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14 March, 2010 |
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Wiseman tracks entire dairy fleet
 Robert Wiseman Dairies has completed the roll-out of a vehicle tracking and fleet management system to all 900 vehicles in its fleet, and says it is on target to reduce carbon emissions by 7 per cent, or 5,000 tonnes a year. The company is using Isotrak's Active Transport Management System. Originally it planned to track trailers, but then it switched to tracking vehicles, and mounted a proof-of-concept exercise involving 120 vehicles working from three locations. During this phase it ran Isotrak's Transport Efficiency Analysis process, and found that the sample vehicles were achieving a 7 per cent carbon reduction, which equated to 231 tonnes of CO2 in three months to the end of March 2009. Major features in latest issue: see links at column head, PLUS: Up close and personal From a distance Evaluation: Navevo ProNav PN200: Truck-specific satellite navigation system Getting more out of less Connected navigation – the next phase in SGN's IT programme
Masternaut UK acquired by Masternaut International
Masternaut Three X has been acquired by the parent company of Masternaut International, the French-based business that spurred its launch back in 2002. The enlarged organisation is said to be the biggest vehicle tracking company in Europe. Although sharing the brand identity and some technology with Masternaut International, the UK operation has always been a separate company. It was founded by Martin Port, a British businessman who had previously worked in the UK telematics sector. In 2006 it acquired Three X Communication, which was owned by GE and had latterly been known as GE Mobile Solutions. The combined Masternaut Three X business subsequently adopted the joint identity that it retains to this day.
EU starts to ratchet up Galileo awareness
 With the target launch date of the Galileo satellite navigation system (Europe's answer to GPS) just three years away, a series of 'Galileo Application Days' is planned for this coming March. The event will take place in an 'application village', and will aim to showcase the abilities of the system in an outdoor theatre consisting of different settings such as the countryside, the city, the harbour and the playground. It will focus on six application areas – location-based services, road applications, precise positioning, public services, leisure and navigation systems development.
Cognito unveils brand new hosted mobility platform
Cognito has launched an all-new mobility solution, the Cognito Service Delivery Platform, which looks far more wide-ranging and integrated than anything the company has offered before, and extends the Web-based, hosted approach much further. The company says it should enable organisations to improve the productivity of mobile workers by making it much easier to automate often inefficient manual processes through the use of mobile IT. It includes real-time data, messaging, scheduling and tracking. Each of these applications is delivered as a hosted service, rather than as self-installed and self-customised middleware. Cognito says this makes them easy to adopt, as well as much more affordable for businesses of all sizes. The entire platform is hosted by Cognito.
Extra-large display option with X2's PDA-style handheld
 The latest addition to the world of compact, PDA-like rugged handheld computers is the X24 from UK company X2 Computing – and it has something special to offer in that it can optionally be supplied with an extra-large 4.3in touch screen. The standard screen is a 3.5in unit, similar to those used by many rivals, and is supplied along with a QWERTY keypad, whereas the larger screen adds 20 per cent of usable area. This version features an on-screen soft keyboard and keypad. The range of options includes an integrated magnetic stripe reader, barcode scanner and RFID.
'Ditch the dongle,' says the Bluetooth camp
If you're using a mobile broadband 'dongle' to connect your laptop to the Internet, you should consider using the Internet connectivity of your 3G mobile phone instead, and link it to your computer by Bluetooth wireless connection. That's the message behind a 'Ditch the Dongle' campaign by – you've guessed it – the Bluetooth Special Interest Group. It argues that using the mobile connection saves customers money, and is also more convenient. It has some figures to back up the message. It says that in a survey conducted in Sweden, consumers using a 3G phone connection with their laptop saved up to 40 per cent of the costs of using a separate plug-in 3G SIM card with its own subscription fee. It argues that combining the two also saves users from having to commit to a broadband contract of a year to two years.
Hosted LBS: approaching its peak already?
'Off-deck' applications are promoting a surge of growth in location-based services, according to a new report by ABI Research. And yes, if you wondered what off-deck means, we felt the need to check it out ourselves, just to be sure. It simply means applications that are supported by a remote server, rather than being installed locally on a mobile device. ABI says the main drivers behind this off-deck LBS growth are the sudden rise in popularity of a new generation of touch-screen GPS-enabled smartphones, and a wide range of application stores launched by handset and mobile operating system vendors. |