Category: Small Biz Go Mobile

Loads of choices with Windows Phone 7

by Justin Alcon

windows 7 phone imageWindows has finally announced launch dates for nine new WP7 handsets. Despite the name, the new Windows 7 phones are more than Microsoft’s desktop OS simply jammed onto a handset (an often-stated and apt criticism of the unpopular Windows Mobile).  Some models will be available in European and Asian markets by October 21st, and by early November in the US.  Established manufacturers like Dell, HTC, LG, and Samsung are producing these handsets, which will be compatible with most carriers world-wide. The handsets produced by these companies will include the latest Snapdragon processors.  A full list of the handsets can be viewed over at the blog Engadget.

Microsoft’s slogan for the Windows 7 phone OS, “Glance and Go”, fits with their plan to deliver a product that streamlines everyday tasks.   This would be partially accomplished by using WP7’s customizable “Live Tiles”, which is what they call their updated interface. The difference between Windows Phone 7, and competitors is that other platforms are fundamentally app launchers with screens full of icons, WP7 has a set of  dynamic tiles which update with changing content from the phone’s apps. The idea is that all that’s relevant to a user is not buried inside apps, but highlighted on the phone’s primary screens.

EA Games has also announced Xbox Live-enabled games for Windows Phone 7 in the fall. Titles include “Need for Speed Undercover”, “Tetris”, “Monopoly” and “The Sims 3.” Xbox Live integration is a feature that I’m excited about, since I (like most tech folks) love video games.  Windows also touts Metro, their slick new UI, and integrated support for  Microsoft Office Mobile, Zune, Bing, and Windows Live (which includes a free “Find My Phone” service).

Keep Track of Hours Logged in Projects with ClockIn

by BrothaTech

Instead of “guestimating” time spent on projects for clients to record on invoices, you can manage your time accurately and with less work – the same way you manage your contacts, emails, appointments, and other facets of your business – with your smartphone. ClockIn is a simple and efficient iPhone app that allows you to monitor the time you spend on a project and among multiple clients.

With ClockIn, you can clock in and out of projects the same way you used to “punch the clock” back in the day. Total time on each shift is shown on the main screen and automatically updates live when you clock in or out. You don’t have to leave the app open on your phone to record your time either – ClockIn remembers that you’re punched in even if you close the app to tackle other tasks on your phone. You can also manage multiple clients at one time by saving clients/shifts info (name, website, email, etc.) to quickly refer to them at any time. Export reports in HTML and CSV formats (WiFi only) and email reports directly from ClockIn.

Sure, there are other sophisticated applications that allow you to track time and do all sorts of things, but they can come at a cost and may not be the best way to go if your schedule has you on the road meeting clients, attending conferences, and other business meetings. If you do find the time to work on a client’s project, the ability to whip out your iPhone, open up ClockIn and track your time quickly is worth its $2.99 price tag (OS 3.0 and up).

Maximize Meeting Time With Evernote

by Justin Alcon

iPhone Evernote Sitting in a meeting today, pen and pad in front of me, I was taking notes as usual.  As the meeting wrapped up a co-worker asked, ‘“can someone send out notes from this meeting?”  I volunteered, but before I could say the words another co-worker announced “done”.  I honestly thought he’d been texting or checking his emails, but apparently he had been taking meeting notes on his iPhone with Evernote.

I went back to my desk and immediately downloaded the app to my phone, and it seemed to work pretty well overall. There are versions for the desktop, mobiles phone and web browser. However, a notable difference exists in the app from platform to platform; the functionality is basically the same cross-platform, but the look-and-feel is different depending on the device used.

While taking notes with Evernote, you can use  your phone to automatically upload your snapshots to the app’s server. The most innovative feature is “OCR” (Optical Character Recognition), which allows you to search archived pics by searching for text appearing in the photos. This is great for folks like me that like to write on a whiteboard during meetings, since you can easily snap a picture of the whiteboard and file it away for later use.  This feature could also be handy when taking pictures of products or ads for later research.  You could even use it to take pictures of people with name tags at conferences. The idea is that it can really easy to ‘remember everything’ (as their slogan goes).

Projects on your phone, computer, or tablet are synchronized automatically to your Evernote web account. Since it synchronizes regularly, reinstalling the application or losing data because of a crash isn’t as big a tragedy as it could be.

For Android: Evernote is offering a preview at the 2.0 release of their Android capture client, and it looks promising. According to their release announcement virtually all aspects of the app have been improved. There’s a more intuitive search function, and capturing new notes is smoother.  Read the announcement for the full list of new features and improvements.

MeetMe iPhone App Simplifies Finding Meeting Locations

by BrothaTech

Tired of playing phone/email tag with potential clients, customers, colleagues…anybody? With the MeetMe iPhone app, you can select a point A and point B, and it will find and lists possible locations in the middle. You select the best location and MeetMe sends an email with directions to your recipient.

There are many ways to find locations with MeetMe. You can use your current location, an address from your contacts, or enter in a location by address, airport code, city name and more. You can also define the type of place you want to meet and let MeetMe suggest locations. Save your locations as favorites and get more information about the location, reviews and more. If you want to be nice, MeetMe also lets you select locations closer to point A or B…if you REALLY want to close the deal.

Regardless of why you want to meet, the MeetMe iPhone app for $.99 in the iTunes App Store makes it easier to find a great meeting spot that’s fair for all parties involved.

Group Mail HD Simplifies iPad Contact Managing

by BrothaTech

This is one of those apps where you wish Apple would buyout (or blackmail) the app developer and make this app functionality a core feature. Group Mail HD simply gives you greater control over your iPad contacts.

The main portion of this app is the ability to create/edit contact lists (groups), a feature not available in the native iPad contacts app. Additionally, any groups you made if you sync with other mail/contact apps (Microsoft, Exchange, Google, etc.) don’t come over on the iPad. With Group Mail HD, you now have greater contact control on your iPad. Below are the additional contact options available:

– ADD / REMOVE contacts to/from groups and CREATE new contacts.
– SEND EMAILS to groups
– ADD / EDIT / REMOVE emails of contacts very easily and quickly!

Again, you would think functionality like this would be commonplace in the native contacts app. Since it’s not and you do want greater control over your contacts while surfing your iPad, go ahead and download Group Mail HD for $1.99 (iOS 3.2 or later) over on iTunes.

Cisco’s Umi announced, overshadowed by Logitech GoogleTV goodness.

by Justin Alcon

As previously rumored, Cisco has now announced its new telepresence product, called “Umi”. Although it has great specs and some interesting features, the price point seems a bit high when compared to other new options on the market.

Umi has high definition output and its 1080p HD camera boasts the latest bells and whistles.  Videos made with Umi can be shared on Facebook, YouTube and through e-mail.  However, these features come with a hefty price tag- $600 for the hardware and a $25 per-month or $275 annual service plan, which makes it slightly more costly than our initial speculations.

In other tech news, Google has announced their intent to move into your other home screen with the debut of Google TV.  Partnered with this was Logitech’s announcement of their Revue device, which will be a complete media box (including Google TV capability).  The set top box retails for only $300, and DISH Network customers can get the Revue at a discounted $180.

Logitech will sell an optional camera for $150 that enables HD video calls and has similar features to Cisco’s Umi. Logitech’s camera can be hooked into the Revue (or any Google TV device) to enable a full telepresence suite for your home system.
So for $450 (or $330 if you have DISH Network) and with no monthly cost, it’s possible to get HD telepresence, GoogleTV, and a lot of really cool entertainment features for your home media setup- a no-brainer, really.

About GoogleTV:
Logitech will also launch Revue with several apps:
Vid HD for video calls
Netflix to watch streaming movies (unlimited membership required)
Pandora  and Napster to stream personal music stations/libraries
Twitter to post or read tweets while watching TV
CNBC app designed specifically to show real-time stock information and customized watch lists, as well as “exclusive” video content
Logitech Media to browse photos, music, and video from a computer networked to the device
Logitech Alert Camera Viewer to see your security cameras on TV
The Revue includes the follow ports:
Logitech unifying technology to connect up to 6 Logitech accessories
HDMI in and out ports
Two IR blasters
Two USB inputs
Ethernet cord
SPDIF to connect digital optical cable.

Using Revue will require an HDTV with HDMI, Ethernet or WiFi, and a Cable or Satellite set top box with HDMI out.

Accept Checks Electronically from Customers with Updated PayPal iPhone App

by BrothaTech

*Just another reason why I need an iPhone*

With my Square credit card reader now in my possession, I can now accept credit cards from customers on site without a merchant account via my iPad. But, there are some customers who are still holding on to writing checks. I hate going to the bank, so the idea of electronically depositing checks into my business account via my smartphone would be the ultimate business tool for me.

Well another heavily used business tool of mine is PayPal, and it has just released a new version its iPhone app to do just that. By taking a picture of the front and back of the check, I can send the images to my PayPal account (which is linked to my business account) and wait for the money to be deposited.

Until now, Chase and USAA were the only two financial institutions with iPhone apps to process checks electronically. Now that PayPal has stepped into the arena (with its MILLIONS of users) to ease folk’s minds about electronic check deposits, look for more institutions to jump on the bandwagon.

*Your move Bank of America*

I will make sure to keep you posted on if and/or when PayPal will release this functionality to rest of us without iPhones *sad face*

SugarSync Takes It To Dropbox With Advanced File Sharing

by BrothaTech

Ruh Roh!

Those of you who follow SmallBizGoMobile (and my posts) know that I am an avid Dropbox fan. The ability to synchronize my files across ALL my devices in the cloud is enough of a feature alone to keep me as a loyal customer.

I am the owner/operator of a [very] small personal technology consultant business, so I’m the only one accessing my Dropbox files. But what if I blow up and start to bring on employees? File sharing is okay in Dropbox, but it’s just one public folder (or via sharing links to files) that I have to first upload files to, then share that folder to another Dropbox user. What if I need to share AND synchronize all my files across all my devices and all my employees?

Sugarsync just may be in your (and my) future with its new file sharing capabilities:

The new multi-user sync capability allows for folders shared among an assigned group to be immediately synced between all parties. As soon as shared files are updated by a user, each person will find the most up-to-date information on his/her computer.

That means with the multi-user capability enabled, you can select users to share files/folders with and the files/folders you want to share. Now any time that file/folder is updated by you OR the person you are sharing the file with, that file/folder is updated for everyone. Additionally, if somebody shares a folder with you, it doesn’t count against your account file storage limit.

Sugarsync has several other news features like password protection & “Read Only” permissions that will keep your files safe; and keeping up to 5 previous versions of files so you can see a files’ changes and revert back to a previous version if need be.

*Need some good stuff to say about Dropbox*

Sugarsync is available on iOS, Android & BlackBerry mobile devices and is free to TRY for thirty days…Dropbox is FREE always as long as you stay within the 2GB storage limit (You can get up to 16GB additional Gigabytes of storage when you refer other people, and your referrals get extra space too…that reminds me: Hook Me Up!).

Outside of that, SugarSync puts up a good fight with Dropbox on pricing. For 50 Gigs of Dropbox space, you will shell out 10 bucks a month, compared to SugarSync’s 5 bucks/month for 30 Gigs and 10 bucks/month for 60 Gigs of cloud storage space. Additionally, SugarSync offers new business plans in addition to individual plans that come with extra file control and support features.

Like I stated earlier, my current operation is small and Dropbox fits me well. One of these days, I would like to expand. When I do, my cloud storage capabilities may need to expand to SugarSync as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYpAHcNKGV0&feature=player_embedded

*Your move Dropbox*

Android Browsers That Mean Business

by Justin Alcon

One of the selling points of the Android operating system is its flexibility and array of customizable options.  However, with customization comes the fact that you’ll need to choose an Android web browser that best suits your personal internet viewing habits.  Some browsers excel at delivering video content, some have a speed advantage and some are better for less than optimal signal conditions.  So, how to choose what’s best for your cell phone/pda?

Many people end up using the default browser that comes with Android. Although this browser is improving, it’s pretty barebones compared to the other options available.  For instance, updated versions of Android software support flash, but not all phones have gotten this update.  Several third party browsers can support flash on older Android versions, giving a new-phone feel to your older equipment.

Most notable among those that bring flash-like capability to non-flash devices is Skyfire 2.0.  Skyfire can emulate a full-size desktop PC and avoids the stripped-down mobile version of webpages that the stock Droid browser delivers.  Currently, the biggest downside to this browser is its lack of stability- but this technology could improve with increased use.  Another browser option is Dolphin HD, which supports flash on Android 2.2 only.  This browser performs well when viewing popular video sites like  Blip.tv, The Onion, Vimeo, and YouTube.

Probably the best browser for mobile business users is Opera mini.  Opera mini has a tabbed mobile interface that makes the best of the poor coverage situations that are common when traveling.  Although Opera strips out some parts of the page to accomplish this, it does it in an intuitive way that keeps much of the original look-and-feel while improving download speeds.  Streaming video is not supported, but the benefit of catching up on today’s news and numbers may make flashy video not as vital as snappy load times.

Over at PCWorld magazine they did a “down and dirty” speed test on several of these browsers.  The results showed that the fastest overall was the not-so-stable Skyfire, Opera mini was a close second, and the native Android browser grabbed the bronze.

In the end, many users will feel that download speed is most important- sometimes just a few seconds can really matter in business.  After speed, browser choice comes down to extra features. If you spend time in poor coverage areas, Opera may be the right choice.  If you rely on video, Skyfire is probably best.  And whatever you pick, most users will find that choosing the right browser for their needs will really improve the overall Droid experience.