2 The Next Level

Archive for the ‘Mobile Technology’ Category

Clarence Wooten has done it again. Mr Wooten has taken the location based social networking service 2 The Next Level. Just like he did with his Groupsite service back in 2008. I just watched the video presentation of Mr. Wooten’s newest creation at the TechChrunch Disrupt event in New York City. I am originally from New York so am highly upset that I was not able to attend this years Disrupt especially because Mr. Wooten was presenting.

If you are familiar with location based social networking services like Foresquare and Gowalla then you will definitely understand why Arrived is on point to make noise in this space.

With the Arrived app you can select a place, and add people to notify when you get to the specific location. The people selected can either opt in to be notified or to notify you upon their arrival to that specific location. Combining geo-fencing, auto-checkins, and notifications Arrived wants to provide value consumers without requiring them to change any behavior patterns or check-in.

Here is how Clarence Wooten described “Soft-Plans”

So if you’ve ever said to a friend, “Let’s hang out the next time you’re in town,” raise your hand. Right, a hundred percent. Well you may not have realized it at the time but you were making soft plans, and soft plans are casual plans with no set date and time. They revolve around a place as opposed to a set date and time.

Introducing Arrived, make soft plans and spontaneously meet up when timing is right.

Take a look at the video below and see for yourself. Arrived has all the makings of a social application that can help you keep track of, and organize your day to day event calendar.  Without even trying this app can do more with just one event by merging the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Meetup and Foursquare. What’s event better is that it can keep it all public or got incognito by using its “Pause” feature.

Check out Mr. Wooten’s comment about “Arrivalytics”

So we created Arrivalytics. Arrivalytics is our proprietary recommendations algorithm that leverages machine learning to analyze your sociograph and make Arrival recommendations, based upon the shared interests, locations and travel pattern of people in the network. We think this is big. The reason it’s big, is because there’s not a technology that exists today that will help you manufacture serendipity, bring you face to face with people in your network when both time and place right.

All in all I am looking forward to using this app once it is officially released.  All the best with your new venture Mr. Wooten and continue to be one of the leaders in taking business 2 The Next Level using technology.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Hey My Solos, I found this great site that will help you create your own QR Codes for your business.

What is a QR-Code and how does it work?
QR stands for Quick Response Code.
A QR-Code is a two-dimensional code, which can be read by cell phones cameras using a small software (QR reader). The QR-Code is photographed with the camera of your phone, and the reader software interprets the code and asks if you want to connect to the internet. After confirmation, the internet connection is established and you get on the desired website.

What is the advantage of QR-Codes?
The tedious typing a URL, for example of an ad or a poster is not longer necessary. Use the QR-Code for example on business cards, t-shirts, flyers or posters. Or place the QR-Code on press reports (preferably with the shorturl you also get one-click). Look for example on Flickr, YouTube or in the image search for the many examples around the world, where QR-codes are widely used.

What is special about the QR-Codes from QR.net?
With QR.net the QR-Codes refers to a short forwarding address (shorturl), which in turn redirects to your target URL. This has two advantages: First, you will receive a detailed statistics for your QR-code. So you can view how often your QR-code was used. Second, it hast to be encoded in the QR-code less content and therefore the graphics are less complex. This has advantages if you print your QR-code in small size. You can put next to the QR-code in addition the shorturl (“Scan QR-Code or use http://qr.net/example”. The statistics includes both, the views of scanned QR-Codes as well as from the shorturl.

What do I need to use these QR codes?
Most mobile phones and PDAs already have a suitable camera and a web browser that allows the use of QR-codes. A little recognition software (a so-called QR-Reader), reads the code which is not interpretable for the human eye. If a QR-Reader is not already installed on your mobile phone, i can be freely downloaded and installed from the internet (eg search on Google for “QR Code Reader”).

Take a look at the videos below that will give you more information on how to use QR codes and give me some feed back on how you would use them in the comments below.

All the best

JB

.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Apple iPad users beware, there is a new kid about to be on the block from Google and Motorola. The Tablet wars are about to take place for the Christmas holiday season. The first threat to the dominance of the iPad took place just about a month ago when T-mobile became the first to carry the Samsung Galaxy Tablet. Verizon and Sprint followed with their own launch of the Galaxy Tab days later.

The Galaxy Tab did not sell as big as the iPad when it debuted but it has impressed many of those who made the purchase. I debated on snatching one up myself when I looked at the Galaxy Tab for the first time at my T-mobile carrier. I too was impressed with both the size and the features. It was the price that kept me from purchasing it. The 399.00 price was still a little too steep for me. Let one of these babies get to under the $300.00 mark and I am SOOOOO There..;-)

Google has now launched the Chrome OS and the newest version of Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” is due to come out by the end of this month, if not sooner. Take a look at the video below and be one of the first to see the new Motorola Android device due out very soon.

So what say you, when it comes to these new Tablet devices. Have they made you get off the fence when it comes to choosing one of them over the Apple iPad? Or are you waiting patiently for iPad 2 to make its debut in the near future?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Does everyone remember this commercial from Motorola that aired almost a year ago?

The Motoroal CLIQ was dubbed the fist smart phone with Social Skills.  I was so excited in getting this phone I wrote an extensive blog post about it. ( Santa Brought Me A Smart Phone) Little did I know that purchasing this phone would come with some not so good strings attached.

The main string being that the phone would not be able to have a software upgrade until the first quarter of 2010.
Well that quarter has come and gone an still no upgrade. Here is the official Motorola Android Software Upgrade News

Why is this upgrade important you may ask? Well just like software upgrades for your computer, upgrades for your phone will allow you to have all the new features that come with that upgrade. My Motorola CLIQ is currently on Android version 1.5. The newest version of Android is version 2.2. Google has long released this version and many other Android phones have taken advantage of its use.

One of the main reasons I am frustrated about not having the upgrade is that there are many Android applications that are not available to me. These application are written for Android version 2.1 or higher. These applications are not even listed in the Android application Marketplace on my 1.5 phone.

So what is the hold up you may also be asking? Well thats just it. Motorola is the hold up.

My cell phone carrier cannot force Motorola to release the upgrade. Google cannot force Motorola to release the upgrade.  The upgrade has to come from the manufacture in this case and that responsibility lies solely on Motorola.

So hear is my video Rant.

Please forgive the video quality. I made that via Facebooks video with my web cam.

What makes this situation even more frustrating is the fact that I may have to take this matter into my own hands and look to upgrade my phone manually.  I have since contacted some pretty savvy Android developers via Twitter, who have already upgraded their Motorola CLIQ’s themselves. These guys have even created some Youtube videos that give you step by step directions on how to do it yourself.

Do I want to manually upgrade my own phone and risk doing something wrong and hence damaging the phone for good? Of course not. So I have given myself till the end of the month to either have one of these Android developers upgrade the phone for me or go and get another phone that will already have the Android 2.2 software installed like the HTC G2.

So, my Solo’s, the lesson in this is to choose your smart phone wisely. Make sure you find out what the software upgrade capabilities are before you make the purchase. I will look to do a follow up post on this matter as I go through the dilemma of getting this upgrade to my cell phone.

All the best

JB

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Do you have a 3G/4G USB aircard? I have been debating for a minute on how I can justify getting a wireless aircard to allow me to have Internet service in places where I cannot get free Wifi. My cell phone carrier has a web connect plan that I was considering very seriously. This T-mobile plan costs about $49.00 per month and that’s after having to purchase the USB aircard stick for my laptop.

Tethering

I heard this term about 3 or so years ago from a friend of mine who used to get Free Internet access through his cell phone that allowed him to surf the net on his laptop.  Back then you had to be very careful in trying to create a tethering hack for your cellphone. First off, you could void the contract of your carrier by doing it and second, you could run up a huge phone bill by adding onto the minutes of your data plan.

Android and T-mobile

In doing some research I found out that there were many cell phone carriers that allowed tethering using the Android operating system but my carrier, T-mobile, was not one of them.  I finally found a software company that had just released an Android app that was said to work with my carrier.

PdaNet

June Fabrics Technology, Inc. had already created PdaNet–tethering software applications for Windows Mobile phones, Palm OS phones and iPhones. I was elated that they also had one for Android. But would it work with T-mobile? After a small download of the software on my laptop and then my cell phone, I was up and running.

The Test

My first chance to use this PdaNet tethering software came during a lunch meeting with a potential client.  The meeting location did not have Wifi and part of my presentation needed Internet access to show off some of the WordPress blogsites I had created.  I was at risk of not being able to close the deal due to the lack of a connection to the net.

Tetheriffic

Not only did I have access to the Internet for the close of my presentation but I was amazed at how fast the 3G speed was in the downloading of all the graphics from some of the blogsites I had displayed on my laptop. My client was pleased with what he saw and said that he was impressed with how I used my cellphone to help ink the deal.

Tale of the tethering tape

PdaNet has two versions of its software application for Android phones. There is a Free version and a Paid version. The only difference with the Paid version is that you get to see secure websites. So if you have to pay a bill via a banking website or purchase something from an ecommerce website, you might have some problems if you go the Free route.  I have not had a need to upgrade to the paid version at this time, but I do believe that the $23.95 one-time price would be well worth it. It has already saved me money in not having to get an extra monthly web connect plan from my cell phone carrier.

Have you ever tethered your cell phone to get Internet access for your laptop? As Solopreneurs we need to be able to save every penny we take in, so tethering could really make a difference in one’s bottom line.  Let me know your thoughts on it.

All the best,

JB

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.

Popularity: 96% [?]