Category: Small Biz Applications

eBay Buys RedLaser Barcode App to Encourage Online Buying and Selling

by BrothaTech

Do you have an Ebay business?  Wouldn’t it be cool to look up eBay prices for products your are selling (or thinking about selling) by scanning barcodes with your iPhone?

Well eBay was thinking along those same lines by buying the uber-popular barcode scanning RedLaser app developed by Occipital in hopes to encourage users to scan barcodes to find and buy the item on eBay.

The RedLaser app was originally designed for shoppers to scan barcodes of physical products to compare prices in surrounding brick and mortar stores. And it was a hit too, getting downloaded over 2 million times since it was put up in the Apple App Store. eBay is looking to duplicate that success with giving users the ability to not only search for the best price at local physical stores, but to expand that search throughout it’s 200 million listings on eBay. RedLaser will be a free app from eBay and will be integrate listings from all the eBay iPhone apps (including StubHub and Shopping.com).

RedLaser was originally a $1.99 app, but by dropping the price to a whopping free.99, eBay hopes to get that money back by way of increasing the number of shoppers using its app to scan barcodes of physical products and finding a better virtual prices online. As more people recognize the power of mobile technology and feel more secure with buying items online, the RedLaser app by eBay should bring in some BIG numbers for eCommerce businesses looking to expand their customer base to those mobile pros, as well as casual shoppers just looking for a better deal.

Skywriting? Try Google docs and Microsoft Office’s Web Apps for Cloud Collaboration

by Jean Westcott

When we talk about working in The Cloud, what do we mean?  Web-based software applications are the fastest-expanding Cloud technologies.

The first of these applications to gain a significant share of users was Google Docs with a four-year head start.  Google has documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings and forms.  You can create, share, and collaborate on any of these tasks with co-workers, friends or members of your organizations.  You can control if you want your work to be public or just shared with designated individuals.  And it is all free.  Want to give it a try but need an idea for a project?  How about trying a family calendar?  Google Docs has lots of templates that users have uploaded and rated.

Just this past week, Microsoft joined the Cloud-based Aps world with its new Office 2010 Web Apps beta.  The idea of the dominant business technology provider giving free access to their software was unimaginable up to now, but here we go with easy-to-use, easy-to-share and easy-to-access software that will be recognizable to anyone using Microsoft products in their work life.

The website Lifehacker gives a program by program comparison.  Try them out—life in the Cloud is getting interesting.

LinkedIn: The Gold Standard of Business Networking [AppSauce]

by Song

How do you prefer to trade information? Business card (only to be scanned later)? napkin? bumping?

For online professional business networking, LinkedIn is still the gold standard. It recently topped 70 million users and has been adding a ton of new features including: deep twitter integration allowing you to follow your linkedin connections privately, tracking movement in industries by seeing recent hires and departures at specific companies, and integration with Microsoft Outlook.

This free LinkedIn iPhone app gives you access to much of the functionality of the site, allowing you to update contacts with your status, send invites, accept invites, message, as well as connect instantly with nearby LinkedIn app users with the “In Person” feature. Download the app for the iPhone here. LinkedIn also offers free apps for the Blackberry and Palm Pre.

Get Your Mobile Payments Squared Up

by BrothaTech

Allow me to paint a picture.  You’ve got a hot product (at least you think it’s hot) that you want to sell at your local festival, expo, or event.  You know you’re going to get those “I only carry plastic with me” folks that want your product, but are not willing to go hunt down an ATM and pay a ba-jillion dollars in ATM fees.  Now you’ve just started and may not have the credit history to be extended a merchant account (or have no clue what a merchant account is) and you don’t have the funds to buy a credit card machine. Let’s be honest, you really don’t want to bother with messing around with the receipt paper that ALWAYS gets stuck in those machines either!

Enter Square, a mobile credit card system that allows users to accept credit card payments anywhere without a merchant account using your mobile device.  Imagine how smooth a transaction would go if you could just whip out your mobile device, and swipe your customer’s credit card and email them a receipt?  With Square you can do just that.

Whether it’s an iPhone, iPod Touch iPad, or Android mobile device (sorry BlackBerry folks), you can use Square’s mobile card reader that’s about the size of a tic-tac container that plugs into your device’s headphone port and allows you to accept credit cards as payments.

You don’t need the reader or merchant account to accept credit card payments, simply download the app from your smart phone’s respective app store, link a bank account and you’re set.  It would behoove you to go ahead and apply for the reader, because the fees associated with swiping a card versus manual input are cheaper, I mean, more monetarily advantageous.

Speaking of fees, although you don’t need a merchant account, there are no setup fees, fees for the mobile reader, monthly charges, or contract required (crazy right?).  All Square asks of you is a 2.75% + 15 cents per swiped charge and 3.5% + 15 cents per manual card input per transaction.  Which, I might add, is lower than most merchant account fees per transaction

Again, imagine how smooth your credit card transactions would go, and how cool you would look doing them if you were using Square.

For more information, and how to get signed up, visit squareup.com Or watch the video below:

New Microsoft Office 2010 goes mobile for FREE!

by Mario Armstrong

Microsoft goes mobile with Office 2010! Will it give you the productivity you need while on-the-go? This week Microsoft has finalized their release of the new Office 2010. While most reviews are covering the differences of the previous desktop version (here’s Walt Mossberg’s look at Office 2010) many are overlooking the availability to have Office 2010 on your mobile device.

In todays hyper-competitive, real-time environment your “office” must be wherever you are located! If you want to realize growth in your business you have to embrace being mobile & not the typical 20% phone feature usage – the 80% growth in mobile is identifying the right apps that will make you more productive. In my presentations I often say “In business a smartphone is only as good as the apps you run on it” otherwise it may as well be a doorstop! Don’t underestimate the mobile growth, in 2013 there will be close to 900 million worldwide mobile internet users (according to IDC, Worldwide Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast, December 2009)

This brings me back to Microsoft Office 2010! In my opinion, Microsoft has made a very smart move in offering the mobile version FREE with any Windows Mobile phones that has version 6.5 or above! Office 2010 for mobile includes Word Mobile 2010, Excel Mobile 2010, PowerPoint Mobile 2010, OneNote Mobile 2010, and SharePoint Workspace Mobile 2010. Outlook Mobile 2010 comes pre-installed on Windows phones and is the default e-mail service.

I will test out the apps for a post in the next week or two and give you a more detailed review about performance, features and limitations etc. Until then, if you are upgrading to a new Windows Mobile phone version 6.5 or higher make sure you are taking advantage of the Office 2010 mobile applications and increase your productivity while on the go!

What mobile “office-like” apps are you using? Tell us in the comments so we can make sure we review them for our readers!

Saving News Articles to Read Later with NewsRack [Appsauce]

by Song

As someone who uses their iPad primarily to keep on top of breaking news, trends, and analysis, there is no App that I’m spending more time with than NewsRack. It’s an RSS (really simple syndication) reader that allows you to keep track of updates from your favorite websites without having to visit individual sites.It synchs with an existing Google Reader account and has full integration with other apps and services allowing you to share stories through Google Reader, email, Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, etc.

I’ve got over 100+ subscriptions to feeds covering business, startups, entrepreneurship, technology, the media industry, culture, social media, and my neighborhood. Sure, Google has developed an optimized version of the Google Reader site for the iPad, but this app allows me to synch my articles and read them even when I don’t have an internet connection. It’s not a perfect app. Sometimes it does not appear to synch 100% accurately with Google Reader leaving articles that have been removed from Google on NewsRack. In comparison to Reeder, another RSS app that will be covered in the future, it downloads rather sluggishly. However, NewsRack provides a simple, clean layout that makes it easy to organize and scan large amounts of subscriptions. It’s especially ideal for an early morning commuter without access to a cellular or wifi signal on their iPad.

As of this moment, this is my favorite app for handling RSS. What’s yours?

Download app: NewsRack at iTunes Store

Available on: iPad, iPhone

Cost: $4.99

Recycle the Rolodex and Can the CardScanner with These Business Card Apps [AppSauce]

by Song

Have you ever come back from a conference or a networking event with a stack of business cards and toiled away entering the info into your address book, or maybe more likely, threw them in a drawer? I’m here to tell you that there’s an easier way!  Here are two apps that work using your smartphone’s camera to automatically pull information like name, address, phone numbers, email, and website.

CamCard Lite. The program struggled to recognize business cards until I moved the card and phone right underneath my desk lamp, but worked otherwise ok in the living room by a large window. The results weren’t exactly accurate as you can see by the following images. Not a single field of information populated 100% accurate, although using an app like this would still beat typing in all of that information into my address book manually.

Google Googles This was debuted in December of 2009 and isn’t only a business card scanning app, but it works fantastically well as one. You can use it to take pictures of nearly anything: logos, barcodes on things like books and DVDs, landmarks, and the app will attempt to gather more info. It didn’t have the same struggle that CamCard Lite did in my dimly light office since it triggered the flash on my smartphone. The results on the same business card were also 100% accurate as you can see in this picture!

Although I was surprised by how effective CamCard Lite was initially, once I tried Google Googles the victor in the battle for dominant business card scanning mobile app was decidedly clear. Hail to the Chief of search!

Download app: Google Googles

Available on: Android, coming soon to iPhone

Cost: free


CamCard Lite

Download app: search “CamCard Lite” in Android Marketplace
Available on: Android

Cost: free

Don’t hand me your card – BUMP it! (Happy Hour Friday)

by Mario Armstrong

Every Friday we review a FREE mobile app that you can use right away to help you biz grow–we call it Happy Hour Friday). This week I want you to take a look at a FREE mobile app called BUMP! This app enables you to quickly and accurately exchange biz cards with people. The BUMP app can work on the iPhone, iTouch and on Android phones like the Motorola Backflip.

Here are the steps to making it work easy for you:
1. Install the FREE BUMP application on your mobile (both phones must have the app to exchange info)
2. When you are ready to exchange info, simply launch the app and then bump the 2 phones together
3. The app will accept the info and ask you to confirm that you want to receive it
4. The info will now appear in your contacts!

I’ve used BUMP quite a bit and love its ease of use! It’s the new way of quickly & accurately capturing contact info. However I do miss the good ‘ol days of whipping out the PalmPilot and exchanging contact info by a beaming infared light – that was so 90’s :-)

Here’s a short video of BUMP in action, take a peek:

BUMP has been downloaded by 80+ million people so it is has some significant penetration. Ask around, I bet some of your colleagues, peers, customers have the BUMP app on their phones. Why not get it on yours???

Read more about BUMP: http://mobile.venturebeat.com/2010/03/08/bump-10-million/

Download app: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bump/id305479724?mt=8
Available on: iPhone, iTouch, Android phones
Cost: FREE

Air Display Turns iPad into External Touch Screen Monitor [AppSauce]

by Song

If you were looking for another reason to justify getting an iPad, well I’ve got one for you. Thanks to Avatron Software, there’s an app that will turn your iPad into a secondary monitor. They weren’t the first software developer to this party and the app isn’t perfect, but Air Display is a fantastic way to extend your Macbook’s screen estate by up to 70%. That’s right, currently the app is only available for use with Apple computers, although you can sign up to be notified about a Windows version [notify-ad-win@avatron.com].

The software is a breeze to set up and use. Once you’ve installed the program on your computer and iPad, you turn on AirDisplay  on you computer, select your iPad, and open the app on the iPad. Your iPad doesn’t need to be connected to your computer by USB, but your computer and iPad should be on the same wi-fi network. The iPad retains its touch screen functionality, but you’re not going to have multi-touch gestures like pinching to zoom since your touch behaves like a mouse click.

It’s not perfect, there is a little bit of lag when moving windows from your computer to the iPad, and watching a video on YouTube on the iPad produces a little bit of lag. This app is probably perfect for you if you’re the type of person that has a million applications, spreadsheets, chat sessions, stock tickers, Twitter applications,  browser windows, etc. open at any time, which is probably most of us. If you travel with both a MacBook and an iPad it’s a pretty useful app to have and a great way to repurpose your iPad if you don’t have an external monitor.

Download app: http://avatron.com/apps/air-display/

Available on: iPad, currently for use with Mac only

Cost: 9.99