Motorola unveils RFID reader

Motorola has unveiled the Motorola XR450, an industrial-class fixed radio-frequency identification (RFID) reader, says TCM net.

With the introduction of this new two-in-one solution, both item-level tracking and more demanding supply chain applications get an ideal high-performance RFID reader.

Offering new management software and improved security features like SSH and SSL support to protect information as it moves across external network interfaces, the XR450 is Motorola's latest version of its XR family of RFID fixed reader products.

Smart cards with rechargeable microchips are being introduced to Montreal and Quebec city's public transit systems, reports CBC.

The "Opus" cards, ubiquitous already in some American and European cities, will cut down on fare fraud and reduce line-ups at metro station counters.

Regular public transit users will have to buy a $3.50 Opus card to which they can add fare values equivalent to a strip of six tickets, a weekly or monthly pass in any of the networks adopting the new system.

One hundred and ten years after it introduced the world's first moving staircase, department store Harrods is pioneering another technology: advertisements which talk to your mobile phone, says Times Online.

The Knightsbridge store is understood to be the first British retailer to run print ads featuring 'mobile bar codes', tiny squares showing black and white shapes which, when a mobile phone takes a picture of them, provide information to the phone via the Web.

Just as a traditional bar code can identify a product when swiped in a scanner, 'mobile bar codes' allow a phone to interact with a billboard or newspaper advertisement via its camera, and are being embraced by marketers as a way of offering additional information to customers.