How Printing Challenges Shaped the Modern Barcode

As we celebrate the completion of another calendar year, we’re surrounded by lists of 2012 highlights. One such event that was of particular interest to those of us who work in the industrial computing field and that also captured headlines in mainstream publications worldwide was the December 9 passing of Norman J. Woodland, co-inventor of…

Industrial-Grade Monitors

What differentiates industrial-grade monitors from their consumer- and even commercial-grade counterparts? Given that price is often the primary driver of so many of our consumer-technology purchases these days, the temptation to carry that habit into the industrial arena can feel irresistible. For example, I received a Black Friday email promotion last week tempting me with…

Advantech’s Latest Industrial Panel PCs with i7 Processor

Intel’s Core i7 processor is now available in two of Advantech’s newest industrial-grade panel PCs, the 15-inch IPPC-9151G and the 17-inch IPPC-9171G. When I first read Advantech’s press release announcing the introduction of the Core i7 into its Panel PC line, I already knew the processor to be the flagship product of Intel’s premier processor…

Printer Wars: Episode I – Receipt Printer Options Can Be a Menace

If you’ve seen Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, you may remember hearing Qui-Gon Jinn say, “There’s always a bigger fish.” Well, when you’re in the market for a new receipt printer, chances are that you want to know what the “biggest fish” actually is before you complete your purchase. Below are some of the most…

iOS vs. Android vs. Windows vs….? in the Industrial Arena

Some final thoughts on the Peerless Research Group survey that underlies Honeywell’s white paper, Are Smartphones and Tablets Suitable for Use in Warehouse and Distribution Center Operations?: While the survey reports that current usage in the industrial arena heavily favors iPhones over Android-based smartphones by 56% to 29% and iPads over Android-based tablets by 43%…

Smartphones vs. Tablets in the Warehouse & Logistics Environment

I hadn’t intended to post so many notes on the subject, but the more I’ve considered the Peerless Research Group survey underlying Honeywell’s white paper, Are Smartphones and Tablets Suitable for Use in Warehouse and Distribution Center Operations?, the more I’ve found worth noting. For example, which is more likely to be deployed in warehouse…

iBuilding Series – The Intelligent Office

My previous posts covering the Advantech Intelligent Building Solution (AiBS) focused on the first three of its four major iBuilding scenarios: Intelligent Parking, Intelligent Reception, the Intelligent Meeting Room and the Intelligent Office – scenarios that were specifically considered by Advantech to encourage and facilitate development of system refinements that building-automation planners might otherwise miss….

iBuilding Series – Intelligent Reception and Intelligent Meeting Rooms

My previous post covering the Advantech Intelligent Building Solution (AiBS) focused primarily on its Intelligent Parking scenario, just one of the four major scenarios that help define this comprehensive approach to iBuilding design and management – scenarios that were specifically considered by Advantech to encourage development of refinements busy enterprise engineers might otherwise miss. AiBS’s…

iBuilding Series – Intelligent Parking

Recently, I wrote about the general concept of Intelligent Buildings, noting that the focus of intelligent-building systems now encompasses advantages that go well beyond traditional considerations of energy efficiency and the basic building subsystems that control access, lighting, HVAC, communication, etc. Indeed, intelligent-building concepts are being rapidly refined in ways never imaginable until the proliferation…

Smartphones in Industrial Environments – How Does Price Rank as a Consideration?

In an earlier note on Honeywell Scanning & Mobility’s white paper, Are Smartphones and Tablets Suitable for Use in Warehouse and Distribution Center Operations?, I admitted my surprise at a survey conclusion that “user acceptance” (83%) was exceeded only by ruggedness/durability (90%) and uptime/minimal downtime (89%) in rank of concerns about deployment of consumer smartphones…