June 2018

Durabook Americas, Inc., the North American subsidiary of Twinhead International Corporation, announced today the release of a new case study outlining the unique and flexible relationship AE Tools and Durabook Americas have established, resulting in the marriage of AE Tools' OEM-level diagnostics solution and Durabook's SA14 semi-rugged laptop. The combination of these two organizations, both known in their markets for quality, innovation, and commitment to their customers, means automotive aftermarket service centers have a world-class diagnostic solution they can rely on for years to come. The new case study can be downloaded at: http://bit.ly/Durabook-AETools [See Durabook Americas press release]

Juniper Systems: Merging tradition with technology for natural woodland burial grounds
Woodland burial parks have become increasingly popular in the UK. As people are becoming aware of the possibility of being laid to rest closer to nature, more than 250 natural burial parks have been created. These sites strive to minimize the environmental impact of burial, and plots are often unmarked. While that fosters the mission of a more natural environment, it presents managerial challenges. One such location, Gunton Woodland Burial Park, solved its challenges with the devices of Juniper Systems and mapping solutions of GIS-provider Pear Technology. [See Merging tradition with technology for natural woodland burial grounds] -- Posted Tuesday, June 26, 2018 by chb

Mobile 3D camera systems for rugged tablets announced by MobileDemand
MobileDemand is announcing an industry-first broad offering of 3D camera systems for several of its rugged tablets and rugged cases. Powered by the Intel RealSense Depth Camera D415 with 3D depth sensing, the rugged tablet with 3D camera will allow customers to enhance their capability and productivity. Logistics functions can benefit by automatic dimensioning of pallets and boxes, while airlines can measure cargo and luggage automatically utilizing a mobile rugged tablet. Industrial applications can include 3D scanning and modeling of assets and facilities. -- Posted Thursday, June 21, 2018 by chb

Affordable, quick NVMe-based storage
Solid state disks (SSDs) have pretty much replaced hard disks in mobile technology, and especially in tablets. In rugged systems, the advantages of SSDs is huge. Much smaller, much tougher, much faster, and increasingly not much more expensive. So we see plenty of SATA SSDs in the products we test. What we don't see a lot of is NVMe-based SSDs that use a PCIe interface, usually in M.2 card form. Compared to SATA SSDs, PCIe-based SSDs are much faster, with 5-6 times the peak throughput. We'd love to see more rugged device manufacturers take advantage of that. Our friends at HotHardWare.com just did another informative review of NVMe-based storage that points out the advantages. [See Affordable, quick NVMe-based storage] -- Posted Wednesday, June 20, 2018 by chb

Nestlé Wagner digitises production with Getac's fully rugged computing solutions
Getac today announced that Nestlé Wagner GmbH, has selected the Getac A140 fully rugged tablet to digitize workflows and optimize productivity at its headquarters in Nonnweiler, Germany. Nestlé Wagner GmbH produces around 350 million frozen food products annually, making it one of the largest manufacturers of frozen pizzas in Europe. Using the Getac A140, the company has achieved wide-ranging digitization of its production processes, significantly increasing efficiency and allowing greater flexibility in day-to-day operations. [See Getac press release] -- Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2018 by chb

Full review: Xplore XSLATE L10 Rugged Tablet Platform
With the new XSLATE L10 platform Xplore Technologies evolved their latest rugged tablet into a comprehensive tablet ecosystem covering a wide range of performance and functionality demands. Available as a pure tablet (XSLATE L10), a version with hard handle and an optional integrated barcode reader (XPAD L10), and a 2-in-1 laptop replacement (XBOOK L10), the versatile platform is available with powerful quad-core 8th generation Intel Core processors as well as an entry-level Pentium processor. [See full review of the Xplore XSLATE L10] -- Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2018 by chb

Android-powered 8-inch and 10-inch rugged tablets announced by MobileDemand
MobileDemand continues to lead the way in the rugged tablet industry and has recently been announced a series of new rugged tablets and rugged cases. The company is adding two rugged tablets with Android into their extensive portfolio of rugged tablets and cases. The first of the two tablets with Android will be available for customers by the end of July 2018. Today's announcement follows the recent announcements of the xTablet T1270, a high-performance 12.2-inch rugged tablet, and the rugged case for the iPad Pro 10.5" [See MobileDemand press release] -- Posted Thursday, June 14, 2018 by chb

Universal Stylus Initiative elects Board of Directors and adds Members to support adoption of Open Active Stylus Standard
The Universal Stylus Initiative (USI) elected eight member companies to its 2018 Board of Directors including representatives from Google, Hanvon, Intel, Lenovo, Solomon-Systech, Synaptics, Wacom and Waltop. "USI has a strong Board of Directors, an active and growing membership and the first and only open, non-proprietary active stylus specification," said Peter Mueller, chairman, USI. "Indications are that there will be released products based on the USI 1.0 Specification available this year. The industry adoption of USI will provide consumers with more stylus options, new capabilities and great performance across multiple classes of devices." [See USI press release] -- Posted Wednesday, June 13, 2018 by chb

Review: MobileDemand's Rugged case for iPad
Lots of people would love to use an iPad in the field or on the job, but the iPad is fragile and cannot easily be mounted in vehicles or the workplace. MobileDemand's new rugged iPad case changes all that. Building on its experience with rugged cases for Surface tablets, the new iPad case, initially available for the 10.5-inch iPad Pro, can be mounted almost anywhere with RAM Mount and other mounting hardware, and it passed the MIL-STD-810G drop test from an amazing eight feet! [See our review and analysis of the MobileDemand rugged case for iPad] -- Posted Monday, June 11, 2018 by chb

The Google Chrome vs Android situation
SlashGear ran an article provocatively entitled "Tablets are dead, long live Chrome tablets!" in which the author argued that with Google's somewhat inexplicable lack of interest in Android on tablets, it'll only be a matter of time until Android is done on tablets and that "Chrome OS and Chromebooks are being groomed to do what Android tablets have not been able to in terms of productivity and usability." That may or may not be so, but it's indeed puzzling how Google essentially ignores Android on tablets. To this day, every Android rev acts as if it's on a phone and all device info is "About phone." So will Android tablets indeed become Chrome tablets? [See Tablets are dead, long live Chrome tablets!] -- Posted Tuesday, June 5, 2018 by chb

Estone Technology joins RuggedPCReview as Industry Sponsor
Estone Technology, a trusted source of rugged tablet PCs, panel PCs, and embedded industrial computers for companies all over the world, has joined RuggedPCReview.com as an industry sponsor. Estone Technology rugged tablet and panel PCs can be found in industry, commercial applications, healthcare, and specialized computing needs everywhere. As an OEM and ODM, Estone Technology supplies its partners with rugged technology that meet the needs of their industries and employees. Thank you, Estone Technology, for supporting RuggedPCReview.com's work in providing the latest news on the rugged computing market and our detailed reviews of rugged computing products and technology. -- Posted Monday, June 4, 2018 by chb

DT Research rejoins RuggedPCReview as Industry Sponsor
DT Research, an early Mobile Tablet pioneer and leading designer and manufacturer of purpose-built computing systems for vertical markets, has rejoined RuggedPCReview.com as an industry sponsors. DT Research has one of the most comprehensive lineups of rugged and industrial-grade tablets, mobile POS tablets,digital signage systems and medical computing solutions. Thank you, DT Research, for supporting RuggedPCReview.com's work in providing the latest news on the rugged computing market and our detailed reviews of rugged computing products and technology. -- Posted Monday, June 4, 2018 by chb