging on the wall, what about your Mac Mini turned home theater PC? Well, give it some ambient back-lighting love with a backlit mount. The mount, made of recyclable materials replaces the newer unibody Mac Mini’s stock base without any sacrifices in features or connectivity. Once replaced,…

The iPhone 4′s staggering media power is its greatest asset. Problem is, no one wants to endure arm cramps while catching up on episodes of Mad Men. Trtl Bot’s Trtl Stand 4 ($35) makes iPhone 4 viewing a pain-free experience. It also offer options to support FaceTime and for utilizing your camera’s timer function. The…

Those headphones you’ve spent hundreds of dollars on deserve more than a place on your end table or desk. Steam molded from a single piece of wood shaped into the shape of an omega symbol the Sieveking Sound Omega Headphone Stand ($179) is offered in 4 different veneers (walnut, zebrano, cherry and maple), and coated…

Beta Shell SLR Cases ($45-$84) are the most affordable insurance policy out there for those who’ve spent a pretty penny on camera lenses. Their impact-resistant ABS exteriors are water-tight thanks to a heavy duty EPDM O-ring seal and will protect your glass from the elements, while a 1.5-inch layer of visco-elastic memory foam and 2mm…

Killspencer is one of those brands we like to cover here on Gear Patrol. You know, a brand and story that you can’t get enough of the moment you set eyes on one of their products. Started by Spencer Nikosey in 2009 and based in Pasadena, CA, the brand has a growing collection of great…

Somewhere at the crossroads of Americana and technology two very different companies based around Nashville decided to have a cup of coffee and brainstorm about the iPad. The result? A small collaboration of iPad cases by heirloom-grade leather goods maker Col. Littleton and popular gadget accessory brand Griffin Technologies. The iPad cases are signature Col….

Men today normally have two things on them at all times: their wallet and phone. Since there’s no need to tote your full George Costanza everywhere you go, the German artisan brand Pack & Smooch has devised a series of great looking iPhones cases to free up some much needed pocket space. The Leicester ($51),…

The glass back on the iPhone 4 is a work of art, no doubt about it. The only problem is that it’s also a bit fragile. There’s plenty of cases out there, but they can be bulky and take away from the clean lines of the phone. Why not replace it with something cooler and…

Image, courtesy of our friend, photographer and fashion blogger William Yan. Be sure to check out his site: williamyan.com. If we’ve learned anything from our investigations of the world of men’s style — it’s that the details leave the most lasting impressions. That doesn’t mean simply going against the grain is a golden ticket to…

Our obsession with products and projects funded on Kickstarter has grown from a peripheral hobby to an all-out obsession. In fact, we’re starting an informal series of posts highlighting the projects we’re observing and/or pitching some dough into, like The Glif. Our latest mini-investment (disclosure: $150) is the TikTok+LunaTik Watch Kit, the coolest watch-conversion of…

The LaCie FastKey isn’t some plain ol’ flash drive you picked up as a conference tchotchke. The USB 3.0 enabled hot stick is capable of 260MB per second data transfer to its aluminum enclosed solid state drive that’s protected by full AES 256-bit password-based encryption. How fast is it in the real world, you ask?…

Are your job tools less hammer and nail, more Maya and MathWorks? Do you have nightmares of Photoshop status bars and history cache? Is your day’s productivity counted in fractals rendered? Well, if you’re a Mac Pro user then your graphics card has landed. The insanely fast Fermi architecture based NVIDIA Quadro 4000 ($1,200), not…

We’ve covered plenty of great iPad cases in the past, but often where there’s an iPad, there’s also other Mac products. While some case lines offer matching iPhone or MacBook accessories to go with your iPad, finding one that has all three isn’t always easy. This Carga Sleeve Collection ($100-$200) has solutions for all of…

Remember in college when you were cutting edge with a laptop with the Intel Celeron processor, a Zip drive, and a magical 256KB thumb drive? Just like drunken mornings, pleated khakis and boy bands, those days are gone (mostly). In a world of 1080P HD video, 16 megapixel cameras and music libraries running wild, storage…