Barcoding News

Challenge
Many suppliers to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)—especially those who use radio frequency identification (RFID) printer/encoders and supplies from Zebra Technologies — have learned that producing accurate RFID labels for shipments is the easy part of meeting the DOD’s compliance requirements. The hard part is matching shipments to contract numbers and orders, generating the documentation for each shipment and electronically submitting it to the DOD’s Wide Area Workflow (WAWF) and other computer systems.

“RFID labels are just one part of meeting the DOD’s requirements,” says Anne Ramppen, government products coordinator at New Dynamics, which provides monthly shipments of earplugs to the DOD. “The Wide Area Workflow system needs contract numbers, CAGE codes, and product numbers, and each RFID label number associated with each shipment is also required—that’s a lot of numbers to be typing in.”

“The term ‘slap-and-ship’ is a gross over-simplification of the reality of meeting the DOD RFID mandate,” says Cotty England, chief technology officer of Odyssey RFIDTM. “The common misconception is that generating the RFID tag is the core challenge, but as the DOD’s commercial suppliers get actual exposure to RFID, they quickly realize that the core challenges are the work flow process control, flexibility and seamless WAWF integration.”

Solution
Data management is a common problem for DOD suppliers. Odyssey RFIDTM has created a solution to handle data entry, encoding, label printing and reporting needs by pairing an easy-to-use Web-based application for data entry with reliable Zebra printer/encoders to output compliant shipping labels.

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Star Micronics is proud to add the SM-S300 and SM-S400 to its offering of Portable Receipt Printers.

Star SM-S300

The SM-S300 is a 3-inch wide portable printer designed to assist and empower mobile and field service industry users who require a small and light (335g – including battery and paper) portable printer to “get the job done.”

The SM-S300 is ideal for the hospitality as well as retail “line busting” as its sleek design fit in a customer friendly environment. In addition to easy drop in & print paper loading and print speed of 65mm per second, the SM-S300 features an LCD display, magnetic stripe reader and comes standard with Serial and Bluetooth connection.

Included with the printer is:
– Battery Pack
– AC Battery Charger
– Serial Cable
– Sample Paper Roll

Star SM-S400

For field service and public safety applications that may require a wider printout, Star offers the SM-S400. The SM-S400 is a 4-inch wide portable printer.

In addition to easy drop in & print paper loading and a print speed of 50mm per second, the SM-S400 also features an LCD display, magnetic stripe reader and comes standard with Serial and Bluetooth connections.

Included with the printer is:
– AC Charger
– Serial Cable
– Battery Pack
– Sample Paper Roll

The SM-S300 and the SM-S400 come with a 1-year limited warranty and are FCC (Federal Communications Commission) certified.

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The POS-X XPC600 all in one POS terminal has been designated end of life effective immediately. POS-X has introduced a new family of fanless systems to our product line, the EVO Touch PC. The EVO TouchPC improves upon the XPC600 by offering greater performance, a Solid State Drive (SSD) option, and up to 2GB of RAM.

*Note: Solid State Drive (SSD) and 2GB RAM models not shown.

These directions will help you configure your IDTech credit card reader to automatically submit credit card information via the PayPal Virtual Terminal.

1. Download paypal-virtual-terminal.cfs2 to your desktop or other easily accessible location.
2. Download IDTech Configuration Software
3. Install the IDTech Configuration software
4. Plug your IDTech credit card reader into your computer
5. Open the “MagSwipe Configuration Utility” from the Start Menu
6. Click the “Change Advanced Reader Settings” button
   
7. Click the “Data Editing” tab then click “Load from file” button
   
8. Select the paypal-virtual-terminal.cfs2 file you downloaded in step #1
9. Click “Send to MSR”
   
10. Open the PayPal Virtual Terminal in your web browser
11. Place your cursor in the “Credit Card Number” field
    
12. Swipe credit card
13. The card information should be submited and your browser will automatically go to “Review Transaction”

BlackBerry users can quickly and easily add high-volume barcode scanning capabilities to their smartphones

Socket Mobile, announced expanded compatibility of the Socket Bluetooth Cordless Hand Scanner (CHS) Series 7 with BlackBerry® smartphones including the Bold™, Curve™, Pearl™, Storm™ and Tour™.

The CHS Series 7 brings industrial-class barcode scanning into a lightweight, pocket-sized form factor and is available in 2D and 1D scanning options with either standard or antimicrobial casing, which protects the device against the multiplication and spread of harmful bacteria and microbes and is a popular choice in the healthcare and hospitality industries. Socket provides free SocketScanâ„¢ software, which enables the CHS to connect to any BlackBerry smartphone via Bluetooth, allowing easy integration by an IT team or individual users. Continue reading »

CognitiveTPG announces that its Advantage DLX thermal barcode label printers are now certified to work with Point of Success software for any type of restaurant or food service establishment.

“Many of our pizzeria and take-out restaurant customers were replacing their Cognitive Blaster printers. We wanted to be sure they could continue to use a similar high-quality CognitiveTPG printer, so we made the development investment to certify Point of Success for use with the Advantage DLX printer. The certification went smoothly and we received all the support we needed,” said Jeff Ward, CEO of Inborne Technology Corporation, developers of Point of Success.

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Barcodes Inc is expanding to new offices in the Chicago “Loop” business district. The move will better accommodate larger sales and customer support operations following years of explosive growth.

Effective June 21, 2010 our new business address is:

200 W Monroe St
10th Floor
Chicago IL 60606

Designed for current and future growth, the new downtown location will more than double our current space and allow upgraded training areas and enhanced shipping and printing facilities, in addition to improving our ability to host customers and business partners.

The firm’s continued growth is built upon its reputation for knowledgeable sales and great customer service. The relocation is one of many new initiatives designed to serve our customers and enable continued business expansion, including employee growth and education, strategic partnerships, increased target marketing and new product lines.

Printronix’s P7000 Series Is the Technology of Choice for Companies Requiring Reliable, Low Cost of Ownership, Flexible Printers for Mission-critical Applications

Printronix, a leading industrial printing solutions manufacturer, today announced the latest introduction in its flagship line matrix product series, the P7000 cartridge line matrix printer. The new P7000 cartridge printer gives users the added advantage of a cartridge that enables easy replacement while delivering ease of change, clean-hands installation, more uniform print quality and longer ribbon life. Ideally suited for supply-chain and back-office printing applications, the Printronix P7000 series is the preferred choice of companies around the globe, offering more uptime and mission-critical dependability, while providing lower service and operating costs.

“Reliability and value are still top buying priorities in Line impact printer environments. Businesses want integrated print management, precise print quality and operating cost controls in high-volume printing for mission critical applications,” said Peter Grant, managing vice president at Gartner.

Printronix line matrix printers work predictably and consistently in challenging physical environments, performing reliably under temperature and humidity extremes and often using low quality paper or paper with a high recycled content. In contrast to laser printers, which require a pristine operating environment and high quality paper, the P7000 also works in current and legacy host environments to efficiently and reliably support critical business processes and is ideally suited for printing multi-part forms. In addition, the cost of supplies for a laser printer is six times the cost of supplies for a line matrix printer, delivering a significant total cost of ownership advantage for line matrix users.

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Executive Summary

Bar code systems help hospitals deliver accurate information in a variety of patient care and clinical settings, making them an important component in improving patient safety and process efficiencies. Therefore, these systems should be developed and executed with care, using dedicated printers that are optimized to provide reliable, accurate bar code output.

When hospitals evaluate their patient wristbanding solution, they often consider modifying existing laser printing systems to do the job. While many laser printers are capable of outputting bar codes, dedicated thermal printers are a more reliable, efficient and cost-effective option.

This white paper will explain the differences in thermal versus laser printing for patient wristbanding in hospitals and will provide an overview of the four reasons thermal printing is a better solution, including:

• Enhanced Patient Safety
• Lower Total Cost of Ownership
• Patient Comfort
• Ease of Use

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Mobile printer offers slimmer, lighter profile, smaller form factor for increased productivity in the mobile workforce

Zebra Technologies, a global leader in specialty printing and automatic identification solutions, today announces the new RW 420 Print Station (model RW4-PS), a printer and hand-held in one unit. The RW4-PS enhances worker productivity by delivering more efficient and effective mobile equipment management. Now workers will carry less equipment and fewer charging devices, allowing for quick end-user adoption.

The RW4-PS is designed to address the evolving business challenges of the mobile workforce by incorporating Zebra’s mobile printing technology into a single, compact, lightweight and rugged unit capable of supporting the Motorola MC70 and MC75 handheld terminals. Zebra engaged companies such as Andrews Distributing, one of the most successful beer distributors/wholesalers in the country, to gather input on the features and usability of the RW print station.

“The Zebra RW 420 Print Station increases worker output and maximizes efficiencies to the supply chain,” said Marty Johnson, product marketing manager, Zebra Technologies. “This new product helps the mobile worker visit more customers, reduce service time to serve existing customers and relieves the burden of carrying multiple devices and products or making multiple trips to the vehicle.”

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