February 2012

Also interesting in Barcelona: the very elegant Android 4.0 based Huawei MediaPad 10 that the company calls the world's first 10-inch quad-core tablet. The speedy proprietary Huawei K3 1.5GHz chip is complemented by 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution (current iPad 2 1024 x 768), 4G support, dual cameras (8mp and 1.3mp) and svelte design (0.35 inches thick, 1.3 lbs.). Huawei promises global availability in Q2, 2012. [See Huawei press release]

Motion Computing appoints UK Country Manager
Motion Computing announced the appointment of Ian Davies, who previously served as country manager for ruggedized computer manufacturer LXE, as country manager for the United Kingdom. Davies will be responsible for the development of the UK market as Motion continues to expand its presence throughout key verticals such as healthcare, retail, field service and construction.
-- Posted Tuesday, February 28, 2012 by chb

Slashgear demo of Neonode's 3D touch technology
SlashGear ran interesting coverage of the Neonode 3D touch technology, including a video that demonstrates some of the potential and anticipated 3D uses. [See Slashgear's Neonode 3D touch headed to tablets and phones: Hands-on] -- Posted Tuesday, February 28, 2012 by chb

Harris introduces rugged 7-inch Android-based tablet for mission-critical defense and public safety deployments
Harris Corporation introduced the Harris RF-3590 Ruggedized Tablet, an Android-based 2-pound tablet with a 7-inch 1024 x 600 pixel sunlight-readable multi-touch display. According to Harris, the tablet was designed to provide a "smartphone-like experience to military personnel and first responders who require secure real-time information at their fingertips to execute their missions." Designed with numerous sensors, extensive wired and wireless communications technologies (including BT 4.0, GPS and 4G LTE), the RF-3590 certainly looks like a very interesting attempt to meet mission-critical information needs out there in the field. [See description and specs of the Harris RF-3590 rugged tablet] -- Posted Saturday, February 25, 2012 by chb

Synaptics to show its latest capacitive touch technologies in Barcelone
Synaptics announced it will show its latest capacitive touch solutions at the 2012 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. This include these ClearPad Series 2, ClearPad Series 3 sensor-on-lens, in-cell and on-cell solutions, as well as the ClearPad Series 4 integrated Touch and Display Driver IC solution. In addition, the Design Studio 4 ClearPad development tool will be on display along with the ClearPad 7300, the industry's first high-performance, single-ASIC solution for the tablet market. -- Posted Tuesday, February 21, 2012 by chb

Motion Computing announcements
Motion Computing announced that a) East Jefferson General Hospital is utilizing Motion C5v Tablet PCs to help eradicate hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (see full case study), b) Motion and PatientWorks are fully automating the check-in process, helping increase efficiency, accuracy of information and overall patient satisfaction, and c) that Graphium Health selected Motion tablets for the development of AnesthesiaEMR.com, a web-based application that digitizes the existing intraoperative anesthesia form, allowing users to document via a tablet PC, effectively connecting the anesthesiologist to the cloud.
-- Posted Monday, February 20, 2012 by chb

Global tablet shipments reach 15 million Q1 2012
According to Digitimes, vendors will ship 15 million tablets in Q1 of 2012, dropping 30.6% from Q4 2011, but rising 77.6% from Q1 2011. Shipments will consist of 11 million iPads as well as 4 million non-iPad tablets which will decrease by 50.8% on quarter and include 1.5 million Kindle Fires and 300,000 Nook tablets. Digitimes also pointed out that Taiwan-based ODMs will ship 13.51 million tablets for a global share of 90.25% in Q1 of 2012. -- Posted Monday, February 20, 2012 by chb

Benefits of cloud computing and Tablet PCs in food logistics
The ever-proactive folks at MobileDemand posted a new blog article entitled "Benefits of cloud computing and Tablet PCs in food logistics." [Read more] -- Posted Friday, February 17, 2012 by chb

New video: Motion tablets in utilities : Horizon Utilities
Motion Computing released a new video on YouTube documenting Horizon Utilities' (one of the largest municipally-owned electricity distribution companies in Ontario) implementation of Motion Computing tablets to reduce service order processing time, eliminate paper footprint and expedite information exchange - saving time and money. [See YouTube video]
-- Posted Friday, February 17, 2012 by chb

MobileDemand announces partnership with Elecdata
MobileDemand announced a reseller partnership agreement with Electronic Data Solutions, a provider of ruggedized equipment used in field data collection. The main use of the MobileDemand xTablet rugged tablet PC by Elecdata will be for recording and managing data critical for controlling mosquitoes, and Elecdata will also utilize MobileDemand xTablets for forestry, water resources and GPS functions. [See full press release] -- Posted Monday, February 13, 2012 by chb

Xplore turns profitable
When the folks at Xplore Technologies excitedly discussed their plans of creating the ultimate rugged tablet computer with us back in 1996, good thing they didn't know they'd have to wait a full 15 years for their first profitable quarter. But it's finally happened: Xplore announced record revenues of US$8.9 million for Q4 of 2011 (up from US$4.3 million for Q4 of 2010) based on the momentum of their iX104 C5 family of rugged tablets (see our full review), and income of US$284,000. [See press release] -- Posted Monday, February 13, 2012 by chb

Are keyboards dead?
With all the emphasis on tablets, are keyboards dead? The folks at rugged computer maker AMREL just posted a very interesting essay entitled "The Death of Keyboards & the Japanese Experience" -- Posted Thursday, February 2, 2012 by chb