Toughbook Rumors...

With the Intel Developers Forum coming up, Panasonic will finally announce the Toughbook MCA. It will use the ATOM processor like the CF-U1 and it is a medical device with barcode reader, RFID and camera.

Now the rumors...will it have the new WACOM digitizer with capacitive touch? Will it have GOBI for internal 3G and GPS with it? Will they mention the new F8 or the W8 or the T8? (I wonder how they let infomation about those slip out in their website.)

I suspect we'll here more about their future...and perhaps MK3 on the cf-30 and cf-19 with the latest intel ULV processors. Any other thoughts or dreams out there?

 

What I would like (So that I have it in 6 years when I can afford it), is a very readable screen in daylight. That is my biggest "Please, Please... I need it" feature

I don't have any insider info, but with the way things are heading in the technology world, it wouldn't suprise me to see WiMax being rolled out in some future models, and axing out the cellular wireless completely. GPS should almost be a standard feature of a toughbook now though, since the hardware itself is relatively cheap.

Since Panasonic is a leader in having badass battery life, I hope that they can also get 8-9 hours out of a single battery soon too. Imagine, a battery that can last as long as your work shift.... Imagine the selling point of that!

 

My dream is a CF30 with a screen larger than 13.3".. Then I would actually aspire to own one

 

While I like the IDEA of a much brighter screen, my experience in the service industry shows two weaknesses to that: #1 - Battery consumption: Brighter means it eats battery. There are several means to improve this; better power management with proximity sensing would be a good start, but most promising is the new LED backlight technology we're seeing. The weakness there, I believe, is going to be my #2 issue:

Longevity. Whether you use CCFL or White LED, most of the light you see is produced by exciting a layer of phosphors. The harder you drive those phosphors to make more light, the shorter their life will be, whether it's by passing a high voltage alternating current through metal vapor, or by exciting a semiconductor substrate with high frequency pulsating direct current (the way most LED driver circuits work).

This means the primary issue now becomes serviceability; it is UNACCEPTABLE to have a useable life of 2-3 years for an LCD panel in in a portable computer; yet that is PRECISELY what we have been producing in our quest for ever-brighter screens. This does of course produce much faster turnover & ensures profit for the MFRs as laptops & flat-panel monitors are replaced at an ever-faster rate, but it also leaves us drowning in waste electronics that COULD be re-used if it weren't so bloody expensive to replace the LCD to make it useful again.

The solution I see? The reason the LCD has to be replaced is NOT because of a fault in the panel; but rather because of the failure of a fluorescent lamp (Be it CCFL or White LED) that SHOULD BE as easy to replace as the bulb in your overhead kitchen light. There is no engineering NEED for the LCD panels to be designed this way; many of the ones I service ALREADY use a modular lampholder that could EASILY be redesigned so that the whole thing simply slides out one end of the LCD panel with no disassembly required, only a retainer tab and a small cover plate for easy access. This is really something that NEEDS to become a standard SOON; it is unnecessarily expensive and unconscionably wasteful to choke up our landfills with laptops & LCD monitors that have nothing more wrong with them than a burned-out light bulb.

The OTHER thing I would really LOVE to see on a tablet PC is probably VERY EXPENSIVE, but could ultimately make the PERFECT computing device:

I am VERY impressed by the precision of the WACOM Penabled Tablet input device; I've used many (some of them still experimental) touch screen devices over the years and NONE of them are even in the same category as the WACOM device for precision, plus, of course, you cannot rest your hand naturally on the screen like the WACOM design.

What I would LIKE to see is a tablet PC that combined the precision & organic feel of the pen input device with the amazing capability of the new Multi-Touch touchscreens; imagine if you could maneuver everything in your PC the way they do on an iPhone (HP is already marketing a family of PCs which, while amazing, are NOT yet 100%... not even close); OR just jot down notes & sketch a diagram in a journal, OR just tap an icon and bring up a software typewriter keyboard for text entry instead of that bleeking handwriting recognition or hunt/peck with a stylus...

You could STILL use a REAL keyboard for typing long letters & documents; but for the quick Google or password entry that soft keyboard would be fine, and it would make Tablet computing into a REAL CHANGE in the way one thinks about computing instead of just a novelty which is good for data collection or other specialty work, but not really a good all-around computer.

mnem
Think flat.

 

Modly and mnem,
I have no idea about longevity, but my CF-30 display, non-touch, is most certainly daylight readable. I have only had it for a couple of weeks, but I am getting 12 hours of intermittent use out of it with the media bay battery. Under normal use, not in direct sunlight, I run the screen at about a third of max brightness. The CF-VDW07 comes with a very nice pop-up touch keyboard which is activated by an icon in the tool bar. Do the CF-18 & 19's not come with this utility. I believe I can copy this out of the CF-07 and send it to you if you like.
Cap

 

The on screen keyboard is part of the Windows XP accessibility options it is called osk.exe and you can make a toolbar icon for it or run it on startup by placing it on your startup folder.

 

Mhhmmm... I think you miss my point. The touchscreen is NOT a very good pen entry tool; even the best are not. That would be why I want BOTH technologies in the same tablet; to be able to use the WACOM Penabled technology when I want to use a pen but also to have the pointing & manipulating convenience of the multi-touch screen. The keyboard that comes with mine works well; but I'm in love with the thin tablet format.

mnem
WhoDatSayDat?

 

I thought of another good feature suggestion.

I want a water proof keyboard that I can still type on easily. Ie; I type 80-100wpm when I'm drunk. I type 20wpm with my rubber keyboard.

I don't have enough whiskey to get myself paced for the rubber keyboard

 

OK guys, I stand corrected. I'm kind of new to actually using a touch screen. I've owned lots, I just never found them to be more than a curiosity before. With the new remote display I have only the touch screen and I am learning a new way of operating the box. I also have a bluetooth mouse which works fine on my leg when in the car. I do think Panasonic deserves some serious kudos for the power management they seem to have built into the CF-30.
Cap

 

The MCA is now revealed at the IDF and it looks sleeker than the early protoypes. I hope we'll get some specs today.