Category: Small Biz Go Mobile

Could Going Social Save Your Life? Benefits of Social Media that You Might Not Think About

by David Egger

David Egger is Lead Marketing Manager for AT&T’s IRU (Individual Responsibility User) Mobility Programs. You can find more blog content from David and other experts on emerging technologies and mobile application on the AT&T Networking Exchange Blog. AT&T has sponsored the following blog post.


I’ve spent just about my entire life being the fat kid. Numerous crash diets, exercise regimens and scams have been tried over the years from the plausible to the ridiculous. I remember in 9th grade I tried eating nothing but sugar free jello for three weeks. That didn’t work out. In college I tried Atkins, and while I lost a bit of weight, the SAE house with its chicken wings, Marvin’s Garlic Cheeseburgers and school lunch pizza was far from conducive for a strict diet like that. Then I went on the road as an Account Executive for Apple’s Higher Education team, living out of Hampton Inns and on delivered pizza. Suddenly, I was 27 years old and 350 pounds.

I knew it was my fault, I just never had the willpower or motivation to make the real change happen. Everyone has felt this way about one thing or another, whether it’s losing weight, building a new website or mobile app for your business, or just needing to make a load of sales calls.

So there I was, 27, about to finish my MBA and so big that I was pushing the limits of Men’s Wearhouse’s big and tall department. Then I discovered RunKeeper, a mobile app and website that lets you easily track your physical activities. Read More

Square Adds Cash Register Integration to the iPad

by BrothaTech

Square is looking to replace your cash register…or is it?  The service that helps small businesses accept credit card payments via a smartphone or tablet, now offers the ability integrate a cash register and receipt printer in the mix.

That’s right, now you can use your iPad and the Square credit card reader to accept credit transactions as well as cater to those “cash-only” customers. Read More

Platform as a Service makes building apps a breeze

by Justin Alcon

In business, development time can mean serious money.  There’s a delicate dance of cost vs. benefit – processes that could potentially be automated aren’t because the time it would take to write the code isn’t worth the time that would be saved.  Luckily, the industry is changing, and we’ll soon see a day where your business can develop an app without writing a single line of code.

That day might just be today, AT&T’s new “Platform as a Service” (PaaS) product is a huge step in the right direction.  PaaS offers a complete development environment designed help your business build and launch custom applications quickly, run them reliably and manage them easily throughout the full application lifecycle.  The best part is that you can make it accessible from any device, all at the click of a mouse. Read More

Evernote Peek Adds Virtual Cover for all iPads

by BrothaTech

Doing a presentation/pitch using your iPad or iPad 2 can wow your potential clients. Prepping for a presentation in the lobby while waiting for your preso to start can be nerve-racking. Evernote makes cramming studying a little easier with the combination of Evernote Peek and an Apple Smart Cover for the iPad 2.

That’s cool if you bought the iPad 2. If you decided to squeeze a little more time out of your iPad “Classic”, Evernote has decided to bring Peek to your device as well by updating the app with virtual smart covers that bring all the cool Peek features to the iPad, sans the $40 Smart Cover accessory. Read More

REVEALED: The Hardware-based Explanation for Why Siri is an iPhone 4S Exclusive

by Shy Mukerjee

Ever since the iPhone 4S was released, fans of the Apple line of smartphones have been asking why their original iPhone 4 or even their 3GS (both of which run the latest iOS 5) doesn’t support Apple’s newest innovation which brings a personal assistant to your phone. After all, if the only differences in terms of upgrades between the iPhone 4 and the new 4S were incremental upgrades like an improved camera and the new world phone capabilities then what could possibly be preventing the iPhone 4 from running the software? Some clever engineers even hacked together a non-responsive version of Siri for the iPhone 4, although since Apple blocks any device except the iPhone 4S from communicating with their servers, it didn’t actually function.

So what is it that makes the iPhone 4S special? Turns out there’s another new piece of tech in the latest from our friends in Cupertino. Read More

Gone in a Flash

by Justin Alcon

Adobe is going through some serious changes, one of which involves the cutting of close to 750 jobs as part of a broad restructuring; probably not what we need in this economy, but times are tough all over. The second rumor is also surprising, and bad news for many: according to ZDNet, Adobe will no longer support Flash on mobile devices — devices including the ones running Android. Adobe was quoted saying,

“We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations. Some of our source code licensees may opt to continue working on and releasing their own implementations. We will continue to support the current Android and PlayBook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates.”

I hope this means that Adobe is moving more towards AIR mobile apps and heavily investing in HTML5, which in my opinion is the way of the future. Adobe is expected to make an announcement in the next few days. Even though this probably means good things for Adobe, if you are a Droid user you can’t help but be disappointed. Android users have long flaunted the Flash support as proof of superiority over Apple’s iOS. Can Android compete with iOS if it loses Flash forever?  Your thoughts in the comments.

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

Productivity Tip: Use Siri to Email Notes to Evernote

by BrothaTech

If you haven’t noticed from my last couple of entries, I’m a serious Evernote user. It’s starting to take the place of several services I use personally and professionally.

I was one of the suckers fanboys enthusiasts with an iPhone 4 who went out and got the iPhone 4S. One of the first things I did was mess around with Siri – the voice assistant that only (and by only I mean legitimately) available on the iPhone 4S.

I will admit that after a while, the Siri craze started to wear off. It’s cool to do voice to text, set reminders and calendar appointments with Siri, but the bulk of my mobile experience is using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. So it was cool to find tips on how to use Siri to send Tweets and Facebook updates using Siri.

Again, I’m a heavy Evernote user, so when I got a tip on how to use Siri to email notes to my account, I immediately tested to see how it works. It’s fairly simple too. 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

Organization Tip: Use @myEN to Sends Tweets to Evernote

by BrothaTech

I use Evernote to save just about everything. The most important feature to me is no matter which device I use, I know all my notes will be synced up for access anywhere, even on the web.

I say “just about everything” because I was still doing some wonky stuff when it came to saving tweets to view later in Twitter. Sure, I could save them using the built-in favorites feature, but that’s only for messages in your timeline.

If you want to send tweets you compose to Evernote, there is an underrated feature that lets you do so by adding @myEN (My Evernote) to a tweet. It can be anywhere in the tweet and it can be a public tweet/reply or a Direct Message for your eyes only. As long as it’s there, your tweet will be sent to your default notebook in Evernote. Keep reading to learn how to set up this awesome feature. Read More