"Earl", das Survival Tablet

Hi,

ich habe vor kurzem gesehen, dass demnächst ein neues, für uns interessantes Tablet auf den Markt kommt:
Earl, das "Backcountry Survival Tablet"

Es ist mit einem 6 Zoll e-Paper-Display mit 1024x760 Pixel ausgesatattet (also monochrom), hat dafür aber eine Laufzeit von ca. 20 Stunden und zusätzlich eine Solarzelle am Rückteil, welches innerhalb von fünf Stunden den Akku wieder lädt.
Es ist wasser- und staubdicht nach IP67 (also staubdicht gekapselt und bis zu 1m wasserdicht).
Die 16 GB interner Speicher können via Micro-SD-Karte erweitert werden. Kopfhörer- und USB-Buchse sind vorhanden, eine Kamera fehlt jedoch.

Es hat verschiedene Wettersensoren (Thermometer, Hydrometer, Barometer, Anemometer) und kann damit Temparatur, Luftfeuchtigkeit, Luftdruck und Windgeschwindigkeit messen und daraus auch diverse Daten (Taupunkt, Höhenprofile) berechnen.

Es hat natürlich , Glonass, WLAN, Bluetooth (4.0), diverse Funkstandards (FRS, GMRS und MURS), einen eingebauten Radio (AM/FM/KW/LW).

Lt. Herstellerhomepage kommt die Europaversion allerdigns erst Ende des Jahres heraus

LG,

Maresi

PS: Der Preis wird vermutlich in der Region von 300 € liegen...

Ich finde das Tablet von der Konzeption het extrem durchdacht.
Z.B. das Display: Obwohl es durch die e-Ink-Technik nur monochrom ist (was ein Nachteil ist) hat es einen Riesenvorteil: Es zeigt auch im ausgeschaltenen Zustand das letzte Bild an, ohne Strom zu verbrauchen.
Wenn ich mir also eine Karte anzeigen lasse kann ich sie so lange nutzen, bis ich einen anderen Abschnitt benötige.
Dann aktiviere ich es wieder, lade den nächsten Abschnitt und wandere weiter. So kann ich das Tablet weit über die 20h hinaus nutzen...

Telefonieren geht wohl nur mit Skype über WLAN, zumindest habe ich nichts entsprechendes gelesen.

Was das mit dem "Bildschirmschoner" anbelangt bin ich sehr zuversichtlich, da das Tablet ja auf dem sehr offenen Android aufsetzt. Da kann man zur Not mit einer App nachhelfen...

[COLOR="silver"]- - - AKTUALISIERT - - -[/COLOR]

PS: Noch ein Gedanke zum e-Ink-Display: Beim eBook-Reader hat das vermutlich den Sinn, das man nicht versehentlich offenbart, was man gerade liest. Nicht umsonst ist Shades of Grey erst via eBook ein Erfolg geworden...
Ein Outdoor-Tablet hat da ganz andere Zielsetzungen.

Technisch ist es jedenfalls so, dass das letzte Bild, das vom OS zur Anzeige gebracht wurde angezeigt bleibt, bis ein neues Bild zur Anzeige gebracht wird.

So, nachdem ich gerade was über das neue Panasonic Toughpad geschrieben habe ist mir der Earl auch wieder eingefallen - ist ja schon eine Weile her, dass sich da was getan hat .

Jedenfalls die gute Nachricht: Earl lebt:Gut:!

Hier das letzte Update vom 23. Jänner:

We’re still here! Just busy beyond belief. But there is light at the end of the tunnel!

I apologize for the lack of updates from our side. It’s my fault. The past few months have snowballed as we pick up speed and try to integrate all aspects of this project into a single beautiful and functional package. My team is reliant on me for posting updates, something that will be changing in the coming week as we streamline our process.

Our Chinese team will be out of the office for the next couple weeks observing Chinese New Year, providing me an opportunity to fly home to spend time with my team, family and Earl. I landed in Salt Lake City on Tuesday morning after a marathon of flights. HKG - SLC, 26 hours in total, by way of Guam, Honolulu and Los Angeles. Needless to say I’m exhausted, only now have I finally adjusted from jet lag.
One of my main objectives while back in the states is to prep my team for the next few months. We now have a dedicated community liaison to handle future updates and communication with backers. He will be relocating to Hong Kong at the end of February which will help tremendously in the final stages of production. The team is currently heading to the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market to chat with some industry specialists and potential retail partners.

Though we’ve hit a few bumps in the road, Earl is coming together better than expected. It’s really impressive seeing the amount of collaboration each component requires to bring Earl's overall design together. Some components have been discontinued while others didn't perform as expected. Having to find suitable replacements has yielded as-good or better components than we initially promised. Some of the suppliers we're working with have gone as far as to customize components. PVI, E-ink's parent company, has designed a custom screen using their latest advancements just for Earl. We've been fortunate to add features that were requested by backers themselves, making Earl more useful to everyday users.

Our major focus has been around hardware, most importantly the shell. This has proven to be more challenging that first anticipated. We’ve had a few hangups regarding some key features, working closely with our tooling factory to solve issues before the approaching Lunar New Year. The team has been in overdrive to finalize the design and managed to build a sample of the final shell so I could show our stateside team. The great thing is we’ve got a shell that will survive drops from 2 meters above the ground and for 60 minutes at 2 meters underwater. We added a simple locking hook design for attaching Earl from two points to backpack webbing systems, vehicle mounts and safety lanyards. In addition to the covered TRRS and USB ports, we've also added a quick connect charging point to allow external connections to accessories without compromising the integrity of Earl’s sealed shell. Below is a few shots of the new shell with dummy screen and solar panel. Coloring solely for prototype purposes.

When our China team gets back to work after the break, they’ll be working on the layout of Earl’s PCB to fit within the final shell design. Up until now, we’ve been using larger debugging boards split into the major components to work out any kinks in the electronics system. The team working on the two-way radio system has completed debugging the module that will give Earl it’s walkie talkie functions. I’ve been promised a final-spec, fully functional prototype by the first week of March. If everything goes as planned and the final design meets our requirements, we plan to begin tooling up for manufacturing while we await approval and certification from the FCC (US), IC (Canada), CE (Europe) and C-tick (Australia/New Zealand) through a local testing firm in Shenzhen.

I know that things have taken longer than when we first envisioned, but at the beginning we planned to use pre-defined components. After we added a partner for manufacturing, we realized Earl’s system would require being built from the ground up. The delays have placed manufacturing around the middle of April. We’re pushing hard to get Earl into everyone’s hands ASAP. I’m personally anxious to get out of the smog and into the forest again.

We’ll be launching a fully redesigned website prior to launch with promo videos, user accounts and a proper customer support system, but until then we’ll be making a soft-update to the website to showcase the final design. I have a meeting this evening with our backend engineer who’s been working to build an interface for users to manage their apps, maps and data from Earl. For those that have had issues trying to reach us, I apologize. I’m currently prepping a new member dedicated to handling messages along with an easier system to reach us. Our email address will still remain "feedback@meetearl.com"[/email]

For those requesting address changes, we’ll be sending emails to all backers with a link to our new site where current addresses can be updated prior to shipment. Thank you all again for your continued support. Earl is going to be well worth the wait!