Hasta La Gadget!

Following the release a few months ago of the Casio G’zOne Rock comes the Casio G’zOne Brigade, a more powerful sibling to the Rock, on Verizon Wireless. We first got a look at the device last fall, but Verizon and Casio are finally putting it out there.

The clamshell phone’s most interesting aspect is its ruggedness–the phone is supposedly water, shock, dust, vibration, and solar radiation resistant. The phone is covered in silicon rubber and surrounded by reinforced plastic coated with polyurethane to keep it running even after being dropped for the hundredth time.

The device features a 3.2-megapixel camera with flash and video capture, a document viewer, and up to 16GB of microSD storage. It also includes the basic Verizon software staples: V CAST Music with Rhapsody, V CAST Video on Demand, and VZ Navigator.

The G’zOne Brigade will retail at $249.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a two-year contract. Expect to see a review at PCMag.com once we have the phone and have given it a thorough testing for ruggedness.

If you’ve ever seen a child with his or her own cell phone and wondered, “What age are kids getting their own phones nowadays?,” then here’s the answer. Retrevo.com had an independent panel survey 1,000 people online to ask what they thought was appropriate.

Of the respondents, 28 percent thought a child should have his or her first cell phone between ages 9 and 12, 5 percent though kids under 9 should, and a big 61 percent think parents should wait until the child is 13 or over.

As for computers, 31 percent of respondents thought kids should have their first computer by age 9, 35 percent thought between ages 9 and 12, 30 percent between 13 and 18, and 4 percent only after the child turns 18.

To get the whole story, check out this Retrevo blog post.

Case maker Griffin partnered with t-shirt vendor Threadless in November to offer t-shirt and iPhone case combos for those who like a super-coordinated look. The partnership is back with two more case-and-shirt sets.

Funkalicious, shown here, features a jammin’ spaceman. “Stay fresh in space,” says designer Christopher Golebiowski. The second design, Permafrost Pollution, shows a polar bear in search of an iceberg. “I think that most things there are to be learned can be learned from animals,” says designer Viktor Hachmang.

The cases are thin snap-on shells that sell for $34.99 from Griffin. The t-shirts sell for $18 from Threadless, with hoodies, onesies, and kids’ tees also available.