Category: Small Biz Go Mobile

Get it Booked – The First Time with Tungle.me Scheduling

by BrothaTech

Trying to schedule meetings with partners & team members, clients, and other groups can be a task. Everybody seems to be using different calendar formats/platforms on different devices in different timezones. Funny name aside, Tungle.me looks to bridge the gap to make scheduling easier for everybody involved.

It doesn’t matter if you are using Outlook, Yahoo, Google, iPhone, BlackBerry, etc. As long as your calendar is electronic, Tungle will allow you and your contacts see your available/busy times, propose multiple meeting times, and create group scheduling pages to make booking time consistent for all of your scheduling needs. Without having to sign up, visitors can propose multiple meeting times to ensure the best match to your schedule. Tungle time even takes care of the replies, timezones, and confirmations so you’re not switching back and forth between Tungle and your email client.

If you’re a mobile champ, Tungle.me is available for iPhone and BlackBerry so you can take your schedule with you. Meetings booked through Tungle, regardless of what device you use, will automagically be synchronized with your calendars at work, at home, or on the go.

Whether you use your calendar in an enterprise or education environment to meet/collaborate with fellow employees or partners, or as an entreprenuer looking to schedule time with clients and/or customers, Tungle.me can take the hassle out of booking time to meet. Tungle.me is free to sign up and free to use.

Track Trip Mileage with Trip Cubby

by BrothaTech

As a business owner, tracking mileage can be one of those tasks that pays you back if you do it right; but, finding a good way to do it right is the hardest part. I have heard (and done) some of the weird ways to track mileage – spreadsheets, Google maps printouts, voice memos, you name it. With the Trip Cubby iPhone app, creating a mileage log is as easy entering a start and end point, Trip Cubby does the rest.

With predictive input, auto-entry, auto-calculation, and quick access to frequent trips, Trip Cubby does the hard work for you. A few quick taps will create useful data ready to search, sort, and generate email reports. Other features include:

– IRS compliance
– Multiple drives and vehicles
– Customizable reimbursement rates
– Excel-compatible email reports
– Online sync/backup
– Stored data retrieved on next launch if interrupted by phone call

Simply put, Trip Cubby gives you the ability to use your iPhone for tracking trip mileage. There is an app for everything, and since a great deal of us use our smartphones in many areas of our businesses, why not use it to help manage your mileage? Trip Cubby is $4.99 in the iTunes App Store (OS. 2.0 and up).

With New PayPal Apps, Digital Merchants Rejoice

by Justin Alcon

At the San Francisco PayPal developer’s conference last week,  PayPal released an apps platform with a fully integrated set of small business buyer, and seller tools embedded right onto the PayPal site.

PayPal Apps will now allow developers to ship SaaS applications directly to the PayPal website, which will enhance PayPal’s services. It’s similar in theory to eBay’s apps for Sellers, or the newcomer and rival for market share storebrain. The new platform, which launched with a number of pilot partners last week, will be publicly released next year.

Shipping and order management startup, Shipwire Anywhere, has partnered with PayPal for this launch.  Shipwire Anywhere will  give developers a complete suite of shipping tools and multi-channel order management to manage their shipping without ever  leaving the PayPal site.  Other initial apps partners like Bill.com, CreditKarma, Expensify, Freshbooks, and Zuora are already building apps into PayPal.com.

The San Jose company also announced a new product: PayPal Business payments. This allows businesses to receive any payment, matter how large, for a low 50 cent fee. Launch partners using this product include Bill.com, Expensify, Freshbooks, Harvest, Plastic Jungle, and Zoho.

With Ebay apps for sellers already out there in the market,  great new products from established companies like PayPal, and creative and hungry upstarts like storebrain, it is clear that the future of e-commerce is now.  It is an exciting time that we live in where we can leverage tools like these to take care of business logistics and spend more time focused on the bottom line.

Honeywell Total Connect Automation App for Android

by BrothaTech

Honeywell is well known for its building management products. With Automation becoming more and more feasible by the average consumer who doesn’t own a 100,000 sq. ft. facility, companies are adapting their products so that the not-so-huge business owner can take advantage of the same features and benefits that major companies enjoy when using their products.

That could be some of the motivation behind Honeywell releasing a new Android app for its popular Total Connect services that gives the user the ability to arm and disarm their systems, receive e-mail alerts when an alarm trips, and access video from inside and around the premises. As a busy business owner who travels a great deal (meetings, conferences, etc), but needs to keep an eye on their home base, Total Connect customers can now use their Android smartphone to keep track of what’s going on when they are on the go. Check out Honeywell’s Total Connect site for details about the system and products.

The Android mobile OS is making waves in the mobile industry for consumers and businesses alike, and Honeywell including an Android app (in addition to its iPhone app) is more proof of the fact that people are jumping on the Android bandwagon at a rate that businesses large and small can’t ignore. This adds more options for the consumer and expands businesses customer base.

So if you have a business that is currently thinking about creating a mobile app to reach out to that mobile but connected customer base; or you are a small business owner looking for ways to keep the business running while you are running, there is more than one mobile platform out there and the chances that considering all options will do nothing but improve your operations are pretty high.

Mix Business with pleasure this weekend: Fun Halloween iPad apps

by Justin Alcon

Movie Costume Image
photo generated with Movie Costume

Sure, we all love our iPads for business stuff- there are some great productivity apps like My Eyes Only, FTP on the Go, and Evernote.  If you’re like me, though, you like to mix a little fun in with your work gadgets. And, what’s more fun than Halloween?

For seasonal kicks, there are some cool pumpkin apps like Crazy Pumpkin Lite, an all-in-one digital Jack-o-lantern, scary sound effect machine and a multi-colored flashlight.  There’s also Jack O’Lantern, a fun and free pumpkin carving app.

Don’t want to lug that security-grade Mag-Lite around while your kids beg for candy? Illumination is an app that can turn your mobile device into a surprisingly effective flashlight. To kick it up a notch, try the Space Invaders Flashlight which is the same basic idea but tailor-made for classic video games enthusiasts.

No costume yet for the office party?  Grab the Halloween Costume Generator, and find some inspiration.  If that doesn’t have what you were looking for, try Movie Costume, which lets you mix your own photos with shots from favorite films for some really fun effects (tip:this app is fun even when it’s not Halloween).

Finally, if you have kids you know that Halloween isn’t always just fun and games. Get some peace of mind (or, possibly, freak yourself out completely) with SOS (Sex Offenders Search). This application lets your iPad locate registered sex offenders and sexual predators in your neighborhood and around schools, friends, parks, campgrounds or whatever areas you might check in order to make your candy gathering route a safer one.

Have a fun and safe Halloween!

Lock-Down Your Info with My Eyes Only

by BrothaTech

Good for you if you actually use your device password to lock/access your smartphone. The My Eyes Only (MEO) iPhone password app takes securing your personal and business information a step further with “Government Approved” encrypted information management.

MEO doesn’t just secure your data, it also organizes it in easy-to-manage formats for easy access when you need it. I mean, you take your smartphone everywhere right? Why not use it to access important notes, website passwords, banking/financial and other types of personal data. MEO’s pre-defined screens makes it easy to add and retrieve information the way you see it in real life. MEO’s screens are based upon the actual card images and the important information that is presented on the cards. Based on the type of information you are storing, MEO has a screen that will display it in an easy and customizable screens. Here are the categories with MEO:

– Credit Cards
– Logins, Computer and Web Site
– Financial Accounts
– Identity Cards: Medical, Social Security, Drivers Licenses
– Notes
– Generic “Other” Category

If you’re concerned about security, MEO stores its access password, hint and password recovery and answer in the iPhone OS Key Chain. All that information is encrypted in the Key Chain and can only be accessed by MEO. No other iPhone application can access that information. MEO also encrypts your data via 256 bit AES encryption for the Notes field in Logins, Financial and Other categories and 512 bit AES encryption for small entry fields, like passwords, credit card numbers and Social Security numbers. So if your phone is ever lost or stolen, your information is protected. Backing up your data is as easy as using your WiFi network and Apple’s Bonjour to quickly backup, restore and transfer data to multiple devices.

So if you have all of that information “in your head”, but constantly have to reset your password because you can’t remember, or need one place to organize, manage, and secure, and backup your personal information, check out My Eyes Only iPhone Password Manager. It is attractively priced at $5.99 in the iTunes App Store (iOS 3.0 and up).

Manage your Site with the FTP On The Go App

by BrothaTech

If you use a domain host for your website (or your client’s site), you need a FTP client to access and manage your website’s files. There are tons of FTP clients for desktops/laptops that give you access when you’re sitting at your desk. FTP On The Go is a FTP client that can gives you access no matter where you are, or what device you have handy.

Let’s face it, there is ALWAYS something you can fix, adjust, tweak, fix, or improve on your site. Either that or you have that insistent client who wants something changed yesterday. If you fit either of those descriptions, why wait until you get back to your office to make those quick website changes? With FTP On The Go, you can use your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad to make that change that would otherwise KILL you if you had to wait until you can login from your desktop/laptop.

Once you login using your credentials, you will have the same access via your iOS device that you would if you were sitting behind your desk. You can browse, download files to edit with the built-in text editor, then upload them back to your server, and see the changes in real-time with the built-in browser…all without leaving FTP On The Go. Here is quick list of just some of features:

– Wirelessly share access to the stored files; connect from a computer (or another iPhone) using either just a web browser, or an FTP client.

– With iPhone OS 3 installed, you have the ability to email any saved file.

– View documents and files right within the app. Word/Excel/Powerpoint/Numbers/Pages/PDF documents; log files; image; watch videos; play sounds/music.

– Upload pictures from your photo library, or take a picture with the camera right within FTP On The Go. Images can be resized when you upload too.

– Upload videos filmed with an iPhone 3GS.

If you are worried about security, FTP On The Go automatically uses FTPS for safe logins if supported by the server and a master password can be set to protect your valuable server login information.

Check out the video on how to browse files with FTP On The Go

If your site is broken or, if you’re like me, and see that small detail you absolutely MUST fix, and can’t get to your computer, why not download FTP On The Go ($6.99 for iPhone/iPod Touch, $9.99 for Pro version for iPad) and have access anytime, anywhere!

Android’s Newest version: Froyo 2.2

by Justin Alcon

Android users can have very different mobile experiences depending on their platform version. Many people haven’t been able to use Android 2.2 (also known as Froyo), since some Android devices don’t support it, or the company that makes their handset doesn’t offer it yet. If you think it’s not important to have the latest and greatest, or that what you have works fine for you, check out this list of new features included with the Froyo upgrade and see if this is the type of thing that you might be interested in.

First, the Bluetooth voice dialing feature.  It’s straightforward- just press the button on your Bluetooth earpiece and say the name that you want to call. Reports indicate that Froyo’s Bluetooth dialing has more consistent recognition accuracy than a similar feature on the iPhone.

The cloud-to-device messaging allows you to send applications, video, messages and other files directly to other Android phones. Look for this capability in your business apps, allowing quick sharing of info, in the very near future.

Flash is still not installed by default, but you can go to the Android Market and install Flash from there. Once installed, Flash content performs well in the default browser.

If you’re like me, your phone doesn’t have enough space for all of the applications that you want. Android 2.2 solves this problem by allowing you to install applications directly onto a SD card, which is upgradable and often swappable. Note: not all applications are compatible with these install options, but newer apps increasingly implement this capability.

The search bar has also been given an upgrade. With Froyo, there is now a drop-down that allows you to search from a customized list of dynamic sources.  Once configured, you can search for content on Google, in your tweets, in your email or calendar, or practically anywhere else on your phone from one single search box.

“Update All”  is a new feature that allows you to update all applications (if there is an update available) at once.  This is similar to the popular updating functionality of the iPhone.

Finally, Wi-Fi tethering is built into 2.2. –  making your phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot. Not all carriers allow this feature, but it is super cool to be able to have your own network in your pocket in a pinch.

There are also some other updates in this release, including updated camera features and an updated Gmail app.  For a full rundown, check out the press release from Android at their developer site .

Microsoft announces “the next generation in cloud productivity”

by Justin Alcon

On Tuesday Microsoft announced the debut of Office 365, which will be a combination of the online versions of Office, SharePoint, Exchange and Lync.  The Redmond giant has launched a beta release of the cloud-based Office suite in 13 countries. They’re branding this new product as the “next generation in cloud productivity”.

What does this mean for mobile business? It means the same functionality that has made Microsoft Office the gold standard of business computing without being tethered to our PCs. It’s Office when you are out of the office.  New collaboration features allow groups to work on projects in a simple and secure way.

Kurt DelBene, president of the Office Division at Microsoft said:

“Office 365 is the best of everything we know about productivity, all in a single cloud service. With Office 365, your local bakery can get enterprise-caliber software and services for the first time, while a multinational pharmaceutical company can reduce costs and more easily stay current with the latest innovations. People can focus on their business, while we and our partners take care of the technology.”

The Office 365 site went live earlier this week.  Those interested can use the site to register to participate in the beta program. Microsoft has not announced the date of the public release of Office 365, although they have said that the suite would be widely available in 40 countries by next year. Full press release here.

Google Apps for Total Cloud Business Management

by BrothaTech

Think Google Apps is just free cloud storage for your documents and a free domain email account? Think again. The Google Apps Marketplace has an entire suite of web services, apps, and tools to get your business off of your laptop and into the cloud for greater accessibility, flexibility, and mobility. The icing on the cake is no matter what app/service you choose, all are accessible through your Google Apps domain. So you and/or everyone on your team can access to your tools, no matter where they are.

From accounting & finance, to document & project management, to backup & archiving services…you name it, the Google Apps Marketplace has a solution. Similar to Apple’s App Store for iOS devices, Google Apps Marketplace has the web app/service for your business. You can search the marketplace by product, or take a look at “Tops”, “Featured” and “Popular and Notable” apps to see what everybody else is adding to their Google Apps domain.

Google does actually develop a large number of the apps available in the marketplace, but also enlists the help of 3rd-Party developers to make the marketplace more robust. Developers pay a $100 one-time fee to list their applications in the market place, and Google takes a 20 percent cut of all applications sold through the store.

Which brings me to costs for customers – A Google Apps basic account is free (provided you already have a www.[insertyourbusinessnamehere].com domain). A premier edition will run your $50 bucks a year that adds a ton of extra features. The rest is picking and choosing what apps/services work best for your business. There are of course some very nice free apps, but if you’re ready to play some serious [cloud-computing] ball, I have seen solid apps in the marketplace for as 20 bucks (one-time fee), and 5 bucks a month for recurring payment plans.

If you and your business is ready to get organized and get “techie” by moving into the cloud, look to a familiar brand in Google to help your business take advantage of a myriad of business tools that can ensure your ability to stay on top of your operations no matter where you are; I suggest you get a Google Apps account and take a look at what your business can do with the apps, services, and tools in the Google Apps Marketplace.