Compact Flash Smartcard Reader for Pocket PC

[Andy Sjostrom]

<a href="http://www.pro-active.fr/products/springcard-cf/">http://www.pro-active.fr/products/springcard-cf/</a><br /><br />Paris based company <a href="http://www.pro-active.fr/index.php">Pro-Active SARL</a> has released a Compact Flash Smartcard Reader for Pocket PC. It looks very nice and for a developer like myself, this product opens up great opportunities in so many market sectors.<br />"SpringCard-CF by Pro-Active is a smartcard reader usable in any Pocket PC handled with an available CompactFlash slot. SpringCard-CF is the platform of choice to create Pocket PC applications using a smartcard reader". Here some product highlights:<br /><br />• ISO smartcard reader slot + internal SIM/SAM connector. <br />• GemCore Chipset, giving access to microprocessor cards ISO7816-1,2,3,4 (T=0, T=1) in 3V or in 5V. <br />• Usable with most Pocket PC with an available CompactFlash slot. <br />• Powered by the Pocket PC. <br />• Plug &amp; play under Windows CE (Pocket PC 2000 and Pocket PC 2002), PC/SC compliant API (DLL to be called from Embedded Visual Basic 3.0 or Embedded Visual C++ 3.0). <br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/smart_01.jpg" />

[welmoed]

Hmm... wonder if this could develop into a credit card authorization device? My husband is looking into being able to do CC sales on the road, but the bank's cut for non-swiped sales is astronomical and a stand-alone card reader is a huge expense too. Could this system allow him to read a CC into a connect PPC and use it to get authorization?

I guess a system like that would require a magnetic stripe reader, but if they can make a smartcard reader why not a magstripe reader?

--Welmoed