Who is the toughest and meanest boy in town? Neighbors unanimously point at a punk from Matsushita-Panasonic outfit. His nom de guerre, TOUGHBOOK.

Sure, there have been quite a few specimens of really tough computers, specially built for special purposes at enormous cost. Like computers on supersonic jet fighters, or even on rockets and space probes, you can't buy them anyway at Akiba shops. But our ToughBook is strictly a commercial/corporate model. Anybody equipped with a wallet of modest thickness can purchase it easily from the shop shelf, at any time.

You have to water ToughBook CF-30 from now and then. Or it will wither and die.

But, actually, how tough is ToughBook?

ToughBook series have been around for a few years already. The newest models are CF-30 and CF-19. CF-19 has a swivel display. Fully 180 degrees swiveled, it can work as a tablet PC. They'll come to market in February 2007.

The TouchBook's anti-shock ability is legendary. Panasonic guys usually throw them down from hovering helicopters for demo. To show the waterdrop resistancy, douse with a bucketful of water. Not into the bucketful of water, I remind you. Because the ToughBook is not a submarine computer after all. Not yet, at least.

Rainy day, stormy day or snowy day, the ToughBook does not mind at all. Even in the antarctic super-subzero temperature, it keeps on humming soundly. The ToughBook series has a heater installed in the harddisk casing and behind the LCD display. A temperature sensor controls the on/off of these heaters automatically.

But, how about the strong sunshine in the desert? Former models have had trouble in this environment. Its LCD screen was totally powerless when the sun was shining on it. For that matter, even the brightest CRT display has the same trouble, as you can imagine.

Happy users of ToughBook Fireman with CF-30, policewoman and pit crew with CF-19.

To fight against the sunshine, CF-30 and CF-19 have taken two different approaches. The former, simply and brutally, doubled the number of backlight, thereby making the screen really brighter and more visible. CF-19, on the other hand, utilized extra combination layer of retardation and polarizing film, and reduced the troublesome reflection of sunlight to two-thirds. Brightness of the screen stayed the same, but relative visibility improved significantly. Now, we really have all-weather computers here.

One ToughBook which went to the sea, the CF-29 Marine Model (saline-resistant), is an older model modified for the cockpit of ocean-going sailboat or small fishing boat. It can run healthily in stormy weather, splashed with a ton of all-corrosive sea water. The Marine Model has worked quietly, without any complaints, on most of the America's Cup racers.

Marine ToughBook CF-29 after tough work. Stains are salt deposit from water splash. Only ToughBook can survive the rough seas.

ToughBook won't come cheap. CF-30 is around 400,000-odd yen (US$3,333). CF-19 is 300,000 yen (US$2,500) minimum.

One good reference for ToughBook: Majority of working computers onboard American police cruisers are ToughBooks. They can survive jolts, vibration and shock of American street life in badly maintained police vehicles nonchalantly. Regular laptops? They'll last 5 seconds.

All right, the next step. How about a bullet-proof and shrapnel-proof version? I mean, ToughBook military model. No way. Because that kind of computer would be considered as a weapen. Peacable and profit-loving Japanese companies never export any kind of military gear. Sure, those hated American soldiers in Iraq are seen, sometimes, with ToughBooks. But they are civilian models procured through some dubious channels.

 

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