Hitachi have announced a new range of simple USB hard-drives, together with a basic NAS adapter which can connect two external drives to a network. The SimpleDRIVE Mini and SimpleTOUGH portable USB drives are available in 250, 320 and 500GB capacities, with the former adding ruggedness and the latter basic colors.
LaCie revealed their latest multimedia drive today with the LaCinema Rugged HD. This device offers new upgrades, greater functionality and the ability to play 1080p video through the HDMI port on any compatible TV.
Rugged computers generally look like a cross between the Michelin Man and some sort of inflatable life-raft, so it’s nice to see a notebook that wears its shock-resistance discretely. To be fair to the competition, the Getac 9213 is described as “business rugged”, which means while its full magnesium allow chassis and case, and shock-mounted HDD and 13.3-inch WXGA display may stand up to the occasional bump and drop, it’s not quite in Panasonic Toughbook territory.
Nokia have announced a new, rugged cellphone, the 3720 classic, and to celebrate they’ve been kicking it around a little. Entirely leak-proof, shock-resistant and dust-sealed, the Nokia 3720 classic still squeezes in a 2-megapixel camera, Nokia Maps (on an included 1GB microSD card) and Bluetooth 2.1.
Videos of the Nokia 3720 being mistreated after the cut
Netbook manufacturers trying to distinguish their budget wares are nothing new, and Dell have taken to the classroom with their Latitude 2100. Announced yesterday, the Latitude 2100 packs the usual Intel Atom N270 processor but in an education-friendly design; as LaptopMag found, that means things like a semi-rugged design and a light that lets teachers know that their students are wasting time online.
LaCie announced the latest offering in their Rugged series yesterday with the Rugged XL, an external hard drive than can hold up to 1TB of information–that’s double what the older model could hold.
If you’ve ever found yourself wanting a compact yet totally durable PC, then the latest offering from Stealth Computer might be right up your alley. The latest is Model LPC-625F and this thing is not only small–it’s also fanless.
Any rubber-clad gadget can claim to be rugged, but it takes some preparation to put your shiny new product through MIL-STD-810F ruggedization testing. It’s tough when it’s a cellphone; making an entire Tablet PC stand up to the same drops, dust, water and more is quite the challenge. Still, that’s what Motion did with their new J3400 rugged slate, and they’ve released some of the videos of the testing it endured.
Videos after the cut
For those that are especially tough on their external media, there’s the ToughDrive Sport, the latest hard drive from Freecom. Measuring in at 2.5-inches, this external drive can supposedly stand up to just about anything. The sort of “anything” that involves a drop from 6.6 feet, that is.
Samsung have launched their latest rugged cellphone, the Samsung Xplorer B2100. Built to withstand submersion, dust, extremes of temperature and shocks, the Xplorer meets military specification MIL-STD-810F; since you’ll want to use it as a phone, too, it’s quadband GSM (850/900/1800/1900) though not 3G.
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