Las Vegas, Nevada -- In a nutshell, the Ford Mobile Office is an in-truck mobile computer in a Ford F-250 truck. The target market is contractors who need to be on location at construction sites, but also check email and be "in touch" electronically.

The PC is made by Stargate Mobile, and sports a Transmeta Crusoe 1GHz Processor which makes me think it could it be slow. Stargate and Microsoft told us that the next edition will have an AMD processor. It also has 4GB of flash memory, PCMCIA slot (that you can use for CDMA of EVDO card), and it's hooked into the power supply of the vehicle.

The Stargate rep wanted to show us just how tough the PC really is. So we made him drop it three to four times, pretending our camera didn't work (see our Ford Mobile Office slideshow on TechnoRide for a photo of this). This is the final drop. And hey, it still worked. Outside of the dock, the PC will run for at least three hours, according to Stargate.

So, now if you have a PC, you also need a printer, right?  Microsoft and Stargate propose to put a USB hub in the center console so that you can hook up a printer (also in the slideshow). Close the console cover, and you could never tell a printer was underneath.

The Mobile Office will be offered as an upgrade to the 2006 F-250 truck for $3000.