Tablets are great, excepting two problems: they’re fragile, and they’re a bit less functional once they’re outside the range of a cell tower.
Earl ($250) aims to solve both those problems. It’s a tablet built specifically for wilderness pursuits, be it canoeing, hiking, hunting, boating—anywhere normally hostile to regular tablets.
Earl is loaded with tools for trekkers of every strip. It has a GPS chip, giving you precise location, direction, and elevation. It has internal weather sensors, and can give you up-to-the-minute information on temperature, pressure, and humidity. It has a two-way radio and a radio tuner, keeping you connected. It also has a whole bunch of wilderness guides.
In terms of hardware, Earl has a glove-friendly touchscreen, a flexible screen, and a laminated solar panel that’ll charge the device fully in five hours.
The device is currently in the preorder stage, and expects to ship later in the summer.
