Trimble rolls out rugged Yuma UMPC
By Donald Melanson 
posted Feb 21st 2009 3:53PM
posted Feb 21st 2009 3:53PM
It's been quite a while since Trimble last popped up on our radar, but the company looks to be making a respectable showing for itself with its new Yuma UMPC, which packs all the ruggedness you'd expect from the company (MIL-STD-810F and IP67 ratings) plus some decent enough specs. That includes a sunlight-readable 7-inch WVGA touchscreen, the requisite 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, a 32GB SSD drive, built-in WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS, ExpressCard and SDIO slots for expansion, and not one but two geotag-enabled cameras. No word on a price just yet, but Trimble says it should be shipping by April.
[Via OutdoorRugged, thanks Matthew]
[Via OutdoorRugged, thanks Matthew]
Not too shabby...I guess the military will be their target market..
I doubt the military would really want a Windows system. I think this would be better suited for field technicians.
I'd buy it if it had iPhoneOS
^ you know flashpoint
playing taptap is not a good thing to do in a combat zone.....
@Flashpoint,
All of the rugged computers I had in the field ran windows and they worked out just fine.
Maybe an embedded linux was more what Jimmy J was going for...
i didnt read that comment properly... Now im sad
Carrying one of those GPS enabled information things around in Soviet Russia you become a military target.
why does yellow = rugged?
My guess would be warning/caution signs being yellow.
because i PISSED on it ! and it SURVIVED!!!!!!
The yellow colour even in the animal world convey a danger signal to potential predators specially in insects and amphibians, and some species , even though not poisonous or dangerous, evolved yellow markers as a secondary protection becouse obviously this character must have conferred some advantage in evolutionary terms (sort of like the apparently counterproductive jumping of gazelles while escaping predators).
You can read about it in "The Red Queen" by Matt Ridley.
In modern times , the yellow and orange colours came to be associated with dangerous activities from the time operators of functions in which was necessary to be seen in all light and wheather conditions begun to wear garments and accessories in bright hues of these colours and studies confirmed their utility in minimizing the number of accidents.
Deck crews on plane carriers, motorways workers, traffic police, rescue and first help personnel, in recent times have all been fitted out with as much as possible of elements in those colours and entire service vehicles have been painted accordingly.
Gadgets and machinery that need to be used in difficult condition have also been shown to benefit from yellow or orange colours; specially if they might incur in the risk of being lost in snow, darkness, high vegetation etc. or/and if the operator must be able to find these tools in a very short time among other elements or in a confusing environment.
Because of all these reasons there's much more that could be said about the subliminal messages that certain gadgets, apparel and tools transmit if painted in these colours, but I'm bored and surely so are you.
I figure it's yellow because it's not easy to lose on a job site or outdoors. Most things that are yellow stick out so if you put it down somewhere and/or drop it it'll be easy to find.
I think it goes back to the 1980's an the introduction of the Sony Sports Walkman (and sports boombox, tv, etc) which was the device synonymous with rugged, watertight, out doors electronics. After that, it seemed every company in the 1980's and 1990s who made any sort of splash resistant design wanted to feed on Sony's success.
Trimble rocks if you guys have not seen their stuff in action. Go visit some of the concrete sellers that use it.
-TD
Where I come from, yellow = chicken$h!t. Maybe this is yellow's revenge?
--------
http://f2bb.com
where i come from, yellow = #FFFF00
Looks like one heck of compact PC. I'm not sold on yellow either, but I would be interested in the UMPC really being functional against all the outdoor elements.
Carl E. Reid, CSI
Career Management Swiss Army Knife Developer
you want to put this in a.....knife ?
there's something very annoying about people pulling their job description after a post...
Anyone remember that Mr Professional guy?
Oli Dipple
Gigolo
Yes, it marks you out as someone who can't quite separate from their job when they aren't doing it.
Matt Jones
Professional Student.
Looks like a good pc for a construction contractor, or landscaper or whatever. If MS could integrate these with Ford's Sync, would be quite interesting.
Veddy veddy interesting indeed.
Vista on a single atom...
When will they learn?
no when will YOU learn
im typing this on a wind that has a atom processor and 1 gig of ram
and its snappier than my XP laptop xD
No apple touch killers here ,,tank city!
Not an iPhone killer? Are you crazy? Smash an iPhone and one of these babies together and tell me which ends up dead. (I'm sure it's the one made of glass)
Trimble make some damn impressive survey gear. If this is the same quality, it could be very interesting.
They don't make cheap survey equipment, so I don't expect this will be aimed at the general public. But if you're spending $90k on a total-station, this might be a great accessory.
You know, this Trimble would be pretty awesome for work with natural resources (i.e. forestry) sadly though, their pricing is just outrageous. Combine this expense with mandatory ESRI's ArcPad, and if you are dedicated enough, an AppBuilder to really take advantage of the device, and you probably looking at 3K investment. Good news is that Juno just became affordable!
I agree that their hardware pricing is outrageous but I disagree that ArcPad is required. It's possible to build custom GIS/Survey apps for Trimble GeoXTs/Junos, after all they're just windows mobile devices. There's a lot of open source GIS packages out there.. but GeoPad might be a good place to start.. http://www.geopad.net/
This is a Vista machine so it'll be interesting to see what software options are out there, but I bet this thing runs $4k for just the hardware.
Vista is going to poot on that 1.6g Atom.
Mule
By the time that thing comes out for real, Windows will be just about to bust out. So having Vista or downgrading to XP for a month or two ain't so bad now is it?
My dad sells a lot of Trimble GPS systems for agricultural uses on large farm equipment. The units he sells work great and I'm sure this UMPC will be great and could easily be used by the same people buying the GPS equipment in the fields.
that's the piece of ugliness :(
I am in the Army and I am a surveyor and we do use a lot of Trimble equipment that the Army pays for we dont need this but I think it would be fun to play with, right now our handhelds have windows mobile 6.5 and i just like to play games on it, i would like to know the best games this can handle.
Yellow is a traditional Trimble handheld color.
The Yuma will also be available in Grey/Black. I have held one and have been very impressed.