Tag: mobile app

PODCAST: Capture and stream videos in real time with the AT&T Video Capture mobile app

by Mario Armstrong

One thing that many small business owners overlook in promoting their businesses and communicating with employees is video. Yes, I know, the costs of video are often prohibitively high—that is, if you’re looking to shoot a professional commercial or similar video spot. But what if all you need is a good mobile video shot with your iPhone or Android smartphone? Small Biz Go Mobile sponsor AT&T provides a great app for free to its mobile consumers called AT&T Video Capture. Rather than having to upload, title & tag videos on a platform like YouTube, AT&T Video Capture lets you stream live and pre-recorded video straight to your employees and co-workers. Theres even a desktop version that lets you organize and archive those videos as well.

I can think of a ton of cool use cases for this technology. Field service technicians who are expected to solve problems in a single on-site visit, could use AT&T Video Capture to solicit advice and help from co-workers back in the office. Media broadcasters could use this to deliver the news live or report back to HQ with raw footage of an ongoing event. Want more ideas on how you can ramp up your business with AT&T Video Capture? Listen to my latest Small Biz Go Mobile podcast to hear all of my tips.

Accelerate Small Business Growth: 10 Mobile Apps to Consider

by Curlis Phillip

Curlis Phillip is a Senior Marketing Manager at AT&T. You can find more blog content from Curlis and other experts on mobility on the AT&T Networking Exchange Blog. AT&T has sponsored the following blog post.

 

Small business (SMB) owners face several challenges including attracting new customers, improving cash flow, retaining customers, automating business processes and increasing employee productivity.  Mobile applications can help SMBs address these challenges and provide tremendous value.

According to an eVoice survey, seventy-one percent of small business owners have reported becoming more mobile over the past two years.  Mobile applications are helping small businesses to save time, improve business operations, be more responsive to customers, and increase sales and profitability.

SMBs are jumping on the mobile apps bandwagon, however; finding the right apps can become a daunting task with more than a million apps available across Android, BlackBerry and iPhone.  Here are 10 mobile applications you should check out that can help enhance your worker productivity, improve the way you do business and drive revenue growth.  Read More

Official Hotmail App for Kindle Fire

by BrothaTech

I am making sure to keep my eyes peeled and ears to the ground on any Kindle Fire apps that help with productivity. For those of you still hanging on to your Hotmail account, Microsoft has adapted the Hotmail app for Android to work on the Amazon Kindle Fire.

Yes, the native Kindle email app can download your email, but the new Hotmail app you can sync all your mail, contacts, folders, and subfolders via the more robust Exchange Active Sync protocol according to the Inside Windows Live Blog. In other words, whatever you’re working on in the Hotmail app (updating contacts, or performing triage on your inbox) gets synced with all your devices attached to your account and online. Read More

SugarSync Lands on Kindle Fire

by BrothaTech

It looks like the Amazon Kindle Fire is getting a serious look from developers, as some of my favorite mobile apps are getting the Fire treatment. Next on list is the SugarSync cloud storage service that lets you choose which laptop/desktop folders you can sync to other devices and vice-versa.

The cool thing about SugarSync is once you’ve selected the files/folders you want to sync and they are in fact uploaded, you can also choose to download those files on any compatible device for access even if you are offline. Read More

TripIt Travel App Lands on Kindle Fire

by BrothaTech

One of my concerns for the new Amazon Kindle Fire is (or was) “will it have enough apps?” Reason being, the Android platform is kind of fragmented across all of the different device manufacturers and carriers who use the platform to add their own spin on a mobile products. Throw in Amazon, who not only completely strips Android down to its nuts and bolts to create its own tablet, but also create another Android app store for consumers (and developers) to scratch their heads at, and you’ve got a recipe for distaster.

From the looks of it, the Amazon Kindle Fire is pretty hot device, and as a result, hasn’t have any problems proving its worth to consumers looking for a more fiscally responsible tablet instead of ponying up a BMW car note for an iPad. Plus they’ve found plenty of mobile app developers looking to been seen on as many devices as possible.

Case in point, I wrote last week about the Documents To Go app being available on the Fire, possibly making you more productive on a tablet that was primarily designed to browse and consume content from the Amazon ecosystem. I just got word that the popular TripIt travel app is landing on the Fire, giving users more control over their travel plans as well. Read More

Evernote for Android Update Bears First Fruits of Skitch Acquisition

by BrothaTech

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Evernote acquiring Skitch, originally a Mac app that lets you edit/annotate images. Evernote had big plans for Skitch, including integrating some of the app’s best features directly into the Evernote desktop and its suite of mobile apps. Looks like Android wins out as the first app to benefit from the Skitch acquisition. Read More

Girl Scouts Can Now Swipe Credit Cards with GoPayment

by BrothaTech

If it’s good enough for the Girl Scouts’, smartphone credit card processing is good enough for your business too.

The Girl Scouts’ of NorthEast Ohio have been equipped with Intuit’s GoPayment mobile payment app and credit card reader for iPhone and Android devices that will allow them to take credit card payments for those addicting little cookies. The promotion is in celebration of the Girl Scouts 99th anniversary in March, and Intuit gladly handed the equipment over to the Girls in order to increase awareness of the GoPayment service. (who hasn’t heard of the Girl Scouts)

From the Press Release:

“We’re glad to put the latest mobile technology in the hands of America’s future business leaders to help them increase cookie sales,” said Chris Hylen, vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Payment Solutions division. “For this generation of girls in particular, running a business and being able to take payments anywhere with mobile apps like GoPayment will become second nature. We’re eager to see how sales will increase now that they take credit cards with GoPayment.

For a limited time, Intuit is extending this same offer to all Girl Scout councils across the country so they can maximize their cookie sales. Councils and troop leaders can get more information by calling Intuit’s GoPayment Girl Scout hotline at: 800-871-3334.”

You can run, but you can’t hide…your wallet as The Girl Scouts can now overcome your lame ol’ “I don’t carry cash” excuse when they roll up on you outside of your local grocery store slanging their product graciously ask your support of their program.

[via: 9to5Mac]

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).

WordPress 2.6 for iOS Adds Enhanced Video Support

by BrothaTech

I manage a couple of WordPress sites and write for a couple of others, but I hardly use the WordPress apps for my mobile devices. BUT when I need to use it to adjust something real quick like a typo, or a broken link in a post and I am NOT sitting around a computer, BOY do the WordPress mobile apps come in handy.

So I’m pretty geeked to tell you that WordPress has added some additional features for iOS devices (Apple) that just may get me to use the mobile apps more often.

The “set up” (leading up to the grand finale) features include:

– Autosave feature and improved Local Draft Support so you’re mobile posts don’t get completely trashed if your phone or the app freezes up…and it does happen.

*Drumroll please*

– The WordPress 2.6 for iOS devices now includes enhanced video support. Now you can capture and post videos directly to your WP site without any converting, or uploading to additional video sharing sites, then embedding the video to your WP site. So for all you Vloggers with an iPhone and a WP blog, you can now shoot and post vlogs on the fly.

There are a bunch of other bugs that they worked on, so check out the improved WordPress 2.6 for iOS app – it’s free, but requires iOS 3.0.2 or later.

(No word on any improvements to Android or BlackBerry versions…doh!)

Let “Lookout” App Watch Over Your Mobile Data

by BrothaTech

What can happen when you download software…A Virus right? This idea is (or at least should be) at the forefront of your mind when you download anything to your desktop of laptop computer.

My guess is that for mobile app downloads, most folks throw caution to the wind and download away without even thinking about the possibility of getting a virus that could potentially damage any and all information stored on your device.

Truth of the matter is, smartphone usage has climbed astronomically in recent years. With that growth comes the possibility for lost/corrupt data, or a lost device altogether! So it would make sense for any user that relies on their smartphone for any task to invest in a good data backup/retrieval service.

The company Lookout hopes to aid those who want to make sure their smartphone data is safe from virus, spyware and malware attacks. The trick to Lookout’s web-based, cloud-connected service is that it doesn’t just backup your data in the event that you do get a virus; Lookout acts as a virus protector much like security software downloaded to a computer by identifying and blocking threats on a user’s phone. The Lookout app also includes a service that has helped users retrieve over 130,000 lost or stolen phones.

Currently the app is free to download to all BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Android devices (Sorry iPhone folks!). So do yourself a favor, quickly browse over all the photos, contacts/clients/customers, documents, music, and any other pertinent and important information. My guess is you wouldn’t want to lose any of it to a hacker, virus, malware or spyware. Yes, you now have to protect your smartphone from these threats, so it would behoove you to head on over to Lookout and find out how you can lock down your phone…for free!