Monday 26 July 2010

Can the iPad really hack it?

Apple's iPad is stimulating a lot of interest in mobility across the hotel industry as a Guest centric self-serve information solution, and rightly so.  Touchscreen kiosk and info' displays are becoming more pervasive in hotels and help alleviate peak-time pressures on reception staff so, if it's possible to make some of these services go mobile, it makes absolute sense.  Why wouldn't you do it?
 
The iPad's durability and capability though in a commercial environment is questionable... surely some degree of "ruggedability" is paramount.  Total Cost of Ownership has to be a consideration too.  And then, there is "desirability" - we all know this exists, especially for the iPad, and it has to be accounted for.  Will it be the towel or the iPad that gets snucked away, I wonder.

I can hear all the nay-sayers right now postulating the failure of mobility in hospitality.  May be.  But all I would say is cast your mind back over the last ten years and see how far technology in hotels has moved on, and into, the Guest space. 
Apple's iPad has certainly raised awareness but it just might be too much of a lightweight...

Friday 9 July 2010

I bet the Apple iPAD can't do this...

...successfully run uniCenta oPOS on a Partner Tech EM-200 pad and it's very, very slick - will get some video of posted soon.  But what's even better (for some) is that it was running on Ubuntu 10 (loaded Ubuntu 10 onto a USB stick and booted from there and preserved the original Windows 7 install).

Of course, with the EM-200 being designed for mobility it makes no sense to worry about kicking a Cashdrawer, unless the EM-200 is in its POS Base (docking station). Hooked it up to a Bluetooth printer too sitting across the other side of the room (already done the wireless network printer in a previous test).

Now things are really cooking!  Everything doesn't have to be crammed or limited to the usual PDA type small screen.
The uses for this pad are almost endless!