Friday, May 30, 2014

Panasonic recalls Toughbook CF-H2 battery pack

We've never sold Toughbook CF-H2 tablets at bobjohnson.com, so this may not be relevant to many of our customers, but we thought it would be a good idea to give you a heads up anyway.

Panasonic is recalling battery packs included with their CF-H2 tablets manufactured between June, 2011 and May, 2012. These particular battery packs have been known to overheat and, in rare instances, they can ignite. The model number of the battery packs being recalled is CF-VZSU53AW. Even if your H2 was manufactured outside of the affected time frame, you should still check the battery number to make sure a faulty replacement didn't find its way in there. For more information, see the recall announcement from Panasonic.


Thursday, May 8, 2014

Survivor Truck: How to make it through the apocalypse with Panasonic Toughbooks

Jim DeLozier is a security consultant by trade. We should all be so lucky to have a job that suits us so well. Jim DeLozier is really into safety, security and -- perhaps above all -- survival. His aptly named Survivor Truck, a ruggedized driving machine that combines the best aspects of military and emergency services vehicles with numerous added bells and whistles, pushes the boundaries for catastrophe preparedness. It can drive in virtually any terrain and sustain itself for days on end in the wilderness.

At the Survivor Truck's core is a Panasonic Toughbook CF-31 rugged laptop and a Toughpad FZ-G1 tablet. The CF-31 serves as the central element of the vehicle's command center. "One of the most important things about the Survivor Truck is the mobile technology," says DeLozier, moments before throwing his very expensive Toughpad FZ-G1 on the ground. He uses it for communication and camera operation, remotely keeping tabs on what's going on in and around his truck. "Before we had something like this," he says, "you basically had to be with the equipment. You couldn't operate it remotely, but now ... I can do everything that I can do in there, out there."

Cool. So this is a very practical piece of equipment that's presumably meant for military and disaster relief situations, right? Or maybe it's for one of those people who's getting ready for the apocalypse.



Did he, in passing, mention that it has a sniper platform? A tarp to hide from helicopter surveillance? If I ever find myself in a world where I, personally, need more ammunition on hand than a normal truck is capable of carrying, I'm not sure I want to make it. A long life of fending off mutants and cannibal hoards just ain't for me.

Still, it's a badass truck with badass Toughbooks.