ShopSavvy and Dropbox Combine for Shopping Productivity

May 20, 2011 by BrothaTech

Small business owners stay busy—I know because I am one. I mean, juggling a personal life, a family, a 9-5 job, and managing your own business is overwhelming. So finding the time to bargain, coupon clip, comparison shop, and price match may not be in the “I really need to set aside some time to do this” bucket of things to do.

Small business owners can also benefit from using their smartphone in conjunction with mobile apps to help them save money on everyday business needs. The ShopSavvy Barcode Scanner app for iPhone and Android devices is one of those apps that can help you save time and money by finding the best deals locally and online with just a quick scan of a product’s barcode.

ShopSavvy can read UPC, EAN, and QR codes, so it can function as your all-in-one app for all your scanning needs. The cool part of the app is that it will search its database to find the lowest price locally and online from just about every major retailer. If you find a better deal locally, the app will give you directions and other details to the store where the item is available and an indication of whether or not the item is in stock. Find the item priced better online, ShopSavvy will send you to the merchant’s eCommerce site to buy directly, or save your item(s) to buy later.

Speaking of saving stuff, If you’ve ever read just about ANY of my previous articles, you should know that I am a huge Dropbox fan. Well guess what, ShopSavvy integrates with your Dropbox account so you can save your scan history and lists you’ve made in the app to your Dropbox cloud. This is handy because it syncs your data across all of the devices connected to your Dropbox account for anytime anywhere access, no matter what device you are using.

If you are able to free up some time to hit up your neighborhood office supply store for little, but important things for your business like printer ink, download the ShopSavvy app and start scanning those items to see if you can save a buck or two…And don’t forget to write off that ink as a business expense! While you’re at it, see if you can write off the $1.99 for the cost to download the ShopSavvy app that helps you save money for your business.

I may be stretching it a bit on that one!

Monday App Roundtable

May 16, 2011May 20, 2011 by Shy Mukerjee

Every week on Mario’s radio show (5-6pm on SiriusXM channel 128), the Small Biz Go Mobile writers and friends get together to discuss some of their favorite apps. Here’s what we took a look at this week:

Terrance’s Pick: Gigwalk

Small Biz Go Mobile’s Terrance (@Brothatech) is talking about a way to put the millions of iPhone owners to work, by offering them payments to complete tasks and take pictures? Gigwalk let’s you create gigs for freelance walkers to collect business info and photographs, verify map information, and capture the retail experience at your location.

Are you a freelancer looking to make some extra cash? The Gigwalk app lets you pick up these jobs, ranging anywhere from a few hundred to more than a thousand dollars. Take some pictures, write some descriptions, and get paid, all from within the app.

Though it hasn’t been rolled out across the country, Gigwalk is currently available in the following major areas: Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Philadelphia, South Florida, Boston, and Chicago.

Get Gigwalk from the iTunes store.

Ramon Ray’s pick: Qik

@RamonRay writes for Small Biz Technology, a site that shares weekly business tips with us here at SmallBizGoMobile. His app pick this week is Qik, the easiest way to share video because it streams it right from your phone or tablet device. With no need to edit or upload anything, your viewers can check out what you’re recording like right from Qik’s site.

Head on over to Qik’s website to get the app for your device.

Shy’s pick: Chrome to Phone

With so many people trying out Google’s Chrome web browser this week to take advantage of the free Angry Birds app for Chrome, I’m sure a lot of people are wondering what makes Chrome a better browser than say, Firefox or Internet Explorer. One extension that I use all the time is Chrome to phone which lets you send links and phone numbers easily to your Android phone or tablet. Need an easy way to download the apps we’re talking about today? If you had Chrome to phone, you could just send this page to your device and install the apps from the market links I’m including.

http://youtu.be/pQb243niMlg

GoPayment NFC transactions Demoed at Google I/O Conference

May 13, 2011May 13, 2011 by BrothaTech

This mobile transactions battle between Square, Intuit, and VeriFone is heating up! Looks as if Intuit just raised the stakes with the demonstration of its GoPayment mobile credit card processing application sporting new NFC (Near-Field Communication) technology that could set it apart from competitors in the market.

The current GoPayment system consists of a credit card reader that you plug into your smartphone’s headphone jack to swipe a customer’s credit card to complete a sale. Square and Verifone both have similar devices that you have to physically add to your phone for credit card swiping functionality.

Intuit’s GoPayment demonstration at this year’s Google I/O Conference shows NFC technology bring used to transfer credit card data via radio waves, eliminating the need for the actual card or any add-on card reader hardware. During a transaction, a user simply holds their smartphone (with their financial information stored on an accompanying mobile app) near a Point-of-Sale (POS) device or another smartphone that will read your credit card information and complete the sale. Thus making it easier and faster for customers to pay, and simpler for small business owners to get paid.

Innovation is happening rapidly in the mobile payment space and we want to be ready to help the millions of small businesses and consumers we serve benefit from the latest technology.

The mobile tech industry has been investing in the creation/evolution of the virtual wallet for quite sometime. Intuit, with this recent show of support in NFC and mobile credit card transactions, may have just fast-tracked itself to the front of the race. Look out for more mobile device manufacturers to start pumping out NFC-enabled gadgets like the Google Nexus S currently on the market (and what Intuit used for its demo) that can support this technology towards the end of 2011 and well into 2012.

[via: Business Wire]

The Viddy App for iPhone is like Instagram for Video

May 13, 2011May 13, 2011 by Justin Alcon

In business, it’s vital to connect with your target demographic. Mobile technology can really help with this effort, as it offers many different platforms on which to reach potential customers or community members. For example, Instagram has quickly become a popular way to interact visually with early adopters and younger cursomers. Instagram is great, but it’s limited to still images. If you’d like the same capability for videos, check out Viddy in the iTunes App Store, the free social networking video camera.

The Viddy App for iOS devices is pretty nifty. Basically, it adds visual effects to video and allows the user to share it. When Viddy starts, the default view is a feed of videos that have been shared by your group of connections. The interface is familiar – it’s a near-clone clone of Instagram. The user has the ability to like, comment, and tag videos as they come through the feed.

I’m a ‘sharing’ kind of guy, so I immediately went to ‘Share’. Offered the choice of using an existing video or shooting a new one, I chose to shoot a new one. I did notice a limitation here: only 15 seconds of video can be shared at one time. Then, I was taken to the effects adding screen (pictured right), where I add various visual effects, and adjusted the level of the sound captured. Next, you’re invited to add metadata like title, location, and tags. Finally, you’re given the opportunity to share across platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare, and Tumblr.

Recently, the small business where I work paid a famous market research firm to test new language for an upcoming PR campaign. I was shocked to see how words with very similar meanings were sometimes judged harshly by listeners based on their own personal biases. Small tweaks in language made HUGE differences in the way our brand was viewed and our community engagement. The same is true with the visual media that we share: it has to be rich and engaging to reach the proper market share. So, check out Viddy if you’re looking for a new way to reach your target market in a way that really engages them at their level.

Decide On A Mobile Payment Solution: Calculating Square vs. VeriFone Fees

May 7, 2011May 7, 2011 by Shy Mukerjee

Do you want to be able to take credit card payments from your smartphone or tablet computer? Having difficulty deciding between the competing options? A great new website takes a look at your average transaction size as well as your monthly volume and calculates whether Square’s or VeriFone’s competing mobile payment platforms will offer you the better deal.

Whereas Square simply charges a flat 2.75%, VeriFone’s fee structure is a bit more complicated. Depending on your particular business, either one could be the better deal. Thankfully, FeeFighter’s calculator helps you decide which options would be more profitable.

Zipcar App for Android takes your car reservation experience mobile

May 5, 2011 by BrothaTech

Zipcar’s claim to fame is that you can go online and reserve a car, find its location, and use a special card to unlock the doors and go on with your business – all without speaking to anyone in person. Great for on the go entrepreneurs and business owners who may just be in town for a meeting and in need of some quick transportation.

Based on a study conducted late last year, most Zipcar customers are smartphone owners and a large number of those surveyed owned Android devices. The company put two and two together and decided to create an Android app to complement the iPhone app currently on the market. Now, the entire car reservation process is available on Android smartphones and tablet computers. In addition to managing your Zipcar accounts, making reservations, and locating your vehicle via the Google Maps app, the new Android app allows users to beep their horn remotely to further identify the car. You can even lock and unlock your Zipcar’s doors right from your phone!

The Zipcar app is currently in the public beta phase, but I don’t see it staying there long as functionality like this is what many people envision their smartphones being able to achieve. I predict that rental car companies will follow suit and offering their own mobile apps that can handle a number of functions that normally requite a visit to the customer service desk and a wait in line. No more being stuck without a car while the customer ahead of you makes the life changing decision between an economy, standard, or full-size car.

Competition in Mobile Credit Card Processing Helps the Business Owner

May 1, 2011May 1, 2011 by Shy Mukerjee

In a move that seems designed to take some of the wind out of Square’s sails (who just this week received an investment from Visa), Intuit’s GoPayment mobile credit card swiping service is dropping their per transaction fees. The clear winner here is neither Square or Intuit, though, but the business owners and entrepreneurs who are using these devices. Fees don’t affect consumers, but they do directly impact bottom lines.

DROPitTO.me – Securely receive files from anyone to your Dropbox

April 28, 2011 by BrothaTech

You all should know by now that I am a huge Dropbox fan. So you can imagine my surprise when I discovered the ever-growing list of apps and services that utilize Dropbox.

One of the apps that stuck out was the DROPitTOme online service lets you request files from anyone that will automatically be uploaded to your Dropbox account. Now, if you’re going from Dropbox user to Dropbox user, file sharing is included in the basic account. But, if you need a file from somebody who has never heard of Dropbox (shame on them), the quickest way to receive a file I guess would be via email. Most people with a smartphone have access to their email accounts on the go, and most people know how to send an email.

But, if you’re dealing a user who doesn’t use Dropbox AND wants to send a huge file, that’s where DROPitTOme comes in. You can send your upload link to anyone and they can add files up to 75mb directly to your Dropbox account – Most other email clients only allow up to 10mb per email attachment. DITM will also create a separate folder that won’t mess with your current Dropbox structure.

Once you’ve registered an account and linked to Dropbox, DITM will generate a special upload link (http://dropitto.me/username) that’s secured with a special upload password that you assign to. Once the link and password is accepted, users can start to upload any kind of file Dropbox currently accepts. upload/transfer is crazy fast, and you will be sent an email with the uploaded file details when the transfer is complete. Files are available immediately to access via the web, connected computers or (wait for it) any smartphone or mobile device connected to your Dropbox account.

That upload link stays the same no matter who you give it to and there is no time limit/timeout period to when a user with your link/pass can upload files. That may be a good or bad thing, so you have the ability to change the upload password at any time, or toggle upload capabilities on and off.

My only gripe is there is no bulk upload option, so you will have to upload those files one at a time. But for free (or a donation), what more can you ask for from a quick and easy way to receive files that are automatically added to your Dropbox account for instant access via a smartphone?

I thought so. So visit the DROPitTOme site and let us know what you think in the comment section.

Android Owners get a Native Google Docs App

April 27, 2011 by BrothaTech

Nothing speaks to mobile productivity more than the ability to access, edit, and share documents no matter where you are (or what device you are using). The Google Docs online document storage/sharing service has a mobile-friendly site where mobile device users can do most if not all of the above mentioned. But nothing says “You’ve arrived” nowadays more than an actual app, and Android owners now can bask in the glory that is the new Google Docs app.

The short and sweet of the native app versus a mobile-friendly site is that you have greater functionality since a native app takes advantage of the technology built inside your phone versus more “universal” features for multiple devices. The Google Docs app for Android does just that. In addition to being easier to search and filter content, edit documents on the fly and share them with anybody in your phone’s contact list, The Google Docs app adds greater functionality that can’t be done via a web app or mobile-friendly site. Read More

Mario Armstrong

TV Host and Motivator for the Modern World

Category: Small Biz Applications