Motorola MC65 – Have you been working out?

1 12 2011
Motorola MC65 gets double the RAM soon

Motorola MC65 gets double the RAM soon

Quick one today just to announce that the trusty Motorola MC65 Rugged PDA now comes with a 512MB RAM option.  The standard option on the MC65 has always been 256MB/1G but now this will be 512MB/1GB.

We couldn’t get an exact date when this would be available but we’ll let you know when it is.  We’re also not sure if the extra RAM will help all that much out of the box, however one thing for sure is that extra RAM in a device will always allow you to run more apps.  As the Rugged PDA becomes more prevalent in the solutions industry, it’s being asked to do a lot more and this will be a welcome move.

Check back soon for more!

www.ruggedandmobile.com


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HP Ipaq 214 PDA Updates and Alternatives

8 09 2011
HP iPAQ 214 Replacements are available

HP iPAQ 214 Replacements are available

We’ve had a lot of people talking about the iPAQ 214, 210 etc and other HP PDA’s as a lot of them have also gone end of line quite quickly, with no imminent replacements due.  What I wanted to do was just highlight a device we have here that’s an old hand at replacing devices like the HP ipaq’s, HTC P6500 and the old MC35.

Enter the Pidion BM170

The BM170 is a unique device iin the rugged market being the only semi-rugged PDA with a PDA form factor and large screen.  Its also extremely versatile with many different hardware and OS specs ranging from 128MB RAM, QVGA screen and no WAN or camera, up to a fully specified 256/256MB, VGA, 3MP Cam, HSDPA device.  It sports both flavours of WM6.5, WM6.1 for better support of older devices and it has a version of Android v2.1 certified by the manufacturer.

The iPaq was probably cheaper than the BM170 but not by much but the BM170 brings with it a whole set of new advantages over the HP PDA including:

  • Supportable device with a range of warranty, repair and full service options.
  • Semi rugged design with a drop spec giving you a more resilient device.
  • Better road map, so you’ll know where you are on the replacement model far earlier and the replacement will be sympathetic to the existing model.
  • Better knowledge and general support.  Us rugged folk here like to talk mission critical and we understand and offer guidance on everything we sell and Pidion device are no exception.  We’re not flogging phones and PDA’s to punters, we stand by you the whole time and know how to keep your business running.
  • The BM170 is a line of business semi-rugged PDA, not a shiny PDA designed for managers to get their emails and view word documents!

With prices ranging from under £300 to just over £400 there’s definitely something in the Pidion BM170 range that should work for you.  we’ve had a great deal of success in transferring iPAQ, HTC and Motorola people already and for larger projects we have loan devices so you can make the decision on if its right for you with your own eyes.

Come talk to us here if you want to know more.

www.ruggedandmobile.com


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Intermec CS40 Price Offer

6 09 2011

Intermec’s CS40 is a small, light but fully rugged PDA that makes for a great option for your users if a small sized Rugged PDA matters.  Whilst we don’t think it’s as rugged as it’s larger sibling devices such as the CN50 series (on right below), it’s still IP54 rated and has a drop sepc of 1.2m.

Intermec's CS40 (middle) clearly shares more in common size-wise with a semi-rugged PDA.

Intermec's CS40 (middle) clearly shares more in common size-wise with a semi-rugged PDA.

The pricing on the CS40 has always been a bit high and we have a great price drop on the device right now up until end of October which puts the device at around £630 each for any quantity at all.  This will put the device pricing in line with the Opticon H21 and it also gives users a reduced price point for the size too.

What you’ll love over a larger PDA like the CN50

  • Small and light
  • Price
  • Micro USB Adaptors
  • Cheaper Accessories

What you might hate

  • Small battery
  • Tiny 2.8″ LCD
  • Tiny keyboard, especially in Qwerty guise.
  • Not as rugged, despite what the spec sheet might say.

The small Rugged PDA class is still finding it’s way and we’re still trying to educate people on why you would go for a smaller device over a more classic Rugged PDA size so come and talk to us if you want to know more.

www.ruggedandmobile.com


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Motorola gets Googled up!

15 08 2011
Google Swallows up Motorola Mobile

Google Swallows up Motorola Mobile

Google have today announced they have bought Motorola’s Mobile division in a monster $12b deal, which comes as no surprise as the ailing side of Motorola’s business has been undervalued for some time now.

We understand the mobile side of this business and are pretty sure here that whilst $12b is probably a little bit over priced for motorola’s mobile division, Motorola probably have quite a few patents lurking in the warehouse and are reputed to have one of the largest and most comprehensive patent lists in the industry.  I suspect that Google will not only be making good use of these patents in its new hardware, but also their lawyers will no doubt be eager to get hold of many of these!!

What does this all mean?  Well its big news for the smartphone industry.  If you;re HTC or LG or even Samsung, you must be wondering what you’re future is going to hold now and this could either be the best move Google made or the worst.  On one hand it has put them on a par with their most successful competitors in Apple and RIM (Blackberry) but on the other running an essential opensource system and having their own hardware manufactur kind of opposes what thsi is all about.

What does it mean for us Rugged folk though?  Well anything rugged or data capture like Rugged PDA’s or Barcode Scanners is still based in the “Solutions” side of the business which is not part of this deal.  We’re still trying to get a statement to concerned customers but at this point we do not see any changes to business as we know it our side.

I think this will personally help to demark the shiny consumer market from the rugged line of business one but with Android based rugged PDA’s already available form other manufactruers we’ll be watching this space very very closely.

We’ll let people know any more news as we get it..

www.ruggedandmobile.com


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New models line up in Pidion BM170 Range

19 07 2011
WM6.1 - A step forward?

WM6.1 - A step forward?

The Pidion BM170 offers customers the only PDA form factor with large LCD device in the semi-rugged class of device and we like it here because whilst there are other devices in the Semi-Rugged PDA line class, the BM170 is the only device that has its roots firmly in the “Rugged” camp.  The others are tending to market and run themselves as durable smartphones and we all know where using a smartphone for your line of business application gets you.

The predecessor to the Pidion BM170 was the BM150R which we announced the end of life for some time ago now.  However the BM150R did leave us a little bit quickly for our liking and as such left a small hole in the market for a sub £400 basic semi rugged PDA.  WM6.5 also gives a lot of software vendors issues and depnding on the sub version we’ve particularly seen problems around the signature capture elements of solutions where the gesture mapping in the WM6.5 device is playing havoc with this.  We’ll have another post on this soon.

Pidion have recognised this and answered the call by launching 2 new budget versions of the BM170 designed to not only offer a reduced price point but also to be more compatible with WM6.1 versions of devices they might need to run along side.

The line up consists of 2 new devices:

The BM170-G is aimed at the field keeping GSM, HSDPA, AGPS and the 3MP camera.  The BM170-L6 is aimed at “within-4-walls” with no WAN capability, no camera or AGPS.  More importantly both devices run WM6.1 instead of the WM6.5 versions of current models and they also sport QVGA LCD’s and reduced 128MB of RAM.  Both devices have significantly reduced price point and the BM170-L6 in particular come sin very inexpensively.

It’s not yet clear if these devices will run the Android OS available to the BM170, we feel it would run it fine and we can’t really see anything that would stop you from upgrading to the WM6.5 in the future if they make that upgrade available to buy.  You need to be careful with the the 128MB RAM but evertyhign else is there.

Sometimes taking a small step back can be a useful excercise and we know there is demand for these devices so its a good move by a rugged PDA company who is clearly looking to develop devices at this end of the market that still fulfill the “Rugged” brief.

www.ruggedandmobile.com


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Categories : New products and First Looks, News & Communication

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