iPhone activation relies on Windows Mobile

[onlydarksets]

Imagine my surprise yesterday, when the Apple employee who was hooking up my iPhone pulled out a handheld device running Windows Mobile! There was a full-screen application (looked like something in Java), but I saw the distinctive WM keyboard select icon (in the system tray area) and the craptacular WM QWERTY keyboard. I am pretty sure the device was the Symbol MC70 (or a predecessor to it.

I didn't take any pix at the time, but here (http://onlydarksets.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/iphone-activation-relies-on-windows-mobile/) are some pix of what I think it was.

[jgrnt1]

I took a look at it when I got my iPhone a few days ago. It was definitely a Symbol device, with an integrated card reader and a UPC scanner. They were doing complete checkouts on the devices, so any employee walking around with one could check you out. I first bought the phone, and then went and picked out a couple of accessories. I was walking toward the desk at the back, when an employee stopped me and said he could take care of ringing the stuff up. A couple of quick scans, a swipe of my card, a signature on the screen and I was out the door. It is ironic that it's a WM or WinCE based device, but I suspect that if Apple had a new Newton type device, they would be using it instead.

[onlydarksets]

Apparently I didn't search hard enough:
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/news/show/76689/apple-picks-best-tool-for-mobile-checkout-windows-ce.html

(thanks Pony99CA)