[OSGeo-Discuss] Mobile GPS data collection...

[Gary Lang]

I have an OQO and I love it.

--- Original Message ---
From: "Jason Birch" <Jason.Birch at nanaimo.ca>
Sent: Thu 7/27/06 12:59 pm
To: "discuss at mail.osgeo.org" <discuss at mail.osgeo.org>
Cc: 
Subject: RE: [OSGeo-Discuss] Mobile GPS data collection...

Mateusz wrote:
---------------------------
I can't imagine surveying in forest with laptop, but I can with Tablet
PC.
There were many attempts and devices tests taken by polish forestry
officers  and laptop was found as unusable in field (works 2-3 hours,
heavy, damage prone with water and sand, difficult to hold it and work
on it together). The only option with bigger screen I see is rugged
Tablet PC.
---------------------------

I've been a bit disappointed in the form factors that have been
available recently.  We've had good success with a bunch of old rugged
Itronix FEX21 (http://www.itronix.com/products/hpcs/fex21.asp) units
that were half-VGA with an integrated keyboard, but I haven't seen
anything on a more modern OS that comes close other than the OQO
(http://www.oqo.com/hardware/basics/) product.  I have some hopes for
UMPC, but the battery life is still way too short for useful field
application.

In a lot of cases, PDAs are too small, and tablets are either too large
or don't have a keyboard.  Trying to force-deploy devices that have
difficult data entry mechanisms or are too bulky for the field often
leads to severe resistance to adoption, especially when dealing with
work forces that are already having difficulty with the paradigm-shift
caused by digital data entry.

Jason

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