Field Mobility News Weekly – Week of September 30, 2012



The Field Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to field mobility that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends.

Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
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Also read Mobility News Weekly

Data collection for agriculture and fisheries in a region of the Philippines has gone high tech with a new project using GPS technology to help paint a more complete picture of the area’s agriculture map.  Read Original Content

A number of smartphone manufacturers are producing NFC-enabled phones, with Apple noticeably absent from the group.  Read Original Content

The Handheld Group has unveiled a new rugged smartphone, the Nautiz X1, what the company calls “the toughest smartphone ever built”.  Read Original Content

ILS Technology provides ready-to-use cloud based platforms to implement and manage M2M (machine to machine) and embedded wireless devices that connect to SAP.  ILS Technology simplifies deployments and offers unparalleled security to protect company and customer data and to ensure regulatory compliance. This newsletter is sponsored in part by ILS Technology.

RFID and NFC technologies have been used frequently in 2012 at events as a way to engage the event attendees.  The use and benefits of the technologies at three recent events are highlighted in this article in BizBash, “How R.F.I.D. Bracelets Can Connect Guests and Add Sponsor Value”.  Read Original Content

Barcoding Inc. and Marlin Steel Wire Products have formed a partnership to create RFID-tagged steel fabrications to automate inventory tracking and protect high value items throughout the materials handling process.  Read Original Content


According to IBM, 90 percent of all data is less than two years old, which means 10 times as much data is in storage today as existed two years ago – an increase of 900 percent.  Put another way, 10 times as much data is in storage today as existed two years ago.  Read Original Content

An RFID-based solution at Eurofresh Farms in Arizona helped employees increase their productivity by between 200 and 250 percent.  Read Original Content

According to ABI Research, the use of RFID technology in the automotive sector is predicted to grow $2.8 billion over the next five years.  Read Original Content

Facebook’s free couponing service Offers is getting an update and one of the new features being rolled out is one of the most requested features since the service began earlier this year - the option for businesses to include a barcode into their ad in Offers.  Read Original Content

ISC has unveiled a solution to enable mobile data collection for enterprises, touchgeo, which is an open HTML5 codebase that can be modified by developers to accomplish line-of-business data collection needs in the field.  Read Original Content

The winner of the Bar Code Scanner Design Contest from The Bar Code News has been selected, a unique tube design that won for many reasons including that it would be cost effective to produce, and the laser would not be shining in the customer’s face.  Read Original Content

A new interactive RFID-based iPhone app works with an RFID chip sewn into socks to tell the user how many times the sock has been washed, help sort pairs of socks after washing, and even how much the sock has retained its color.  Read Original Content

Candy-maker Nestle has launched an interesting promotion in the UK – they’ve embedded six GPS trackers inside candy bars, which are activated once the candy bar is unwrapped.  A prize team from Nestle will then have 24 hours to track down the consumer to award them with a £10,000 prize.  Read Original Content

This article in the BarCode News explains “How to Add a QR Code to Your Gmail Signature”.  Read Original Content

ClickSoftware is an SAP mobility partner and the leading provider of automated workforce management and optimization solutions for every size of service business.  This newsletter is sponsored in part by ClickSoftware.

The GPS tracking capability in cellphones today can be an asset for law enforcement in tracking the movements of suspects, but a big question is arising about how much privacy the public should sacrifice in the name of public safety.  Read Original Content

Boston’s Tufts Medical Center has saved $1.5 million using an RFID-based inventory management system.  Read Original Content

Arizona’s Pima County has installed GPS devices on about 800 vehicles in its fleet to monitor the vehicles for speed, locations visited, engine idle time, harsh braking, harsh accelerating, harsh turns, and seatbelt use. Speed is a major factor in the safe operation of vehicles, and the GPS system helps identify driving behavior.  Read Original Content

Ohio State University researchers have used a GIS software program to study the features inside the bone of a human foot.  The research was published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology and could provide scientists with a new tool to help identify bodies and solve crimes.  Read Original Content

Recent Articles by Kevin Benedict

Trends in Enterprise Mobility October 2012
SMAC (Social Mobile Analytics and Cloud)

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Kevin Benedict, Head Analyst for SMAC (Social, MOBILE, Analytics and Cloud), Cognizant
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Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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