bouldering

Climbing walls have come a long way since phys ed lecturer Don Robinson glued real rocks to a hallway wall at Leeds University in 1964. Just down the street from my office, walls made of plywood reinforced with steel frames sport dozens of different types of holds and graded "problems" -- perfect for staying in shape during the rainy winter months in Portland.

But not everyone lives within walking distance of an indoor climbing hub, so Munich-based design studio Lunar Europe thought up a pretty sleek art piece that doubles as a climbing wall and syncs up with an iPhone app.… Read more

I had a long fascination with high-end audio before I owned any of the good stuff. I suppose the same allure applies to exotic cars; millions read reviews of cars they never drive, and watch Food Network shows about food they'll never taste. Folks are interested in excellence, but compared to $200,000 cars or celebrity chefs' handiwork high-end audio is more accessible and practical. Two products covered in today's blog -- used high-end Grado headphones and the Oracle Delphi turntable -- sometimes sell for less than $1,000 on eBay. That's still expensive, but more within … Read more

BOULDER, Colo.--When President Obama said that he wanted to put 1 million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015, it sounded good to many people worried about the effects of fossil fuels.

But when you consider that there are currently about 230 million vehicles on the road in the United States alone, you realize that Obama's goal amounts to less than one half of 1 percent--hardly what's going to move the U.S. into a post-gas future.

Still, to the people at Project Get Ready, an initiative of the Rocky Mountain Institute, anything that can jump-start … Read more

BOULDER, Colo.--The age of peak oil is coming, and some say we're already there. So when the effects of rapidly rising oil prices start to seriously affect the world, will your community be ready?

To Michael Brownlee, a driving force behind a nonprofit here currently known as Transition Boulder County, there is no time to lose in answering that question.

Transition Boulder County is the local outcrop of a growing international movement built around the concept of Transition, or getting ready for a post-peak oil world, and the concern that the effects of such an environment could wreak … Read more

If you read our review of the Verizon G'zOne Boulder, you'll notice that one of our complaints is the poor call quality, especially with the speakerphone.

Well, not only has Verizon rolled out a software update to improve that (the software update was released a few months ago), it looks like Casio is starting to ship a new version of the Boulder with a front speaker, presumably to improve the speakerphone quality that much more. We haven't heard any official announcements about it, and we don't see any images of it on the Verizon site, but … Read more

Few times do I get a chance to dunk a cell phone in water, throw it around on the floor, and generally torture it like a 10-year-old brat. Indeed, a part of me delighted when I received the G'zOne Boulder in the mail, knowing that I would get paid to kick around a cell phone as much as I wanted.

As you might have guessed, the Verizon G'zOne Boulder is one tough handset, military-certified to resist water, dust, shock, vibration, and other environmental elements. However, unlike other rugged cell phones, the Boulder has a sporty racecar look that … Read more

Verizon has finally made official its rugged newcomer, the Casio G'zOne Boulder.

The latest successor to the Type-V and Type-S phones, the Boulder is smaller and slimmer, plus it has a 1.3-megapixel camera, EV-DO Rev. A-based push-to-talk, VZ Navigator support, a microSD card slot, and a few more goodies.

If you want the Boulder without a camera, that's an option too, but you'll still have to pay the same price. The Boulder is available in both orange and black/silver, though the one sans-camera is only available in black/silver. It's currently available for $129.… Read more

If you're a fan of the rugged G'zOne phones (the Type-V was the original while the Type-S is its smaller cousin), you'll be happy to know that Verizon Wireless is coming out with yet another G'zOne rugged phone, and it's called the Boulder. Engadget says that the measurements of this thing are 2.02 inches by 3.94 inches by 0.91 inch, which makes it slightly slimmer than the Type-S (which is around 1.1 inches deep). Expected features include a 1.3-megapixel camera and EV-DO Rev. A-based push-to-talk, similar to Sprint's QChat … Read more