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]

Zebra Technologies expands location solutions portfolio for industrial markets
Zebra Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: ZBRA), the market leader in rugged mobile computers, barcode scanners and printers enhanced with software and services to enable real-time enterprise visibility, today unveiled the industry's most comprehensive portfolio of business-class location solutions for the manufacturing and transportation and logistics industries. Zebra MotionWorks automatically senses the location of assets and inventory, helping improve employee safety, streamlining production lines, and delivering actionable insights to increase productivity and efficiency. [See Zebra press release] -- Posted Thursday, June 28, 2018

Full review: ARBOR Technology SCP Cube
Uninterruptible power supplies are crucial in today's world. And especially so with sensitive electronic systems. One problem is that the batteries in UPS systems are heavy, pose fire risks, have limited life cycles, and relatively narrow operating temperature ranges. An interesting option are supercapacitor-based systems such as ARBOR Technology's SCP Cube, a 2-in-1 supercapacitor power and environmental monitoring solution offers compelling alternative to battery-based systems in terms of safety, maintenance, longevity. [See full review of the ARBOR Technology SCP Cube] -- Posted Tuesday, June 26, 2018

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

Honeywell's Dolphin CN80: Move to Android. Keep the keys.
Honeywell points out that with the various mobile Windows versions' end-of-life officially announced, it’s time to start thinking about transitioning to Android. To that extent, Honeywell offers the new Dolphin CN80, a thoroughly modern and ultra-rugged Android device with integrated industrial-grade scanning that's ready to tackle the transition to Android. With the help of integrated hardware keypads for those legacy apps still in use. Makes perfect sense. [See description, analysis and specs of the Honeywell Dolphin CN80] -- Posted Monday, June 25, 2018

Zebra honored with multiple awards globally for design, innovation, culture and more
Zebra Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: ZBRA), the market leader in rugged mobile computers, barcode scanners and barcode printers enhanced with software and services to enable real-time enterprise visibility, announces its worldwide recognition for an assortment of achievements. [See Zebra press release] -- Posted Monday, June 25, 2018

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

Trimble Catalyst now supports GLONASS, delivering faster, more accurate and reliable positioning performance
Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) announced that its Trimble® Catalyst software-defined Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver for Android phones and tablets has been updated to support GLONASS. The update demonstrates the advantages of software GNSS for delivering new functionality faster and easier. Access to the GLONASS constellation increases the number of GNSS satellites visible when working in the field. As a result, it improves the ability to maintain lock on enough satellites to keep working when sky visibility is limited or obstructed, such as under tree canopy and in urban high-rise environments. [See Trimble press release] -- Posted Wednesday, June 20, 2018

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

Estone Technology announces 21.5-inch PPC-6721 for large-format Panel PC needs
Estone Technology has announced the release of the PPC-6721, a 21.5" Panel PC in the same efficient, flexible, rugged class as their other 7" and 10" PPC entries. This large format panel PC is perfect for digital signage, video conferencing, and specialty vending or food service applications. The PPC-6712 is available now from Estone Technology. [See Estone Technology press release] -- Posted Wednesday, June 20, 2018

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

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

IDC: 2018 wearables forecast up to 125 million units
According to IDC, the worldwide wearables market is forecast to ship 124.9 million units by the end of 2018, up 8.2% from the prior year. Although this growth is slightly lower than the 10.3% growth experienced in 2017, the market is expected to return to double-digit growth from 2019 until 2022 as smartwatches and other form factors grow in popularity. [See IDC press release] -- Posted Monday, June 18, 2018

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

Getac launches 7th generation of its rugged B300 laptop
Anyone in the market for a traditional, full-size rugged laptop computer rejoice: Getac has just upgraded its long-running, field-proven B300 to state-of-the-art processing and ancillary technology. Available with four different Intel 8th generation ("Coffee Lake") quad-core Core i5 and i7 processors, Getac offers very significant performance and efficiency upgrades to its workhorse rugged laptop that remains compatible with peripherals and mounts of every other B300 ever produced. [See description, analysis and specs of the Getac B300 Gen 7]. -- Posted Wednesday, June 13, 2018

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

Medline increases warehouse productivity with Zebra Technologies
Zebra Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: ZBRA), (NASDAQ: ZBRA), the market leader in rugged mobile computers, barcode scanners and barcode printers enhanced with software and services to enable real-time enterprise visibility, announced Medline has chosen Zebra's TC51 touch computer for its warehouse operations as part of an upgrade for its voice-directed picking solution. Zebra Premier Solution Partner, Strategic Mobility Group, helped Medline select the TC51 to improve warehouse picking, increase employee productivity and future proof its enterprise with an Android-based device. [See Zebra press release] -- Posted Wednesday, June 13, 2018

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

Opticon's new 5-inch Android H-28 handheld computer
Opticon, which has been making barcode scanners for over 40 years, released their new Opticon H-28, a rugged 5-inch Android handheld computer. IP67-sealed, able to handle up to 6-foot drops and -4 to 122F temperatures, the Opticon H-28 comes with two high-res cameras (5 and 16mp), a 2D imager, an optional 18-hour battery, and optional 4G cellular. [See description, analysis and specs of the Opticon H-28] -- Posted Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Make IP67 the minimum standard for rugged handhelds
Few outside of the rugged computing and perhaps a few other sectors know what an "IP" rating means, or the specific significance of "IP67." Those inside those markets, however, cherish the designation for what it is — a degree of protection that brings peace of mind. If an electronic device is "IP67-sealed," that means neither dust nor water will get in. IP67 should be the minimum standard for any industrial handheld that may be used outdoors or near liquids. [Read RuggedPCReview.com EIC Conrad Blickenstorfer's "Make IP67 the minimum standard for rugged handhelds"] -- Posted Tuesday, June 5, 2018

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

All-in-one shipments to grow in 2018
According to DigiTimes, after three difficult years global AIO (all-in-one) shipments are expected to grow in 2018 and take a larger percentage of overall desktop PC shipments. This should also be good news for the vendors of ruggedized industrial and medical AIOs. -- Posted Tuesday, June 5, 2018

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 sponsor. 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