News Week of September 7, 2008

GETAC Upgrades Popular V100 Notebook/Tablet PC with Industry-Leading 1200 NITS Display

Company Combines Screen Brightness and Anti-Reflective Technology to Enable Daylight Viewability Six Times Better* Than Competitive Solutions

GETAC Inc., a leading innovator and manufacturer of rugged computers that meet the demands of field-based applications, is upgrading its popular V100 Notebook/Tablet PC with GETAC’s exclusive Sunlight Readable Technology (SRT) to offer a super-bright screen display operating at 1200 NITS without sacrificing the notebook’s battery life. By simply opening and swiveling its display, the V100 quickly converts from a notebook computer to a tablet PC. These, and other features, make the GETAC V100 the ideal choice for users with “mission critical” applications in full sunlight including search and rescue teams, military personnel, law enforcement officers, utility workers and others to avoid errors, diminished productivity, physical danger, and eyestrain.

In addition to its bright, easy-to-read screen display, the GETAC V100 is fully compliant with MIL-STD 810F and IP54 standards for ruggedness including the ability to withstand heavy rain, airborne dust and debris. For further protection, the hybrid notebook/tablet PC has a removable hard drive that is shielded by a special mechanism to prevent damage during operation; anti vibration compounds, which serve as a shock absorber during transport; and an anti-shock housing to further protect it if bumped or dropped.

“Our 1200 NITS display made its debut in GETAC’s B300 fully rugged notebook and has been extremely popular with our customers,” said Jim Rimay, president, GETAC. “By offering a display with superior brightness and the highest effective contrast ratio in its class, the V100 rugged convertible computer is an amazing breakthrough for rugged mobile users in every field.”

Weighing a mere 4.8 pounds, the GETAC V100 features an ultra-quiet fan-less design and includes a wide range of standard and optional features, including a 10.4 inch screen, power-saving Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 1.2GHz processor, up to 2 GB of DRAM, 250GB shock-mounted removable hard drive, Integrated Bluetooth, reversible waterproof camera, and a full menu of wireless networking capabilities to ensure users always stay connected and in control. The notebook / tablet PC is housed in a water-resistant design built on a rugged magnesium alloy frame. The V100 can be customized by offering a variety of advanced upgrade options including 12-inch LCD screen, optional Integrated GPS, and 3G and standard 802.11a/b/g wireless functionality.

Sunlight Readable Technology

There are two conventional approaches to increasing viewability on a display: raising screen brightness, and decreasing reflectivity (typically with anti-reflective coatings).

The largest problem with increasing screen brightness is that a brighter fluorescent backlight array consumes dramatically more power, cutting battery life in portable devices. Likewise, anti-reflective coatings tend to be expensive and can add as much as 3-to-4 times to the cost of a touchscreen. Moreover, both methods are significantly limited in their ability to improve display appearance in bright sunlight on their own.

GETAC’s solution combines proprietary technologies for both screen brightness and anti-reflectivity to overcome these limitations. GETAC created a display backlight based on light‐emitting diode (LED) sources to replace the cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) that are commonly used. The less diffused light from an LED enables a power‐efficient, super‐bright 1,200 NITS display, without sacrificing battery life or resorting to undesirable power‐management schemes. Combined with an active anti-reflective process based on circular polarization to block reflective light, its Sunlight Readable Technology enables viewability that is more than six times better* than competing solutions and creates a mercury-free solution.

The results of exhaustive testing clearly indicate that GETAC has broken new ground with its Sunlight Readable Technology, enabling a quantum leap forward in display readability for rugged mobile systems used in bright sunlight. (Source: Press Release)

Posted Wednesday, September 10, 2008 by ChrisD
Rating: 4 Comments (0)

AD Semi enables three-point touchscreen sensing

AD Semiconductor claims its resistive multi-point touchscreen sensor can sense a multi-point touch of up to three points on the screen (based on existing basic 4-wire type devices). According to the company, the device offers more functionality than existing one-point touch devices, which make it difficult to design sophisticated user interface as well as capacitive touch panels, which has a maximum multi-touch sensing of only two points.

AD Semiconductor said the sensor is highly reliable, allowing devices to recognize input from the stylus even when the hand partly touches the screen of the device, like a tablet PC. (Source: EE Times Asia)

Posted Wednesday, September 10, 2008 by ChrisD
Rating: 5 Comments (0)

On Location

There are several ways in which Gupta and his team are trying to increase the collection and conversion of information into the digital format. “One is I’m trying to sell the Tablet PC to our doctors. I’ve gone to them a few times, showing them how it works and how they can enter information into it conveniently and they are quite enthusiastic about it. Fortunately, doctors are a different kind of breed – they like to play with toys!” says Gupta. So he’s hoping some of the senior doctors will catch on with the Tablet PCs and then the younger ones will follow. (Source: Sanjay Gupta, Network Computing)
Posted Wednesday, September 10, 2008 by ChrisD
Rating: 3 Comments (0)

GBM InkShow: 3-Way Tablet PC Comparison

In this GBM InkShow, I put the Fujitsu T5010, Fujitsu T2010, and HP TX2051 through their paces. Of course there's no such thing as a winner in these types of comparisons since each device is dedicated to a separate market. The T5010 is the high-performance beast in this comparison. Running the latest Centrino 2 Duo Core processor and 2GB of the latest DDR3 RAM, the T5010 is simply blazing. The T5010 is the most expensive of the group, but if you're looking for all out speed in a larger-than-12" tablet, this is the only way to fly. Its weight is offset by its sheer performance and screen real estate. The T2010 is the ultra-mobile computer of the group, using an ULV processor and weighing in at 3.5 pounds. The T2010's price is nestled between the T5010 on the high end and the TX2051 on the low end. Battery life and portability reigns supreme with the T2010. The TX2051 is an Entertainment PC with best-of-group speakers and the full array of media buttons. It's more of a media-centric notebook with tablet functionality built-in, but its exceptional inking capabilities and its touch feature cannot be overlooked. However, its narrow viewing angles is problematic. It's also the least expensive of the group. Keep in mind the TX2051 has been replaced with the TX2500. (Source: Truc Bui, GottaBeMobile)
Posted Wednesday, September 10, 2008 by ChrisD
Rating: 4 Comments (0)

TabletKiosk® Introduces the Eyesboard™: Its New On-Screen, Virtual Keyboard

TabletKiosk®, a leading manufacturer of Tablet PC and Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) computing solutions, continues to improve the slate-style Tablet PC user experience by including the Eyesboard™ on-screen virtual keyboard on all of its systems as well as offering it as a free download for existing TabletKiosk Tablet PC and UMPC owners.

The Eyesboard, created by PlazaLOGIC, is an on-screen, virtual QWERTY keyboard, that enables users to type directly on the screen with their fingers or a stylus. Sporting a realistic "3D" look, multiple language options, easy size adjustment, choice of colors, and optional settings — including opacity, "snapable" palettes, menu buttons and sound effects — the Eyesboard virtual keyboard is highly customizable to best fit each user’s unique needs.

“Given that touch screen kiosks with virtual keyboards are now commonly used in airports and retail stores, today’s Tablet PC owners are more familiar with the idea of on-screen typing,” said Martin Smekal, president of TabletKiosk. “By including the Eyesboard as a standard feature on all of our tablets, we believe that we have greatly improved the overall mobile computing experience.”

The Eyesboard virtual keyboard looks and behaves like an actual computer keyboard with its traditional QWERTY key layout, separate numeric keypad and accessible function keys. To maximize screen real estate, the Eyesboard is fully user resizable, and capable of docking or minimizing to the taskbar—so that the keyboard is always accessible even when editing a full size document. It also features adjustable opacity settings to allow whatever is below it to be completely hidden or partially visible. In addition, the Eyesboard virtual keyboard conveniently appears at the Windows Log-In screen for easy password input, but runs with restricted functionality to maintain system security.

“The inclusion of the Eyesboard virtual keyboard for on-screen typing absolutely enhances the usability of our Sahara Slate PC® and eo® Ultra-Mobile PC systems, especially for those users new to the platform,” said Martin Smekal. “The Eyesboard is the perfect complement to the slate Tablet PC form factor because it provides an extremely familiar method of entering text without adding extra components or weight.” (Source: Press Release)

Posted Monday, September 8, 2008 by ChrisD
Rating: 5 Comments (0)

Microsoft- Tablet PC is not a feature of the OS, it is not even necessary

I love Tablet PCs. That is no surprise as I have been using them and writing about them for years. The Tablet PC is a true innovation by Microsoft, one that has yet to be duplicated by anyone else. The Tablet PC enthusiast community has long groused over the lack of education to the public about what this platform can do for them. My recent declaration that the Tablet PC has devolved into just a feature of the OS and not a platform of its own touched a few nerves both in agreement with that opinion and disagreement. It turns out that I was wrong about the Tablet PC being a feature of the OS. I point to some statements by Steven Sinofsky of Microsoft who is blogging about the work being done in Redmond on Windows 7. I wasn't going to comment on this blog post by Sinofsky lest I be accused of MS-bashing but as you might imagine a lively discussion is taking place about them. I had to read his thoughts several times before I could believe that anyone at Microsoft would state them publicly. Here is what Sinofsky wrote about the modular approach to Windows 7, the ability to turn off unnecessary bits of the OS to improve performance on some PCs: (Source: jkOnTheRun)
Posted Sunday, September 7, 2008 by ChrisD
Rating: 4 Comments (0)