Panasonic Toughphone? - Friday Link Roundup

A former patrol officer shares his list of technologies found on cop TV shows that he wishes real-life cops had. Minority Report-style computers instead of Toughbooks? Come on!

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Blogger Jonathan Kozlowski talks about bees, Robocop, and why he hates the word "drone."

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The Panasonic for Business blog looks at mobile computing trends for field workers. Will 2014 be the year of the rugged tablet? (Yes. The answer is obviously going to be "yes" coming from Panasonic's official blog. Let's not pretend we can build suspense here. That said, the article does elaborate on why.)

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If you want a rugged Panasonic smartphone, you're out of luck! Panasonic doesn't make smartphones! Looks like you'll have to settle for this rugged tablet that just happens to be the size of a phone and just happens to make phone calls.

They're expected to go for around $1,300 and will drop* later this year. For more info on the new Toughpad FZ-E1 and FZ-X1 phones "tablets," check out Engadget's article and CNET's hands-on review.

*[Insert clunky joke here about how the phone won't break when it "drops"]