Many mobile devices are now equipped with built-in GPS radios, and can be used for turn-by-turn navigation.  ITScriptNet supports collecting a breadcrumb trail while using such a navigation system on Windows Mobile devices.  However, what kind of system is best for you?

If you have a fleet with trucks and vans, consumer-grade navigation is not sufficient.  We like Electric Compass, which is designed for commercial applications and has good integration capabilities.  Electric Compass has published an excellent article detailing the differences between Consumer and Commercial navigation.

One of the issues that users run into with ITScriptNet deployments is how to handle ITB version updates.  If you make a change to the program, how can you ensure that the device get updated to the new version?

In ITScriptNet 3.1, a few new functions were added to assist in this process.  The RemoteGetITBVersion function queries the Omni Server for the version of an ITB, and the progITBVersion constant evaluates to the current ITB version on the device.  You can compare these, and if there is a mismatch you can load an updated program using OmniLoadProgram.

We have posted a Knowledge Base article about this, including some sample code.

Recently PC Magazine published an article about the different processors used by smartphones, and how difficult it is to compare the performance of one device to another.  Although the focus of this article is consumer-grade phones, it got me wondering about data collection devices.  After all, Windows CE and Windows Mobile devices use ARM processors too.

What I've discovered is that it is just as difficult to compare data collections devices against each other as it is to compare phones.  For example, the Motorola PC9500 runs a Marvell PXA320 at 806 MHz.  Is that faster than the Intermec CN50 (the Spec Sheet simply says 'Main Processor ARM11 at 528 MHz)?  Not necessarily - what instruction set does the PXA320 have?  It's difficult to tell.  How about the new Honeywell Dolphin 6100, which has a Marvell XScale PXA300 at 624 MHz?

For further confusion, check out this chart on Wikipedia which attempts to group the various processor families.  Most Xscale processors are listed as ARMV5TE, but the PXA3xx series are not listed.

Another performance bottleneck to keep in mind is the speed of the Flash Memory store.  Not all memory architectures perform the same, and there can be a significant difference in the speed (particularly the Write speed) from one device family to another.  You won't find this information in a spec sheet.

What is the conclusion?  Like the author of the original article, we find that you can not use the manufacturers specifications to compare the performance of one device to another very easily.  For now you will have to rely on more subjective measurements.

One of the new features in ITScriptNet 3.1a is the ability to automatically format grid cells. You can specify the color to use for a cell based on a comparison to a value or another cell.  You can also specify the number of decimal points to use for numeric data, and the format to use for negative numbers.

Here is an example of a program using grid auto-formatting. 

This Physical Inventory program shows the count of items.  Any items with a zero quantity are displayed in yellow, and negative quantities are red.  In adition, the Value field is set to use 2 decimal places and a $ currency prefix.  The source data looks like this:

Here is the Grid Cell definition screen in the ITScriptNet program designer.  You can see that the Automatic Formatting for the cell, and the Automatic Coloring.  Two coloring criteria can be specified for the cell.

These automatic cell formatting options allow you to make your data collection programs more effective through the use of color and formatting, without needing any complicated programming.

Motorola has introduced the MC3100 series of devices.  These devices are the successor to the MC3000 series, with the same 320x320 square display.   These units feature Windows Mobile 6 or Windows CE 6.  Since they are EMDK compatible, our ITScriptNet client for Motorola will work on them.