Corsair has lifted the veil on its Flash Survivor USB 2.0 flash drives that claim to be the industry’s toughest USB drive. The Flash Survivor laughs at normal hazards such as water and shock, thanks to its CNC-milled aluminum case. Features include being water resistant up to 200 meters, vibration proof due to the rubber molded collar shielding, and is pre-loaded with a 256-bit AES encryption security application. The Flash Survivor delivers a sustained read/write performance of 34MB/s and 28MB/s respectively, which is nearly 500% faster than standard USB flash drives! The 4GB and 8GB models retail for $59.99 and $129.99 respectively.

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Evangelion fans rejoice, you now have the perfect complement to the NERV iPod, the NERV mouse and (uh, I guess) the Eva bike: the official Evangelion Headset, built by the Japanese company Chara-Ani in a partnership with Audio-Technica.

Absolutely no specs or price, other than that it comes in a tricked-out box. Granted, it’s not like any of those things matter to Eva fans, since they’re going to buy it anyway.– Matt Buchanan

Evangelion (anime) official headset [Akihabara News]

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Filed under: Household

Continuing on in the grand tradition of products designed to let you be a lazy as possible, the “All-Sound-Catch Cubic Pillow” doesn’t look particularly comfortable, but that doesn’t appear to be the point. The cushion lattice allows you to stretch out on the couch without muffling any sound, allowing you use the smallest possible amount of energy to, say, talk on the phone. We’re just worried that the Lazy Wii Guy will get a hold of one and cause, like, a negative energy vortex that destroys the universe.

[Via TokyoMango]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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I feel a little bit guilty. The guys at Camcorderinfo.com, namely David Kender and John Neely, went to extreme measures to benchmark the four HD camcorders fighting for dominance in the very new consumer HD market. They wrote, like, over 10,000 words, and spent hours or possibly even days recording footage of the dude shown at right. And here I come along and blurt out the results in the freaking headline. The Canon HV20 ($1,000 to $1,100) beat out the Sony HDR-HC7 ($1,060 to $1,170), the Panasonic HDC-SD1 ($1,070 to $1,160), and the newcomer, JVC’s Everio GZ-HD7 ($1,520 to $1,700). It didn’t win hands-down, exactly, but in most cases it handily nudged out the competition.

Do you want to know how?

I’m not going to try to translate every little nuance of the showdown. All you really need to know going in, if you don’t already, is that the Sony and the Canon record to tape, and use HDV MPEG-2 compression. The Panasonic relies strictly on AVCHD, an MPEG-4 based option, and stores video only on SD cards. The Everio records to at 60GB hard drive with both AVCHD and “a new flavor of MPEG-2″.

[The Canon HV20] shares an advantage over the Panasonic HDC-SD1 and JVC GZ-HD7 because it uses tried and true HDV MPEG-2 compression, and our tests show that HDV remains the best consumer HD format. Both the Canon and Sony HDR-HC7—the other HDV camcorder in this shootout—scored higher than the others in our video performance tests. In the lab, the Canon and Sony raced to a virtual dead heat, both displaying sharper images with less noise than the Panasonic and JVC.

The crispness of the HV20’s image was most notable in close-up shots of our model, where we could literally count every hair on our model’s face. [Remember him?] The Sony was visibly less crisp (though still quite sharp), followed by the Panasonic. The JVC GZ-HD7 trailed the pack, with the lowest tested video resolution, and the softest images of the field. The Canon also turned in a stellar low light score, thanks to a 24p mode that more than doubles the light gathering ability of its imager. In low light, it beat out the others in the same order as above. The 24p capability in and of itself is a great extra feature on the HV20, yet another reason to consider it.

In the manual control arena, Sony edged forward with a wide range of options, but fell short of a win because it did not have a “focus assist option” unlike its more expensive predecessors. “Panasonic’s SD1 has an assist that is good, but not good enough to compensate for the weakness of the joystick as a focus tool. Only Canon and JVC get the focus interface/focus assist equation right, and the HD7 gets extra points for its terrific focus ring and highly effective peaking function.”

The bottom line went something like this:

The Sony HDR-HC7 was most feature-packed but absence of a focus assist feature was a liability. Cam Control multifunction dial was not as easy to use as its predecessors Cam Control rings.

The Panasonic HDC-SD1 is too specialized, though it is good for close quarters shooting, situations that demand silent operation, or a rock-solid optical image stabilizer. There’s no headphone jack and no accessory shoe. It also records AVCHD video which does not yet pose a threat to HDV.

The JVC GZ-HD7 had great handling with nice prosumer traits like a focus ring and dedicated buttons for image control. lack of a headphone jack or any means of monitoring and adjusting audio levels. The biggest disappointment with the HD7, however, was video performance: again, it doesn’t stand up to the quality of HDV video.

The Canon HV20 had cheap-feeling construction and an awful zoom lever, but delivered best bang for the buck.

From the sound of it, the boys are still looking for that perfect camcorder:

We’d love to see a camcorder that really brings it all together: the handling of the HD7, the functionality of the HC7, the OIS and compactness of the SD1, and the performance of the HV20. Until that happens, smart buyers would be advised to consider the strengths and weaknesses of all of these camcorders, and choose the one that is the best overall match for their shooting style and goals.

If you want to consider all of that, as recommended, you had better check out the full story. I will say that the layout over at Camcorderinfo.com is a bit Byzantine for my taste (okay, so really smack in the middle of downtown Constantinople Byzantine), but you will never find better info about camcorders. And you get to see more of cool sunglasses guy. Respect. – Wilson RothmanThe Great HD Shoot-Out – Canon HV20, Sony HDR-HC7, Panasonic HDC-SD1, JVC GZ-HD7 [Camcorderinfo.com]

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If you just can’t seem to get enough Lego, now you can pack your lunch in one, available in your choice of pink, brown or blue. Unfortunately, that Lego cheeseburger isn’t included in the box, and there’s no word whether the lunchboxes interlock with each other.

Get yourself some Lego furniture to go along with this lunch carrier, and then all you need to do is build a Lego house and drive a Lego car, and the entire Lego illusion will be complete. – Charlie White

Product Page [Lego Store]

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Yes, I still play with action figures. I spent a bit of time today playing with the Optimus Prime toy that I got today to give you this video review of how easy it is to unfurl into robot-ness, and who would win in a fight: New Optimus Prime vs. Old Optimus Prime vs. R2D2 vs. iPod vs. Moto Q. The results may scare you.

Well, maybe not scare you, but you’ll have a new found respect for Autobots and the ease of Ikea DIY. – Brian Lam

Hands-on With the New Optimus Prime Transformer [Gizmodo]

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There’s not much confirmation of this yet, but a source is telling us that TiVo is planning on releasing a Series 3-like HD recorder some time this fall. Whether this will have dual-tuners like the Series 3 is still unknown, but we’re sure it will be gimped in some way in order to maintain interest in the higher-priced model.

Combine this with a vague quote we found from TiVo’s CEO back in March, and we’ve possibly got something brewing. The quote: “We will be highly focused this year on launching a lower-priced, mass appeal High Definition product.” – Jason Chen

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If you’re at all interested in the PlayStation Eye, the EyeToy for the PS3 generation, take a gander at this interview with its father, Richard Marks. Along with releasing four—yes, four—albums since 2000, Richard’s added many new features to PlayStation’s camera.

Among the issues seen as most important were light sensitivity, achieved by using a sensor with more area per pixel, instead of more megapixel count. The 60 fps minimum requirement, for better tracking resolution, and the four-array microphone. Definitely a cool read if you’re planning on using the Eye to record your own Singstar videos and show them off online. – Jason Chen

Geek Out: The Playstation Eye is Nearly Upon Us. Dr. Richard Marks Takes Us Behind the Scenes of its Birth. [Newsweek]

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We’ve heard a lot of complaining about the paucity of editing tools for the nascent AVCHD video format, and now Ulead VideoStudio 11 Plus comes along with that capability and a lot more. With AVCHD originator Panasonic’s latest solid-state camcorders using the format, and Sony rocking more even cameras using it just the other day, the ability to edit that footage is long overdue.

Hey, that format’s fo’ reals, and is here to stay, right? Yep. Well, what else can Ulead VideoStudio 11 do?

Also along for the ride with this latest version is Windows Vista compatibility, an MPEG Optimizer that helps you get the most out of video compression, and Ulead’s wizard-based interface that makes it easy to accomplish complex tasks. And the Plus version also lets you author HD DVDs if you have such a burner.

We’ve used previous versions of Ulead VideoStudio, and found the software to be a good value. It’s a whole lot more stable than its Pinnacle Studio rival, which was also recently updated. VideoStudio is priced right at $70 for the standard version (no AVCHD editing capability) and $100 for the Plus version, and both ship sometime in May. – Charlie White

Product Page [Ulead]

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Filed under: Ask Engadget, HDTV, Home Entertainment

The week of Ask Engadget is still going strong. We’re committing a whole seven days to taking your questions — which you can hit up ask at engadget dawt com with — and putting the best ones up here for discussing by your fellow readers in the comments. Saturday we got specific with “No Trab” in an audio recording quest, now we’re going to open up a whole can of worms with a question from Dan, who’s looking for a TV:

“With the enormous variety of HDTVs out there – the various technologies (LCD, Plasma, DLP, Laser, OLED), the various specifications (HD formats, native resolution, contrast ratio), various inputs (HDMI, DVI, VGA, Component), and various tuners (NTSC, ATSC, QAM, Cable Card) – how does one go about choosing ‘the best’ HDTV? Are there any tips / tricks that go into shopping for an HDTV? What are the absolute do’s / don’ts in shopping, purchasing, and using an HDTV?”

Naturally, there’s plenty of info for Dan to gorge himself on over at Engadget HD, but does anyone have a favorite resource / game plan / reality check / super-oh-my-gosh-HDTV-model to help the guy out with?

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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