Motorola has just outed another rugged Android-powered phone in the form of the Motorola Defy. How rugged is it? Well, it sports 3.7-inches of Gorilla Glass for one thing.

There’s also its IP67 compliance, which means it is good in up to a meter of water for up to half an hour. That’s pretty tough. The Defy will launch across Europe in Q4. Some other specs include an 800MHz processor, Android 2.1, Swype keyboard and a 5-megapixel camera with flash.

Well, it took four whole months after this thing was shown at CTIA, but Motorola’s i1 finally has a date with Sprint. The first Android-equipped smartphone with Nextel Direct Connect goes nationwide on July 25th through telesales and websites. Other Sprint channels will see it on August 8th.

This phone has military grade ruggedness and push-to-talk capabilities. Sadly, Android 1.5 is getting old but it might be better than what you have now. It will cost you $149.99 with a two-year contract.

Fans of tough and rugged phones will be glad to hear that AT&T has announced that the rugged push-to-talk Samsung Rugby II will be shipping soon. The phone will support AT&T’s HSPA 7.2Mbps network, A-GPS and voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation using AT&T’s Navigator service. It’s tough enough for Mr. T, but even your wimpy hands can use it.

Some other features of the Rugby II include a 2-megapixel camera with video recording capabilities, Bluetooth and microSD card slot. The phone will be shipping on June 6th for $130 with a two-year contract after a $50 mail-in rebate.

Folks that work in harsh environment like fire fighters, field workers and oil field workers need a device that is strong enough to survive life in the field. Drop your iPhone and the thing is probably dead. Rugged phones however, can withstand drops and tumbles.

AT&T has added a new phone to its line for users needing a rugged handset called the Airo Wireless A25is. The device meets MIL-SPEC 810-F/G. It can survive repeated drops form as high as 50-inches, up to 95% humidity, and harsh vibrations for up to 1000 miles.

Bodum is actually calling their upcoming Bistro line of appliances “rugged,” wrapped in rubber and dotted with grippy outsides, they look like they can stand up to an abusive housewife. Unlike me, who gets beat regularly and cowers in the corner.

The line comes in a wide array of colors and they reportedly feel “Spongy but durable”. I’m not sure there’s a market for such rugged appliances that look more like power tools, but women are sure to dig those colors.

Having been approved by the FCC in August last year and having first appeared in photos in November, the Casio Brigade C741 appears to be already available in various Verizon retail stores, despite the fact that Verizon didn’t announce it yet.

Some users have already managed to buy the Casio Brigade C741, and it looks like the phone can also be ordered via TeleSales. Apparently the Brigade C741 will be going for $249 after a $50 mail-in rebate, and will come with the customary contract. It should start to be sold nationwide on March 14th.

Pentax finally has a release date for its rugged Optio W90 in the UK. This rugged digital camera features 12.1 megapixels which is all good up six meters in depth. It will also handle drops of up to 1.2 meters.

Aside from that, the W90 is also dustproof and can survive in freezing temperatures below 10 degrees Celsius better than you can. The Optio W90 also features 720p. It should appear in the UK at the end of March for £269.99.

Are you the type who doesn’t trust your flash drive with your sensitive data? Who could blame you? Should that data fall into the wrong hands it could be disastrous. No one should know about your secret collection of My Little Pony pictures.

These new Corsair USB drives will help prevent such things. The Padlock 2 features OS-agnostic password protection via the keypad, plus 256-bit encryption. 8GB units are available now, priced at £46 in the UK and $59 in the US.

The Pharos 565 is the first rugged PDA in the world to be powered on the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system. We know, not many of you use PDAs these days what with smartphones being able to handle all kinds of tasks. This one is obviously for a select group of users.

Features include a 3.5″ QVGA touchscreen display, a full QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, GPS support, 512MB ROM, 256MB RAM, Office Mobile and a 624MHz Marvell PXA310 processor.

GammaTech finally has another rugged laptop model. GammaTech’s new Durabook D14 E-Series is the first fully rugged laptop to be equipped with 1TB of storage, making it rugged and spacious. But aside from that, the laptop is very similar to the previous D14RM model.

It features a 14.1-inch screen, a Core 2 Duo processor “greater than 2GHz,” up to 8GB of RAM, and either RAID-0 or RAID-1 configuration options for dual 500GB hard drives. Nothing on a price yet, but you can plan on paying over $1,500.

Samsung has announced a new line of stylish and rugged hard drives at CES 2010. Judging by the image above, stylish means that they match your grandmother’s couch. These will come in 3 different physical sizes, 1.8”, 2.5” and 3.5”.

The drive is rugged enough to survive drops and also survive spills from liquids. The G2 portable will be boast hard drive sizes from 250GB to 640GB, while the G3 station will come in 1-2TB capacities. The G3 will even switch itself off when the computer is off and it’s not in use.

If you are in the market for a new pair of rugged headphones that you can use out in the rain and take with you on camping trips etc, you might want to check out the Ryobi RP4530.

These water resistant headphones will deliver up to 24-hours of continuous use per charge and use Electronic Noise Suppression and Voice Amplification Technology that eliminates background noise for crystal clear sound.

ioSafe, a technology producer of disaster proof storage hardware, launched the ioSafe Solo in January and this week we took the opportunity to test one out to see how well it would hold up. The ioSafe Solo is a rugged external drive designed to keep your stuff safe in the event of a disaster such as a fire, flood or the building literally falling around it.

The ioSafe is not shockproof however and is not designed to be dropped from great distances or thrown around. It is however built to withstand intense heat (up to 1550 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes), complete submersion (up to 10 feet for 3 days!) and is encased in a rugged enclosure making it like the Sherman tank of external drives.

The latest offering from Motorola is this Windows Mobile-powered smartphone, the MC9500. This one is for tough industrial situations where you need a rugged Phone. The MC9500 also sports an accelerometer so you can tip the device toward a delivery customer and have the screen flip around for signing and has five swappable keypads.

Charging requires it to hook up into a modular, “form factor agnostic” charging system with LED indicators on the 4800 mAh batteries that show the current level of juice in the batteries. Some other features include a 3-megapixel camera, EV-DO and HSPA modules, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and a 3.7? 640 x 480 display.

Verbatim announced today that it is shipping its new TUFF-CLIP USB drives, which are available in 4GB and 8GB sizes. These are aimed at those who brave the outdoors. The drives are outfitted with an integrated carabiner clip that allow them to conveniently clip to your backpack, belt loop or key chain.

The 4GB version is only available in turquoise, while the 8GB model is available in black only. Both TUFF-CLIPs have a password-protected folder to keep data secure on Windows systems, along with a freely accessible folder.