Do you remember when we mentioned that the US Census Bereau was using a Windows Mobile device for collecting the 2010 census data?  Well it turns out the project has not gone well, and will be scrapped.  Its too bad - its an interesting application with biometrics, wireless communication, etc.

Today at CTIA, Microsoft announced Windows Mobile 6.1.  This version is still built on top of Windows CE 5.0, not CE 6.0.  As far as we can tell, the primary update is improvement in integration with System Center Mobile Device Manager.  There doesn't seem to be much that will matter for data collection devices.

We've discussed Windows Mobile 6.1 before.

Where have we been?  If you've noticed the lack of postings over the last few weeks, we've been hard at work on something new which will be announced at our Training Session in a few weeks.

Here are a few news items of interest that we've collected.

Motorola to split
Motorola has announced that they are splitting their handset business from the rest of the company.  We assume that the former Symbol Technologies group will be in the Broadband and Mobility divison, but that has not been announced yet.  It appears that only the consumer Handset division (mobile phones) are being split off.

Unitech PA500
We've received a Unitech PA500 device and we are working on a client for it.  This device is a small form-factor (PDA-style) data collector with a linear scanner.

Opticon
We're looking at the Opticon HT16 / 19 devices.  These are mobile phone-style devices with integrated scanners.  They are interesting units, and we are planning support in ITScriptNet for them.

Don't forget, the time change in the United States occurs this weekend.  This is the new, early time change.  Here is a link to all of our previous Daylight Savings entries, in case you need to find the Pocket PC patches or review the details.

Interestingly, a recent study suggests that Daylight Savings Time may not save energy after all, and in fact may increase energy consumption.  From the article:

Their finding: Having the entire state switch to daylight-saving time each year, rather than stay on standard time, costs Indiana households an additional $8.6 million in electricity bills. They conclude that the reduced cost of lighting in afternoons during daylight-saving time is more than offset by the higher air-conditioning costs on hot afternoons and increased heating costs on cool mornings.

Devicescape has released a new version of its Connect utility.  This program helps you connect automatically to public WiFi Access Points.  This could allow mobile users to collect data on the road, and then upload whenever they come into range of a public hotspot at a coffee shop, restaurant, or hotel.

We recently ran into a situation with a customer who was uploading very large validation files to a Dolphin 7600.  The customer was having sporadic problems where the uploaded file would not be completely uploaded.  We discovered that the size of the truncated file was always the same as the amount of free space on the device before the upload.  It turns out that when overwriting the file, the device did not reclaim the free space immediately, so the new file had to fit in the remaining space.  We solved the problem by using the DeleteFile function before uploading the new files, which did allow the device to reclaim the free space.

We've added a Knowledge Base Article about this topic, and we will address it in a future release by automatically deleting files before receiving them.

We have scheduled our latest hands-on training seminar for ITScriptNet.  This training will be held on April 9th and 10th at the Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Orlandio, Florida.  The training will cover Application Development and Sales topics, and will include sneak previews of some of our newest products for this year.

You can find out more on our Training page, including the sign up form.  We hope to see you there!

We are pleased to announce that ITScriptNet version 2.4 has been released.  This new version adds clients for Datalogic devices, GPS functionality, new functions, and more.  All of the details can be found here.

Download a demo and try it out.  As always, upgrades from previous versions are at no charge!

Z-Space is now distributing ITScriptNet directly to Blue Star.  From a resellers perspective nothing has changed.  ITScriptNet is still available from all current sources.  This opens the door for us to directly support Blue Star for all ITScriptNet products and sales and opens a channel for us to distribute our boxed solutions as they become available.

Intermec has released a new device, the CK61ex.  Here is the product page.  This device looks similar to a CK31, but can be configured with either Windows CE or Windows Mobile 5.  What's interesting about this device is the EX Imager, which Intermec claims can allow scanning 1D or 2D barcodes from 6 inches to 50 feet.  This would allow using 2D barcodes in warehousing applications that previously required 1D codes and a laser.

ITScriptNet currently has native client support for the CK31, CN2B, and CN3.  We'll take a look at this new device as well, to see if it is compatible with one of the existing clients or the generic client, or if a native client is needed.

We've added a few new functions to ITScriptNet in version 2.4.  We've already discussed the new GPS functions, and here are a few more:

• GetBatteryLife.  This function retreives the remaining battery life (in percent) in case you want to display in your programs.
  
• SetPowerDownMode.  This function allows you to override the default powerdown modes for your device.  If you want the device to remain on and not suspend while collecting data, you can set either Unattended or Always On mode.  Unattended mode keeps the device running even while turning the display and keyboard off, the way Exchange DirectPush works.  Always On mode prevents the device from suspending.
  
• RemotePutFile.  This function is the compliment to RemoteGetFile, and is used to send a file from the device to the Omni Server.  This is useful for sending GPS breadcrumb logs or other files that you create with FileCreate/FileAppend in addition to collected data.

There are a few utility functions (such as FileExists) added as well.

Many new devices now have integrated GPS radios, and Bluetooth GPS receivers are also available to add to existing units.  With the release of Window Mobile 5, Microsoft added a GPS Intermediate Layer Driver which standardizes access to GPS hardware, and allows multiple applications to read GPS data simultaneously.  We have added support to ITScriptNet V2.4 for this GPS driver so you can collect location data in your programs.

There are 4 new functions:

• GPSOpen
• GPSClose
• GPSIsOpen
• GPSGetPosition

You can use these functions to collect data at a single point (Package Delivery or Meter Reading), or collect data periodically using a Timer to create a breadcrumb trail.  Data can be saved into your collected data file, or sent via Omni communications to be stored in a database.

Using the Intermediate Layer Driver also allows ITScriptNet to collect GPS data at the same time that a navigation system (such as TomTom) is plotting driving directions and maps.

We are developing a Route Demo application which integrates with Google Maps to plot GPS data.  If you are interested in the demo, please contact us for more information.

Once of the new updates in ITScriptNet V2.4 is support for indexes on Validation Files larger than 16MB.  We've discussed this previously, and the update has been made in V2.4. 

Another new feature is support for Image Capture in the generic Windows Mobile 5 client.  Many WM5 smartphones and PDAs have a built in camera now, and Microsoft added a standard API to interface with it.  This means that we can support image capture using the camera on most consumer-grade Windows Mobile devices, without needing manufacturer-specific drivers or software. 

Rugged mobile computers, for the most part, have their own Imaging libraries written by the manufacturer and do not conform to the standard API.  These devices still require a device-specific client to support image capture.

We've added support for the Datalogic line of devices in V2.4.  We already had clients for the PSC Falcon 4220 (now retired) and the Falcon 4410 CE.  PSC has since been purchased by Datalogic, who has their own line of devices.

Datalogic device line now falls into two families:

The Falcon-compatible devices are the Falcon 4410 (CE and Windows Mobile 5), and the new Pegaso.  We added a Falcon 4410 WM5 client in this release along with the Pegaso.  Each of these devices has a separate client listing in the System Console.

The Datalogic devices are the Memor, Skorpio, Jet and Kyman (The Jet and Kyman are primarily sold in Europe, not in the US).  These devices all share a common SDK, and so we have a single client that runs on all of them.   This is listed in the System Console as the 'Datalogic CE' client.

We've been hard at work on the next version of ITScriptNet, and we're almost ready to release it.  Here is a preview of some of the new features in this new version.

New Datalogic device support:

• Memor, Skorpio, Jet, Kyman
• Pegaso (PSC 4410 compatible)
• 4410 Windows Mobile 5

Increased index file sizes to support files larger than 16M.

GPS support

Image Capture support for the Generic WM5 client

New functions

• GetBatteryLife
• SetPowerDownMode
• FileExists
• RemotePutFile

Over the next few days we'll discuss each of these new features and what to expect in the upcoming release.