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The only people who care that someone has an Apple product seems to be those who use Android.

The proliferation of iPhone cases with a cutout to show off the Apple logo contradicts your belief. Android users aren't buying those cases for iPhone owners. The iPhone owners are preferentially selecting those cases themselves. It's part and parcel of treating your phone as a (branded) fashion accessory, rather than as a technological tool.

Yeah I also thought that was expensive. For comparison, I consider the Otter Box to be a great case, it's the one I use (on my S4), it's certainly more functional and higher quality than a printed one would be. The Otter Box comes in different levels and the most expensive one is a bit less than $60. I paid $40 for my consumer-level case.

I don't think that means they can't find a market for it, just that I'm probably not that market.

And by equipping front-line personnel with the most fragile peice of telecommunications equipment in the world!

I'm assuming they'd put them into something like an Otter Box -- which should pretty much make them ruggedized enough.

Thinner phone is a desirable concept, practical or not. However, it seems that with a thinner phone, you can wrap it with a more protective case. Have you seen what Otter Box has? It can easily double the thickness.

I have used this on kayaking trips
http://www.rei.com/product/833250/seattle-sports-dry-doc-kindle-case
It is cheap and does the job

Otterbox appears to make a variety of cases for many different devices. However, they don't come cheap and might be a substantial fraction of the cost of the ereader.

For DIY, if your concern is just while the reader is in transit/packed (ie, not in your hand), have you considered just using (small) bubble wrap? Its light and two or three times around should provide adequate protection against all but a hammer. Seal inside zip lock bag(s) and for good measure toss in a couple of those silicone moisture absorbing packets. If you have a small styrofoam shell from product packaging you might be able to adapt that and close with duct tape.

http://www.otterbox.com/Amazon-Kindle-Fire-Defender-Series-Case/AMZ2-FIRE1,default,pd.html

That's because you can accesorize them into pink!

http://compare.ebay.com/like/170541070215?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar
http://www.otterbox.com/strength/strength,default,pg.html

those are just the two i found off the top of google. I'm not sure about laptops, but for phones there's a huge market out there of customizations to make it "you" just like the thousands of others of people who buy the same cover.

And even that isn't yet guaranteeable in 2011. Not everybody carries a laptop, tablet, e-reader, or smartphone. Or what scenario am I missing?

Well if you're trying to figure out how to print from a tablet, then obviously you have one you can use with your child. It's called parenting.

Perhaps I underemphasized "rugged". A careful 3-year-old can use an iPad 2, but a less careful one will likely drop it, sit on it, step on it, etc.

Maybe you should supervise your single-digit-child instead of trying to turn an iPad into a babysitter? There are of course ruggedized cases for iPads if you're too busy to be bothered with supervising your child.

Or maybe you just need a few more examples of 3 year olds that are capable of using an iPad as long as their parents are willing to actually, you know, parent.

http://www.otterbox.com/Dell-Streak-Defender-Series-Case/DEL2-STRK1,default,pd.html?dwvar_DEL2-STRK1_color=20&start=1&cgid=dell-streak-cases

When I can casually toss it onto my desk like Picard without worrying about the thing shattering, it will have officially replaced books.

Well here you go.

Officers wouldn't be able to write reports since our and most report writing / case tracking systems for law enforcement require at least Java, ...they insist on going through their company for any sort of new application installation

This is not correct, in two ways.

First of all, you would not have to go through the app store for customized apps. If you have under a hundred devices you can simply do Ad-Hoc deployments to everyone. If you have more than 500 employees (not devices) then you can get an Enterprise development license which lets you distribute your own applications to any number of devices - they never go through the app store or the review process.

Secondly - you may still be able to use the Java reports thanks to the Java to Obj-C cross compiler. Since you are deploying to your own devices the App Store rules around using other languages are irrelevant. I'd probably look to convert the front end of those using some simple dev environment like PhoneGap though.

There are a number of firms around the country that can help you get set up with enterprise licenses and even with the report thing if you want. Otterbox already has a good strong case as well, so you wouldn't even have to spend the $900 you quoted (it would be more like $700).

I have this waterproof casing for my N800: http://www.otterbox.com/handheld-pda-cases/2600-series/2600-series-pda-case/

Waterproof up to one meter, and it floats so no worries about loosing it in the water. Also shock resistant and crush resistant. I bought it many years ago for the palm I've used then, and I was happy to see that the N800 was also usable in it. I hope the N900 is as well since I plan on getting one at some point, but it should be, since its about the same size.

I use my N800 as a GPS outside sometimes, and use this so I don't have to worry about dropping it in a moist terrain or if it starts raining. I also use it for reading ebooks when taking a bath.

So a smartphone/pda doesn't have to be unusable in conditions like the ones you describe. Altough I'm not sure if you could make phonecalls while its inside the shield, it might block the sound waves too much. Touchscreen devices work great on it, since one side has a soft transparent plastic film over where the screen is. Buttons on the front work well trough it too. Buttons on the side or top are not reachable however.

I did some tests with mine, among other things leaving it at the bottom of my bathtub for 24 hours with something heavy on it to make it stay at the bottom. No moisture got in.

So pdas/smartphones aren't necceserily useless in the conditions you describe, you just have to have the right gear for it.

The screen on my Tom-Tom is only modestly larger than the screen on my iPhone. Oh, the DEVICE is much lager, it has about a half-inch of surrounding plastic framing the screen on every side, but as far a screen size goes I think they are roughly the same width with the Tom-Tom being about half again taller (assuming the phone is in landscape mode).

I don't use the GPS for any of the things GGP points out as being shortcomings for the phone, but none of those seem insurmountable. A high end case like this would be sufficient for using the phone on a boat or motorcycle (and I'm sure you can get something similar for most smart phones). The lack of elevation and lat-long data is simply a software issue, which could be quite trivial to correct (the GPS must actually HAVE this data, just no current software that I am aware of presents it to the user). The software on my Tom-Tom is the same way. Since it's a designed for driving, it doesn't present me with coordinate based locations or elevation data. It assumes that I'm taking the roads to where ever I'm going and plots routes bases on a street database instead. Doesn't mean that IT doesn't now my coordinate based location or elevation, just that it doesn't tell me the way a hiking or boat GPS program will.

The lack of a an "autohelm" interface is probably the most difficult to correct issue that the GP mentions, since that would require an outside hardware manufacturer to make it work. since the new iPhone OS has hooks to allow hardware manufacturers to interface with the docking port though (and most other smart phones always had this capability), that's not impossible to correct,y just requires the hardware manufacturer to see enough interest and create the interface. Not likely in the next week or two I'll grant you, but certainly possible and even likely of the market seems worth the effort.

This kind of case is what the iPods get put in. I'd say they're probably close enough to mil spec that it makes the iPods clearly more cost effective. It's not like iPods are particularly fragile to begin with - once you protect them from moisture and sand, the only significant vulnerability that remains is the touch screen itself, which is easily protected with a flip cover. I doubt that temperature is much of an issue, given that they are all solid-state devices.

Another example of an enclosure is this one, for the first-gen touch, shown at the bottom of the page with an attached sniper rifle. This is clearly one of the best-protected iPods in the world. If you read more on that site, you'll see that they have done plenty of testing to ensure that the iPod can survive the shock of the attached rifle being fired numerous times.

I used to have my iMate Jam in one of these http://www.otterbox.com/products/pda_cases/ in some pretty harsh environments. Adds to the bulk a bit, but it's the best solution I've found so far.

Yeah. I've got an otter box for my ~16in widescreen laptop. Together, they weight a frikkin' TON. But, it's waterproof, and protects the laptop when dropped. Which, sadly, happens a lot since the hooks on the shoulder strap are so shittily designed. However, I can jump up & down on the thing with my laptop running inside, and nothing gets hurt. Except me, if I land wrong. But that hasn't happened, yet.

Especially if you are travelling light, take just one device. A possibility would be the HP IPAQ 6515, which incorporates GSM/GPRS phone; general purpose computer with word-processor, spreadsheet, web browsing, email, etc; camera of reasonable quality; MP3 player (obviously); and (useful when travelling) a GPS receiver. If you're travelling you may want to keep it in an Otterbox.

I first started using these for a project for fisheries inspectors working in very tough environments; I now use one as my own single device. I confess I haven't tried to get Linux running on it, but it works OK with Microsoft.

Oh, and shove em in one of these, or something similar:

http://www.otterbox.com/products/otterbox/

The military-grade case actually makes sense for people like me who keep letting their mp3 player fall on the floor, but able to withstand a mortar shell explosion might be overkill. Otterbox are waterproof plastic housings the protect everything, including the screen and clickwheel (unlike those military ones in the article). They have foam bumpters inside for shock protection, and to keep the seal perfect, the otterbox plugs into the headphone jack and headphones into the otterbox.

OtterBox makes nigh-indestructible (and waterproof!) cases of all sorts, and it looks like they've branched out into laptop cases as well.

OtterBox makes nigh-indestructible (and waterproof!) cases of all sorts, and it looks like they've branched out into laptop cases as well.

Otterbox makes a rugged laptop case as well: http://www.otterbox.com/products/pc_cases/laptop_c ase/index.htm

Ive used their products before to store documents (passport, wallet, etc) while snorkling - they are completely waterproof and usually float.

Otterbox http://www.otterbox.com/ has recently released a laptop case. I've heard great things about Otterbox's products in the past, and might be worth checking out. Check out the review: http://www.techfear.com/articles/2006/7/otterbox_l aptop_case.shtml Supplies are still limited on their medium sized case and they're only considering producing a smaller and larger sized case. This has gotten me thinking about protecting my laptop for an upcoming trip...

http://www.otterbox.com/products/ipod_cases/index. htm

Otterbox makes a nice line of cases for iPods (and others) that make all of these feats possible. You can drive cars over these cases and they'll be fine.

Look at the Stylus Epic as well, but ditch the ziploc and get an OtterBox.

A co-worker pointed this website out.

Otterbox.com - Armor PDA Cases

These cases look like a good solution to your needs.

been wishing for "a large, armored, waterproof, 15-hour-battery-life, rubberized PDA". Why would I want that over-priced piece of junk when I can get one of these for my current SMALL PDA?

With the right software, something like this could make a really nice alternative to other high-priced, 'ruggedized' hand-helds.

Instead of any of these USD1500+ devices, I'm using an Audiovox Maestro PDA with a ruggedized case. The PDA cost USD140 on eBay and the case cost ~USD100 with shipping. The biggest cost was the crappy software.

(tig)

As the topic is carrying a laptop while engaging in physical activities beyond merely walking, I offer a cautionary tale, and a product opinion:

A laptop bag with a shoulder strap will tend to shift as you move, which is alright while walking, but intolerable on a bicycle or motorcycle. Because of this, I purchased a triangular shoulder bag -- the kind with a single large padded strap over the right shoulder, and a small side strap on the left to prevent the bag from shifting. Several laptop bag makers offer this style of bag.

It worked great until I was hit by a car while on my bike, and landed on top of the bag. The resulting tension concentrated on the single strap of the bag and broke my collarbone in two places (at the edges of the wide strap). I now have a 7" scar, a nice metal plate, and 8 screws in my collarbone to help me remember the event. No more shoulder-bags for me, and most laptop backpacks are uncomfortable (the strap presses on the bolt-heads).

I now use a Mountainsmith lumbar pack (a slightly more dignified version of a giant fannypack). This offers all of the no-shifting benefits of the backpack, without much risk of additional upper body injury if I feel the need to fling myself in front of a car again. As an added bonus the pack offers a small degree of back protection. The "Passage" model is/was designed for a 15" laptop + almost 2" of papers, has both a briefcase-style handle and shoulder strap that stows away. When I'm on the motorcycle, I use both the waist and shoulder strap, just in case one fails. I'd hate to see $2500 of equipment go skittering down the road without me. The Passage bag is very well made, has held up perfectly for more than a year, and provided adequate protection for the laptop in a few minors bumps/drops. It's available here, here, and some other places.

Jon

(Oh, and yes, the laptop survived the accident above -- inside an Otterbox.)

I can't believe I am the only one mentioning and OtterBox

There's a few good options. If you merely want to be able to carry it around without worrying, you can check out an Otterbox.

But if you want to actually be able to use the Palm in wet conditions, you'll want to check out Aquapac.

Good stuff, both of em.