Timex Expedition WS4

$200; Timex.com

There’s a lot of information on the face of Timex’s new adventure-oriented timepiece. Aside from the normal stuff, like an alarm and, well, a clock, there’s also a compass, thermometer, barometer and even an altimeter. It’ll come in six different colors when it’s released in May, but if you’re doing a lot of back-country skiing, it’s probably best you don’t get white.

Panasonic DMC-TS1S

$TBA; Panasonic.com

A pocket can be a brutal place, but

Panasonic’s new ultra-rugged cameras have yet to meet a set of keys they can’t take. Despite its delicate 12.1-megapixel sensor, HD video-capture mode and 4.6x Leica lens, this cam is dustproof, waterproof (up to three meters) and can survive a drop of almost five feet. That should make you feel better about handing it to your kids – unless they’re really tall.

Samsung Memoir

$299 with two-year contract; Samsung.com

Most cellphones can take a picture that looks good enough for your Facebook page, but Samsung’s newest handset has its sights set on your Flickr account. It does all the typical smartphone stuff, with T-Mobile voice and data service, GPS and a QWERTY keyboard, but it’s also a full-featured eight-megapixel camera with a flash. Skip the digital zoom, though. It’s only there to pad the spec sheet and make pictures look worse.

ECCI Trackstar 6000

$989 to $1,428; ECCI6000.com

Sure, it costs about as much as a used Hyundai, but clamping this high-end wheel controller to a desk and firing up a copy of a racing game is the closest some will come to piloting a

quarter-of-a-million-dollar sports car. The Trackstar 6000 gives you fluid-damped steering, a pair of genuine-feeling paddle shifters (that’s brakes and gas to Sunday drivers) and an excuse to sit at your desk going “Vroom vroom!” all night.