Slashdot Mirror

WinCE still exists on products that are sold right now . PalmOS doesn't. I think WinCE beat it just fine.

Now I'm going to go back to work on this custom barcode scanning application I'm developing for a client that uses some devices running Windows Mobile 6.5 (WinCE 5.2 kernel, pre-Windows Phone 7) and Windows Enhanced Handheld 6.5 (WinCE 5.2 kernel with some userspace enhancements backported from Windows Phone 7). These devices use real barcode imagers, not cameras, so, no, a cheap-o Android phone would not suffice. They're ruggedized handheld computers, and they cost around $2k each. This is the level of hardware that runs WinCE.

Remind me again how WinCE is an also-ran? Oh, yeah, that's right. It's not. It's just not used for anything glamorous. It gets real work done. Isn't that the measure by which Linux is supposedly better than Windows? Sounds like a double-standard to me.

Meanwhile, my iPhone has been abandoned in a box in my closet for 4 years and my Android phone has only three jobs: Cellphone use (calls, texting, etc.), Bejeweled-clone when I'm trying to bore myself to sleep, and sucking power from a USB port. So, yeah, "glamorous" ain't all it's cracked up to be.

That same article explained why: Apple wants the iPhone to work reliably, not to be known as a toy that can load various shareware apps, but which freezes erratically and is plagued with spyware and security hazards.

The Orwellian double-speak is mind-boggling. This is the world according to an Apple fanboy:

A device that can be adapted to do anything within the limits of technology and security: a toy.
A device that does only what Apple product managers and Cingular marketers think you should be allowed to do with it: apparantly, not a toy.

Here's a little trivia: the Apple store uses either Symbol or Intermec-based handheld devices to scan products. These devices run either Palm OS or Windows CE. Apple uses toys to manage its invetory.

Alien Technologies http://www.alientechnology.com/
Impinj http://www.impinj.com/
Intermec http://www.intermec.com/

Ads By Google

RFID Solutions
Zebra RFID & Smart Label Solutions Download A Free White Paper Now
http://www.rfid.zebra.com

Gen 2 & ISO RFID
RFID Systems & Implementation. RFID Tags, Readers & Printers.
http://www.intermec.com

gps/gsm/gprs/rfid device
RFID in mobiles and watches etc Launching new gps/gsm/rfid belt
http://www.aarttrack.com

The Intermec 700 series mobile computer has been shipping with optional GSM or CDMA and 802.11 and bluetooth for over a year now. It even has a built in 'frigen laser beam! Intermec 700

I have set up bar code stuff before and found the best way of getting what I want is to write it myself. I was using a printer similar to this Intermec one. Intermec provided nice documentation on everything needed to program it. The resulting data sent to the printer looked something like this. So see if your printer has a nice simple programming language and then sit down for an afternoon with some fresh coffee and work out a template for it.

I have set up bar code stuff before and found the best way of getting what I want is to write it myself. I was using a printer similar to this Intermec one. Intermec provided nice documentation on everything needed to program it. The resulting data sent to the printer looked something like this. So see if your printer has a nice simple programming language and then sit down for an afternoon with some fresh coffee and work out a template for it.

I have an Intermec 6651 Handheld PC. It runs Windows CE 3.0 (HPC2000, same OS as the Jornada 720), and it's great for ebooks. Its keyboard folds around behind the screen, turning it into a tablet. This combined with Mobipocket reader makes a great ebook reader. I just flip the screen around, and touch the left or right side with my thumbs or finger to "turn pages".

The screen is awesome, 800x480x16bit active matrix. Very bright (but of course useless in the sun).

Google it for more info... I've seen them on eBay for $350 or so...

• RFID 101
• RFID standard for automobile tires
• RFID glossary
• The RFID Journal

Actually, the tags in tires include the tire type, date of manufacture and the car that they were first mounted to. But that's a very specialized application, and we were talking about the general consumer scenario--John Doe checking out of Best Buy, Sears, Gap, XYZ Grocery, etc.

I doubt that you'll find any RFID tags with a memory size of 65,536 bits! And if you do, they certainly aren't the ones that we were talking about--disposable, cheap passive tags to be used by merchants at the point of sale. Sure they could be used in intrusive fashions, in the same way that UPC codes were going to be the mark of the beast when they debuted in the '80s, and The Net was going to wreck all our lives and put us under control of nefarious orgzanizations.

But these RFID tags are going to be used for checkout purposes, and any merchant that doesn't disable them at the POS isn't going to be faced with a tricky problem down the road. For example, if a customer walks back into your store (Walmart) wearing a watch, pair of shoes, t-shirt and some candy he purchased there last week, how are you going to know whether the goods were already purchased or not?! Remember, these are read-only tags, not read/write tags. It's therefore to the merchant's advantage to disable the tags once the item has been purchased.

At the same time, the unique coding of items is fairly useless until you get into large-ticket items that may need to be repaired or serviced. Knowing that you sold Aiwa stereo #12345 is not better than knowing that you sold an Aiwa stereo model ABC. And when a 60" TV comes back in for repair, being able to scan the RFID emitter for its serial number takes only a few seconds off reading it off of the back of the unit and typing it in.

There are a host of applications for the technology, and I've only covered a slice of them. Anti-theft and non-line of sight ID'ing of products are two of the most beneficial, and in my opinion they far outweight the insidious uses of various organizations that paranoid people like to think up.

Yes, there is an emerging standard that can provide for this. 802.1x has provisions for key rotation, that can all but elminate the problems with current WEP.

Cisco created their own proprietary version of this essentially with LEAP, but 802.1x will be the eventual standard.

At least one vendor, Intermec Technologies has already released an access point with 802.1x capapbilities.

Additionally, Intermec was the only vendor at the recent N+I running both 802.11a and 802.11b in the same access point. I saw the demo and it was pretty sweet.

Intermec has the Model 70 Pocket PC.

I believe I saw a somewhat industrialized iPaq recently, but I can't find it now. Probably not announced yet.

PalmOS supports color and some arguably great multimedia features. Usefullness, I guess, is in the eye of the beholder. I think the CE/Pocket PC devices are starting to finally pick up steam.

Intermec's pen tablet is pretty bad ass:
6651 Pen Tablet Computer

...and it supports 802.11b wireless too!

Another solution you may consider is the Intermec 6651 terminal (approx $1500 on Mobile Planet.com). It's fairly light-weight (approx 2 lbs), about the right dimentions (8.4" L * 5.5" W), has a built in camera, and also supports PCMCIA Type 2 cards, as well as CompactFlash cards. It runs Windows CE and the thing I like about it over the Compaq I-Paq is that it has a keyboard so you're not stuck screen typing everthing. The battery life is about 8 hours( as long as you turn the backlight off or autodimm it after a few seconds).

It only has 32 meg of memory which is split between storage and programs, but you could easily add a couple hundred meg CF card or Sandisk for the storage. The camera will do still pictures as well as video w/ sound. I have been able to fit about 2 hours of video on a 175 Type 2 Sandisk card, or about 8533 still pictures. Sandisk makes Type 2 cards up to 880 megs or so, but they are pretty pricey(~$1800). Over at pricewatch, you can pick up a 256 meg Sandisk for about $300 or a 256 meg CompactFlash card for about $355. The battery is removable, so you could get additional batteries (about $129) to swap out along with a couple of Sandisks during your ride and have your support van charge the batteries/upload the video.

Another great thing is that it has a built in 56k modem so you can dail into any ISP along the way (great for where you won't be able to get cellular coverage) and also a USB port. If you decided you didn't want to use the built in camera you could always opt for an external USB Camera that fit your needs.


If you want to know more, take the fuzzy rabbit slippers off and mail me.


In the words of Homer Simpson... "Mmmmm... beer."

If you don't mind a bit smaller screen and using WinCE, the Intermec 6651 is a great terminal. It has a fully rotatable touch screen, as well as a bonus of having an integrated digital camera in the hinge area. The quality of the camera is not the greatest in the world, but for an integrated camera in a light-weight mobile device, I'm happy with it. You can find more information on www.mobileplanet.com by doing a seach for 6651.

It will faithfully do 802.11b wireless and works great around the house, also works great for taking with me to class for taking notes. And with the touch screen and included software, you can even do diagrams!

If you want more info about it, take off the fuzzy rabit slippers and e-mail me.


--Josh

In the words of Homer Simpson... "Mmmmm... beer."

These types of RF networks have been in use by companies for quite a few years (i.e. manufacturing data collection)

Like the TacoMan said, many of these networks aren't secured very well.

Half a dozen manufacturing plants that I integrated RF data collection devices for did not use any type of authentication of encryption and relied solely on frequency channels to identify remote RF terminals.

For a few hundred bucks, Intermec and others can provide you with ISA cards to tap into RF networks and even PCMCIA cards that you can plug right into your laptop.

These devices setup an IP connection that ties a psuedo terminal on a unix server to the ANSI/VT100/etc emulation terminal running on the data collection devices themselves.

Some of the newer models provide a light weight web browser configured for various ports on a unix server to handle the data collection interface.

Almost all (95%+) of the data collection applications that are attached to the other end of these RF terminals are running on critical enterprise servers so that they can be close to the databases they feed.

It always baffled me that the IS tech's would be so lax on security simply because it was 'RF'.

As a side note, eavesdropping on an RF network is orders of magnitude easier than typical networks (ethernet / ATM) and effectively impossible to identify. For a few hundred bucks anyone can make a RF 'tcpdump' with a laptop and RF PCMCIA card that will trap every single IP packet flying over the RF networks.

So, the moral of this story is:
RF entails much more security risk than typical networking. Beware when you implement an RF network, and keep security at the top of your to-do list.

Well, it all depends on what you need to connect. If you only need to connect one insturment the palm might do, Although the screen might be a little constricting. The company I work for makes some handheld, ruggedized, handheld PC class machines. These were ment mostly for a factory/warehouse environment, but might be suitable for you. In particular I might recommend our 6110 model. Which has a 1/4 VGA screen and a 486 processor. It comes with a MS OS installed, but some of the guys here in the software development area have gotten them to run Linux (Slack 6 I think). It has several serial ports avaliable, both internal and external, and 2 free PCMCIA slots.
_____________

Well, it all depends on what you need to connect. If you only need to connect one insturment the palm might do, Although the screen might be a little constricting. The company I work for makes some handheld, ruggedized, handheld PC class machines. These were ment mostly for a factory/warehouse environment, but might be suitable for you. In particular I might recommend our 6110 model. Which has a 1/4 VGA screen and a 486 processor. It comes with a MS OS installed, but some of the guys here in the software development area have gotten them to run Linux (Slack 6 I think). It has several serial ports avaliable, both internal and external, and 2 free PCMCIA slots.
_____________

Gimmie something like a pocket PC, or at least larger, color screens on these cell phones.

I'm gonna wait a while, and stick with my Intermec 6642.