Fancy yourself a tough guy? Then check the latest Panasonic
ToughBook, the CF-08 tablet. No, not a Tablet PC, this slab goes Windows CE 5.0 for instant-on, near virus-free access and up to 14-hours off battery -- you know, just as long as you don't mind keeping the brightness to a min. The CF-08 brings a 1024 x 768 pixel, 10.4-inch touch-panel display capable of withstanding a fall from as high as 1.2-meters. It comes powered by a 312MHz PXA270 processor and packs USB 1.1 (for keyboard and mousing, presumably) with 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 1.2, and fixed Ethernet providing access to data. Thing is, even with a 267 × 208 × 36-mm footprint they only managed to squeeze in 64MB RAM / 64MB ROM -- come on Panny, how about SD expansion at the least? Hitting May 15th for an undisclosed price.
Update: Sure enough, the US specs for the
Touchbook-WirelessDisplay (as it's called locally) clearly identifies SD expansion -- same as the Japanese model shown above.
[Via
Impress]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
anonymous @ Apr 12th 2007 9:26AM
in todays world, 64mb of RAM wont get you far. and not having a memory card slot is so yesterday.
Charles R Hamilton @ Apr 12th 2007 9:44AM
This whole thing is the day before yesterdays technology. I would buy it if was somewhere south of $500. Probably more like $2000 tho.
spam_from_engadget @ Apr 12th 2007 10:07AM
PXA270 processor driving a 1024x768 screen! Has that been done in anything else? The Pepper Pad 2 (not 3) had a PXA270 with twice this clock speed and a 800x600 screen; I don't think it has any acceleration at all (anyone know better?). They could have a separate graphics chip, but then how would it be interfaced to the processor? - the PXA doesn't even have PCI. I fear that even simple scrolling could be painful.
simpleblue @ Apr 12th 2007 10:19AM
The CF-08 has been selling in the States for over a year. It is designed to attach to a Citrix Server or Windows Terminal Services. It can also be used in adhoc mode connected to a XP Pro machine (desktop or laptop) It is not make to run as a stand-alone product.
scabby @ Apr 12th 2007 11:00AM
Panasonic had a winner... 3-5 years ago with these. I have an older 8.something" version of this. They are glorified RDP clients, and they work fine for that. They need to up the ante though, and pop in a real cpu (a ULV Intel/AMD product, hopefully released under 2 years ago), and make it expandable.
If any company can get out a solid hiptop tablet (1GHz/512mb/5-10Gb with wifi & expansion) under $750, they will have a serious market.
Zandr @ Apr 12th 2007 11:11AM
http://panasonic.biz/pc/prod/note/08/interface.html
SD and SDHC. Do you guys ever read more than the first paragraph of the press release?
John Lisherness @ Apr 12th 2007 1:38PM
The big news on this is the 15 hours on a battery.
With it's wireless, it becomes a perfect mobile terminal for dedicated applications such as gaming (gambling not traditional gaming) and in factory process control. Also excellent for law enforcement and inventory.
pete7steps @ Apr 12th 2007 4:42PM
This is my dream device, except for the "starting at $1800" part. I am looking for a larger-screen version of the Nokia 770 with Citrix/RDP, media player, PDF/book reader, web browser (with Javascript support!), SD slot, Bluetooth and WiFi. And please, no hard drive! Worth about 5 benjys.
rodan32 @ Apr 12th 2007 6:36PM
Yeah, the specs are a little weak - still, it doesn't compare too badly to the PenCentras and ePlates its replacing. Those were 133/200mhz processors, if I remember correctly.
Joseph @ Apr 12th 2007 9:12PM
We've been using these at my job for almost a year now. I have yet to find anything else that is this tough and light with battery life that doesn't suck. Philips is working on a similar device for hospitals, but nothing is out yet. This device has been listed on the US site for a while. I guess you have to go to Japanese sites to get old news.
Pal @ Apr 13th 2007 11:16AM
What happens when you drop it from 1.3 meters?
zerx @ Apr 13th 2007 7:47PM
你們真的那麼想被嗆嗎?
防滴防塵沒提到也就算了
sd卡明明就有支援阿