Meet Earl Rugged Android Tablet

[+eccentric_]

 

Earl is a new crowd funded 6" rugged Android tablet.

 

Long battery life, touch e-ink screen (which is glove friendly!), GPS + GLONASS, all in a IP67 rugged 4.1 Android tablet for $249 (pre-order) sounds like a pretty amazing deal (if it proves to be more than vaporware)

 

I'm going to be watching the updates. I need more convincing before buying one but overall it sounds great.

 

Specs:

• Android 4.1
  
• Flexible 6″ E-ink screen (1024×768)
  
• Frontlight
  
• IR touchscreen
  
• Waterproof shell
  
• i.MX 6 DualLight 1GHz Cortex A9
  
• 1GB ram
  
• 16GB memory + microSD
  
• Wifi b/g/n
  
• BT 4.0
  
• FRS/GMRS/MURS
  
• GPS + GLONASS
  
• Accelerometer
  
• Gyroscope
  
• Magnetometer
  
• Temperature
  
• Barometer
  
• Humidity
  
• Anemometer
  
• AM/FM/SW/LW
  
• IR blaster
  
• 20+ hour battery
  
• 20″ usb lanyard
  
• Weight: 303 grams (10.8 oz)
  
• Dimensions 183mm x 121mm x 15mm (7.2″ x 4.75″ x 0.6″)
  

Edited May 10, 2013 by eccentric_

[the3gmen]

This looks interesting.

[tr_s]

Highly interesting. e-Ink ought to be a dream for mapping devices.

[insig]

I'm interested to see if this makes it to market. All it's missing is the kitchen sink! The e ink display won't be power saving if the map is being refreshed all the time, so maybe it was chosen for readability rather than battery life.

[tr_s]

I'm interested to see if this makes it to market. All it's missing is the kitchen sink! The e ink display won't be power saving if the map is being refreshed all the time, so maybe it was chosen for readability rather than battery life.

 

I haven't checked out how e-Ink displays work these days. Maybe it is possible to refresh just a few pixels to save power.

There is really no reason for the whole display to refresh for general outdoor use. Some pixels around the arrow that shows your location is enough.

When the arrow is too discentered by some measure, then the whole map could update and recenter.

[insig]

I'm interested to see if this makes it to market. All it's missing is the kitchen sink! The e ink display won't be power saving if the map is being refreshed all the time, so maybe it was chosen for readability rather than battery life.

 

I haven't checked out how e-Ink displays work these days. Maybe it is possible to refresh just a few pixels to save power.

There is really no reason for the whole display to refresh for general outdoor use. Some pixels around the arrow that shows your location is enough.

When the arrow is too discentered by some measure, then the whole map could update and recenter.

 

I was thinking about trying to refresh the entire screen with the map set to track up.

[+eccentric_]

I haven't checked out how e-Ink displays work these days. Maybe it is possible to refresh just a few pixels to save power.

There is really no reason for the whole display to refresh for general outdoor use. Some pixels around the arrow that shows your location is enough.

When the arrow is too discentered by some measure, then the whole map could update and recenter.

It is possible for epaper to do partial/local refreshes. If/how they implement that across all Android so all our programs can benefit from the energy savings is still a question.

 

Even without it epaper will still add energy savings during normal use.

[+bpwilldo]

I understand modern graphic sub-systems know the current state of the display. Only those pixels that need changing are updated whenever a refresh occurs. Whether it is seconds or fractions thereof.

 

I wonder about this Earl. No mention of geocaching nor the release of a SDK. Regular Android apps would need to be aware of the hardware and communicate with it to work properly. This isn't a phone. Right now its a 3d printed prototype. See what happens.

[+Viajero Perdido]

Meanwhile, I see Amazon has just bought a maker of color e-ink displays that are readable in bright sunlight. It's easy to guess what might come to market as a result of that...

 

Sounds like either way, we'll have to be patient.

[+baloo&bd]

Memory looks like it will be an issue unless they have larger available.

[+Red90]

Memory looks like it will be an issue unless they have larger available.

Why? You can add memory.

[+Red90]

Wow the forum software is a mess today....

Edited May 16, 2013 by Red90

[+baloo&bd]

it is running Ice Cream Sandwich OS. Ever since gingerbread you're not allowed to move apps to the SD card without rooting the device. the listed memory is 16 gigabytes, which means after overhead you have between eight and nine gigabyte to work with that sounds like a lot and it is if you're only using it for geocaching, however add in GPX files, which most Apps require to be in their directory, you can heat up that memory real fast.

[+Red90]

GPX files take very little room. Maps are the only big things.

[+baloo&bd]

GPX files take very little room. Maps are the only big things.

 

If it will work for you, great. I was just pointing out with very little memory, I can't see it becoming to widely accepted. Even it is in the $149 or less price range, it will have a tough road to negotiate.

 

edit: I just read the planned price point. Oh well, it may have looked good on paper. I also stand corrected, it is running Jelly Bean.

Edited May 16, 2013 by baloo&bd

[+Red90]

I'm just pointing out your logic is off. A 1000 cache pocket query is 1 MB or so. That will never affect the internal memory.

 

You can't compare price point with a regular tablet....

[+eccentric_]

Your “overhead” numbers are exaggerated with 16GB you should still be left with closer to 13GB free, plenty for apps.

 

It has microSD which can be used to store all the bulky things like maps, and music. Most GPSr have typically less then 4GB internal and rely on microSD cards from maps so it's no different here.

 

I wish they would add some new videos or progress updates.

[+torkel72]

Cool gagdet, but will it be available with 3G too?