Author: Justin Alcon

A software engineer by trade and passionate about new technology and media.

Satelite Technology Takes Android to the World’s Most Remote Locations

by Justin Alcon

This week DeLorme, a producer of market-leading GPS, digital map, and mapping software solutions, announced that it was named an International CES Innovations 2012 Design and Engineering Awards Honoree for its newest product: the inReach™ Satellite Communicator. CES is one of the biggest technical conferences in the world, and to be recognized in this way is an indicator of true innovation.

The inReach offers affordable two-way satellite messaging and emergency communications from anywhere in the world through the Iridium network. In short, this means you can stay connected even in the most remote locations. Read More

Tagged Adds Some Great Features to its Mobile App

by Justin Alcon

I recently wrote about Facebook’s new features and how they work for small businesses, but today I’m highlighting a different kind of social network : Tagged.  Tagged isn’t a Facebook competitor per se; as a matter of fact you can (and I do) use Facebook Login to sign into the site.  Tagged is different – instead of just keeping up with your friends, Tagged is focused on meeting new friends.  This is accomplished via site-generated friend suggestions, public profiles, group interests, and most importantly, social games.  This kind of behavior is great for your social life, and making friends can be good for your brand as well.  In the business world it’s all about who you know, and Tagged is a great way to get to know people.   Read More

Facebook has new features for your brand

by Justin Alcon

It seems like Facebook has been announcing a lot of changes lately.  For busy small business owners this can be a prescription for paranoia, since it’s hard to keep up with all these changes and quickly analyze how they affect your brand’s page.  However, the Facebook team seems to be working at keeping it clean and simple, with new metrics that help you understand your page’s impact.

The latest changes come as part of Facebook’s new Insight tools, which indicates a shift in Facebook’s  emphasis towards sharing and engagement. Until now there hasn’t really been a way for brands to measure the impact and reach their content and fan pages have. The latest updates will give brands a much better measurement of engagement over the previous offerings. Read More

Livescribe Echo Smartpen is the coolest business tool

by Justin Alcon

For the last week I’ve been using a Livescibe Echo smartpen, and I flat-out love it.  When Livescribe gave me their 8gb version to demo, I have to admit I was dubious at first; I spend a lot of time banging away on a keyboard, and I was pretty sure that the pen and the pad were going the way of the dodo.  Man, was I wrong.

First, the basics: the Echo smartpen digitally captures your handwritten and audio notes, the combination of which is a ‘pencast’.  Basically, when you tap the “record” area of the specially printed paper, everything that you write (and the sounds associated with it) are recorded.  You can transfer files from the pen and share your recorded notes with others, and you can also tap any section of your notes and hear what was recorded when you were writing the note.  Livescribe makes it incredibly easy to share your pencasts with others as it automatically hooks up to your email, Google Docs, Evernote, Facebook, Mobile (iPhone and iPad) and/or MyLivescribe (an online storage space for pencasts). Read More

The Pantech Crossover is the Perfect Entry Level Smartphone

by Justin Alcon

I recently had the pleasure of using the Pantech Crossover for a week,  and I have to say that I’m impressed.  I have been a smartphone user for a REALLY long time (I don’t want to say how long for fear of sounding like a bigger nerd than I already do).  I feel like I’ve basically seen it all when it comes to handheld devices.  And yet, this small Android device with a real keyboard was still able to surprise me.  As comfortable as I feel with smart phones generally, I realized I hadn’t used one with a proper keyboard since my T-Mobile Sidekick.  While the form was foreign to me, I was impressed at how easily I was able to begin using the Crossover due to its intuitive design and responsive interface. Read More

Premade Recipes Make ifttt Awesome

by Justin Alcon

A while back, we found “if this then that”, a cool new way to automate some of the logistical work of your social media campaign.  “If this then that”, or just “ifttt”, is a way to write custom recipes or routines that fit your social media campaign perfectly.  That’s awesome, and what’s even more awesome is that you can share these recipes with the world.  You’re also free to use the recipes that have already been shared by others, rather than having to make them all up from scratch. Today I’m going to take a look at some of the coolest recipes I’ve found, and let you know how you can put them to work with your social media outreach. Read More

AT&T Video Capture

by Justin Alcon

We have talked about technical tools that are great for field professionals more than once.  But today I am more excited than usual to cover a great new tool from our sponsor, AT&T.  Everyone’s smart phone has a great new video camera mounted to the back, but when we want to share these videos with our friends, family, or in our case, a co-worker, we have to rely on YouTube or some video hosting service. By the time that you have uploaded it and send someone a message to look at it, the moment has passed. Well no more, to the cloud!

AT&T has announced the AT&T video capture apllication which enables businesses to stream live and pre-recorded videos from handsets in the field to co-workers in the office. The desktop gets a web-based monitoring interface, so you can watch videos in real-time from your desk, archive and organize these feeds, and communicate with users in the field about what you are seeing.  All this real time interaction greatly increasing the speed and agility of your organization. Read More

Kensington SecureBack cases are great for shared iPads

by Justin Alcon

Increasingly, businesses are finding that iPads and other tablets are the best solution for their needs.  Unfortunately, one of the best things about the iPad can be one of the worst things; basically, its extreme mobility.  Although this really helps workers on the go, it also helps less-than-honest people score free iPads for themselves.  So, the question becomes: how can we maintain mobile productivity while thwarting would-be thieves? Read More

New iCloud is Imminent

by Justin Alcon

Last week’s iPhone 4S release foreshadowed an iCloud release date this week.  Predictions were found to be accurate, and we now know the iCloud for iOS will be released on Wednesday, Oct. 12.

While the official Apple press release states Oct. 12 as the iCloud release date, we have a preview of some of the features (the iCloud Beta download went live on Aug 2 so developers have been playing with these features for a couple of weeks now).  So, what can this new iCloud product do for you? Read More

iPhone 4S has some nice camera upgrades

by Justin Alcon

For some of us, the most compelling new feature of the iPhone 4S isn’t the debut of iOS 5 or the faster A5 processor. No, what I’m most excited about (and I know I’m not the only one) is the new, beefier camera. We’ve come a long way; ten years ago phone cameras were a joke, and now they’re the most popular camera on flickr.  The iPhone 4S’s camera upgrade shows us why.

First, the size: 8 megapixels. This is the most marketing-friendly upgrade, but in my opinion it’s the least important. Plenty of devices have high pixel counts, and the fact is you don’t need a high pixel count to take a quality photo. High pixel counts are really only necessary for very large photos with very large sensors, like DSLR-type cameras. Having a lot of pixels in a small space only helps the quality of shots that are blown up very large, which isn’t a common use of a phone snapshot. So what is important? Read More