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Latest Motorola MC70 blessed with GPS

by Darren Murph posted Oct 2nd 2007 @ 8:01PM

It's been a tick since Motorola / Symbol's MC70 saw a notable refresh, but today Moto is announcing that the newest version of its rugged Enterprise Digital Assistant (EDA) will boast GPS capability. The firm claims that this addition will allow organizations with field-based employees to "track and manage dynamic, real-time tasking, as well as verify specific locations of activities and provide mobile workers with pinpoint navigation support to improve location-based productivity." Additionally, the device will still include barcode data and signature capture, WWAN, 802.11a/b/g and Bluetooth, and should be available for sale worldwide in Q1 of 2008.

Motorola's Symbol MC35 coming to AT&T

by Sean Cooper posted Apr 5th 2007 @ 11:20AM

Motorola and Symbol bring us a new device that fits solidly in the would-have-been-way-cooler-last-year segment. While this device packs a huge array of features into a fairly compact 185 gram device, the feature set is lacking any 3G connectivity, ROM capacity is 128MB rather than 256MB, and it comes flavored with Windows Mobile 5, not 6. Featuring a 416MHz CPU, touchscreen, quad band GSM plus EDGE, WiFi, USB 1.1, Bluetooth 1.2, 2 megapixel cam, and integrated GPS, the handset does pack the goodies -- but with a couple tweaks it could have become a showpiece for AT&T. We do, however, love the fairly big 2.8 inch display and that sweet-looking QWERTY keypad, but it just isn't enough to make our hearts sing. This handset is aimed solidly at the business set, but with other kicking Windows Mobile devices in the stable, is it a case of too little, too late? There is no word on pricing, but we can expect this handset to appear sometime in April.

[Via MobileTechReview]

The MC35: a Symbol for the masses?

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 20th 2006 @ 9:58AM

Symbol's handsets, while plenty rugged and capable for everyday use, don't exactly meet the... uh, aesthetic requirements demanded by average folks carrying smartphones around as part of their daily routine. Enter the MC35, a rumored Windows Mobile Pocket PC coming down the pike for a possible January launch. If the blurry picture we have here resembles the final product, it looks like Symbol is taking a sharp turn in the direction of form over function -- but no worries, corporate users and Symbol fanboys -- it should pack pretty much all the typical goodness you'd expect from a Symbol. The company is apparently billing it as a "durable, lightweight... all-in-one enterprise communication device" with integrated GPS, VoIP, and push-to-talk. Foreign-language and WiFi versions will be following shortly after the plain vanilla variant launches.

Publicly useful information to be beamed in Seoul via RFID

by Darren Murph posted Nov 5th 2006 @ 11:49AM

South Korea is bringing the heat yet again, and this time we're seeing the "first ever 900MHz RFID" services that can provide product, traffic, and other pertinent information directly to your RFID-equipped cellphone while out and about. If you're not totally freaked out about Big Brother being able to tell precisely what you're looking for on your mobile at all times, Alien Technology and U-IT have developed a mobile RFID pilot aimed squarely at business-to-consumer (B2C) scenarios. The team plans to implant the voyeuristic chips into "products from Symbol Technology" next year, and initial information is being offered about movies, wine, bus routes, and other publicly useful tidbits. The idea is to install RFID chips in all 70,000 taxis cruising around Seoul in order to give customers convenient access to the data they crave, and if all goes well, additional intelligence will be added concerning "medicines, food, and social relationships," while "travel and tourist related info" should be live in July 2007.

[Via CNET]

Symbol's invincible MC70 Pocket PC phone

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 10th 2006 @ 3:51PM

She may not be pretty or pocketable (and "invincible" might be going a bit far), but unlike your typical consumer-grade Windows Mobile device, Symbol's beefy MC70 is probably going to handle the occasional drop, dunk, toss, or burn. The quad-band GSM / EDGE handheld comes equipped with your choice of Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Premium or Phone Edition, 802.11a / b / g plus "comprehensive VoIP support," Class II Bluetooth 1.2, and -- being that this is a Symbol device and all -- the obligatory barcode scanner, all sitting atop a crazy fast 624MHz PXA270. Of course, we're suspecting everything-proof smartphoning doesn't come cheap, but for the accident prone among us, it does have a certain strange appeal.

[Thanks, Cristian P.]