willay
Moderator
Organiser: South East, National Events
Premium Member
Registered: 10th Nov 02
Location: Roydon, Essex
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Hello,
I need a portable device I can plug a USB barcode scanner into and scan in barcodes, been thinking of using a tablet but not clued up on them so was wondering what the wonderful men of Geek Day suggest?
Device needs to be light, portable, OK battery life and the application I'm reading the barcodes into will be a web browser as thats how we access our stock system. Needs to have Wifi but I assume pretty much all tablets have this? Screen needs to be a decent size but keeping the weight down.
Anyone done anything like this before? The stuff they use in tescos/big stores are far too expensive and the screens are too small as I'll need to navigate round a website before entering the barcodes in.
All input welcome, thanks 
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Neo
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Registered: 20th Feb 07
Location: Essex
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We had a few MSI winds at my last place for just this Will (admittedly before tablets really came out). Did the job and was cheap
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ed
Member
Registered: 10th Sep 03
User status: Offline
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The first thing that comes to mind would be an Archos 9 tablet as that runs Windows 7 on an Intel Atom processor. It has USB ports and has a decent sized screen.
There are a few generic versions of these you can buy on Ebay from China, some of which run Atom processors others which run different architecture with Windows CE or XP on them which might not fully support your hardware?
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
User status: Offline
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Be wary of the cheap and cheerful stuff as they normally have awful touchscreens. I'm sure most andriod devices can accept USB inputs?
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oceansoul
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Registered: 19th Jun 06
Location: Sunbury, Surrey
User status: Offline
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Were getting new panasonic toughbooks CF1-U1's for our work order dispatch system at work. Run Win7, have USB Serial etc WiFi GPS Bluetooth.
Fucking expensive though.
http://www.toughbook.eu/products-and-services/umpc/cf-u1
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Rob_Quads
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: southampton
User status: Offline
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Take a look at the ThinkPad X60 Tablet PC - Very well made piece of kit
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Leighton
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Registered: 21st Feb 01
Location: Liverpool
User status: Offline
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http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps11156/index.html
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willay
Moderator
Organiser: South East, National Events
Premium Member
Registered: 10th Nov 02
Location: Roydon, Essex
User status: Offline
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We aren't on a cisco budget I'm afraid, I'd be looking for an all-rounder that could double up as a nice toy if this whole thing turns out to be useless? 
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noshua
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Registered: 19th Nov 08
User status: Offline
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Any with a USB port and the right software will work won't it? You've got a choice of either Android or Windows, latter being the easiest for your situation if you already have software that you can install on it (for the bar code reader).
Pretty sure you could use the camera to read the bar codes if you're not using a USB attached bar code reader - quite a bit slower though.
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willay
Moderator
Organiser: South East, National Events
Premium Member
Registered: 10th Nov 02
Location: Roydon, Essex
User status: Offline
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looks like there is a bunch of a barcode scanners that are usb/bluetooth that work with Android without an issue which is nice. The question now is what tablet to go for, was reading a review on the Asus Transformer TF101
http://www.ebuyer.com/262117-asus-transformer-tf101-tablet-pc-tf101-1b027a
Which looks alright, not bad price and a big screen. Any reccomendations?
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Leighton
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Registered: 21st Feb 01
Location: Liverpool
User status: Offline
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Cisco Tablet is only £700, well thats what i can get it for if you want one
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noshua
Member
Registered: 19th Nov 08
User status: Offline
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http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-galaxy-tab-10-1-p7500-wifi-16gb-black-10983417-pdt.html
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