SDG's
Bluebird Pidion line is nothing new -- nor is its ultra-rugged BIP-6000 handheld computer -- but what
is new is Android compatibility. Previously equipped with Windows Mobile 6.1, the beastly machine rolls on a Marvell PXA320 at 806MHz with GSM / HSDPA voice and data, a 3 megapixel cam, barcode scanner, 3.5-inch VGA display, full QWERTY keyboard, and -- you guessed it -- mil-spec 810F compliance for resistance to just about any reasonable thing you could throw at it. Needless to say, this isn't the kind of phone you buy for your pre-teen, your grandmother, or yourself for that matter -- but if you've got a fleet of mobile dudes and gals that need to scan stuff, drop their phones without a care in the world, download Market apps on the go, and hate on their
Trimble Nomad-toting competition, this could very well be your lucky day. It's on Android 1.5 at the moment, but the company anticipates a "2.x" upgrade (we're guessing this'll be 2.1) either this quarter or next, so start socking away cash -- and dreaming up the most creative way to put that moisture resistance to the test while you're at it.
posted January 14th 2010 6:21AM
Wonder if there's an app that lets you do price comparisons with the bar code scanner?
@Christopher W Based on Android 1.5, the BIP-6000 is designed Independent Software Vendors (ISV) and Value-Added Reseller (VAR) as well as end users who want to develop commercial applications for Android on a “rugged” handset.
Expect this bird will have some nice rack of RFID capabilities.. More Details: http://bit.ly/bluebird-pidion-details
And then they wrap the android in a cultivated skin of living tissue, and send it back in time to destroy humanity.
@CJ
I find you comment extremely funny when I pretend it is Fry that's saying from Futurama hahaha
Dammit.. android devices are supposed to be getting PRITTIER..
Don't show dell this.. they'll think its the new trend... you know what there like with mobile devices....
@geekthree
You know... kinda how Apple seen an anal suppository, and thought it'd be great to make an MP3 player that looked like one..
@geekthree RTFA
When will we stop seeing unmodified stock Android with an incomplete wallpaper and inappropriately spaced icons on new phone announcements/leaks?
@TareG
When you're older, honey :)
This would have been great for a recent project. I've been wrestling with the nightmare that's WinMo development with barcodes AND rfid, if this handles both, I'll be getting a test unit. This could help me alot.
this thing is ugly
I was wondering when an Android phone with portrait qwerty would be coming along. Now we just need a slide out portrait qwerty like the Pre, but not so chunky.
That thing must be HUGE since it's packing a 3.5 inch VGA-screen and it looks that small on the picture
I love rugged devices! For someone who spends a lot of time outdoors, stuff like this is great. I have friends who still won't convert from those waterproof Casio dumbphones.
I like how the CALL / END buttons are at the top of the keyboard and not at the bottom like on alot of the new phones.
i work at target, these are the things we use for EVERYTHING. keeping stock of everything, doing people's breaks, price matching, alerts, etc. but it was running on windows and they are REALLY slow. i'm hoping we will upgrade to these things. also, @skallaren, yes, they are actually quite big, DEFINITELY not used very often for phone usage. these things are really thick, like think of holding a J.R.R Tolkein book, ya, that thick.
oh and these AREN'T supposed to be pretty. they weren't designed for it. so don't complain about it b/c the only place you'll see people using these are at your local target stores.
i like how the keyboard resembles the sidekick 3's :)