The new Unitech TB120 Tablet with integrated keypad.

The brand new Unitech TB120 7” Android tablet brings a new level of productivity and functionality to the enterprise. The TB120 offers a great experience with a list of unique features for ultimate flexibility and durability.

The TB20 embraces all the latest technologies from 1D, 2D to HF/NFC reader/writer and all the latest connectivity options.

Equipped with a built-in physical keypad (with programmable hot keys) makes the TB120 not only user-friendly but also offers for enterprise users a great way to accelerate their workflow indoor and outdoor by supporting a convenient way of data entry. Its durable design makes this rugged tablet the ideal solution for field, logistic and retail applications.

The Unitech TB120 is built to be functional but it also offers an elegant and durable design. Unitech has been able to drive the TB120 to just 18.8mm thick and 735g heavy / thinner and lighter than any industrial tablet.

The TB120 also has removable / swappable battery to keep the tablet going longer. It brings a new level of industrial tablet with high reliability for professional usage. With an integrated 1D or 2D scanner, HF-RFID incl. NFC reader/writer and 5 MP auto-focus camera including flash, this tablet is designed to empower your mobile workforce. In addition, the TB120 offers high flexibility and connectivity in the field by supporting the latest Smart Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11 a/b/g/n WLAN and 3.75G WWAN (HSDPA+).

Some great features:

Convenient data entry design:
Integrated numeric keypad and programmable hot keys
Ultra-Rugged Construction:
Gorilla Glass III, IP65 rated, 1.2m drop and MIL-STD-810G certified
Swappable Battery: 5200mAh Li-ion battery pack
Extend your business needs: 1D or 2D, HF-RFID incl. NFC reader/writer, 5 MP rear camera and 2 MP front camera
Mobility inside and outside: 
Smart Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11 a/b/g/n, 3.75G, GPS

If BlackBerry adopts Android, it likely means it will have to back away from its own OS — but then again, it hasn’t exactly been making strides with BB 10. “The reality is that it’s declining to follow its OS into oblivion,” said tech analyst Stephen Blum. “You’re seeing exactly the same thing going on at Microsoft now, where Android is getting more attention.”

BlackBerry’s upcoming slider handset, aka “Venice,” will run on Android and will be available in the coming months for AT&T as well as T-Mobile, according to rumors that picked up steam over the weekend.

This is not the first time rumors of a BlackBerry device running on Android have made the rounds in the blogosphere.

BlackBerry earlier this year announced a cross-platform strategy with its BlackBerry Experience Suite at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and it unveiled a slider handset, which combined a touchscreen with a physical keyboard, at the show.

BlackBerry didn’t confirm that the slider would run Android, but rumors suggested it could be designed to appeal to traditional BlackBerry users, as well as a niche market of Android-users who prefer a physical keyboard.

Renders of the BlackBerry Venice published on Saturday suggest that the specs include an 18-MP camera with OIS. The device appears to have the same glass weave pattern found on the BlackBerry Z30.
The BlackBerry Burn Rate

Rumors of BlackBerry’s adoption of Android may be plausible — especially since the company’s efforts to recapture lost market share with its own BlackBerry 10 operating system have fallen short of expectations.

“No one is really picking BlackBerry for their OS anymore, so they have to do something radical,” said Roger Entner, principal analyst at Recon Analytics.

“There are only a couple million BlackBerry users left, but the burn rate is 2 million, so BlackBerry will literally vanish in a few years,” he told the E-Commerce Times.

BlackBerry is feverishly trying to find its way in the world, observed Stephen Blum, principal analyst at Tellus Venture Associates.

“Historically, it’s had three core competencies: an operating system; hardware manufacturing; and secure platform for enterprise software,” Blum added. “Email is the most well known example of the latter, but BlackBerry also has document handling and basic security capabilities too.”

BlackBerry on Android

BlackBerry has tried to bring its enterprise software to other OS platforms, and Android is the likeliest candidate for that, Blum told the E-Commerce Times.

“Apple is unlikely, to say the least, to let BlackBerry into the iOS ecosystem in any meaningful way,” he noted, “so to generate value from its enterprise platform, it has to get into the Android world. Making a handset that integrates the BlackBerry enterprise platform with the Android OS is the logical way to demonstrate how well it works, and it lets BlackBerry leverage its manufacturing core competency, or at least wring some final value out of it.”

This pivot likely means that BlackBerry will have to back away from its own OS — but then again, it hasn’t exactly been making strides with its own OS for some time.

“The reality is that it’s declining to follow its OS into oblivion,” said Blum. “You’re seeing exactly the same thing going on at Microsoft now, where Android is getting more attention as the company tries to position itself as a cross-platform service provider.”

The Benefits of Android

By addressing the issue now, BlackBerry easily could transition to a device maker, and reap the other benefits that Android offers.

“It opens up a huge app universe to BlackBerry users, while at the same time will ensure that many corporate and government users will have access to the improved security built around email,” added Recon’s Entner.

“It is a win-win for both Android overall and BlackBerry in particular,” he suggested.

The loser — if there is one — could be those who opt to rely on Google’s Chromecast.

“BlackBerry may opt to disable Chromecast, as it has been seen as an easy way to leak data from a device,” said Entner. “There are creditable threats on Android, and federal and corporate users can’t really be too careful — so BlackBerry could provide them a way to add the security to Android devices.”

In the end, BlackBerry may even provide its services on the back end to Android devices instead of actually making hardware.

“If there’s any value left in BlackBerry,” said Tellus Venture’s Blum, “it’s in the enterprise platform and not the OS or manufacturing.”

Source:http://www.technewsworld.com/story/82361.html

Mobile Business Apps Still Need The Right Mobile Device Mobile Business App Usage In The Field
By Bob Ashenbrenner, Xplore Technologies

“I love it when a plan comes together.” That famous quote from the A-Team’s character Hannibal Smith is how we feel after seeing this recent Canvas poll confirming that the most popular use cases for mobile business apps are:

-Conducting inspections
-Filling out work orders
-Compiling checklists
-Conducting surveys
We’ve been supporting these workflows with purpose-built mobile devices for years, focusing on making the work quicker, easier and more accurate. So these 1,600 decision makers across the construction and contracting, field services, retail and distribution, healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation and logistics industries, as well as government, did not necessarily give us “new” news. After all, Xplore’s core customer base for the past 15+ years has been engrained in these very industries, and one of our foremost goals has been to support these specific workflows in the mobile environment.

But what these survey findings did do, very clearly I might add, is validate our business and the greater purpose of rugged mobile devices – and specifically rugged tablet PCs – in these specific verticals.

Think about it? When was the last time you *comfortably* filled out a checklist of more than a few items on your mobile device using your finger alone? It’s doable, sure. But it’s not fast, nor efficient. The data input boxes are small; your fingers probably not so much. A digital pen would certainly help, making the experience more conducive to the pen and paper input methods that these apps replicate.

Or what about trying to manually input a barcode number without a scanner? Making sure you don’t miss a single digit to avoid having to start over. Sure, you could carry a separate scanner to address that issue. Many workers have done that in the past. But that only creates a new challenge: Requiring workers to occupy their hands with yet another device. Not very mobile-friendly in my opinion. And camera-based scanners are good, but not good enough for productive work. Large, clear and close barcodes can be read about 90% of the time, a far cry from dedicated scanners that regularly read barcodes that are not that close, are damaged, or small.

Now, think about how these two specific data input/use case challenges could hinder job speed and productivity for a utility field service worker or a police officer, for example. One can only imagine the potential consequences of not being able to complete an inspection report fast enough, access and update a patient’s data, or run a background check that could reduce not only operational efficiency, but more importantly public safety or customer satisfaction.

Of course, some argue that’s why a laptop or notebook is a more viable choice for mobile data input. Just mount one in the vehicle and you have a “mobile” office from which you can access your most critical workflows, right? Absolutely not. Have you ever tried to take a picture while standing with your laptop outside? Not happening. And adding a camera or a barcode scanner alone to a laptop or even smartphone just makes those devices even less accommodating in mobile environment – such as in a forklift or on top of a high-rise in the middle of downtown.

Not having an all-in-one mobile solution limits not only what workers can do when away from the vehicle, but how quickly they can do them.

Plus, in this same survey, Canvas found that one-third of enterprises used more than five mobile business applications last year. Want to guess which features these mobile business apps required most often ?

Image capture
Electronic signature
Workflow management
GPS location
Considering that these verticals are not just extending a single workflow from the office to the mobile environment, a slate tablet form factor is the only way an organization can create the entire mobile computing experience needed for them to achieve a fully functioning workforce, no matter where the job site may be.

I’m not being biased because of who I work for either. It is very difficult to argue a single counterpoint to tablets’ advantages for rugged mobile workflows. Rugged doesn’t have to mean off-road, “down in the dirt” rural job sites either. Doctors and nurses working in hospitals need the protection and stability of purpose-built mobile devices and they can’t afford to have downtime for any reason – especially when updating and accessing patient records could mean life or death. That’s why so many of these industries are finally understanding why they have to look beyond BYOD.

Even beyond the aforementioned data input advantages that tablet PCs present in the field, they are really the only computing solution that can seamlessly transition – without variance in processing power or workflow completion capabilities – from the office, into the vehicle and then the field. Rugged tablets are even better, giving users the exact same data input and access experience whether the tablet is in their hands while standing 20 feet underground, sitting in their truck’s dashboard mount or docked on their desk in the office. No slowing down to capture, share or access data. That, in my opinion, is the top benefit of having the right mobile device for the job – especially in a rugged enterprise environment.

Key takeaway: A mobile app (or workflow) is only as good as the device delivering it. Just as serving soup on a plate or trying to hammer in a nail with a screwdriver don’t make sense, trying to increase worker productivity by simply dropping a business app on any “mobile” smartphone or laptop does not make it the right mobile workflow solution. In fact, doing so would only defeat the purpose of the mobile investment (app or device) and send you back to square one soon enough. If you’re going to spend the money on an app, why not make sure it’s primed to reach its full potential from the start?

Download a free white paper and discover:

• How enterprises should consider the cost of field mobility
• How enterprises are currently supporting the activities of field workers
• What 2015 holds for the use of mobile applications and devices
• The priorities for effective field mobility
• The common issues associated with off-the-shelf smartphones
• Why purpose-built, enterprise smartphones can be the better option for businesses long term

Download Field Mobility Research eBook

Source www.zebra.com

The white paper draws attention to the pitfalls and hidden costs of consumer-grade devices and offers advice on enterprise grade solutions that can better meet your business needs.

Download here

Source: www.zebra.com