Catcher: rugged UMPC handles 50 Gs of shock
By Cyrus Farivar 
posted Sep 10th 2006 3:10PM
posted Sep 10th 2006 3:10PM
You know, there are all kinds of people in the military these days. And we just know that the geekiest of our armed forces are going to go gaga over this new UMPC, called the Catcher. This new rugged, superportable computer has 802.11a/b/g support, Bluetooth, dual-mode CDMA / GSM data, fingerprint reader, GPS, iris scan, a pair of VGA cameras (one pointing toward the user, and one away), and an "emergency alert feature" that sends an auto tracking signal back to the server. The Catcher is also designed to support a three foot drop and up to 50 Gs of shock -- slightly better than our consumer-grade laptops, hey? We've got zero intel on price or availability, but surely Uncle Sam spares no expense for our elite fighting force. And we're sure that our men and women in uniform running around Saddam's former palaces are going to want something like the new application Lifeware to control audio and video systems that they surely have spread throughout the house. Lifeware promises to control everything from temperature to audio controls, but no word on if our soldiers will be able to run military applications, control their in-base audio systems, and play solitare all on the same device, which would clearly be the holy grail in convergence. [Via jkOnTheRun and eHomeUpgrade]
Only a 3 foot drop? Is that a typo? Seems like it would take a lot more than three feet of acceleration to pull a 50g stop.
The unit will cost as much as $5000 to $6000, but is available solely for military purposes only!
Dave: It's not the fall - it's the abrupt landing ;)My brother mentioned that he'd like a UMPC in Iraq if it were more durable. Now if he had 5 grand to spare, he can get that. I wonder what military guys make...
Anyway, that's the response I got from him when I was interviewing people for my Nokia 770 vs. TabletKiosk eo series of posts in my blog:
http://ultramobilegeek.blogspot.com/2006/08/tabletkiosk-eo-v7110-umpc-vs-nokia-770.html
Typo? The spec sheet for this unit does not list 802.11a compatibility only 802.11 b/g. Maybe I'm one of the few who actually use A, but with all the crowding on 2.4gHz I like not having outside interferrence.
Well, if it is for military use, that price would be reasonable: the government would probably end up overpaying for it about 4 times over.
(Oh yeah, and these palaces are great for internet access by the way)