SoundNote app for iPad: Write, Scribble, and Record Meetings all at Once

March 28, 2011 by BrothaTech

Sitting in meetings is a pain. Trying to take notes in a meeting is probably worse. Trying to make sense of those notes after the meeting is hands-down unbearable. The SoundNote app for iPad looks to alleviate your stress by combining the ability to write notes, sketch objects and illustrations, and make an audio recording all in one app.

Most mobile note-taking apps only allow you to either type/draw notes or sketch objects/illustrations. SoundNote lets you do both on the same page with it’s powerful drawing tool. If you make a mistake or need add to a sketch, you can tap it twice to edit your strokes. Tap the object just once to select it, and drag it to wherever you want on the page or delete it entirely. You can use iOS finger gestures to scroll and zoom objects. If you still want to add traditional notes, you can use the virtual keyboard to add notes on the same page.

Just in case your shorthand note-taking is not fast enough on your iPad, you can record audio of the meeting so you don’t miss an important detail while you’re trying to draw the perfect arrow. Instead of playing the entire recording back just to locate one detail you missed, tap a word in your notes that and SoundNote jumps to the corresponding place in the recording. If you’re worried about space on your iOS device, a hour of recording takes up only about 25mb. If you’re in a meeting longer than a hour, recording space on your iPad is the LEAST of your problems.

Need to share notes with your co-workers, team members, or clients, you send them out via email directly from your iPad or download the notes to your Mac or PC to backup or for organizational purposes. At $4.99, SoundNote isn’t cheap as far as mobile apps are concerned, but with all the functionality that’s built into this app, at least your notes won’t suffer from your inability to enjoy those bright and early Monday-morning meetings.

Customer Support On the Go with Zendesk for iPad

February 15, 2011February 17, 2011 by BrothaTech

Customer Support requests can come in at ANY time. As a small business owner, your clients may or may not recognize your “regular business hours of blank to blank.” So the ability to at the very least respond to requests is essential, even if a solution won’t be provided until you get back to your office.

Zendesk helps mobilize your customer support portal with its suite of mobile apps for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. With more screen real estate to play with, the iPad app now joins that group with added functionality, and to give your eyes a rest. Features include:

View Current Ticket Activity: Get real-time updates and receive notification on tickets assigned to a team member through the ticket activity stream – An exclusive iPad feature.

Complete Ticket Work-flow: Act on tickets immediately, or bookmark a ticket to respond later. With the iPad app, users can create macros to send pre-defined responses to frequently asked questions.

…Not mention the coolness of using your iPad to handle customer support requests if you decide to do a little work while on vacay. Zendesk plans start at 10 bucks a month and the mobile apps (including the iPad) are free. As quick and easy it is to start handling tickets like a pro with Zendesk, it is now equally as fast to get started answering customer requests, no matter where you are, with Zendesk for iPad.

…Your eyes will thank you too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enexL56_NvM&feature=player_embedded

Add some Tech to your Pitch with Portfolio for iPad

November 10, 2010November 10, 2010 by BrothaTech

Now you can use the iPad to help you with “the perfect pitch” with the Portfolio app for iPad. Fully brand-able, Portfolio for iPad can be tweaked to fit your business model, so your presentations will look all the more professional.

With a special key, you can lockdown the app and hand your iPad over to your potential clients/customers so they can flip through your work while your explain your services without the worry of exposing the management interface underneath or accidentally peeking into other areas of your device.

AND *drumroll* Portfolio is Dropbox accessible! Your images can be saved/stored in your Dropbox account so you are not constantly downloading presentation images to your iPad to load into Portfolio – They can stay safe in the “cloud”. Here are a list of additional key features:

– Multiple galleries and the ability to hide unneeded galleries.

– Slideshows with configuration options for slide duration and soundtrack.

– Ratings and notes editable per image.

– Full screen viewing and browsing or partial screen with a thumbnail strip.

– Zoom in on details in imported photos.

– Comparison mode to bring up two photos at a time.

– Keyword tagging and the ability to filter by keywords and ratings.

– External display support through via additional VGA adapter.

Whether you’re a photographer showing photos and videos to a bride-to-be, a wedding venue displaying various table setups, a florist giving the choices of different arrangements, a landscaper showing different layouts, or a web designer describing past designs, Portfolio will give that extra bit of polish and professionalism to your presentation.

Portfolio is on the high-end of app prices at $14.99. So I would only suggest Portfolio for iPad to designers, illustrators, artists, and other professionals looking to add that extra [tech] touch to their presentations.

Manage your Site with the FTP On The Go App

October 26, 2010 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!

Group Mail HD Simplifies iPad Contact Managing

October 12, 2010October 13, 2010 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.

Relieve Stress with the Office Harmony App

August 10, 2010 by BrothaTech

Some of the reasons behind starting a small business (besides making money) is to get out of the day-to-day grind, and to have more control over your schedule and your life. Fact of the matter is, most people end up working HARDER at their own business than they ever did punching a clock at ACME, Incorporated. Working harder at a small business, especially in the beginning can be due to wearing all the hats of the business. From ~~secretary~~ administrative assistant to IT, to customer service, to marketing, to finance – You do it all!

Sometimes trying to juggle all of your business tasks can leave you a little stressed. Well, if you’re a fan of mobile apps and your day-to-day business tasks get the best of you from time to time…there’s an app for that too! The app is called Office Harmony and its purpose is to help you understand and lower your stress.

From stress assessment questions that help you recognize and understand where your stress is specifically coming from, to office yoga videos that give you quick and easy yoga techniques that can be done at your desk, to soothing meditation exercises that help your relax your mind, to weekly stress tips that help you remember to cool out; this app has it all!

The app includes images of desk yoga exercises, and other exercises you can do without exerting any sweat (because nobody likes yellow arm pits on your nice shirt/blouse during your presentation), and also actual videos of exercises, all without being connected to the internet. That means you don’t have to worry about your mobile network messing with zen-like focus.

So relax, take and deep breath, and just step away for a second if your small business tasks get to be too overwhelming. If that doesn’t work, download the Office Harmony app for $1.99 for your iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad.

Get Your Mobile Payments Squared Up

June 17, 2010July 7, 2010 by BrothaTech

Allow me to paint a picture. You’ve got a hot product (at least you think it’s hot) that you want to sell at your local festival, expo, or event. You know you’re going to get those “I only carry plastic with me” folks that want your product, but are not willing to go hunt down an ATM and pay a ba-jillion dollars in ATM fees. Now you’ve just started and may not have the credit history to be extended a merchant account (or have no clue what a merchant account is) and you don’t have the funds to buy a credit card machine. Let’s be honest, you really don’t want to bother with messing around with the receipt paper that ALWAYS gets stuck in those machines either!

Enter Square, a mobile credit card system that allows users to accept credit card payments anywhere without a merchant account using your mobile device. Imagine how smooth a transaction would go if you could just whip out your mobile device, and swipe your customer’s credit card and email them a receipt? With Square you can do just that.

Whether it’s an iPhone, iPod Touch iPad, or Android mobile device (sorry BlackBerry folks), you can use Square’s mobile card reader that’s about the size of a tic-tac container that plugs into your device’s headphone port and allows you to accept credit cards as payments.

You don’t need the reader or merchant account to accept credit card payments, simply download the app from your smart phone’s respective app store, link a bank account and you’re set. It would behoove you to go ahead and apply for the reader, because the fees associated with swiping a card versus manual input are cheaper, I mean, more monetarily advantageous.

Speaking of fees, although you don’t need a merchant account, there are no setup fees, fees for the mobile reader, monthly charges, or contract required (crazy right?). All Square asks of you is a 2.75% + 15 cents per swiped charge and 3.5% + 15 cents per manual card input per transaction. Which, I might add, is lower than most merchant account fees per transaction

Again, imagine how smooth your credit card transactions would go, and how cool you would look doing them if you were using Square.

For more information, and how to get signed up, visit squareup.com Or watch the video below:

Mario Armstrong

TV Host and Motivator for the Modern World

Tag: iPad