Travel tech news: August 15, 2012

This week in travel tech news:  Panasonic roll out a range of ultra-rugged SD cards, there’s a new way to annoy people in your hostel by using multiple iPhones, combine multiple internet connections for faster downloads, and a bracelet to help avoid sunburn.

Panasonic releases SD cards tougher than you

Owning a camera that will withstand intergalactic warfare (or is at least water, cold and shock-proof) is great, but if the SD card inside it dies when the conditions get rough, it’s not much help.

Panasonic have decided to do something about that fact, recently announcing a new range of rugged storage cards.  The unattractively-named SDAB and SDUB variety of cards (the difference is read/write speed and max capacity) seem designed to handle pretty much anything you could conceivably throw at them.

The company claims you can drop the cards from a great height, submerge them in a metre of water for half an hour, freeze them down to -25 degrees Celsius or heat them to nearly boiling point (85 degrees Celsius) and they’ll still come back for more.  X-rays, electric shocks and magnetism?  No problem at all.

There’s no doubt about it, these cards are a lot more rugged than we are.

Rock your hostel with Seedio

Have you ever been staying in a hostel and thought to yourself "You know, I really wish the song playing on that guy’s crappy phone speaker was much louder?"

No, us either.  In the future, though, that guy could rock the entire hostel, thanks to the Seedio app.  Just add a wireless network and a bunch of iPhones and iPads, and the app takes care of synchronising playback of songs or Youtube audio from the host device across all of the others.

Just think, now you can hear your most annoying favourite song playing from every dorm rom, in the common area, on the balcony and out into the parking lot at the same time, in all its low-fi glory.

Awesome … right?  Right?

Faster downloads, better connections with Connectify Dispatch

Connectify, the company behind the handy Hotspot software that we’ve mentioned in the past, has launched a Kickstarter project with a simple, yet remarkably cool, idea for travellers.

Essentially, Connectify Dispatch will let you combine multiple different internet connections into one, in a variety of ways.  For instance, if your wired connection is too slow, you can use a wireless network at the same time.  Still too slow?  Throw your mobile broadband device into the mix as well.

Hey, if you’re really hardcore (like certain geeks we know), you could plug in a USB WiFi card and use two wireless networks simultaneously.  Given how hard it can be to find decent wifi on the road, we like this option a lot.

There will also be the option of having ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ connections, so that if your wireless network dies in the middle of transferring Game of Thrones an important document, your mobile broadband (for example) could take over.

This is one Kickstarter campaign that seriously needs to get funded.

Avoid looking like a lobster

Have you ever laid out on the beach all day or gone exploring round a new city for hours in the middle of summer, only to look in the mirror a while later and realise you’re the colour of a tomato?

No, us either.  Ahem.

For the rest of the world, though, researchers at the University of Strathclyde are doing something about it.  Realising how many people don’t even know they’re getting burned until far too late, a Swedish spin-off company is in the process of commercialising a UV-detecting wristband that changes from yellow to pink with increased sun exposure.

It’s a simple but significant technology, especially if it gets widespread adoption.  Look out for this colourful fashion accessory coming to a sun lounger near you next summer…

Images via Panasonic, Seedio, Connectify and University of Strathyclyde

Dave Dean

One of the editors of Too Many Adapters, Dave has been a traveller for nearly 15 years and a geek for even longer.

When he is not playing with the latest tech toy or working out how to keep his phone charged for just a few more minutes, he can probably be found sitting in a broken down bus in some obscure corner of the planet.