IDAutomation USB Barcode Scanner Kits

by Nate Schubert

IDAutomation is very pleased to announce a special, limited time offer for the IDAutomation USB Barcode Scanner with DataBar and PDF417. These barcode readers are extremely affordable as compared to others of their class, and can even read barcodes from LCD screens with relative ease.

IDAutomation is now offering the Gray IDAutomation USB Barcode Scanners with Stands for the low price of $99, while supplies last. Normally, a scanner and stand would cost $146 but as part of this special offer, the stand is included free as part of this kit.

If you're looking for a dependable barcode scanner at an especially affordable price, check out the IDAutomation USB Barcode Scanner with DataBar in Light Gray with Stand. Place your order by 2pm eastern and it will ship same-day!

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Business Solutions Magazine Articles

Yesterday I submitted several of our valued partner's contact info to Business Solutions magazine for a September 2010 publication article about interesting barcode printer installations. We look forward to the article.

Here is a list of other articles in Business Solutions magazine that cover TSC:

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The Healthcare Bar Coding Opportunity

August 14, 2009

http://www.bsminfo.com/article.mvc/The-Healthcare-Bar-Coding-Opportunity-0001

The Healthcare Bar Coding Opportunity article is an interesting interview with Jim Scheid and Mark Snow at Mid-America Business Systems. Jim and Mark have done a remarkable job delivering patient identification systems to hospitals throughout the U.S. and Canada. Their Patient ID Xpress solution relies on TSC printers and our very powerful programming language.

Over the years TSC has worked very closely with Mid-America to enhance our language capabilities. Check out the sidebar article "Private Label Your Printer Solutions" for more details.

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Q&A: Convert Bar Code Printing Opportunities Into Cash

http://bsminfo.com/article.mvc/QA-Convert-Bar-Code-Printing-Opportunities-In-0001

Experts reveal which markets you should be targeting in 2009 to increase bar code printing sales.
Business Solutions, May 2009

Written by: Mike Monocello

If you’re just trying to make a living selling hardware, it’s a tough market. You have to get involved in being a consultant. You need to bring total solutions to the table, which include software, setup, service, and media sales. Our best dealers are those programming solutions. They’re writing software with customers and, in many cases, creating stand-alone applications that tie a keyboard, scanner, and printer together. It’s good for companies because such solutions remove the need for a PC. It’s a profitable strategy for VARs because they can sell the printers for list price or above due to the added value.

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The Vertical Market Gamble

January 16, 2008

http://bsminfo.com/article.mvc/The-Vertical-Market-Gamble-0001

The Vertical Market Gamble interviews our hard-working partner at Paragon Print Systems, Bob Hess. In the interview Bob talks about the various markets the pursue including government, law enforcement, and other niche markets.

The sidebar to the article discusses using TSC's industrial printers to create a stand-alone printing solution at a roofing manufacturer. Paragon worked with TSC to write a program that allows employees to scan a bar code which triggers the printing of a label in the correct format. At the end of an employee's shift, another bar code is scanned which directs the printer to generate a productivity report including the number of products shipped. Finally, Paragon included a function where employees can scan a bar code that resets the productivity report counter for the next shift.

"This project shows the capabilities and power of TSC printers," says Hess. "Creating software to run on a stand-alone printer — removing PCs from a solution — can dramatically reduce costs and redundancy."

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Bar Code Printing Sales Opportunities: Strong In 2008

February 4, 2008

http://bsminfo.com/article.mvc/Bar-Code-Printing-Sales-Opportunities-Strong-0002

So, bar code printers aren’t as exciting as video surveillance or digital signage, but that doesn’t mean that bar code printers aren’t still providing lucrative sales opportunities for VARs. Vertical markets such as supply chain, retail, and healthcare are still the top markets for bar code printer sales. However, three industry experts (Angela Mansfield-Swanson, director of corporate marketing for Cognitive/Transaction Printer Group; David Lundeen, VP of sales and marketing for TSC America, Inc.; and Jeff Jackman, national sales manager for Toshiba TEC) recently offered their thoughts on new opportunities that VARs may want to consider to boost printer sales.

Maybe you don’t care to get into the medical vertical. Perhaps your specialty is manufacturing. “If that’s the case, why not take a hard look at your vertical specialty to see if you can develop a solution for that market?” asks Lundeen. “For instance, most manufacturing companies move products through a work in process [WIP] cycle. If your customers aren’t using bar code printers and readers to assist in that process, perhaps you can show them how. Our VARs are seeing sales growth for events and promotions customers. In many cases, they use color label printers to produce wrist bands, tickets, or labels.” Other markets such as the quick lube oil change industry have a need for bar code and receipt printers as well. ISVs may also want to consider designing applications to utilize bar code equipment in new markets.

According to Lundeen, it’s not necessary to have a lot of vertical expertise to put together a bar code printer solution. “All you really need is the desire to get into that market,” he says. “Once a VAR understands how the printer works, it’s easy to adapt it to different applications.”

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SMBs Ripe For Desktop Printers

February 1, 2006

Bar coding is not going away anytime soon, especially in the SMB space, so be ready with solutions and services using desktop bar code printers.

Business Solutions, February 2006 Written by: Khristen Chapin

http://bsminfo.com/article.mvc/SMBs-Ripe-For-Desktop-Printers-0001

Increase Your Margins With Additional Services
The prices of desktop bar code printers are falling, but beware of how low prices can hurt you. “Customers are expecting faster, more reliable printers for less money than they would have paid in the past,” says David Lundeen, VP of marketing for printer manufacturer TSC America, Inc. “VARs have to meet these needs while maintaining a comfortable profit margin.” Luckily, good VARs can turn a profit margin by offering services that justify an increased price. SMBs don’t have sophisticated IT departments — if they have them at all — and they’ll rely on VARs to help with choosing, installing, and maintaining printing solutions. You can step in and offer service contracts, software integration, and customization. Keep in mind that your customers can easily check the prices of products online, so be sure you can back up the value-added services you’re providing. “The most common mistake VARs can make is lack of follow-up for after-sales service and support,” says Lundeen. “You need to be a solutions seller, rather than a box mover.”

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TSC Printers

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Printer and Scanner Images

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TSC Auto ID Introduction Video

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QRdvark 1.0 now available in Android Market

Download and install QRdvark from the Android Market.QRdvark is a free QR scanning app. It scans QR symbols and reacts appropriately. QRdvark recognizes all common QR formats including URLs, contacts, SMS, email, and location, as well as standard barcode formats and GS1 identification keys."See it. Scan it. See what happens."

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Google and the QR Barcode

Because we are Google's BFF (and huge G1 phone nerds) we love to see the big G dabble in the barcode arts. Offering a new sort of checkout to Google merchants/Android users, a QR barcode is generated live at online ordering, the buyer scans with their Android phone and completes the payment that way.A little convoluted for my taste (okay, a lot convoluted for my taste), and really nowhere near

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How to Print Barcode Labels with Microsoft Word

Printing labels with Microsoft Word 2007 /Microsoft Word 2010 (or higher) is easy. All you have to do is to select the label template, adjust the recipient list (the database used for the variable label data) and to design the layout.

But if you want to print bar-code labels it may get a little bit trickier. Earlier versions of Microsoft Word (pre 2007) offered bar-code support for POSTNET and FIM codes. But even this limited barcode printing feature was removed by Microsoft.

To overcome this restriction TEC-IT developed a professional but easy-to-use bar-code solution for Microsoft Word. The barcode add-in TBarCode Office integrates into the Word user interface and provides seamless bar-code printing services.

The initial release of this barcode add-in supported simple barcode documents and mail merge with barcodes. The pre-release available for download on this blog offers barcode label printing support in addition. Mail merge documents using the «Next Record» rule can now be printed without problems.

Check it out for yourself  - pre-release download the release! TBarCode Office - Barcode Add-In for Microsoft Word (updated 07/21/2010)

Feedback is highly welcome!

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Android Bluetooth Reader, Keyboard Wedge

In the past few months TEC-IT developed an Android App for data acquisition with Bluetooth and TCP. The good feedback of the Android community motivated us to further enhance this app. The result: an universal data acquisition app including keyboard wedge functionality.

The app is named GetBlue. The final version is available as slightly restricted freeware as well as commercial application. Here are the highlights:

• Android Keyboard Wedge / Virtual Keyboard:
  Captured device data can be entered into any application.
• Supported Input Devices: 
• Bluetooth SPP/RFCOMM, TCP (e.g. RFID controllers), HTTP applications and camera scanners apps like the ZXing Barcode Scanner.
• Supported Data-Sinks:
  Bluetooth SPP/RFCOMM, plain TCP, HTPP via Get and Post, Google Docs Spreadsheets, File.
• Data Acquisition Proxy / Data Switchboard:
  Acquired data can be forwarded to any supported data-sink.

Universal Data Acquisition App

Use GetBlue like an universal data switchboard: capture data from a data-source and forward it to an arbitrary data-sink. As an example you can adjust GetBlue to collect data from a Bluetooth barcode scanner and forward this data immediately to a Google Docs spreadsheet (refer to the drawing).

What is a Virtual Keyboard?

A virtual keyboard replaces the standard soft-keyboard of Android. Captured data is always made available to this virtual keyboard. Thus, data acquired from a Bluetooth barcode scanner or an RFID tag can be entered into any application which is accepting user input. This works completely independent from the selected datasource and the target app.

Call for Requests!

The internals of GetBlue are very simply to extend (e.g. new protocols, new devices, ...). Just let us know your requirements. Whenever possible we will provide you with a solution. Leave us a comment or send an email to office@tec-it.com.

Free Trial!

Install GetBlue using Android Market on your handset. Search for GetBlue manually or use this link: market://search?q=pname:com.tecit.datareader.android.getblue.demo.

We are looking forward to hearing from you!

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TSCAutoID Twitter Account

We are now set up on twitter at http://twitter.com/tscautoid

All the links are now listed at the upper right hand corner of this blog.

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