Land Rover has just announced the release of a new rugged mobile phone. While this phone may not change most peoples daily communications in the same way that an iPhone can, this phone appears to be built with the extreme use of adventurers and overlanders in mind. The Land Rover S1 is built built with some impressive specifications. It’s designed to operate in harsh environments, including:

• water submersible up to 1 meter
• Extra long battery life (1800 hours standby, 18 hours talk time)
• Dust and micro particle proof (IP-67 rated)
• Operation in temperature ranges -4º to 141ºF
• Puncture resistant to 1,065 psi of pressure
• 3 year unconditional guarantee

The phone also includes lots of user-friendly features such as GPS, FM radio, 2GB memory slot, 2MP camera, bluetooth capable, and built in Opera web browser. The bad news is that it is only available for the time being in the UK with Go Mobile. Priced at £299.99. (look closely at the wheel in that Defender picture… that’s a second phone strapped to the wheel). Click here for more info, pictures and video.

After almost a year of hints, allusions and consumer drooling over the J8 Sarge, this truly impressive 4×4 is finally available for sale here in the US in the form of the J8 MILSPEC. The J8 is available from American Expedition Vehicles (AEV), designers and manufacturers of a long-line of impressive vehicles including the Jeep Wrangler based Brute, 5.7L HEMI powered Wrangler and many others.

The J8 MILSPEC is built from a CKD kit (complete knock down) of the heavy-duty military-spec Egyptian Jeep Wrangler LWB. The vehicle is assembled as a rolling chassis, then delivered to the customer with the choice of two drivetrain set ups, a 5.7L HEMI V8 or 2.8L diesel engine .

We the opportunity to do a quick photo shoot with this vehicle in Prescott, AZ after the Overland Expo.2009. We took it for a test drive with Scott Brady of Expeditions West and the team at Sagen Media.

The photo journal and video of the J8 Sarge are some of the first of their kind “in the wild” footage of this truly amazing and drool worthy vehicle Click here for the full set of pics.

Land Rover UK Land Rover has just announced the release of a pair of new special edition Land Rover Defenders. The new editions dubbed Fire and Ice are available in Vesuvius Orange and Alaska White, respectively, with Santorini Black body accents. The vehicles feature a higher level of refinement than the standard Defender including Recaro bucket seats, leather trim and color-coded headlamp surrounds which drive the price north of 65k euros. It goes without saying these new vehicles will not be made available in North America. Click here to learn more.

Last month we had the opportunity to head out to Prescott, Arizona for the first annual Overland Expo. This event was a first-of-its-kind symposium focused on the overland and vehicle dependent expedition industry. The event featured hands-on lectures covering a variety of topics from planning and logistics to technology and driver training in 4WD, motorcycles and trailers. Nathan Hindman was on hand to teach “4WD Recovery” and “Web and Media for the Overlander”. We also worked with Sagen Media to provide live event coverage including blogging and daily video coverage.

The Overland Expo had an all-star cast on hand to provide driver training including Tom Collins of Land Rover and G4 Challenge fame, Bill Baker (of Land Rover and the Outdoor Channel), Lois Pryce (Lois on the Loose), Graham Jackson of Overland Training, Scott Brady of Expeditions West.   Click here to view the photo gallery.

Land Rover UK recently won a gold award for best photography at the Creative Circle 2009 Awards for their campaign “Land Rover Makes Work Play”. The photography featured in the 2008 campaign uses a tilt/shift (TS) technique to transform photographic subjects into what appear to be miniature objects. Tilt-Shift lenses are specialized SLR camera lenses which are traditionally used for architectural photography due to their ability to control visual perspective. However, when used properly the adjustment on these lenses can be used to create a shallow depth of field and make an image appear to be of a miniature model.Click here to learn more, and view the full set of ads.

Pangaea Expeditions is in the process of moving over to a new sever this week, and rolling out the new content management system. Please bear with us as we get the new server up and running.  Some links may not work, and some pages may not appear to work. If you link to a page and get an error, try removing the “www” at the beginning of the address. We’re working to resolve this issue.

Jeep has a long reputation for bringing skunkworks vehicles to the annual Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah. This year however, they’ve outdone themselves by bringing six unique vehicles to play on the slickrock. All six vehicles are fully functioning concept rigs built by Mopar® Underground. Among the vehicles seen were an expedition themed Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, the Jeep Wrangler J8 Sarge (first spotted at the 2008 SEMA Show), and Jeep Wrangler “Lower 40″.  Click here to learn more.

Goodyear has announced a major update to its venerable MT-R tire line. The new Goodyear MT-R with Kevlar tire features a new asymmetric tread design with improved self-cleaning characteristics, rim protector and the addition of a kevlar protective layer. Continue reading Industry News: Goodyear Announces New MT-R Tire

Stage Two of Expeditions West’s Ends of the Earth Expedition departs today from Arizona. They will take an EarthRoamer XV-JP, EarthRoamer XV-LT and a Toyota Tacoma on a two month adventure to the end of the Pan-American Highway in southern Panama. Arm-chair expeditioners can journey with them via their blog as they travel through Mexico, across the Yucatan peninsula and into the Mayan region of Central America before ending at the infamous Darien Gap in Panama.

Ends of the Earth Expedition

Big news is coming out of the protective case industry this week. Pelican, manufacturers of the famous Pelican waterproof cases, has acquired Hardigg Industries. While Hardigg is primarily a rotomold case manufacturer, in 2002 they launched the highly acclaimed Storm case line as a competitor to the Pelican case lineup. While both the Pelican and Hardigg brands will continue, it will be interesting to see what happens to the Storm brand. Will Storm cases continue to be made, be discontinued, or will they integrate the two to create a new, best of breed injection molded case? Click here to read the full press release.Click here to read the full press release.