Archive


Category: Editor

  • Replacing the Atom N2600

    This morning I received an email from German touchscreen device developer and manufacturer faytech. The company prides itself in its ability to design and engineer high-quality products in Germany, then have them manufactured cost-efficiently in Asia, while providing local service. This email, though, wasn’t about their latest touchscreen products. It was about the processors they use in their touchscreen panels and PCs. Specifically, it was about replacing the ubiquitous Intel Atom N2600 with the newer Intel Celeron N2807 and J1900. Faytech seemed especially taken with the N2807, which the company has chosen as the new standard for their resistive touchscreen […]

  • Xplore Technologies acquires Motion — How it came about

    Today I listened to the full Investor Call broadcast Xplore held on April 16 about its acquisition of Motion Computing, and a lot of things are clearer now (listen to it here). Motion didn’t exactly choose to be acquired, and this was not one of these situations where a big company comes along and makes a financial offer just too sweet to resist. What happened was that Motion found itself in a financial bind caused by third party issues over which Motion had little to no influence over. Specifically, the supplier of the displays used in their Motion C5 and […]

  • Xplore acquires Motion — what it means

    On April 16, 2015, Xplore Technologies and Motion Computing announced that Xplore was acquiring Motion. This was not a total surprise as both companies are in the rugged tablet computer market, both are pioneers in tablets, and both are located within ten miles from each other in Austin, Texas. And yet, the announcement came as a surprise to me. When I had interviewed Motion CEO Peter Poulin in February of this year, Poulin had ended with saying “Motion is in a good position. According to VDC, Motion is the #2 player in rugged tablets, more than twice as large as […]

  • Conversation with Peter Poulin, CEO Motion Computing

    On February 5th I had a chance to speak with Peter Poulin, who was appointed Motion Computing’s CEO on December 11, 2014. An industry veteran with more than 25 years of sales, marketing and general management experience in the public and private sectors, the company’s press release said Poulin’s goal will be to capitalize on the company’s deep mobility expertise and aggressive investments in the design and development of ruggedized tablet platforms and integrated mobility solutions to expand its reach within target vertical markets. Over the years, I’ve been covering Motion’s vertical market tablet lineup in some detail, going back […]

  • Storage wars

    Anyone who’s ever watched the “Storage Wars” reality TV series on the A&E Network knows that with storage, you never know what you’re going to get. That’s true for stuff people stow away in storage units, and it’s also increasingly true with the kind of storage in our electronic devices. There was a time when RAM was RAM and disk was disk, and for the most part the only rule was that more was better. But that was in the era when you could count the total number of available Intel processors on the fingers of a hand or two […]

  • Intrinsically safe ecom Tab-Ex: another rugged tablet based on Samsung hardware

    This morning I saw in the news that at the IFA Berlin show, ecom instruments launched what the press release called the “world’s first Zone 1/Div. 1 tablet computer”. New tablets are launched all the time, but I quickly realized that this was relevant for two reasons: First, the Zone 1/Div. 1 designation means it’s a tablet for use in hazardous locations. Zone 1, in the IEC/ATEX classification system that handles intrinsic safety issues, means the devices can safely be used in areas where there are flammable gasses are likely present. In essence, that requires that there’s no chance that […]

  • GoPro 4 — the GoPro phenomenon, how it came about, and why it matters

    On September 29, 2014, GoPro announced the GoPro Hero 4 and also a new basic GoPro camera. This is relevant for anyone dealing with ruggedized computing gear and using technology in the field for a number of reasons. But first, what exactly is GoPro and why do their products matter? GoPro makes tiny little action cameras that, somehow, captured the public’s imagination and are now found seemingly everywhere. You could almost say they’ve become a cultural phenomenon. GoPros are mounted on skydiver and motorcycle helmets, on race cars, on skateboards, on boats, on planes and drones, and seemingly on everything […]

  • The unpredictable nature of screen sizes

    It’s a mad, mad, mad world as far as the screen size of mobile devices goes. Witness… For smartphones, 4.7 inches or so now seems the least customers will accept, and 5.5 inches or larger is better. When Apple introduced its iPhone 6 (4.7 inch) and iPhone 6+ (5.5 inch), the demand was such that both Apple’s and AT&T’s websites couldn’t keep up. The AT&T website, in particular, was so messed up from all the pre-orders of giant phones that almost a week after I tried to place my own order, I still have no clue whether the order went […]

  • Why OneNote for Android with handwriting is important

    A few days ago, the Office 365 and OneNote blogs at Microsoft announced OneNote for Android or the addition of handwriting and inking support for OneNote for Android, it wasn’t quite clear (see here). While Microsoft OneNote isn’t nearly as popular as Word and Excel, it’s available as part of Microsoft Office, and supposedly over a billion people use Office. So there may be tens or even hundreds of million who use OneNote. What is OneNote? It’s sort of a free form doodle pad that can accommodate all sorts of data, from screen clippings to text, to audio, annotations, revisions, […]

  • Android on the desktop!

    Though Android dominates the smartphone market and has a very strong position in tablets, until now Google’s OS platform was not available for desktops and conventional notebooks (the Chromebook with its limited offline functionality doesn’t really count). That has now changed with the new HP SlateBook, a full-function, quad-core Tegra 4-powered notebook with a 14-inch 1920 x 1080 pixel 10-point multi-touch screen, and running Android 4.3. The Slatebook weighs 3.7 pounds, offers up to 9 hours of battery life from its 32 Watt-Hour battery, has USB 3.0 and HDMI ports, 16GB of eMMC storage, a full-size keyboard, and starts at […]

  • Advances in capacitive touch and passive capacitive pens

    RuggedPCReview.com just finished reviewing the Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1, and we ended up calling it a “milestone product” because of its novel and unique passive capacitive stylus that can greatly increase productivity because it allows for far greater precision when using the Windows desktop than touch alone or earlier capacitive pens. This article describes the past and current situation of touch in rugged tablet computers, and why the technology employed by Panasonic in the FZ-M1 is so relevant. Until the iPhone and then iPad popularized capacitive touch, tablets either used active or passive digitizers. Active digitizers used a special pen, with […]

  • Advances in capacitive touch and passive capacitive pens

    RuggedPCReview.com just finished reviewing the Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1, and we ended up calling it a “milestone product” because of its novel and unique passive capacitive stylus that can greatly increase productivity because it allows for far greater precision when using the Windows desktop than touch alone or earlier capacitive pens. This article describes the past and current situation of touch in rugged tablet computers, and why the technology employed by Panasonic in the FZ-M1 is so relevant. Until the iPhone and then iPad popularized capacitive touch, tablets either used active or passive digitizers. Active digitizers used a special pen, with […]

  • Reporting from the road — sort of

    As editors of RuggedPCReview.com, we’re probably better equipped than most to report anytime, anywhere, and under any conditions. After all, we not only have access to the latest and greatest mobile computing and communications gear, but much of that gear is designed to go just about anywhere. The reality is a bit different, as we learned the hard way on a stretch of several weeks on the road and high sea. Testing underwater still and video camera equipment around some of the West Indies islands in the Caribbean, we wished for two things. One was that cell service were truly […]

  • Unpacking the Xplore iX104 XC6

    So we get this box from Xplore Technologies, and it’s pretty heavy. And it’s a bit grimy. We figured we better open it outside. This is what happened: Yes, Xplore sent us the brand-spaking new iX104 XC6 to make a point. Sod: It can handle grime and dirt. Sunglasses: You can use it in bright sunshine. Measuring tape: You can drop it from seven feet. Ice cube tray: it’s freeze-proof. Inflatable pool ring: it can handle full immersion. It also has a Haswell processor under the hood. And dual 128GB solid state disks in a RAID 0 arrangement. So equipped […]

  • Durabook R8300 — ghosts of GoBooks past

    There are things in life where the outrage and pain just never seems to go away. For me that includes the infamous game 6 in the 2002 basketball playoffs where the NBA stole the championship from my Sacramento Kings, the forced demise of the Newton, a relationship issue or two, and then there is the way General Dynamics took over that intrepid small town Itronix computer company up in Spokane, Washington, just to then ruin it and shut it down. There. Hundreds of people lost their job in Spokane when the corporate bigwigs at General Dynamics moved operations into some […]

  • Getac’s latest rugged convertible replaces the V8 with a turbo-4

    I love cars and often use automotive analogies to describe situations. One came to mind recently as we evaluated a particularly interesting new rugged mobile computer. So here goes: With gas mileage becoming ever more important in cars and trucks, the automotive industry has been pulling all stops to come up with more fuel efficient vehicles. One way to boost fuel efficiency is to reduce the weight of the vehicle. Another is to use smaller turbocharged motors to burn less fuel while providing the same performance. That came to mind when we did a full hands-on test with the new […]

  • Samsung Galaxy S5 — raising the bar

    On February 24, 2014, Samsung showed their new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S5. It’s relevant because it’ll sell by the many millions, and it’ll be the primary opponent to Apple’s current 5s and whatever Apple comes up with next. But the Galaxy S5 is also relevant because the technology it includes and provides will become the new norm. It’ll be what people expect in a handheld. And that affects the rugged industrial and vertical markets, because what the Galaxy S5 (and soon many other consumer smartphones) offers is the benchmark, and people won’t accept considerably less on the job. The […]

  • Android parlor trick

    Just a brief entry here…. Up to Android “Jelly Bean,” i.e. versions 4.1.x through versions 4.3.x, one of the cool things about Android was the (relative) ease with which one could do screen grabs. Those, of course, are essential to product reviewers. And so it was good to know that all one had to do was connect the Android device to a PC or Mac, fire up the Android SDK, click Applications > Development > USB debugging on, and grab those screens. That’s what I wanted to do when I recently upgraded an Android tablet from “Ice Cream Sandwich” to […]

  • More 4k video contemplations

    All of a sudden, everyone is talking about 4k video. Also known as Ultra-HD video, four times the resolution of the 1920 x 1080 pixel 1080p standard, 4k was everywhere at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Now, obviously, 4k video isn’t the most important thing on rugged mobile computer manufacturers’ minds, but 4k video is nonetheless a sign of changing times. And with some consumer smartphones already offering full 1080p resolution on their small screens, and consumer tablets going well beyond that, it’s only a matter of time until rugged and industrial market customers, too, will demand much […]

  • Does your Pentium have an Atom engine?

    There was a time in the very distant computing past where, when buying a computer, the sole decision you needed to make was whether to use the Intel 386/33 or save a few bucks and get the slightly slower 386/25. Today, if you use Intel’s handy ARK app that lists every product available from Intel, there’s a staggering 1,874 different processors listed. That includes processors targeted at desktop, server, mobile and embedded computers, but even if you leave out servers and desktops, there’s still the choice of 949 processors for mobile and embedded applications. Not all of them are state-of-the-art, […]

  • Michael Dell’s keynote at Dell World 2013: reaching for the cloud

    One big problem with being a public company is that every three months it’s imperative not to disappoint analysts and investors. Dell won’t have to worry about that anymore because it returned to being a private company. That means Dell can now take the longer look, pursue the bigger picture, and no longer suffer from the infliction of short term thinking, as Michael Dell so eloquently put it in his keynote address at the 2013 Dell World conference in Austin, Texas. And that was the core of Michael Dell’s message, that as a private company Dell now has the freedom […]

  • Thoughts about display resolutions

    The resolution of computer displays is an interesting thing. There are now handhelds with the same number of pixels as large flatscreen TVs, Apple claims its “retina” displays are so sharp that the human eye can no longer see individual pixels, and the very term “high definition” is in the process of being redefined. Let’s see what happened with display resolution and where things are headed, both in handhelds and in larger systems, and what 4k2k is all about. Color monitors more or less started with the original IBM PC’s 320 x 240 pixel resolution. In 1984, the monochrome Hercules […]

  • State of Outdoor-Viewable Displays Late 2013

    One of the big differentiating factors in ruggedized mobile computers is how well the display is suited for work outdoors in bright daylight and in direct sunlight. This can make the difference between a device being useful and productivity-enhancing, or frustrating and nearly useless. Why is this such a big issue? Aren’t today’s displays so good that the only thing that matters is how large a display you want, and perhaps what resolution it should have? For indoor use that’s true, but outdoors it’s an entirely different story. The outdoor viewability problem Overall, LCD displays have come a very long […]

  • Two annoying trends

    Today I am going to rant a bit about two trends that simply make no sense to me. The first is “skeuromorphism.” It’s the new fashion word-du-jour, what with Apple and Microsoft demonising it as if it were some sort of evil plague. As is, Wiki defines skeuromorph as “a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues from structures that were necessary in the original.” That includes, of course, many elements of graphical user interfaces. The desktop metaphor, after all, has been at the very core of every graphical user interface for the past 30 years. But now that very […]

  • Rugged Android device comparison table, and contemplations over Android in the rugged market

    On October 18, 2013, RuggedPCReview.com launched a rugged Android device comparison table. The table allows interested parties to view full specifications of all rugged handhelds and rugged tablets we’re aware of. Given the absolutely massive number of Android devices activated worldwide — about a billion — it’s amazing how few rugged Android devices are available. As we recently reported, both Honeywell/Intermec and Motorola Solutions have launched initiatives to make rugged Android devices available to industrial and enterprise markets, and other manufacturers are offering ruggedized Android-based handhelds and tablets as well. But there aren’t many actual devices, probably less than a […]

  • October 1, 2013 — the day Moto Solutions and Honeywell/Intermec became serious about Android

    This has been quite the day for Android in the rugged handheld space. Intermec, now part of Honeywell Scanning & Mobility, announced the CN51 rugged mobile computer. It is an updated version of Intermec’s successful CN50, but has a larger, higher resolution screen (4.0-inch, 800 x 480) that now uses resistive multi-touch, updated WiFi, WAN, Bluetooth, camera, and scanners, and it’s now based on the dual-core 1.5GHz TI OMAP 4 processor, which means Intermec can offer the CN51 either with Microsoft Windows Embedded Handheld 6.5 OR with Android 4.1. And Motorola Solutions, the same day, announced that three of its […]

  • Optimizing the legacy Windows interface for touch and tablets

    Tablet computers have been around for a quarter of a century, but it wasn’t until the iPad’s introduction that the tablet form factor took off. That’s in part because the technology wasn’t quite ready for tablets, and, in a much larger part, because Windows just didn’t work well with tablets. Tablet historians will remember that both the first generation of tablets (circa 1992) and the second one (circa 2001) primarily used Wacom active digitizer pens. Those pens were (and are) precise enough to operate the Windows user interface, especially when aided by special Windows utilities and accommodations (Windows for Pen […]

  • Logic Supply’s logical approach to engineering their own systems

    When it comes to rugged computing gear, most people interested in this industry know the big players that dominate the market and get all the media coverage. But that’s not everything there is. Unbeknownst to many outside of the circle of customers and prospects, a surprising number of smaller companies are designing and manufacturing rugged computing systems of one type or another. At times we come across them by chance. Other times they find us. And so it was with Logic Supply, located in South Burlington, a small town in the northwestern part of Vermont. They call themselves “a leading […]

  • Why the JTG Daugherty NASCAR racing team chose rugged Dells

    The Christmas tree began its count-down. Yellow, yellow, yellow, GREEN! For an anxious moment, the racing slicks of my supercharged Acura fought for traction, then bit. 8,000, 8,500, 8,800 rpm, shift. Shift. Shift. Shift, and the 1/4-mile at Sacramento Raceway was over. The car slowed and I reached over to stop data logging on the laptop securely sitting on its mount, just having recorded tens of thousands of data points as the car shot down the track. The laptop was a Dell Latitude ATG 630D, connected via USB to the Hondata ECU under the dash of the car. Minutes later […]

  • Rugged notebooks: challenges and opportunities

    I’ve been working on setting up our new rugged notebook comparison tool over the past few days. So far, the tool, where users can compare the full specs of up to three rugged notebooks side-by-side and also quickly link to our analysis of the machines, has far fewer entries than our comparison tools for rugged handhelds and rugged tablets. As I asked myself why there were only relatively few products out there, I thought about the overall rugged notebook situation. A little while ago I came across a news brief by DigiTimes, the Taipei-based tech news service that’s always interesting […]

  • How Motorola Solutions made two mobile computers condensation- and freezer-proof

    Good phone conversation today with the PR folks from Motorola Solutions. The occasion was the introduction of two interesting new products, the Omni XT15f industrial handheld, and the Psion VH10f vehicle-mount computer. The key here is the “f” in both of the names. It stands for “freezer” and that’s what the two new devices are all about. Big deal? Actually, yes. At least for workers who use their computers in and around freezers. That includes storage of perishable foods, the strictly temperature-controlled environments where medications are stored, and numerous other places for goods that need to be or stay frozen. […]

  • Handheld: Pursuit of a vision

    I had a chance yesterday to meet over dinner with Sofia Löfblad, Marketing Director at Handheld Group AB, and Amy Urban who is the Director of Marketing at Handheld US. I hadn’t seen them since I presented at the Handheld Business Partner Conference in Stockholm three years ago, and it was a pleasure catching up in person. The Handheld Group (not to be confused with Hand Held Products, which is now part of Honeywell) is a remarkable rugged mobile computing success story. Having its origins as a distributor of vertical market mobile computers from the likes of Husky, TDS and […]

  • Itronix RIP

    Last week, as I came to a stop at a red light, a police car stopped in the lane next to me. What immediately caught my eye was an expertly mounted rugged notebook computer, angled towards the driver. It was a GD-Itronix rugged notebook, probably a GD6000 or GD8200, with an elegant matte-silver powder-coated insert on top of the magnesium alloy computer case that prominently featured the “General Dynamics” brand name. The officer perused the screen, then looked up, and briefly our eyes met. He had no idea how well I knew that computer in his car, and the one […]

  • Xplore adds Common Access Card reader-equipped rugged tablet for military and government

    This morning, March 27, 2013, Xplore Technologies introduced a new version of their ultra-rugged tablet computer, the iX104C5-M2. In essence, this is a specialized model for military and government personnel that require additional hardware security on top of the various security hardware, software and firmware measures already inherent in modern computing technology. What the new M2 model adds is an integrated common access card (CAC) reader. With the reader, in order to get access to critical data, a U.S. government issued ISO 7816 smart card must be inserted. Why is the ability to read such cards and to provide data […]

  • When the fire chief wants iPads instead of rugged gear

    The other day I was engaged in a conversation at a party. Turns out my conservation partner was the fire chief of an affluent community of about 120,000. We talked about our respective jobs and soon found we had something incommon: rugged computing equipment. They use Panasonic Toughbooks, but the fire chief said something that has been on my mind for a while now. He said they liked the Toughbooks just fine, but he considered them much too expensive and they’d just buy iPads instead. He said he doesn’t care if the iPads break, they’ll just replace them with new […]

  • Not your father’s Celeron

    In my last blog article I wrote about the needless demise of netbooks, and how that demise was due more to the fact that people loved the rock-bottom price of netbooks but then found them too small and lacking in performance, so they asked for more size and performance. The industry complied with larger, more powerful netbooks, but that meant they cost more and netbooks weren’t netbooks anymore. So people stopped buying them. I also wrote how, in my opinion, Intel’s inexpensive Atom processors both made the netbook by making the low price possible, but then contributed to the demise […]

  • The needless demise of the netbook

    Three or so years ago, netbooks sold by the millions. Today, they’re gone, replaced by tablets and larger, more powerful notebooks. What happened? I mean, it’s not as if tens of millions of people wanted a netbook a few years ago, and today no one wants one. What’s not to like about a small and handy notebook computer that runs full Windows and costs a whole lot less than even inexpensive larger notebooks? So much less that the purchase price of a netbook was close to making it an impulse buy. The problem was, of course, that while the price […]

  • On the Microsoft front …

    Well, on the Microsoft side of things, a couple of areas are becoming a bit clearer. Not much, but a bit. At the National Retail Federation (NRF) Annual Convention & Expo in New York, Microsoft issued a press release entitled “Microsoft Delivers Windows Embedded 8 Handheld for Enterprise Handheld Devices.” That title is a bit misleading as those handhelds, prototypes of which were shown by Motorola Solutions, are not available yet, and Microsoft won’t even release the Windows Embedded 8 Handheld SDK until later this year. However, after having stranded the vertical and industrial market with the by now very […]

  • Big changes at General Dynamics Itronix

    Eagle-eyed RuggedPCReview readers may have noticed something missing from the front page of our site: the General Dynamics Itronix logo in the site sponsor column. Yes, for the first time since the launch of RuggedPCReview, Itronix is not among our sponsors anymore. That’s sad as Itronix was our first sponsor, and prior to that we had covered all those rugged Itronix GoBooks and other rugged mobile devices in Pen Computing Magazine since the mid-1990s. What happened? We’re not sure, but an email exchange with Doug Petteway, General Dynamics C4 Systems director of product management and marketing yielded that the company […]

  • Surface with Windows 8 Pro pricing contemplations — an opportunity for traditional vendors of rugged tablets?

    On November 29, 2012, Microsoft revealed, on its Official Microsoft Blog (see here), pricing for its Surface with Windows 8 Pro tablets. The 64GB version will cost US$899 and the 128GB version runs US$999. That includes a pen but neither the touch or the type cover. They cost extra. So what do we make of that? Based on my experience with the Surface with Windows RT tablet, I have no doubt that the hardware will be excellent. With a weight of two pounds and a thickness of just over half an inch, the Pro tablet is a bit heavier and […]

  • Windows RT: how suitable is it for vertical markets? (Part II)

    I had planned a quick follow-up on my first impressions of the Microsoft Surface RT tablet and Windows RT in general. But now it’s almost a month later, so why the hesitation? It’s not because of Microsoft’s hardware. I am as impressed with the Surface RT tablet as I was when I first took it out of its box. It’s a truly terrific device. If after a month of use about the only gripe is that you still can’t easily find the on-off button, you know the hardware itself is good. So no issues there. It never gets hot or […]

  • Windows RT: how suitable is it for vertical markets? (Part I)

    Though as of this writing, October 27, 2012, Windows 8 and RT were just officially unveiled a couple of days ago, reams have already been written on Windows 8 and to a much lesser extent, Windows RT. We got our Surface RT tablet on October 26 with the intent on reporting on the Surface hardware and RT software in some detail. However, our emphasis will be on their suitability for vertical and industrial markets. So what about Windows RT? The general word on it has been that it’s a special version of Windows 8 for devices with ARM processors. A […]

  • Windows Surface tablets will be here shortly

    Now this should be interesting. On October 16, 2012, Microsoft announced more detail on its upcoming Windows Surface tablets. And though labeled as a “pre-order” with limited amounts, customers could actually order the Windows Surface RT tablet of their choice from the Surface page on Microsoft’s online store. For delivery on or before October 26th, i.e. within ten days. So the pricing of the Microsoft Windows RT tablets is no longer a secret. The basic 32GB tablet without a keyboard touch cover is US$499, the touch cover adds a hundred bucks, and the 64GB version with touch cover is US$699. […]

  • Motorola Solutions’ acquisition of Psion: Good, bad, or ugly?

    Well, it’s done. Psion is now part of Motorola Solutions. On October 12th, 2012, Ron Caines and Frederic Bismuth of Psion and Mark Moon of Motorola Solutions sent out the following note to their customers: Dear Psion Customer: We are writing to let you know that today Motorola Solutions completed the acquisition of Psion PLC. Motorola Solutions is a leading provider of mission-critical communication systems and a pioneer in enterprise mobility solutions. The company has always been focused first and foremost on how to best serve its customers and chose to acquire Psion because of its complementary enterprise mobile computing […]

  • Ten things we’d like from PR folks

    In the olden days, getting news meant going to trade shows or being sent press releases, via the US Postal service. Not anymore. At any given day, I wade through several hundred press releases from numerous sources. That’s time consuming. I can’t blame marketing and PR folks for trying to get the word out because it’s all about getting noticed and making the sale. But not all PR activities are as productive as they should and could be. So below are some of my pet peeves. 1. Announcing products as if they were new when, in fact, they are not […]

  • “The Windows Marketplace for Mobile for windows mobile 6.x devices is closing”

    “The Windows Marketplace for Mobile for windows mobile 6.x devices is closing” — that was the title of a March 8, 2012 entry at answers.microsoft.com. In it, it said among other things, “Beginning May 9, 2012, the Windows Mobile 6.x Marketplace service will no longer be available. Starting on this date, you will no longer be able to browse, buy or download applications directly on your Windows Mobile 6.x phone using the Windows Mobile 6.x Marketplace application and service.” Signed The Windows Phone Team (with “Ready for a new phone? Explore the latest Windows Phones — now with over 60,000 […]

  • Performing under pressure

    As I am writing this, the London Olympic games are coming to an end. What two weeks of intense competition proved again is that winning means meticulous preparation, at times a bit of luck, and always the ability to perform under pressure. The latter made me think because rugged computers are all about the ability of a piece of equipment to perform under pressure. Pressure as in heat, cold, dust, rain, sun, and whatever else may keep a system from running at peak efficiency. Ruggedness testing is designed to determine if systems hold up under pressure, but are the tests […]

  • Microsoft’s entry into tablet hardware a result of partner failure?

    Ever since Microsoft provided a glimpse at a couple of “Surface” tablet hardware prototypes, some in the media are describing Microsoft’s apparent entry into the hardware market as a result of Microsoft hardware partner failure. As if, somehow, the combined might of the world’s computer manufacturers failed to come up with tablet hardware good enough to do Windows justice. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The reason why Windows-based tablets never were a major commercial success lies squarely in Microsoft’s corner, and not in that of the hardware partners. For stating the very obvious: Windows has never been a […]

  • Windows Phone 8…

    Sometimes I wish I could be a fly on the wall to listen in when Microsoft’s mobile folks make their decisions. I mean, a few years ago they found themselves in a position where, against all odds, their erstwhile omnipotent foe Palm collapsed and left Windows Mobile as the heir apparent. So did Microsoft take advantage of that? Nope. Instead, they failed to improve their mobile OS in any meaningful way, all the while confusing customers by endlessly renaming the thing. And handing leadership over to the phone companies. Then Apple comes along and shows the world how smartphones are […]

  • Android finally getting traction in vertical and industrial markets?

    Just when Windows 8 is looming ever larger as perhaps a credible competitor to iOS and the iPad, we’re finally starting to see some Android action in vertical market tablets and handhelds. It’s timid, exploratory action still, but nonetheless a sign that the industry may finally break out of the stunned disbelief as Apple was first selling millions and then tens of millions of iPads. What has changed? Perhaps it’s the fact that it’s becoming increasingly harder to argue against Android as a serious platform now that Google’s OS dominates the smartphone market. Though it seems more fragmented than ever, […]

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