Hasta La Gadget!

Owning a tablet is nothing new, just about any Tom, Dick and Harry will be able to carry a tablet around considering how ridiculous some of the pricing details are these days (I’m referring to the China-made clones), although there will always be the premium segment of iPads and the ilk. However, tablets are not the most hardy of consumer electronics devices out there, which is why the Xplore XC6 rugged tablet stands out from the crowd. It sports a full shift battery of 8.5 hours and has a multi-resistive display with capacitive-like sensitivity, sporting a brightness level of 1300 NITs to make it easier to read whatever documents you’ve loaded under bright sunlight, all without compromising on its ruggedness.

Among the “punishments” that it had gone through include 7′ drop ratings while the tablet is in action, certified MIL-STD-810G for vibration, multiple drop and shock test and altitude, is completely protected against dust and can be submerged for up to 30 minutes in a meter of water. Apart from that, it sports a 10 finger multi-touch with pinch/zoom capabilities for a smoother user experience, and works even when it is wet or if you’re wearing a pair of gloves.

What keeps it running despite all the abuse handed out? Rounded, industrial rubber over-molded corner bumpers deliver adequate shock protection thanks to energy dispersion and absorption, while a magnesium alloy chassis resists torsion, shear and impact damage. It has a 4th gen Intel Core i5-4300U processor underneath the hood, and sports a 128GB SSD at the least (upgradeable to 256GB).

If there ever was one tough tablet that can take in plenty of punishment, this is it!

Xplore XC6 Series Rugged Tablet Takes In Any Punishment , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Tablets, rugged,

Breaking news: The point-and-shoot camera market has seen better days. Smartphones are eating their lunch and going back for seconds and thirds. But they’re not dead, and a few things have helped compact cameras weather the smartphone revolution–and they involve situations in which you’d think twice about using your mobile device to take pictures.

For example, smartphones generally don’t have optical-zoom lenses (with one exception), big sensors, or extensive manual controls. And they certainly don’t have everything-proof bodies. You’d be a bit nuts to take your average smartphone snorkeling or into the thick of a haboob to snap a few shots. It’d risk the hub of your entire mobile existence.

The problem is, outside of pricey weather-sealed interchangeable-lens models, most rugged point-and-shoots are basic, boring compact cameras wrapped in resilient shells. But Olympus has straddled the line between “premium compact” and “rugged camera” for a few years now with its well-equipped Stylus Tough TG iHS lineup.

Like its predecessors, the new Tough TG-3’s solid hardware starts with an F2.0 wide-angle lens and a 4X-optical-zoom range (25mm to 100mm) with mechanical image stabilization. It doesn’t have full manual exposure controls, but it does have an aperture-priority mode in addition to panorama, time-lapse, and an extensive array of well-implemented art filters. You can pair it with an iPhone or Android phone via Wi-Fi and use your smartphone as a remote viewfinder and shutter release. Unfortunately, those remote-control Wi-Fi features will only work on dry land, so you’ll need to take handheld shots of that shark.

It’s built as much for butterfingers as scuba divers, with a waterproof rating to 50 feet, shockproofing rated to withstand drops of up to 7 feet, and crushproofing rated to withstand 220 pounds of force. It’s also dustproof and freezeproof, and it has on-board instruments including a compass, GPS, a manometer to gauge underwater depth, and an altimeter.

Unlike most rugged cameras, this one seems like it might actually be practical for everyday use. Along with its faster-than-most F2.0 lens, aperture-priority mode, and Wi-Fi capabilities, the TG-3 has an interesting take on a focus-bracketing mode. Called “Focus Stacking,” the camera snaps 8 images in rapid succession at different focal lengths. The camera is able to blend the bracketed images together as a single, completely-in-focus image at a wider aperture than most deep depth-of-field shots, and it also lets the user select one image from the sequence to use — sort of like a more-manual Lytro.

Available in June, the Olympus Stylus Tough TG-3 will cost $350. The camera will also have some unique accessories available for it, including an LED ring light that’s built to enhance the camera’s “Microscope” macro-photography mode, as well as fisheye and telephoto lens converters.

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