December 2016

By and large, performance matters in computers as much as it does in vehicles and a lot of other machinery and items we use in our daily lives. Performance, of course, isn't everything. Unless you're a race car driver and need so and so much performance to be competitive, the extra cost of the highest possible performance is a luxury rather than a necessity. What it boils down to is getting as much performance as is needed. That said, we love performance and so we're listing the "speed demons" among the rugged tablets we've tested over the past several years. Gold, Silver and Bronze galore. [See Speed Demon Top 10: Rugged Tablets]

ARBOR launches 8-inch Tablet POS with dual-OS platform
ARBOR Technology announced the availability of the ARBOR Gladius G0830, a versatile point-of-sales system solution combining the advantage of both mobile and fixed POS. Designed for retail, warehousing and hospitality, inventory management, payment processing, customer data gathering and staff tracking, the Gladius G0830 Gladius has a special that dock that provides MSR, chipcard, and smart card reading, as well as additional wired connectivity. The G0830 tablet can also used with an optional pistol grip that more than doubles battery capacity. The G0830 was selected for the Taiwan Excellence Award 2017, Computex Best Choice Award 2016 in the smart retail category in Taipei, and also won the Mobility for Business Award 2016 for the best terminal innovation in Paris. [See ARBOR media release and RuggedPCReview's assessment of the Gladius G0830] -- Posted Tuesday, December 27, 2016 by chb

Enterprise Mobility and Explosion Protection: Keep Your Eyes Open When Shopping for Hardware!
With the ongoing quest for cost-effective productivity enhancing measures, there's an increase in demand for intrinsically safe mobile computing gear, the safe operation of which requires far more than mere certification documentation. Improper deployment can have life-threatening consequences, and ultimately the responsibility for proper use is with the user. [Read "Enterprise Mobility and Explosion Protection: Keep Your Eyes Open When Shopping for Hardware!" by Johannes Buhn of BARTEC] -- Posted Wednesday, December 14, 2016 by chb

Xplore receives follow-up rugged tablet order
Xplore Technologies announced that one of the nation’s top 10 electric power and natural gas utility companies has placed a $1.7 million follow-on order for XSLATE B10 fully rugged tablets, bringing the customer's total investment in Xplore solutions to more than $2.7 million in 2016. [See Xplore media release] -- Posted Monday, December 12, 2016 by chb