Category: Small Biz Go Mobile

First look at the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

by Shy Mukerjee

Meet the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1″

This morning, Samsung announced their latest tablet, the Galaxy Note 10.1″. The word “Note” here is perhaps the most important, as it signifies Samsung bringing their S-Pen technology to tablets from the 5.3″ phone bearing the same name. With the S-Pen, Samsung is hoping that people will be able to use the tab not just to consume content on the web and through apps, but to become producers of content as well. To that end, they brought out film director Baz Luhrmann and fashion designer Zac Posen to talk about how they have been using their tabs over the past few weeks creatively in their work.

This new tab brings a quad core processor to the table, 2GB of RAM, Ice Cream Sandwich (Google’s latest OS, Jellybean, won’t be coming until “later this year” says Samsung), font and rear facing cameras, and of course the S-Pen tech, now boasting more than a thousand levels of pressure sensitivity.

Mario and I got to spend more than an hour with the tablet, and while it wasn’t enough time to form a full opinion, we did get to test much of the hyped functionality of the tablet.  Read More

Last Chance To Win a Free Duracell Powermat + VIP 40/40 Party Tix

by Katherine Elsasser

Today is your last chance to win a free Duracell Powermat 24-Hour Power System! Entering is simple: just like Mario’s page on Facebook and you’ll be entered to win. But hurry: the contest ends tonight at midnight!

Duracell PowermatDon’t forget, this is your chance to get VIP access for you and a friend at our Power House Party on September 12th. You’ll join Mario at Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club in NY to celebrate Socialcam users with over a million followers, and you’ll get to charge your phone right on the walls of Jay-Z’s new club with the integrated Powermats!

To enter to win VIP access to the party, simply enter for the Powermat drawing and get another friend to sign up too. It’s simple, but you only have one day left, so get on it: enter now!

 

IM Aggregator imo Adds Free Voice Calling For Mobile Devices

by Katherine Elsasser

Popular chat app imo has added free voice calling to the most recent incarnation of its app for iPhone, iPad and Android. imo users can send and receive voice calls without using cell minutes, though both the caller and callee have to have the app on their device.imo adds free voice calling, even on iPad

The imo app began life as an IM/ chat aggregator, allowing you to centralize all your contacts and chat with everyone in one spot on your desktop and/or mobile device. Group chat is still supported in the new version, as is Skype, AIM, GTalk, MSN Messenger, Jabber, Facebook chat, Yahoo chat and more. imo also offers the “voice IM,” which allows users to send 90 second voice messages instead of actually typing – kinda like an updated version of the Nextel phone/walkie-talkie.

imo isn’t the only group chat or chat aggregator out there, but it does offer a social twist: imo wants to encourage people to make friends through the service too. But don’t worry, it’s nothing like Chatroulette. It’s more like a very temporary bulletin board, where users can ask and answer questions just to see who’s out there.

AllThingsD has a great interview with the founders, brothers Ralph and Georges Harik, about their vision for the service. Otherwise, imo is available for iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Nokia and Windows Messenger.

Have another app for free voice calling that you like? Let us know in the comments!

How to Safely Send Sensitive Information Over the Internet

by Katherine Elsasser

This message will self-destruct. Well no, not really, but sometimes it would be great if sending something secret (like a password or username) really could disappear after it has gotten where it needs to go.

send sensitive information with QuickForget
This message will self-destruct.

If you find yourself emailing passwords (a security no-no!), try QuickForget.com. This simple site is designed for one thing, and one thing only: making sensitive information available temporarily. Use QuickForget to set up a simple text-based message, say for example the top secret coordinates the last four digits of your social security number. You can send a link to that message to a recipient, and then the message will self-destruct after either a specified amount of time, or a certain number of views.

Self-destructing messages are cool, but what are the practical uses here? Well, first off it’s nice to know that you don’t need to trust the recipient to delete sensitive information, whether its business or personal. Instead, that info will be gone forever. It’s also a smart idea to keep certain pieces of identifying or important information away from each other. For example, if you wanted to send important and sensitive website login credentials, you could send part of the info over email and the rest through QuickForget.com, so that if your email were intercepted a would-be nefarious character wouldn’t have all the info needed to get into your site.

It may sound a little paranoid, but when it comes to web security it’s hard to be overly cautious. And you know what they say, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you!

Ad-Free Social Network App.net Exceeds its Fundraising Goal of a Half-Million Dollars

by Katherine Elsasser

What if there were a social network that promised not to sell your personal data to advertisers? Would you join, even if you had to pay for it? That’s the premise of app.net, a very bright idea from developer Dalton Caldwell, who felt that Facebook didn’t respect his contribution to their social ecosystem — or that of their users. App.net logo

We all rely on the big platforms like Facebook and Twitter, either as small businesses reaching customers, or as developers looking to create the products that help businesses leverage those platforms. Generally, it’s a one-sided relationship, where the big platforms do what they think is best for them – and the rest of us struggle to keep up. App.net was conceived as a way for those integral to the social process – the users and developers – to have some control over the process.

So, what is App.net offering to set it apart from the other social networks? Read More

Protect Your Data, Part 2: Cloud Backup Recommendations

by Katherine Elsasser


Cloud Backup for iPhoneEarlier this week we talked about how to back up your data using an external hard drive, so that your data will be safe even if your devices meet an untimely fate (like those of Wired writer Mat Honan). But cloud backup is important too, and as the major industry players push services like iCloud, Google Drive and Amazon Backup, it becomes more important than ever to make sure that remote data is secure.

It’s important to note that hackers got into Honan’s computer through what’s called “social engineering,” which describes exploiting the people involved in security rather than hardware or software. Specifically, they were able to find out the last four digits of his credit card from Amazon, and were able to use that, combined with his billing address retrieved from an online lookup, to have his Apple ID reset by Apple tech support. So, while password security is essential, it’s not enough. Read More

Microsoft Office on the iPad & Android Tablet

by Katherine Elsasser

Tablets have revolutionized our leisure computing. We can browse the web on our laps while we watch TV. Food magazines become full-color digital spreads right in our kitchens. And the email, of course. There’s always more email. But tablets haven’t been great work devices, not least because there’s no Microsoft Office on the iPad.

Now tablets have taken another step toward being all-around machines that can handle work too, thanks to CloudOn. Available on both the iPad and Android devices, CloudOn brings you the full Microsoft Office Suite using you guessed it, the power of the cloud. That means Powerpoint on the plane or tracking Word changes wherever.

Since it’s in the cloud, CloudOn links to both DropBox and Google Drive to make it easy to access, write and save files. Plus CloudOn automatically saves as you work, just in case.

We don’t advocate working on vacation, but if you’re planning to get away and worried something may come up, this could be the perfect strategy for coping without having to bring your fully decked-out work computer.

RockMelt Review: Better Social Media in Your Browser

by Katherine Elsasser

Attention news junkies and Facebook superfans! Are you using the RockMelt browser? It brings all your social media and news inside the browser, so you can constantly monitor all your feeds without skipping a beat or navigating away from what you were doing.Rockmelt Browser Sample

Instead of opening lots of tabs, each with its own social or news site, RockMelt brings the sites you choose into the browser window. Think Chrome, but running apps on the side. So for example, Facebook notifications and chat are easily accessed from an icon on the side of the browser. Sharing is built into browser too, so it’s not just a one-way communication stream.

If you’re not a Facebook obsessive, that’s fine too. RockMelt has chat built into the browser, plus Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, CNN and even Gmail. When there are new events, you’ll see a number over the icon in the browser to tell you how many updates there are to see. No need to open Gmail just to find you haven’t heard back yet!

Particularly useful is the customizability. Any RSS feed can be added as a custom tab, so Rockmelt can be a completely streamlined browsing machine bringing you what you need to know. Ditto for the iPhone app, though it lacks the complete browser experience, and sadly there’s no app for Android just yet. Here’s hoping it’s coming soon though. Overall, the RockMelt experience is fast, useful, and a time-saver for the news and social obsessed.

Samsung Galaxy Note & Intuit GoPayment Bring Mobile Payments Everywhere

by Katherine Elsasser

Mobile payments are about to be everywhere, and small business owners should do their research now about how best to incorporate this new technology into their business practices.Galaxy Note with Intuit GoPayment

AT&T is now targeting small businesses with a combined solution in the Intuit GoPayment Card Reader plus Samsung Galaxy Note running on 4G LTE. The  GoPayment reader comes with the Samsung device to swipe cards anywhere, anytime.

Intuit, Inc. is also the parent company of QuickBooks, so it’s easy to integrate your “everywhere” sales with one merchant account and all your standard business record keeping. And you may actually pay less for the privilege of accepting credit cards than you would with a traditional merchant services provider.

With the GoPayment reader there’s no set-up fee, no monthly charge minimum, and no transaction fee.  In the pay-per-transaction model swipes cost only 2.7% and manual transactions cost 3.7%. Businesses that anticipate more than $130 of swipes per month should go with the subscription plan, which charges $12.95 a month, but charges 1% less per transaction (1.7% per swiped transaction and 2.7% for manual entries).

AT&T Premier customers can get the whole (4G LTE!) package for a discount through their website. (Full disclosure: AT&T helps sponsor SmallBizGoMobile.) Previous SmallBizGoMobile coverage of Intuit’s GoPayment and its integration with QuickBooks POS can be found here.

Will a portable dual monitor help you be more productive?

by Shy Mukerjee

In Mario’s latest Small Biz Go Mobile podcast, he talks about using a portable dual monitor and offers tons of tips about how they can be used.

Although we’re doing more with our smartphones and tablets, for the ultimate in mobile productivity most of us still our laptop. While mobile apps can provide many of the tools we need to work, for some tasks there is simply no equivalent to fully featured software. On top of my preference for an actual keyboard to write on, I personally depend on several outstanding apps every day that provide professional features not yet present on mobile devices, including Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, and Apple’s Final Cut Pro. While similar or alternative apps certainly exist for these, including Apple’s Pages and iMovie and Adobe’s Photoshop Touch, these often lack key features only available on the desktop.

With a workflow that involves heavy multitasking, simultaneously working on writing, video and images while sharing on the web, social media and via email, there is no alternative for a good laptop computer. So check this out: what if you had two screens to work with while on the go? On a desktop with dual monitors, you can have twice as many windows open, be looking at twice the amount of data without switching apps. Wouldn’t that be great on the go? With a USB dual monitor solution like the 720p Cinq, you can replicate that desktop experience while on the go.

Like this tip? Want to hear more? Check out Mario’s Small Biz Go Mobile podcast today.