June 2013

DAP Technologies completes global operations expansion
DAP Technologies announced it is realigning operations with the goal to enhance service, support and customer integration needs. With the realignment, the Canadian office in Quebec City (shown in picture) will provide service and support; the UK office is the hub for all European service, support and integration; the Georgia sales office emphasizes on warehouse and logistics markets; the Taiwan office on supply chain efficiency; and the corporate head office in Arizona in integration customization for clients, service, support, and distribution. Also interesting, while in the past DAP concentrated on handhelds, the press release noted that DAP Technologies is now "helping companies make the transition from handhelds to robust, Windows-based rugged tablets and vehicle mount technologies." DAP Technologies President David Molesworth said, "this expansion enhances our ability to bring advanced rugged tablet and vehicle mount technologies to the market and provide customers with the support and customization they require. It’s become less about the product and more about integration and delivering an entire solution for the customer." -- Posted Wednesday, June 26, 2013 by chb

Motion Computing video on total cost of ownership in enterprise mobility technology
Motion Computing has made available an hour-long presentation by VDC Research's David Krebs entitled "Total Cost of Ownership Enterprise Grade Mobility Trends in EMEA." David explains, supported by a body of VDC research and survey results, how in today's economy, businesses are demanding that IT and infrastructure investments deliver tangible benefits and incur predictable costs. With all the choices available and the increased interest in low cost consumer grade tablets for professional use, decision makers need to understand the implications of non-purpose built tablet PC solutions. [See video on YouTube] -- Posted Tuesday, June 25, 2013 by chb

Xpore adds LTE-equipped version to its iX104C5 tablet lineup
Xplore Technologies announced it is now offering a special version of its utlra-rugged iX104C5 DMSR (dual mode sunlight readable) tablet. The new DMSR LTE model includes an integrated Verizon 4G LTE HSPA+EVDO (Rev A) module for maximum data transfer speed. -- Posted Thursday, June 20, 2013 by chb

TabletKiosk's Sahara Slate PC i500 line of enterprise tablets gets major tech upgrade and performance boost
TabletKiosk announced that it has added two new models to its flagship line of 12.1" Tablet PCs. The new enterprise-grade Sahara Slate PC i535 and Sahara Slate PC i575 are powered by 3rd generation Intel Celeron and Core i7 vPro processors, offering improved performance, greatly enhanced battery life, and a number of hardware embedded security features. The new models also benefit from other major tech upgrades and now have front and rear-facing cameras, up to 16GB of RAM, up to 1TB hard drives or up to 480GB of SSD, two USB 3.0 ports, DisplayPort, as well as Bluetooth 4.0 and a true native RS232 serial port for legacy device support. [See TabletKiosk press release and description, analysis and full specifications of the TabletPC i535/i575] -- Posted Wednesday, June 19, 2013 by chb

Xplore secures rugged tablet order from major US telecommunications provider
Xplore Technologies announced it has received POs for more than $1 million of its iX104C5 DMSR ultra-rugged tablets for deployment from a major U.S. telecommunications provider. The tablets will be deployed in the provider's construction and engineering divisions for use in various field service environments. These orders are a continuation of a previously established relationship. -- Posted Wednesday, June 19, 2013 by chb

Getac Z710 rugged tablet now in ATEX config
Getac announced its Z710 Android-powered rugged tablet received ATEX (Explosive Atmosphere) certification for explosive environments. According to the company, this makes the Z710 the world's first rugged Android tablet to offer the optional ATEX Zone II/22 certification for use in hazardous and explosive environments such as the petrochemical, pharmaceutical and oil and gas industries, where ATEX compliance is often mandatory when carrying out inspection and maintenance work and emergency notification. [See Getac press release and our review of the Getac Z710] -- Posted Wednesday, June 12, 2013 by chb

TabletKiosk and SoftKinetic collaborate on first integrated 3D interface for the enterprise tablet market
SoftKinetic, which provides 3D vision and gesture recognition solutions, together with TabletKiosk, a manufacturer of enterprise-grade tablet PCs, announced they have joined forces to bring embedded 3D camera technology to the portable Tablet PC market. A conceptual prototype integrates the SoftKinetic DepthSense 3D camera with TabletKiosk's Sahara Slate PC i500 platform to provide 3D facial and gesture recognition, 3D mapping, image capture and virtual reality for an enhanced user experience. [See TabletKiosk press release] -- Posted Tuesday, June 11, 2013 by chb

Intel announces next-gen "Bay Trail" Atom platform for tablets and ultra-mobile devices
Intel also announced that its next-generation 22nm Intel Atom processor-based SoC for tablets based on the Silvermont microarchitecture will include quad core processing, Gen 7 graphics, support for DX11, full HD, Intel Burst Technology 2.0, hardware-based security features, 2x CPU improvement and 3x graphics improvement, and support for both Windows and Android. [See Intel press release] -- Posted Wednesday, June 5, 2013 by chb

Intel Atom inside new Samsung Galaxy Tabe 3 10.1-inch tablet
Intel scored a strategically important design win by having Samsung use an Intel Atom chip in its new GALAXY Tab 3 10.1-inch Android tablet. The device will be powered by the "Clover Trail" Intel Atom Z2560, a dual-core design running at 1.6GHz. While Intel optimistically proclaims that its Atom chips "are designed and optimized for a lightning-fast applications experience, responsive Web browsing, stunning 3-D graphics, advanced camera capabilities and vivid HD video with energy efficiency for outstanding battery life," it should be interesting to see how Intel-powered tablets fare in the Android space that's traditionally been dominated by a variety of ARM processors. [See Samsung press release and Intel Atom Z2520, 2560 and 2580 brochure] -- Posted Wednesday, June 5, 2013 by chb