Panasonic readies rugged Windows CE 5.0 tablet

Need a truly rugged tablet for your rough and tumble field workers? You could do worse than Panasonic's forthcoming Toughbook CF-08, which is not a tablet PC but rather, a Windows CE 5.0 tablet device. That means that for basic mobile tasks, your field workers will have a relatively virus-free device with instant startup, a 10.4-inch touch panel display and up to 14 hours of battery life. Then there's the device's rugged exterior: Panasonic claims that the CF-08 can survive a fall from 1.2 meters. The tablet also boasts the following features: a 312MHz PXA270 processor, a USB 1.1 port, 802.11b/g connectivity, Bluetooth 1.2 and an Ethernet port. The catch? It's only got 64MB of storage under the hood. Considering that many smartphones ship with more memory than that, this pretty much rules out the CF-08 for any data-intensive applications. Look for the CF-08 in May, for a yet unannounced price.

For more on the new Toughbook:
- see this Engadget article