Panasonic has made a real business out of its ToughBook line, now offering the new CF-U1 model. The MIL-STD ruggedized UMPC weighs in at 2.3 lbs. and features Intel’s new Atom CPU clocked at 1.33GHz. Its also rather packed with a 1D and 2D barcode scanner, 5.6″ 1024×600 touchscreen LCD display, a backlit keyboard, 2MP camera, options for 16GB or 32GB SSD, an optional fingerprint scanner, optional 3G and GPS, and a claimed 9 hour battery life with dual hot-swappable modules. It ships with Vista Business Edition (downgradeable to XP Pro for a fee), but if that sounds like the shiz to you, it can all be yours for a mere US$2,500.

written by Tyler Regas

Its official, folks! OpenMoko is announcing that its Neo FreeRunner open source handset will be available July 4th. Purchase it for US$399 from the site and they will start shipping units on July 7th. The Neo FreeRunner is a unique piece of kit in today’s handset market in that it runs GNU/Linux and its hardware specifications and even the cases CADD files are availalbe at no cost. This allows anyone to modify every single aspect of the handset to meet their own needs. OpenMoko was spun off from FIC, the Taiwanese motherboard and PC system components maker, last year after an extremely popular developer release of an earlier version of the handset.

written by Tyler Regas

If you were looking at these 15″ and 17″ backhinged, widescreen lappies sporting an integrated webcam and thinking, “Damn! Dell just undercut Apple big time!“, you’d be mostly right. Sadly the 15″ model ships with a 1280×800 display while the 17″ gets 1440×900, and both get connected to 256MBs of dedicated VRAM, except the lowly 15″ base model. They come with 2-3GBs of RAM, 160GB to 250GB SATA drives, and ship in a slew of colors. I think they’re quite attractive, which is a lot coming from a Mac phreakboi like myself. Pricing start at US$799 and goes to US$1,299. Not too shabby, Dell!

written by Tyler Regas

I’m not sure when this will become available in the US or for how much, but its kinda cool. Honlai has shown their new QingBar iPod projector dock and its looking pretty neat. Keep in mind, however, that it maxes out at 10-15 Lumens, a 200:1 contrast ratio, and 640×480 fixed resolution. That’s not so bad, though, considering that its not meant for presentations.

written by Tyler Regas

OpenMoko, the spin-off from FIC, is getting geared up to start making their move into the consumer space with their Neo open source handset. Their PR people have sent me details regarding 5 groups who will be taking deliveries of handsets. They are Pulster, Golden Delicious Computers and TRIsoft located in Germany, Bearstech in France and IDA Systems based in India. The handsets, when available, will be sold directly via OpenMoko and through distributors in Europe and India. Pricing is currently set at US$399, but will likely come down as carriers start picking it up and it gets upgrades to its hardware. The Dojo is rooting for the OpenMoko team!

written by Tyler Regas

Keynamics has announced its new Aviator line of in-flight lappy stands. The unique feature of this stand is the hook on the front. The hook allows the stand to “lock” into the seatback trays common on airplanes worldwide. This has the effect of kicking the lappy forward so that you can get a better screen angle. Keynamics devotes a huge web page to discussing the benefits of its style of lappy stands which all look like they can help you recline quite a bit. The best thing about the Aviator is its price, US$19.99. Not bad.

written by Tyler Regas

If you’ve been looking for that perfect mashup of a MOTO Q sporting a Blackberry Pearl’s scrollball, a Palm Centro’s micronic keyboard, and which is adorned to look like a much, much older HP calculator, you’re in for a treat. HP is slated to release the iPAQ 900 (910 online) on the 30th. That’s just days away! HP has it listed for US$499, but as typical you’ll be able to purchase it from a carrier with a subsidy. The handset features a 416MHz Marvell CPU, it runs WinMo 6.1, has lots of GSM-type acronym capabilities, integrated wi-fi and Bluetooth, and a 2.46″ 320×240 touchscreen.

written by Tyler Regas

This may be a bit jarring, but since there are so many of these microlappies shooting out of just about every single fabber in the world, its hard to keep track. The event in question is Computex in Taiwan, a large annual show in the vein of CES. What I’m going to do is just link to all of the salient items I’m coming across. Later, when I get more concrete data and some time I will profile the more interesting machines. Here we go…

The Register has some early news on the planned ASUS Eee Box which might be interesting. The Giz offers more details and better images of the Eee Box. Then, the Giz goes all out with the whole kit and kaboodle.  Engadget has a scoop from Australia about ASUS considering concepts other than deskies and lappies, including a tantalizing picture of a MID-type device. They also have some data on Acer’s Aspire One lappy, which they are calling an Eee clone. Engadget offers some more details about MSI’s [Mighty] Wind micro lappy. Now, before you click this next link, know that its named Jisus V2 and its wrapped in pink leather. I think they misspelled the name. iTWire speculates on how ubiquitous Linux could become, especially when bundled on devices like the Elonex One. Engadget gets some possible dirt on Sony’s entry into the micro lappy market. AMD, not content to sit on the sidelines, is apparently offering its own reference platform. GeCube offers a 12.1″ screened micro lappy, so does it qualify? E-Lead offers up something with a strange looking keyboard called the Noahpad. GigaByte is preparing a convertible Tablet PC-stylied micro lappy just to keep things interesting. Finally, Joanna Stern over at Laptop Magazine has some nice things to say about the ECS G10IL netbook/microlappy/ultra portable lappy device which seems to offer HSDPA capabilities.

written by Tyler Regas

If you’ve been paying attention to All Things D, the chatty technology “event” headed by the WSJ’s “Uncle” Walt Mossberg, you may have come across a Gizmodo entry where Brian Lam got to take a look at Michael Dell’s lappy. It turns out that the lappy in question is the upcoming Dell Mini-Inspiron. There are no specs at all, but from the image to the left you can see that its damn small. I’m going to guess that its going to run a Linux-based OS, have an Intel Atom or VIA C7M processor, possibly 2GBs of RAM, ship with an 80GB drive and have SSDs as an option, and will likely feature Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, though there will probably be a WiMAX option. Pricing is going to be sub-$500 and there appears to be no exact availability information.

written by Tyler Regas