Motion Computing has been making rugged tablet computers for a long time. The company’s machines find their way into medical facilities and the work vehicles for field service folks.

The company has announced two new rugged tablets today that share most of the same features. The machines are the C5v and the F5v. Both have hot swappable batteries, a 160GB HDD, and up to 4GB of RAM.

I know that many of you get sick of your iPhone-using friends giving you a hard time because your iPod can’t make any calls. That just sucks. Well, Truphone may be the answer to your problems. It’s a software solution that can turn the iPod touch into an iPhone. Sort of.

It does require a microphone adapter first. Then, you’ll be able to make free calls to users of Truphone’s Internet telephony service, as well as other iPod touch owners and even Google Talk users. This new app is free at the App Store, and will see many new features in the near future. Features like making and receiving low-cost calls to and from landlines, calling and instant messaging to Skype and MSN, check and set facilities for Facebook and check and set facilities for Twitter.

If you’re in the market for a new spacecraft, this space ship in excellent condition could be yours. It’s a 4 passenger model and even has the original owners’ manual. Better still, no dents or dings from meteors or other space debri. Only 300 million Intergalactic miles.

Screw you Richard Branson. I’m on the next flight out of here. I’ll figure everything out while I’m up there. My first priority is figuring out how to cope with the lack of bathroom facilities. They are only asking $3500 (or best offer).

The once mighty pay phone is now going the way of the dodo as mobile phones are the way of today. AT&T sees the writing on the wall and is getting off the sinking ship, announcing today it plans to exit the pay phone business by the end of 2008.

AT&T said pay phones in the United States have declined over the last 10 years from around 2.6 million phones to a measly 1 million today. The company sees no reason to remain in this business any longer and “plans to phase out both public pay phones and phones provided under contracts at government correctional facilities through the end of next year.”

The creators of the recently constructed Internet2 network have achieved a breakthrough in boosting the speed of transmission. When the network went online in August the fastest believed speed would be somewhere approaching 10 gigabits per second (Gbps). That’s already plenty more speed than the high-speed connections people have in their homes and offices (about 5 megabytes per second).

Now the Internet2 team has achieved speeds up to 100 Gpbs, ten times the previous fastest speed, by sending data via ten different wavelengths over the same cable. Ten different colors of light to transmit the data means that the data gets there ten times faster. As fast as that is, the administrators working at Internet2 are already planning on upgrading their technology sometime in the next 12 to 18 months which could boost the speeds even further, up to 400 Gbps.

In response to complaints about dark screens on the new Apple iPod Touch the company admitted last week that some of the screens that left manufacturing facilities were defective, and Apple is looking for a way to remedy the situation.

According to reports from various blogs and Apples own iPod Touch discussion board, the screens on the new 16GB iPods from various weeks of production have a darker than normal display, and with some darker video scenes are almost unwatchable. Since these issues weren’t as notable with the original iPhone it brings up suspicions that the new Touches were designed with a possibly inferior, or at least different, display than the iPhone.

Today Intel and Motion in Computing have both announced the Motion C5 mobile clinical assistant (MCA). The C5 is the first product built on Intel’s MCA platform and is designed for use in the health care setting to allow providers to spend more time near patients while staying connected and can also help with medication administration.

The MCA platform is the Intel’s first built specifically for healthcare and works towards connecting clinicians on health care facility floors to real-time information with a light, durable and easily-disinfected …

Ethernet is the most widely used networking technology. Ethernet speed is measured in megabits per second abbreviated as Mbps. Typical speeds for Ethernet include 10, 100 and 1000 Mbps. The 1000 Mpbs speed is also referred to as Gigabit ethernet.

Ethernet is distinguishable but its use of cables. Wireless technologies are becoming more common but Ethernet is still very important because it is fast and secure and most facilities have been wired for Ethernet.

The cable used for Ethernet is referred to as CAT 5 Cable, which can actually be Category 5, 5e or 6 cable.

The ends of …

The plusID line of secure, wireless devices is dubbed as the world’s first personal biometric fingerprint fobs. The plusID provides secure access to multiple facilities, computers, and networks. Security with biometrics has never been easier, more economical, or widely accepted.

The plusID works with select off-the-shelf logical access / single sign-on software applications, and can be easily configured to support one-time password functionality. The plusID can be added to existing physical and logical security environments with no changes to installed infrastructure.

plusID [Privaris]

After a long lunch at my favorite Chinese buffet I can always use a nice powernap. Unfortunately, in my office naps are generally frowned upon – until now. MetroNaps is a New York-based company that provides mid-day rest facilities: a clean, comfortable place to take a nap. MetroNaps was founded the premise that many employees spend significant amounts of their day dozing at their desk or catching powernaps, often in odd places.

The MetroNaps concept began in 2003 through research and testing at Carnegie Mellon University. MetroNaps developed a process and facility to …