Hasta La Gadget!

Tired of those fancy-pants delicate Cupertino tablets? GammaTech, which makes military-grade rugged notebooks and tablets, has just released the RT10 series of tablet PCs. Meant for hard work environments where dirt and liquids are constantly ready to take down tech gadgets, the RT10 line offers rugged fully-sealed design. It’s drop-proof, spill-proof, shock-proof, dust-proof, and watertight.

For specs, the RT10 features a high-res (1024 x 600) 10.2-inch WSVGA TFT LCD, support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and it runs Windows 7 Professional, Vista Business, or XP Tablet Edition operating systems. It’s also loaded with two USB ports, an Ethernet port, and a smart card reader. The tablet measures five pounds. Buyers can choose from two varieties: the RT10A features a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, while the RT10D features a 1.2GHz Intel Core Duo U2500. The tablet is available now through resellers, and the company isn’t giving out pricing information on its site.

Psst, Microsoft: A secret’s not a secret if more than one person knows it. Thanks to a trigger-happy German retailer updating its product page (now removed), the world now knows what the Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse looks like and when to expect it.

According to the retailer, the Arc Touch will be available October 13. Speculation has been rampant that next month’s peripheral announcement would refer to a new Arc Touch, and if the pictures are anything to go buy, it’s going to be pretty exciting.

With a multi-surface sensor, the Arc Touch’s big thing is that it folds. As in, it packs flat when you’re on the go and arches back up when in use. With Microsoft’s Blue Track system, the wireless mouse is designed to track on almost any surface.

Arc Touch connects to the computer via a 2.4-GHz nano transceiver that plugs in to the USB port and stows in a compartment under the mouse when it is folded. There’s also a battery indicator and physical power controls.

The Arc Touch Mouse is expected to be priced in-line with Apple’s multi-touch peripherals, at €69.99 in Europe, and $69.95 in the US.

Dear Microsoft: Official confirmation of this touch-scrolling mouse would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Via Slashgear

India is a weird and wonderful subcontinent.; the billion-plus population has one hand in high technology and another in poverty from another era. This massive juxtaposition has led to some impressive engineering feats, such as the development of a $2,000 car (the petite Tata), and now the introduction of a $35 tablet computer that developers hope to make available to students throughout the country.

The computer, first announced in late July, was the result of a government-fueled project created by students at the Indian Institute of Technology. The tablet (which actually seems more like a netbook) will have a memory card instead of a hard drive and 2GB of RAM, making it available for basic computer functions like Web browsing, media playback, and word processing. Some “pricier” models may even include a solar-power option for areas of the country where electricity is scarce.

The first video demonstration of the tablet prototype, above, shows that the computer will run on the Android OS instead of the rumored Linux setup. The video seems somewhat sped up, perhaps so as not to give a true indication of the using experience. And oddly enough, the tablet seems to be using a touch-stylus-interface, even for typing.

I hope this choice of interface over a more user-friendly keyboard and mouse set-up was made to achieve the amazingly accessible price rather than to seem “contemporary.” Either way, giving access to technology to more parts of the world can only result in positive development. We’ll know more when actual device gets into people hands. But for right now, go India!

[via CrunchGear]

I have several laptops around the house, and I hate playing the guessing game for which adapter goes with which notebook. I keep thinking of getting a universal power adapter — one power brick and several adapters — and the line of adapters from Innergie looks mighty appealing. Innergie offers four different universal power adapters for laptops, varying in size and configuration. 

First, whether at home, on the plane, or in the car, the mCube90 (pictured) is the most all-in-one adapter. The Auto/Air adapter, which is just two-thirds the size of a business card, detaches from the rest of the power brick, and allows you to charge your devices everywhere you go.

Some of you may prefer to hold out for the Magic Cable, a multi-headed cable with tips for mini- and micro- USB devices, as well as Apple’s proprietary charging port. 

Innergie also has a USB power charger in case you only need an adapter for USB devices.