Gadgets just in time for summer play
Suunto actually calls it a wrist-top computer, which is only a bit of hype. Besides GPS, it includes an altimeter for tracking how high you've hiked, a barometer for predicting the weather, a chronograph (fancy word for "stopwatch"), and a compass to help with the tracking functions. Yes, time and date, too.
It's the GPS functions that distinguish it. They work, if more slowly than hand-held GPS instruments, and are limited by the device's size and the life of its rechargeable battery, which can drain in a day of frequent GPS use. The 1-inch, text-only screen doesn't display maps, so tracking functions are similar to early GPS hand-helds. You establish way points, which are sites measured in latitude and longitude, either via a PC connection before you go out or by clicking buttons on the watch to note them as you trek. The watch helps you get from point to point. A Hansel-and-Gretel type function, for example, can get you home by backtracking sites you've noted along the way.
Olympus Stylus 720SW
Follow your kids under the waves and keep snapping with this Stylus 720SW ($400, olympus.com) camera, which can confidently dip under the waves as far as 10 feet down. It's a fun twist that has only been possible in the past by getting added underwater housings for digital cameras. The compact 720SW performs well enough underwater, capturing 7-megapixel images that seem as sharp as water might allow–and even grabbing as much VGA-quality video as the memory card will hold.
The camera doesn't come with a memory card. But more convenient than the small cards that come with other cameras, the 720SW has built-in memory that can hold about 10 high-resolution photos, or enough to help in a pinch. It also has a 3x optical zoom.
In another innovation, the camera can withstand a 5-foot drop–in or out of the water–because of a reinforced metal alloy body and what the company calls a "floating" circuit board. The shock resistance is probably more useful day to day than shooting underwater, as most digital cameras can withstand a bit of rain or water spray, if not a full-score dunking. Besides, it's not easy lining up a shot underwater; be sure to bring goggles, and take a deep breath.
Flashflight
Lighting up a Frisbee isn't child's play. The inventors of the Flashflight ($9 to $20, flashflight.com) tapped a number of modern technologies—most important, LEDs and fiber optics—to get a disk that not only would flash but fly.
Light-emitting diodes have been around since the 1960s, but recent advances have made them brighter and capable of producing more colors. They're expected to revolutionize the lighting market over the next decade or two.
Flashflight wasn't the first disk to try LEDs for nighttime play. Others hadn't struck the right balance between light and playability, say Frisbee fans. An earlier light-up disk, for example, had strung LEDs around the edge, which tended to blind players at night. Not to mention reports that it shattered after 30 minutes of play. So a key innovation of the Flashflight is using fiber optics to spread the light from a center LED to the edge.
Then they tried to account for the difference in flinging disks at night, when it's a bit cooler. The Flashflight uses a plastic that's a bit softer than other disks, aiming to avoid stiffening that would slam hands or shatter because it was too brittle.
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