If ruggedness is your primary consideration when buying a camera then by all means, look no further than Olympus' latest lineup of Stylus (AKA, Mju outside the US) shooters. The $300 Stylus 790SW is the most like, totally extreme of the bunch dude, offering waterproofing up to 3-meters and shockproofiness from a height of 5 feet. Oh, and it also just happens to include a 7.1 megapixel sensor, 3x non-protruding zoom lens, 2.5-inch LCD, a 30fps VGA video mode, and ISO sensitivity up to 1600. Olympus also rolled out a trio of less rugged, "weatherproof" cameras: the 12 megapixel Stylus 1200 ($350); the 8 megapixel, image-stabilized Stylus 830 ($350), and 8 megapixel Stylus 820 ($300) with 5x zoom. All loose on the mean retail streets starting in September and October.

Read -- 790 SW
Read -- 1200, 830, 820

With the big boys like Apple, SanDisk and iriver putting so much TLC into this particular market segment of mini flash DAPs, it can be bit hard to even get noticed, much less succeed. All the same, Transcend manages to squeeze a little bit of innovative functionality into its new T.sonic 820 player to keep it from being relegated to the flash heap of history. There's not a whole lot interesting about the 12mm thickness (about twice as thick as the nano), or the 2GB (white) and 4GB (black) capacities, but the inclusion of a A-B track section repeat, along with track speed control makes this a boon to guitarist trying to learn a lead part without going nutso. Otherwise, the 1.5-inch 128 x 128 display, WMA-DRM10 support and recording capabilities are nice but par for the course, and 15 hours of battery is nothing special for a flash player anymore. No word on price or availability.

[Via MP3 Player Guide]