Panasonic SDR-SW21 Waterproof Camera Non-Review: NO NO NO NO NO!

This camera doesn't deserve a review; it deserves a warning. It is one of the most expensive rugged cams, but takes only 640x480 SD video and 0.3MP stills as bad as the worst camphones. Miserable! More »

Documentary Deploys Spy Tech to Trump Japanese Dolphin Killers

If you haven't at least seen the trailer for The Cove, a documentary about Japan's dolphin slaughter ring, it's worth a watch if only to witness some of the most poised documentary footage since Winged Migration. How'd they shoot it? More »

Butterfingered Sea Captains Need These Floating, Loudly Colored Boat Tools

Yar! Where be my pliers and braided cable cutters? Avast! There they be, bobbin' in the surf, next to me floatin' massage chair! More »

The Deep Flight Super Falcon Sub is Actually a Private Airplane for the Sea

I'd never been envious of Tom Perkins' giant sailboat, the Maltese Falcon, until it received a deployable submarine in its belly. The sub, called the Deep Flight Super Falcon, is a 21-foot electric vehicle, bringing aerodynamic principles to the sea. More »

What Do You Think She's Listening To?

I think she's going to get sand stuck in that thing. More »

Oculus Yacht Mimics a Giant, Man-Eating Fish

It's almost cruel of us to post about the Schöpfer Oculus, a 250-foot luxury yacht inspired by an oceanic fish. More »

Searaser Wave Buoy Can Generate, Store Enough Power For 470 Homes

We've mentioned ocean power stations a bit recently, and now here's one with a rather different approach: It can store power for when its needed. Searaser is in prototype form at the moment, and it works by bobbing up and down as waves pass by. An underwater pump uses this motion to push water into a reservoir 160 feet uphill. And there it sits until it's simply released to power a generator. Neat stuff, particularly when the inventors say a full-sized version can power about 470 homes all by itself. [The TImes via Dvice]

Pantech Matrix Dual Sliding Phone Has More Buttons Than Sense

Formed from the same genetic ooze as Pantech's Slide Duo smartphone and rebranded Helio Ocean handset, the Matrix is a mildly frustrating device: spec'd with the best, but dressed in the worst. An HSDPA-enabled handset with GPS, a full QWERTY keyboard in addition to a dialpad, and two cameras should have the software to leverage the hardware, but AT&T and Pantech have chosen to stick with an in-house OS rather than opt for Windows Mobile as they did with the Duo QWERTY smartphone. Still, it doesn't look like a bad feature phone for people who message more than they talk, and it's available today at AT&T stores. [Crave]

Water Invisibility Barrier Protects Against Tsunamis

Research into invisibility cloaks, which work by bending light around 2D objects, could end up protecting offshore rigs and vulnerable coastlines from water. Scientists at the Fresnel Institute in Marseille, France said that established cloaking principles can be applied to ocean waves, and built a 10cm model to show how carefully placed concentric pillars make objects in the center “invisible” to the sea. More »

Voyeur Security Drone is For Spying At Sea, Not at Your Neighbors

This helicopter mini-drone has been developed by the Navy to help it counter water-borne threats, despite its provocatively lurid name. Made by Lite Machines, the battery-powered Voyeur weighs just four pounds, stands 27-inches high and is actually designed to be suicidal. It's meant to hop out of sonobuoy tubes, patrol for threats for a while and then sink itself. Much more economical than helicopters or jets wasting fuel by attempting to ID surface targets (has the Navy's gas bill gone up at the moment too?) Plus it looks waaay more creepily sci-fi. [Danger Room]

Autonomously Schooling Robofish Will Become Cylons of the Sea

One day in the near future, when humanity has killed off all the fish in the sea, we'll be able to replace every single on of them using the research of University of Washington UW assistant professor Kristi Morgansen. That's because Morgansen, with her 10,000-gallon UW test tank, has almost perfected an autonomous robofish, which needs only other robofish and a basic set of commands to operate wirelessly underwater. They'll be Cylons of the Sea. Like tuna, with nukes. More »

Is This the Helio Ocean 2?

Engadget got their hands on a Helio Ocean 2 shot, and it looks quite similar to the sketch we saw on the FCC site a while back. If this is it, it's still rounded and dual-sliding like the first, but supposedly has various upgrades like a 3-megapixel camera, 1GB internal storage, 30FPS video recording and a touch-sensitive D-Pad. We're not sure how we feel about that touch sensitive part—most TS D-Pads we've used have been kinda awful—but we can't wait for the final version. [Engadget Mobile]

Helio Ocean 2 Hits FCC, First Impression is Same-Old Same-Old

The FCC has just leaked this image of Helio's Ocean 2. How do we know that? Well, it's carrying an OZ2 model and OZ was the alternative moniker of the original Helio Ocean. We can't tell much else from the drawing, such as whether the Mark 2 Ocean will have the dual slider of its older brother, but we can see the body design will remain true to the original. However, having been overly impressed by the original, we're sure this baby is going to kick ass whenever it does land. [FCC via Crunch Gear]

Autonomous Submarine Runs Off Ocean Water

Researchers just finished a successful field test with a robotic submarine that can autonomously study the ocean for up to 6 months at a time. While it uses battery reserves for its more fundamental navigation and communication systems, the torpedo-like glider by Webb Research Corporation and WHOi can propel itself using the temperature differences within the ocean. More »

Hands On with the SDR-SW20: Panasonic's First Underwater Camcorder

Camcorder Info has their hands on of the SDR-SW20 up, Panasonic's first attempt at a dive camcorder for those who like recording video in the ocean...as long as that ocean is less than 5 feet deep. (Like its direct competitor, the Sanyo Xacti E1, it is only waterproof to 5 feet.) They found visual quality to be unexceptional, since this camera uses the same image capture setup as Panasonic's low end DVD camcorder. But the easy to spot case and grippy finish earned it some points. If you're considering one of these, I suppose the correct thing to do is wait to see what the second revision brings. [CamcorderInfo]

Helio Ocean Gets Doc Viewer and Exchange 1.2 Support

Helio's Ocean is getting a free file viewer that can view Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF, plain text and html, as well as most major image formats. The Ocean is also gettting Mail for Exchange 1.2 support for calendar sync. Good to see Helio continue to evolve the handset. I hope most of this functionality is built into the next generation Ocean but I hope that it's built on something more robust and open *Android*cough than the Ocean 1's OS. More »

Helio Offers Unlimited Service for $99/Month, Refurbed Ocean for $99

Good news for people thinking of picking up a Helio Ocean: Helio has lowered its rates for its all-in plans, giving you all-you-can-eat service for $99 a month. It's also starting to offer refurbished phones through the Helio Refreshed service, with the Ocean now available refurbed for a mere $99. That's a pretty awesome deal for one of our favorite phones seeing it lists for $295 new. [Helio via Electronista]

AT&T's Dual-Sliding Pantech Duo In the Wild

The Pantech Duo, seen previously as the Helio Ocean, has just been spotted in the wild by a tipster. He takes some sample shots next to his V3xx RAZR, which should give you a good idea of how large it is in comparison. If it's as thick as the Ocean, prepare to be either appalled or flattered when your friends comment on your third testicle. [Update, added side shot] More »

Sizemodo: Helio Fin vs. Ocean vs. iPhone vs. HTC Touch

Here's how the Helio Fin, the thinnest clamshell in the US, stacks up against other equally thin phones. As you can see, it's pretty much the same thickness as the iPhone, which is amazing since the Fin actually flips open. It's slightly thinner than the HTC Touch, and is dwarfed by the bulge-tastic Helio Ocean. More Sizemodo after the jump. More »

Custom Apps Now Possible on Helio Ocean (Opera Mini)

Not only is the iPhone getting its third-party cherry popped, the Helio Ocean is now running third-party apps now as well. The first proof of concept app is Opera Mini, the smallish browser from Opera that lets even lousy phones browse like a star. To get it to work on your Ocean (even though the default Ocean browser is just fine for us), just follow the directions on Heliocity. After you're done, you may want to check to see how you can support them to get even cooler apps on the Ocean. [Heliocity]

ActiveSync and Exchange Support for Helio Ocean

Helio is announcing Activesync support for the Ocean. The phone will then be able to sync calendars, email and contacts from an Exchange server. They're also doing a file viewer app that will view PDF, Word, Powerpoint and Excel docs. $10 a month for Helions with All-In service plans. More »

Helio Adds YouTube Features, New MySpace App

We told you the YouTube on Helio's 3G was free now, but they've gone and added a couple more features to it since Monday. First, Helio users can record videos on their Oceans and upload them to Helio Album. Why's that cool? Because if you configure your Helio Album correctly, it can push those videos to YouTube and Flickr (for pictures, we're assuming). More »