June 2010

Cisco unveiled the Android-based Cisco Cius tablet, calling it a "virtual desktop integration" device. The Cius has a 7-inch touch display, weighs 1.15 pounds, has a front-mounted 720p HD video camera, a rear-facing 5mp camera, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G, and runs 8 hours on a charge. The Cius can be used in conjunction with an alarmingly retro-looking base station with a big phone handset, and is said to become generally available Q1 of 2011. [See Cisco's Cius page]

Full review: Motion's new J3500 tablet with capacitive dual touch
Motion Computing has introduced the rugged Motion J3500 tablet, a sleek, slender, full-featured, full-power tablet computer featuring an approximately 40% overall performance increase compared to the predecessor model courtesy of an ultra low voltage Intel Core i7 processor that incurs no penalty in battery life. The new machine also offers Motion's new capacitive dual touch, automatically combining capacitive touch and a Wacom digitizer. Add Gobi2000, a high res camera, more memory and larger disks, and you have a very impressive tablet. [Read full review of the Motion Computing J3500] -- Posted Tuesday, June 22, 2010 by chb

Black Diamond delivers rugged handheld dual-iris capture biometrics device
Black Diamond Advanced Technology has designed and delivered to Northrop Grumman a ruggedized, identity-management system for secure and efficient multi-modal biometrics collection in the field. Called the BioTRAC, the advanced multi-biometric, mobile handheld computer features IriTech's new embedded-processor dual-iris camera system, which is capable of outdoor, independent dual-iris image capture in less than 5 seconds on a rugged platform. -- Posted Monday, June 14, 2010 by chb

Wall Street Journal interviews Steve Jobs on the iPad
The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article in the form of a Q&A session between the Journal's Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, and Steve Jobs. In it, Jobs talks about his approach to tablets, how it relates to Microsoft's, and how the tablet actually began before the iPhone. [Read article at the WSJ] -- Posted Monday, June 7, 2010 by chb

2010 Computex Taiwan: Tablet deja-vue all over again
In late 2001 I walked around Computex in Taipei and there were dozens of tablets. Later, I had meetings with all the major Taiwanese OEMs, and they all showed me tablets. That, of course, was all fueled by Microsoft's 2001/2002 Tablet PC initiative that turned out less successful than it could have been. Now, at Computex 2010, it's deja-vue all over again. Tablets galore, from everyone. Then as now, most are hedge-your-bets concepts and nowhere near ready for prime time. That's because no one has a crystal ball. The Apple iPad is a big hit. Else, no one knows if the challenge will come from Microsoft, from the Android camp, or not at all. -- Posted Monday, June 7, 2010 by chb

Major upgrade to Getac's compact rugged E100 tablet
In 2008, Getac was ahead of the time when it introduced the small and compact E100 rugged tablet that weighed just three pounds. In our full review we lauded the E100's functionality, expansion potential, long battery life, and superb outdoor-viewable display. However, time moves on, and Getac has now given the E100 a major technology upgrade with a switch to a 1.6GHz Atom processor, the addition of an RS232 port, an option for dual smart card readers for special applications and requirements, embedded microphone, 812.11a/g/n wireless LAN, Gigabit LAN and Bluetooth 2.0 as standard features, with optional 3G Network connectivity. Ruggedness as been boosted to IP65 sealing, the battery is hot-swappable, and there is a comprehensive 5-year warranty. -- Posted Tuesday, June 1, 2010 by chb