Category: Small Biz Go Mobile

New Belkin Routers are Optimized for Multiple Devices

by Justin Alcon

Nowadays we have all types of new gadgets to keep us connected.  Those gadgets depend on a steady stream of data, often fed to them by that old standby – the router. Traditionally our wireless routers were made to support just a few devices. When the traffic became heavy, the signal became diluted and confused which caused performance problems.  The only solution was to pay for more expensive bandwidth or to hardwire your devices.  This was fine for a desktop, but really isn’t an option for your iPad.

To help with this, Belkin has introduced some new wireless routers designed with modern technology environments in mind. Specifically, I’d like to highlight the full-featured N600 DB and N750 DB.  Both of these devices are great for heavy-streaming environments; for example, a home like mine where we watch a lot of streaming video via Hulu or Netflix.  It’s also ideal for an office like mine where we do a lot of Skype.  Of course, both of these devices support lots of bandwidth – but, this is just the beginning of the speed upgrades.  The N750 is a bit faster at the highest levels, but most networks won’t be able to use these speeds.  Where these routers really shine is with their antennas.  The N600 has four internal directional antennas, while the N750 has five.  What does this mean?  It means that for up to five moving mobile devices, the router can actually locate the devices and beam concentrated signals in their direction.  This basically eliminates dead zones and greatly extends the range of the router.   They’re secure, backward compatible with older networks, and have all the standard features that you have come to expect.

The internal antennae aren’t the only interesting new features in these routers.  For example, they can self-diagnose network problems and sometimes even fix them automatically.  They’re able to steam music and video from one device to another.  They’re also optimized for gaming, can support dual band 2.4g and 5g networks, and most importantly they’re able to prioritize traffic.  This means that the router can differentiate between processes that need constant rates (like a streaming video or game) and processes that can afford to be throttled, like a file download.  The overall effect is that all users get a great experience.  If you have a cool new phone, tablets and video games but still have a router that is a few years old, now might be the time for an upgrade. These routers are cheaper than you might expect too. The N600 can be picked up for just $69, and the N750 can be had for $99.

The Toughest Phone Cases in the World are from Tech21

by Justin Alcon

Choosing a protective case for your mobile can be daunting.  Seriously, there about as many models out there as there are individual phones.  Contrary to popular belief, too many choices can be overwhelming and anxiety-inducing.  You may wonder – what if this case isn’t as protective?  What if I could have gotten the same protection for less money?  Is it stylish, or am I ruining the meticulous design of this high-tech gadget? Well, fear not, for I have seen the best device-protecting cases the world has to offer.  Even better, I’m willing to share this info.

For a long time I wasn’t a “case guy”, it’s not like I was using my phone on a construction site.  My thought was that Apple put a lot of time and money into the design of my phone, and I wasn’t going to ruin it by bolting on some cheapo plastic afterthought.  This mentality, combined with the lack of insurance options for iPhone (and the likelihood that I wouldn’t purchase insurance anyways), ended in broken phone sadness.  My confidence in the durability of Apple design was as shattered as my device’s screen.  My next phone wore a knock-off rubber case that I bought for 5 bucks in Chinatown. It more or less did the trick, keeping the phone in good-enough condition that I was able to sell it on Cragislist for a decent price at upgrade time, but I was never sure if this was because of the case or just dumb luck.

My next phone was the iPhone 4.  In response to the criticism of the brittleness of the glass front and back, for a short while Apple gave away free cases with the purchase of iPhone 4.  My phone is still wearing this Belkin clear plastic case right now, and it’s sitting beside the keyboard as I type.  I believe it protects the phone just fine, but I still feel it adds too much to the size and weight, and takes away from my tactile experience, when I’m using the phone.  Similar to TheBra for your car, it improves resale value but in some ways takes away from the ownership experience.

So, obviously this is something I over-think.  After quite a bit of research though, I definitely know which case I’ll choose next.  No question, when I buy my next device case it will be from Tech21.  Several booths at a recent conference showcased protective and/or stylish cases for mobile devices.  Although there were a lot of interesting designs, only Tech21 had something new and impressive in the technology of protection.  From what I saw, Tech21 has demonstrable impact protection.  D3O® is their patented material that makes this happen. With some high-tech chemistry and engineering techniques, Tech21 products have high performance shock absorption and impact protection for nearly every type of mobile device.  These cases should be available in the US in the very near future.

The D3O material in its raw state flows freely (pictured).  It’s a liquid, but on impact it locks together to absorb and disperse energy.  It becomes solid and then instantly returns to its liquid state. When the material is impacted, it spreads like a net, reducing and spreading the force over a larger area, minimizing the risk of injury or equipment damage.

To test this out, I put about 2 inches of this material on the back of my hand and hit it hard with a big framing hammer. Although I knew something had happened, I certainly wasn’t hurt and would never have guessed that I had just been hit with a hammer.   In drop tests these cases consistently out-performed every case on the market.  In price comparison these cases are less costly than the most expensive cases like Otter Box, coming in at about 25-30 dollars depending on your device.  And for bragging points, the D3O  technology is also used by the US Special Forces and Ministry of Defense as well as in sports like skiing and motorcycling.

Mobile Google Docs Improves Sharing Features

by BrothaTech

You don’t really need a native mobile app to view, edit, and share your documents stored in the Google Docs cloud. The mobile site does a dandy job of letting you do what you need with just a data connection. Now users have even greater sharing capabilities to make sure your colleagues and clients have access to all the right documents, no matter where you are.

According to the Google Mobile Blog, all you have to do is visit the site, drill down to the correct document(s), press the Share button, and select Share, get the link to share for public or unlisted docs, or Email as an attachment. This method is nothing new. In fact, it’s the same way you would share a document if you were using the full desktop version of Google Docs.

There’s nothing like getting a phone call or email, stating that your colleagues or clients “did get it” (even though you know for a FACT you sent them the document). Since “the customer is always right”, it just makes more sense to understand the situation at hand, and mak sure they get what they need. with the Google Docs mobile site, you can share your documents with ease even if you’re on the go, so you can go back to enjoying your day.

Google+ Not Yet Ready For Business

by Nick Muntean

Last week, Google unveiled Google+, its latest attempt (following Wave and Buzz) at crafting a social networking platform potent enough to lure users away from Facebook (and, to a lesser extent, Twitter).  Though Google+ is still in an early beta phase—registration is currently closed, so prospective users will have to wait for the G to re-open its gates sometime in the near future—it seems like this may be Mountain View’s big push into the social networking arena.  While the future success of Google+ will largely be determined by whether users embrace the new platform—either in lieu of Facebook, or as a supplement to it—we’re most concerned with how Google+ might enable small businesses to enhance their sales and online presence.

This is a big question, especially since Facebook’s offerings for businesses are somewhat limited; through Facebook, businesses can directly advertise to particular demographic groups, and/or create company profile pages, which users can then “like,” and follow.  These limitations aren’t particularly surprising, as Facebook’s initial imperative focused on providing social connectivity features for individual users, allowing the site to build a critical mass of users, from which, it was hoped, profits would somehow follow.

By contrast, Google is building its platform long after achieving significant mind-share amongst the world’s Web-enabled citizens; as a result, it’s probably safe to surmise that commercial considerations and companies’ needs were given high consideration throughout the Google+ development process.  Indeed, Google has pro-actively assured small business owners that they will soon be able to create company “Pages” on the new platform, while also asserting that “initially we wanted to make sure that we optimized for the individual use case…[b]uilding great consumer products is a necessary prerequisite for compelling business products.”  Sure, Google knows that it has to attract users before the platform will have any real value for businesses and advertisers, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t planning for the future.  For instance, Nexus 4G users have found that the Google+ mobile app features NFC integration: Though the NFC functionality is currently quite limited, Google is likely planning to integrate its Google+ NFC tech with its recent Google Wallet and Google Offers NFC-based mobile applications (you can check out our previous coverage of Google Wallet here), which could provide some really innovative new ways for businesses to build relationships with their customers.

As it stands now, Google+ doesn’t really have much to offer small businesses, with Google (rightfully) focusing on building out a sufficiently large user base before inviting commercial interests to the party.  Of course, Google’s investment in this platform isn’t altruistic, it’s commercial, and when all the various pieces are considered as a whole, it seems as though Google is on the cusp of offering a fully integrated system that will combine features of Yelp, Foursquare, Groupon, Facebook, and Twitter, powered by a combination of mobile and desktop devices, and utilizing NFC technology at every possible turn.  There’s a lot of promise here for small business owners, let’s just hope there’s enough user adoption for these services to come to fruition.

Pocket Projectors Give You A Huge Screen On The Go!

by Justin Alcon

In mobile business, smaller is almost always better.  However, as mobile technology grows smaller I find that the display often suffers.   Although the displays on mobile devices have increasingly impressive specs, there is always one category that they are lacking in – size.  The largest tablets are only about 10 inches diagonally, and this size can really take the sizzle out of your reel during an important meeting.  The solution?  Toss a pocket sized projector into your travel bag!

Vivitek has released a product dubbed the Qumi that’s a perfect mobile display.  This projector is bright (up to 300 lumens) and weighs less than a pound and a half, which is roughly the weight of a tablet or less than half a laptop.  The Qumi uses LED technology which improves durability and brightness while reducing power consumption.  It’s also 3D-ready thanks to a Texas Instruments chipset. The Qumi’s connectivity options allow it to be used with lots of devices, such as smart phones, laptops, netbooks, tablets and cameras.

Features:

  • Native HD 720p resolution
  • Up to 300 lumens of brightness
  • Estimated 30,000 hours of operation
  • USB and MicroSD slots for content and memory expansion
  • 3D-Ready via DLP® Link™
  • Connectivity options: Mini-HDMI, Universal I/O, AV mini-jack, mini-jack audio-out
  • 1.4 pounds and available in black or white finish

Full specs can be seen on the Vivitek site.

Similarly, 3M has introduced some new pocket projectors.  One I’d like to highlight is the MP180.  At only 32 lumens it’s not nearly as bright, but the MP180 offers a different and impressive class of features.  Unlike the Qumi, the MP180 is battery powered which allows you to give presentations for hours even when away from a power source.  Secondly, this device has an easy-to-use touch screen interface.  It also features on-board wifi and 4 gigs of upgradable storage. The wifi and storage means that you can use the device itself to browse the web or grab that file you forgot.  More information can be found at the MP180 product page.

The bottom line for me is that both are really great pocket projectors. At a recent press event I had the opportunity to try them both and found them to be impressive.  The Qumi was definitely a better quality projector with a brighter picture and more definition (so much so that I considered replacing my home television with one to save space in my small apartment.)  However, the MP180 was the most portable projector.  Because you don’t need to plug it in and it includes speakers and file storage on-board, you can literally do a presentation in the middle of the woods with nothing but this device and the side of your tent.

Got2B Wireless does business mobile literally

by Justin Alcon

We write a lot about business on-the-go around here (it’s kinda our raison d’être), but today we’re talking about a product that takes this idea quite literally.  The product : Got2B Wireless.  The silly name aside, this product means serious business and I really think it has legs.  Got2B Wireless allows us to do business tasks while we drive.  Are you yawning?  Well, what if I told you that you can conduct business using only your voice and ears, so you can keep your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road – without having a secretary or assistant on the other end of the line.

Got2B wireless connects to just about any smart phone via bluetooth, working just like a wireless headset.  The button can be mounted into the dash of your car seamlessly. Car companies like Hyundai are considering making it a standard option that will compete with products like GM’s onstar.  So, what can you do with this little button? First off, you can send a text message with your voice, which helps get around those important-yet-inconvenient (at times) “texting while driving” laws.  You can also have your email messages read aloud as audio, so that you keep your eyes on the road and still get that important update on the way to your meeting.  You can search through contacts and call them, update your facebook status, send out tweets and manage your calendar. And, you can do all this while still driving safely and legally in all 50 states.

Texting and emailing while driving is really, really unsafe.  Got2B Wireless can actually make you safer, and not just through voice productivity tools.  It also allows you to contact emergency services if needed. It can read turn by turn directions and look up general information for you.  These are must-haves for anyone who does a lot of driving for business.  The product costs about a hundred dollars, and the service is 50 bucks a year after that – which is a lot cheaper than keeping a sales assistant by the phone, or getting a ticket! So what are you waiting for? Check out Got2B Wireless today!

AT&T Office@Hand: Your Dream Business Phone System

by admin

Don’t you hate calling a company with a simple question, only to get stuck in a phone tree and forced to leave a frustrated voicemail for who-knows-who? Don’t let customers who call your business feel the same way!

Upgrade your biz phone presence—and keep all your employees reachable—with AT&T Office@Hand. This slick but simple mobile business phone and fax system works virtually anywhere you do, with your existing phones and lines. And you can manage it, in real time, via PC or smartphone app (on select iPhone®, BlackBerry®, and Android™ models).

Office@Hand includes all the features you want: auto-receptionist, custom greetings, call routing, hold music, dial-by-name, and the list goes on. And how about Internet faxing? You can receive, view, and forward documents you’d otherwise have to be at your desk to see. That’ll help keep your field personnel productive.

But don’t take our word for it. Check out Office@Hand yourself. You can even sign up for a free 30-day trial.

This message brought to you by our sponsor, AT&T. Fine print: Must cancel free trial prior to 30th day. Available via the Web and select devices. Additional restrictions apply. View full terms.

OfficeMax Releases Impress Mobile Print Center Application

by BrothaTech

As much as I hate to say it, sometimes you MUST print something out. For those times when all you have on you is your smartphone, OfficeMax’s new mobile printing center solution may just get you out of those “we only want print” jams.

The ImPress Mobile Print Center lets Android and iPhone users access, upload and print your documents fron anywhere. They can be PDF’s, images, emails…whatever your device can store, ImPress Mobile Print promises to be able to print. In addition to files stored on your device, you can also send GoogleDocs files stored in the cloud to an ImPress Print Center for printing. You can submit a new print job or access previous jobs for reprints, etc.

First and foremost, the Mobile Print Center helps users locate the nearest OfficeMax with directions to that location from your current location using your phone’s native map app. Once you’ve found a location, you can add a file to your document library, customize your print settings, enter your contact info, review and confirm your orders details (cost will be outlined during this portion) and quickly and securely pay for and pick up your printed file at the desired location.

So if you’re dealing with colleagues, clients/customers who haven’t quite adopted the whole paperless thing yet, you can rest assured that the free OfficeMax ImPress Mobile Print Center has your back just in case you need to quickly print out document hard-copies on the go.

[Android Market Link]

[Apple iTunes Link]

Wednesday Small Biz Tips with SmallBizTechnology.com

by Shy Mukerjee

We are pleased to work with Ramon Ray, CEO and editor of SmallBizTechnology.com, journalist, and technology evangelist, to bring you new Small Biz tips. Each Wednesday, they’ll be sharing videos and articles featuring hot topics, products and trends in small business. Click through to the story today to learn about using QR codes to engage customers, improving productivity with better infrastructure, and working in harmony with your virtual employees. Read More

It’s Official: Smartphones are More Important than Hygiene

by Shy Mukerjee


When we last checked in with Manta, they released some promising survey data indicating that Small Businesses are hiring. Their latest survey, however, tells us a little bit more about the modern Small Business owner and entrepreneur. While it’s within their margin of error, more small business owners check their email on their mobile device first thing in the morning (32%) than brush their teeth (31%). The age of the smartphone has truly arrived.

That said, it’s important for Small Business owners and entrepreneurs to make the most of their time spent on their mobile devices. Reading this site is one way. Signing up for Manta might be another. If you missed our previous coverage, allow me to recap: Manta allows small biz owners to ‘claim’ their online business listing, network with other small business owners, and participate in a rich Q&A-style forum called Manta Connect. The best part? Manta just announced the latest version of their mobile app for iOS devices. And it’s all free, so you really have no excuse.

The new version of the app allows you to search for small businesses in a variety of ways, offering search filters by category, name, number of employees, proximity and more. They give you maps of company locations, and let you bookmark other small businesses you might be interested in networking with. But the best part? If you’re using the new Manta app on your iPhone, you can easily add a biz’s contact info straight into your phone book.

One last bit of data from the survey: Manta found that a full 73% of business owners are working remotely while on vacation this summer, checking email or documents from their smartphone or tablet computers. I know that it’s tough working for a small business sometimes, feeling like you have to work twice as hard as your competition just to stay afloat, but you need to remember to relax too. Maybe you should be using the Manta app to find yourself a decent spa or massage parlor.

Oh, and if you want to check out the full release of Manta’s new survey data, head on over to their site. Just don’t drop your smartphone in the toilet while trying to juggle your floss with your iPhone.