POS-X EVO-TM1 Quicklook Video

Not one to deprive you of the videos we make, here’s a quickie of the new POS-X EVO-TM1 touchscreen monitor. We got Travis to run this one, primarily because we wanted more videos of him on YouTube.

Opticon OPR 3101

I do enjoy finding odd or unique design decisions in the POS industry, and the Opticon OPR 3101 barcode scanner is a good fit for unique design. The only barcode scanners I know of with a trigger guard, the OPR 3001 and OPR 3101 are designed for light industrial or rough retail environments. The OPR 3101, though, is a cordless barcode scanner, so you can do your best Briscoe County/Wyatt Earp impression while doing inventory. I do want to get my hands on a couple of these and set up some sort of incredibly expensive laser tag style shootouts.

This is a rugged laser scanner, and it actually has the capability of scanning PDF and MicroPDF barcodes, so you could use it in shipping applications at a lower cost than cordless 2D scanners.

The scanner has a Bluetooth 2 radio in it, so you can’t get quite as far from the base station/bluetooth-enabled device as the XI3200, for instance, but it does automatically switch into batch mode when out of range and dumps the data when communication is regained.

Otherwise, it’s pretty similar to the cabled model. IP54 seal to keep out dirt and water, 9″ optimal scan range for 10 mil barcodes. And it has a trigger guard!

POS-X XI3200BT Barcode Scanner, And Video!

POS-X updated their XI3000 to become the XI3200, and so they did the same with their bluetooth barcode scanner. The XI3200BT is a pretty solid contender for any retail location needing a bit of mobility. It doesn’t have a batch memory mode, which is alright since it also has a 328-foot line of site radio range. That is a long distance to cover and can easily take care of most businesses.

And check this out, more video!

POS-X XI3200, Now With Video

The fellas over at POS-X did a rev bump on their mid-range barcode scanners, jumping from the XI3000 to the XI3200. I’m pretty sure that this scanner is 200 more than the predecessor, too. POS-X chose the XI3200 as the time to shift offering only a USB model. A lot of manufacturers, and even some end users, are still clinging to PS/2 and even RS-232 for their barcode scanners, but 9 times out of 10 we’re selling a USB model.

We have a video here to show off, just a quick look at some of the new features on this scanner. Once we have a couple in house we’ll try to chuck one off the roof.

POS-X’s New EVO Line

Our lovely friends at POS-X are working to build a more economical lineup of products, under the EVO product umbrella. These products are not only less expensive, but they’re designed to lower your total cost of ownership through things like lower power usage, greater durability, and more comprehensive coverage. First out the gate are the EVO-TM1 and EVO-TP1, a touchscreen monitor and all-in-one touchscreen computer, respectively.

EVO-TM1
The EVO-TM1 is a 15″ touchscreen monitor, which is what the TM stands for. Not Tiny Man. Or Triumphant Muppet. It’s a pretty solid monitor, with VGA input and a 1024×768 native resolution. It rocks a 5-wire resistive touch screen setup, so it’s pretty accurate for touchscreening and doesn’t have any touching requirements like you get with capacitive or acoustic pulse screens.

You can also pop this badboy off the stand and VESA mount it to whatever you like, such as walls or MMF’s new display pole holder thing.

EVO-TP1
TP does not stand for Toilet Paper, I don’t think. It may stand for Tyrannosaur Parliament, because dinosaurs in wigs sounds awesome. This system rocks an Intel Atom processor rated at 1.6 GHz. That may not seem like a lot of GHz, but Intel made them more efficient, so it’s on par with a P4 2.6 GHz or Celeron 2.8 GHz. It’s also more energy efficient, drawing 65W for the whole setup. Compare that to the 180W-250W for most all-in-ones (alls-in-one?) and you can see some great savings right there.

Unfortunately, the EVO-TP1 can’t get VESA mounted quite yet. The hard drive is located in the base, so you’d have a dangly if you tried to remove the base and wall mount it. Not a good plan aesthetically. However, it sounds like POS-X will have a solid state option soon, putting it all on one small board and further speeding up the system. And then you can have your very own wall mounted computer type thing for not a whole lot of money.

Datalogic Magellan 8500Xt

Our friends at Datalogic let us know about this new scale they have kicking around, the Magellan 8500Xt, so I thought I’d share it with you guys. This is a combination barcode scanner and scale, kind of like what you see at your local grocery store. Only it’s probably about 10 years younger. Scanner / Scale combos are the tanks of the point of sale industry, so if you buy one, you probably won’t need to buy a replacement.

The 8500Xt improves on the already existing Magellan 8500. In fact, it’s Xt more. I don’t know what Xt stands for. Maybe eXtra Tough. or Xylitol Teleporter. Either way, it’s a bit beefier and does a bit more than rest of the class.

The big feature for this, at least the one I thought really made it worth buying over other scanner / scale combos, is the dual-interval weighing system. For weights between 0 and 12 lbs, the Magellan 8500Xt has a weight increment of 0.005 lbs, much more precise than the 0.010 lbs that seems pretty standard. In fact, it’s twice as precise! You know it’s great, because it rhymes. This really helps for fancy pants delis who cater in only the finest meats and cheeses, because 0.005 lb of gruyere may cost just enough that you don’t want 1.105 lbs to be rounded up to 1.110.

They also have the AllWeighs system, so the weighing platter extends up the side of the unit. This is great for big tilty items, like giant okra, mega celery, or maybe off-balance pets, keeping the weight balanced on things that won’t actually alter the weight of the product.

For the scanning, this guy reads up to 6 sides for products, so you don’t have to do much to get your scan on. It also scans at about 6,400 scans per second, pretty snappy for high-volume reading.

Google Interest-Based Advertising

This is absolutely fantastic, and I’m hoping it increases our conversion rate in the long term. Interest-based Advertising, so if I’m reading this right, and I’d like to think I am, you search Google and its affiliates, reading up on say “president nixon”, “blue people”, and “alternate universe”, and you’ll see ads for like Watchmen stuff. Look at me, being quasi-relevant in a post about ad relevance.

Our business is really focused on a specific market anyway, but having ads reinforced based on users’ interests as opposed to one-time searches should help drive quality visitors to our site. And that’s a pretty solid thing in my mind.

Official Google Blog Post

Starter POS System

I bet you can sense the start of a trend with the low-cost security system and this new low-cost retail pos system. Times are tight, and so a $5,000 point of sale system just doesn’t have the same shiny allure as it used to. And so here begins the Starter POS System, at a more affordable $1,599.

Don’t let the low cost fool you, though. While other companies list an inexpensive system, only to forget parts like the PC, we make sure you get everything you need. Just scaled back a bit. So you get the PC, you get the barcode scanner, you get the receipt printer, you get the cash drawer, you get it all. I really wanted to sound like Vince from the shamwow ads there. I hope I did. That thing sells itself.

We’re able to trim down the price by shipping the systems with Ubuntu Linux and an in-house variation on pos software. But after a few months really mashing around on the system and trying to break it, we were left with a system that is a great first step into computer-based sales tracking.

The barcode scanner in the system is the POS-X Xi1000, a solid choice for low volume scanning. Learning the scanning sweet spot is a little rougher than most scanners, but once you get it, scanning UPC barcodes should be no sweat. There is an upgrade to a laser scanner only available from us, which should get blog love later today or tomorrow or whenever I’m feeling wordy.

For receipt printers, we went with an impact printer lacking auto-cutter, the POS-X Xr210. It’s a little loud, but it’ll print receipts just fine and you can’t heat the letters off the receipts. Again, upgrades can get you the POS-X Xr510 instead, which is a faster, quieter, thermal receipt printer.

The cash drawer is the POS-X XC16HD, which we’ve already shown to be pretty tough. Upgrading that guy seems unnecessary when you can stand on it. More products should have a “can I stand on it” rating.

As with all the other systems we sell, you get pretty solid support, including a year of coverage for faulty hardware, training, and having our tech support guys at your beck and call, so long as it’s between 7 am and 4 pm pacific.

Unitech Mobile Printers

One of the manufacturers we carry, Unitech, strives to make low-cost solutions for customers. Their mobile computer line, including the PA500 and PA600, have been tremendous in helping a lot of customers who want to go mobile with inventory management but don’t have the cash to cover a Symbol MC70 or Intermec CN3. It also helps that our market development rep at Unitech is a really great guy who checks in from time to time to make sure we’ve got the resources and literature necessary to sell their products.

At the Denver event where I made 50 bucks, they had the general manufacturer showroom, where we, as VARs, get to see what kind of new equipment is coming out and maybe make new contacts at companies we don’t have a close relationship with yet. It’s basically schmoozing while eating appetizers and drinking beer.

Unitech was at the event, and they actually had a couple completely new products to show off that really are great. The MP200 and MP300 are their 2″  and 3″ mobile receipt printers, and they definitely fill a niche that has long been devoid of competition. What sets them apart from the competition is something they’ve done with the PA500 and PA600. Both units ship with the MP200 and MP300 drivers preinstalled, meaning all you have to do is set up the Bluetooth, IrDA, or serial connection between the two devices and you’re set. This creates an incredibly easy to setup solution for a lot of customers who may be hesitant when it comes to driver installation and configuration, and it definitely gives Unitech something that the competition doesn’t.

Unitech ships the units with everything you need to get set up, just like with their mobile computer line, so there is much less of a headache when making the purchase. I really like the care that Unitech puts into making sure the end user can get up and running quickly and easily.

The art of the SKU

Being Product Manager means I’m inundated with products that are all totally awesome and all do everything perfectly. I don’t mind that, it’s actually fun seeing people really excited about printers that also read checks. They’re either tremendous liars or insane. Regardless, it’s a great show.

Recently, I worked on getting a industrial barcode printer from Zebra up on our site. It’s the S4M, and rocks 6″ per second print speeds and looks like it can take a hit from a howitzer and keep printing. It’s also been in my “put it on the site” queue since July and I’d be remiss to put it off for a full year.

This would probably be as good a time as any to outline the process I take for listing a product. It’s just so efficient and rad that I feel I must share it with you. Before I even start full on content creation (read: overusing verbs like utilize and provide), I trawl the manufacturer’s site for their description, data sheets, drivers, and big images. Big images are important. Nobody likes to look at blurry stuff on the internet. It’s just not done. Once I find the info, I dump my haul out and start in on part number wrangling and pricing. For most products this is the easy part, just rote data entry on 3-10 part numbers.

Once that’s squared away, I pour over the data sheets and manufacturer’s description to pick out what I want the customer to know is most important about the product. And thus begins the fun of using my math education skills to write descriptions that tell the customer about the product and highlight the best parts of it. I haven’t created the equation yet, otherwise I’d just dump all the terms into excel and have it create the sentences for me. Finally, I format the imagery for our reqs and dump it all onto the site. An average product takes the better part of an afternoon to create, and about 40 minutes to list.

But sometimes there are products that throw a wrench in my system such that it takes 3 solid days to get everything together. The only images available are 20×20 thumbnails, the descriptions are single sentences of “This is a barcode scanner. buy it”, or there are so many variations on the product that 5 hours are eaten just in squaring away part numbers and pricing.

The S4M, with the 50 part numbers I’ve found so far, falls into this category. This is special territory, and puts it in ranks with the Symbol MC70 and Intermec CN3. It’s not bad that there is this much variance within a product line, oftentimes it prevents consumers from paying for features they neither need nor want. I can see where it could cause problems for newer or less immersed consumers. The last thing I like when I’m researching a relatively major purchase is to have 5,000 slightly different choices. And now, as a quasi-shiftless Product Manager, it turns a quick product listing into a 3 day job.