Multimedia ads are coming to taxi cabs in New York City and elsewhere. Secure electronic payment expert Verifone and NYC taxicab fleet management specialist TaxiTronic have formed a joint venture around Verifone's MX870, a Linux-based PIN-entry pad that doubles as an advertising kiosk.

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Verifone announced the MX870 in May. The device uses mobile phone networks to process credit card transactions, and can also operate as an electronic signage device, displaying multimedia content downloaded over cellular networks.

The MX870 is based on a 200MHz Samsung ARM9 processor, comes with 16MB of RAM, and 32-128MB of Flash. It is rumored to use the FancyPants graphics framework from Fluffy Spider; that company announced a port to a specific Samsung-based development board last month.

The joint venture between Verifone and TaxiTronics will be known as VeriFone Transportation Systems (VTS). It will supply fleet and private taxi owners with MX870 systems that work in conjunction with TaxiTronics's network infrastructure products.

VTS will also offer services, including fleet management, dispatch, scheduling, messaging, GPS navigation, and customer reporting services — basically, making technologies developed for NYC cabs available in other markets, it says.

TaxiTronic President Amos Tamam said, “The VTS solution will handle everything from cab sign-in and sign-out, to combining dispatch orders with one-touch GPS directional assistance.”

VeriFone CEO Douglas G. Bergeron said, “Several cities are in the process of contracting for fleet automation solutions to more effectively manage private and public transportation resources.”

 
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