Got2B Wireless does business mobile literally

July 1, 2011July 1, 2011 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!

Box.net and GoogleApps – Complete Online Content Management

June 28, 2011 by BrothaTech

On the online content sharing/collaboration side, Box.net was one of the first cloud services that everyday consumers could use. Its services still make online collaboration a viable option for small business owners looking to move to the cloud. On the “everything else” side, there isn’t a bigger name than Google and its popular GoogleApps services that gives users access to online document editing, calendar and email organization, and more.

Add them together and you get the ability to move your entire business/IT structure to the cloud. Now with GoogleApps document editing integration into Box.net functionality, now you can stay in one application from start-to-finish content creation, collaboration, and management. You can upload and share files amongst colleagues and clients, edit documents with version control, and synchronize documents across most of your devices. No need to switch between Box.net for collaboration and sharing, Google Docs for document editing, Gmail for communication, and Google Calendar for time management. It can all be done in the Box.net platform.

Box.net also gives users mobile access so you can access, share and collaborate on files anywhere. Share folders in a tap, exchange feedback or save files for offline access. Box.net apps are available for iPhone, iPad, Android and via the Box.net mobile site.

A regular Box.net subscription of one user is free, but to take advantage of the new Google Apps integration and add up to three users on one account, it will cost you $15 per month. Both services on their own are ideal for any small business owner looking to use their time and resources more efficiently. Together, well, don’t take my word for it, visit Box.net and sign up for a free trial and let us know what you think in the comments section.

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

Three Productivity Updates to Google Sync for iPhone and iPad

June 20, 2011 by BrothaTech

Adding Google email accounts, contacts, and calendars to their iDevice is one of the first things Google software addicts do when they get their shiny new Apple hardware. Google recognizes that a huge chunk on their mobile customer base carry Apple gadgets, so they have updated some of their Google Sync features to further enhance the Google experience on the iPhone and iPad.

Now you can search through ALL of your emails versus just the range of messages you selected to sync on your device. Before, you had to access the mobile-friendly Gmail site to search all of your mail (live or archived) on your account.

You can also accept, decline, and edit calendar appointments directly from your device. Now I can turn off all of those email notifications to alert me somebody sends a calendar appointment!

Finally, “Send Mail as” works in any account you have set up on your device. In other words, if you manage multiple accounts from your device (I personally manage 5), without physically switching accounts, you can select from which account you want to send or reply to a message. For example, if somebody sends me a message to my personal account, I can [passive-aggressively] send them a reply from the right account by tapping the “From” field and selecting that address.

The new features work for both Gmail and for all the small businesses (myself included) using Google Apps accounts. Google Sync is a must-have if you live by Google software AND by Apple hardware. Visit the Google Mobile Site to learn how to setup Google Sync on your iDevice.

[via: Google Mobile Blog]

Chrome Notebook: Business in the Cloud

June 16, 2011June 17, 2011 by Justin Alcon

“The cloud” is hot – you’d have to have your head buried in sand to have not heard the word “cloud” from the tech sector this year. Apple has introduced iCloud, Microsoft has Windows Cloud and Amazon has introduced their Cloud Drive product. Although all of these products show great promise, I think that the Google Chrome notebook might be the coolest cloud product so far (given, that my definition of ‘cool’ means ‘getting business done’). In fact, I’m writing these very words on a virtual machine mock-up of a Chrome Notebook made via Parallels 6.

A Google Chrome notebook is really any laptop that runs Google’s Chrome browser. Yup, that’s it. How can an OS be this simple? Web apps. The entire Google Chrome way of working is a cloud-based version of “there’s an app for that”. You can use Google documents for your word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. You can even edit and store photos. Outside of heavy design work or software development which requires a local Integrated Development Environment, there is pretty much nothing that this machine hasn’t been able to do for me. Angry Birds is even available for free!

The consumer product is available in several flavors, including both 3g and WiFi models. Acer makes a couple, Samsung makes a few, and all are less than $500. The machines are simple, but quick – dual atom processors, 2gigs of ram (non upgradable), and 16gigs of solid state memory. The unimpressive hardware is forgivable since most of the computing takes place in the cloud; additionally, it makes the machines very affordable. Geek out to the full teardown over at iFixIt.

The great thing about the cloud is that your business can lose its attachment to physical devices. The machine doesn’t matter- it’s a throwaway, a burner. All your work is in the cloud. If your sales rep is on the road and pours coffee into their laptop, it’s no longer an IT emergency. They can go to the local Best Buy, put $400 on the corporate card, log back into the Google account and keep working. The rep’s pipeline is there, the sizzle reel is there, their contacts are all there…in the cloud.

I’m not quite ready to let go of my macbook, but I am very impressed with the Chrome notebook. It embodies the true spirit of mobile productivity. I had no problem blogging, social networking, handling money management or any other task I do daily. The machine only fell down when tasked with heavy design and development work that isn’t common to non-software developers. Yay cloud.

ShopSavvy Teams with ShareSquare for Easy QR Code Campaigns

May 26, 2011 by BrothaTech

It looks as if the past couple of weeks have been good for ShopSavvy, the mobile app that lets you scan product barcodes and see if a cheaper deal can be found locally or online. Just last week I did a story about ShopSavvy and Dropbox teaming up to save and sync your barcode scans to the cloud. Now ShopSavvy has announced a collaboration with ShareSquare to make QR Code campaigns simple for your average small business owner looking to market to the always connected, mobile consumer.

Backstory: Last year, ShopSavvy announced its ability to scan QR Codes in addition to just product UPC barcodes with its “Scan with ShopSavvy” program. The program was directed towards small business owners, retailers, and advertisers looking to take advantage of QR Code technology in marketing and advertising campaigns. Any business/organization that signed up for the program, received special QR codes that when scanned, would direct users to the businesses special mobile landing page for more information about the product…and of course, encourage users to download the ShopSavvy reader (if they were using another scanner),

Fast-forward to today: ShopSavvy has tapped ShareSquare, a pretty big deal when it comes to QR Coded mobile marketing campaigns, to give its mobile landing pages more “oomph”. What does all of this mean to you? As a small business owner, retailer, or marketer, if you decide to sign use the “Scan with ShopSavvy” Program, your QR codes will have even greater functionality, as ShareSquare offers an intuitive self-serve CMS that empowers the marketer to craft an effective QR code campaign in minutes.

“Many marketers have experimented with QR codes only to make mistakes that have undermined or crippled their campaigns,” said Alexander Muse, co-founder and CEO of ShopSavvy. “ShareSquare removes the guesswork and enables agencies and brands to deploy a mobile-optimized experience tailored to their campaign objectives.”

Check out a demo of ShareSquare’s mobile capabilities by scanning the QR code in the pic above, or watching the video:

Let’s face it, seems as if everybody is browsing the web via a mobile device. If you want to drive some of that traffic to your business, website…whatever, you need to adopt some sort of mobile marketing campaign or at the very least, make your website “mobile friendly”. QR Codes make it stupid-easy for mobile consumers to find out more information about your business. With apps/services like ShopSavvy, your entire marketing budget doesn’t have to be wrapped up in hiring a brand-name agency just to reach out to those potential clients/customers/consumers who just so happen to have a smartphone handy.

[via: PRWeb]

The Viddy App for iPhone is like Instagram for Video

May 13, 2011May 13, 2011 by Justin Alcon

In business, it’s vital to connect with your target demographic. Mobile technology can really help with this effort, as it offers many different platforms on which to reach potential customers or community members. For example, Instagram has quickly become a popular way to interact visually with early adopters and younger cursomers. Instagram is great, but it’s limited to still images. If you’d like the same capability for videos, check out Viddy in the iTunes App Store, the free social networking video camera.

The Viddy App for iOS devices is pretty nifty. Basically, it adds visual effects to video and allows the user to share it. When Viddy starts, the default view is a feed of videos that have been shared by your group of connections. The interface is familiar – it’s a near-clone clone of Instagram. The user has the ability to like, comment, and tag videos as they come through the feed.

I’m a ‘sharing’ kind of guy, so I immediately went to ‘Share’. Offered the choice of using an existing video or shooting a new one, I chose to shoot a new one. I did notice a limitation here: only 15 seconds of video can be shared at one time. Then, I was taken to the effects adding screen (pictured right), where I add various visual effects, and adjusted the level of the sound captured. Next, you’re invited to add metadata like title, location, and tags. Finally, you’re given the opportunity to share across platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare, and Tumblr.

Recently, the small business where I work paid a famous market research firm to test new language for an upcoming PR campaign. I was shocked to see how words with very similar meanings were sometimes judged harshly by listeners based on their own personal biases. Small tweaks in language made HUGE differences in the way our brand was viewed and our community engagement. The same is true with the visual media that we share: it has to be rich and engaging to reach the proper market share. So, check out Viddy if you’re looking for a new way to reach your target market in a way that really engages them at their level.

Bing for iPad

April 8, 2011April 8, 2011 by Justin Alcon

Good news everyone! Good news, at least, If you’d noticed that the Bing iOS app was great for iPhone but left something to be desired when used on the larger iPad. It appears that Microsoft was listening, and they’ve released a new version of Bing designed to make the most of the iPad’s larger screen. The app works well with both iPad and iPad 2. iOS 4.2 is required, and it brings an arsenal of new features tempting us to try it.

The ‘trends’ area serves up the most often-searched terms on Bing. A dedicated movie searching section will help make your theatergoing decisions easier, and multiple map views provide turn-by-turn directions and real-time transit info that will help you make your show on time. Weather updates for up to five cities are delivered via MSN Weather. There’s a Bing ‘Voice Search’ option as well which is pretty useful for web searching while on the go. The price is right for all these features- it’s free. I’m sure that the folks over at Google have taken note!

The E-Reader Explosion: Choosing the Right E-Reader

March 31, 2011April 4, 2011 by Shy Mukerjee

Mario Armstrong appeared on the TODAY show this morning to help you decide which E-Reader is right for you. Mario takes a look at the Amazon Kindle, the Sony E-Reader, The Barnes and Noble Nook Color, and the Pandigital Novel Color Multimedia E-Reader. Take a look at the video below!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Quick look at iPad & other tablets

March 16, 2011March 17, 2011 by Mario Armstrong

A few days before the new iPad2 came out I hopped on the TODAY show to talk with Matt Lauer about the new tablets that are out and coming out this year. This is a short video for someone who hasn’t had the time to follow all the advancements and may need a quick overview of the tablet offerings.

Take a peek and let me know in the comments if you are buying a tablet, which one and why?

Mario Armstrong

TV Host and Motivator for the Modern World

Category: Video