iPhone
Having used a Mac since desktop publishing took over the graphic design industry I am a big fan of all things Apple. I consider my iPhone more as a mini-computer than a phone because it’s so versatile.
These are just some of my favorite business related apps. If you’re on the go a lot, an iPhone is a great way to keep productive. It’s also great while sitting on the sofa in front of the TV.
- E-mail: The iPhone syncs with your iCal and MobileMe account seamlessly.
- Facebook: Stay in touch with all your friends and clients.
- Twitter: Set up your favorite list and keep up to date.
- Bam Analytics: Set up your Google analytics and keep track of how your websites are doing wherever you are.
- Lynda.com: If you have a spare moment you can watch a video lesson on the latest software applications. Check out a FreePass today.
- iBooks: A great way to catch up on your business reading. Even load up your own pdf files and e-books to keep up to date.
- Go Daddy: Find and purchase a domain name or check your mobile mail.
- Lucy Phone: Never wait on hold again. Find a company, call it up, and your phone will ring you when the call goes through.
- NetNewsWire: Keep up with the latest news feeds. Syncs with Google Reader. It’s my favorite news reader as it is quick and there’s a convenient Mac app too. Great on the iPad and iPhone.
- Instapaper: Save a web page or newsfeed and read it later in Instapaper. A great way to catch up when you have a spare moment.
There are many more useful business related iPhone and iPad apps, but these are my favorite, so far. What are yours?
One of the many great things about your iPhone and iPad is that you can easily load up a pdf file for later reading. Then, whenever you have a spare moment, either while waiting on line at a supermarket or bank, waiting in an airport or doctor’s office, or just waiting for a TV commercial to end (assuming you did not DVR it to speed past commercials), you can click on your iThing and read your latest pdf file or e-book.
1. Open iTunes.
2. On the top menu click “File”. On the drop down menu click “Add to Library…”
3. Navigate to your e-book or pdf file and choose it.
4. In iTunes click on your iPhone or iPad in the side menu.
5. Choose the Books tab and you will see the file. Make sure it’s checked.
6. Sync your iPhone or iPad and your pdf file will appear in iBooks under the pdf tab.
See, it’s simple. There are other ways to get files onto your iPhone or iPad, including Dropbox, Air Sharing, Stanza and GoodReader apps but I’ll leave that for another post.
Whenever I see an update to a program or app I get excited and want to try it out. This is not always a wise thing to do.
When I found out about the MobileMe Calendar beta update I eagerly signed up and did not think of the consequences. I was approved to try out the beta and pressed the little update button.
The result was that my entire iCal on my iMac was “wiped out” and replaced with the new MobileMe Calendar beta.
From what I understand, the MobileMe Calendar beta moves the local iCal information from your local Mac and stores it on the MobileMe “cloud” or server. So everything you enter on your iCal is stored online and no where else. All updates are sent to your other iOS devices. And when you update info on your iPad or iPhone this is sent to the “cloud” and then down to all other iOS devices. In this way everything is kept up to date and in sync.
Unfortunately iCal is no longer automatically backed up on your hard drive or Time Machine. You have to manually back up your individual calendars in order to have any sort of backup that’s not on the MobileMe server.
So when I updated to MobileMe beta and synced my Todo iPad and iPhone apps, there was no longer any iCal info on my computer and all the info was wiped clean from my Todo apps.
Of course this was very upsetting since I no longer had any of my Todo’s on my iPhone and iPad. Also at this time iCal does not sync it’s todo list feature with any other iOS device (which is still very annoying).
The good news was that I was able to “downgrade” my MobileMe calendar server back to the pre-beta mode which restored my calendar as it was before I updated to the beta. Any changes made after I updated to the beta was lost.
And when I re-synced my Todo apps on the iPhone and iPad I got all my info back! So everything is back to the way it was before I got myself into this mess.
The good folks at Appigo and “Todo” are going to look into this and hopefully come up with a workable fix. If not, I’m worried that when this new MobileMe calendar beta becomes the only option, my Todo apps may become useless.
If you have an iPhone, iMac, iPad or any other iThingy, Dropbox is an incredibly easy way to sync a file from your computer to other computers or devices. It’s only a matter of opening an account with Dropbox online, adding an app to any of your iDevices and dropping a file or two or even more into the “box”. In an instant that file is available for viewing on all linked devices.
Dropbox allows you to view documents, spreadsheets, photos, videos and presentations. A neat feature is that you can snap a photo with your iPhone and save it to your Dropbox direct. You don’t even need a MobileMe account.
And the great thing is a Dropbox account is free and comes with 2 GB of storage space. For most people that’s quite a lot of space. If you have a lot of heavy duty files you can purchase a Pro plan up to 100GB. I am not an affiliate of Dropbox but I do find it worth looking into if you haven’t already installed it on your iStuff. Dropbox is also available for non-Apple-ites, who use Windows or Linux.
Does your screen suddenly stay locked in the portrait position? Does your “iSteps” pedometer app suddenly stop working? If you’re lucky enough to have the new iPhone 4 running iOS4 you may have noticed this new issue after starting and stopping iSteps.
Although I love my new iPhone I was disappointed that, for the moment, pedometer apps do not run in the background. At best you can play music in the background while using the pedometer app. My biggest issue, aside from the left-handed antenna glitch, was that after starting and then stopping my pedometer my phone was stuck in the portrait position and wouldn’t change to landscape unless I restarted. And the pedometer stopped working.
After several calls to Apple, trying to figure out why my phone would lock up in the portrait position, without manually turning this feature on, I was instructed to reinstall the operating system and load everything from scratch. And if this didn’t work I was going to have to bring the phone in to Apple for repair or replacement.
By this time I was fairly convinced that the iSteps pedometer app was causing the problem since it was not updated to iOS4. I backed up my iPhone, did the reinstall and lost all my folders, data and passwords.
Before I started the long process of reconfiguring everything and entering all my data, I ran the iSteps app and what do you know, my iPhone was stuck in the portrait position and the app no longer worked after I quit it and restarted it.
So I deleted the app, restarted the iPhone and no problem. So I restored my backup giving me everything I had before I wiped it clean. I found a new “All-In” Pedometer, and haven’t had a problem since.
The lesson here is, back up your iPhone regularly and if you have an iOS operating issue and suspect it’s related to an app, delete the app and check again for the problem.
Update: iSteps has recently updated their app to be iOS4 compatible.
Yes, yes it is. Especially if you have your own e-mail domain name.
IMAP vs. POP
With IMAP your e-mail is stored on your host’s server while with POP you download your e-mail to your own computer, which is then deleted from the main server (unless you tell it not to). Therefore IMAP is better if you are getting your e-mail from several computers or devices like an iPhone or iPad.
With IMAP your e-mail is in the same condition from wherever you get it. For instance, if you read your e-mail but didn’t delete it, it will still be on the server as already read, no matter where you are viewing it. But if you are using POP and you read your e-mail on your iPhone and then later checked your mail on your iMac, it will show up again as unread. How very annoying. UpperHost has a simple explanation of IMAP vs. POP.
It is best to start out with IMAP.
Switching from POP to IMAP can be quite a challenge. Here’s my tale.
I was using a local hosting company, then switched to GoDaddy. I always used POP because the local company didn’t want me storing e-mails on their server. One of the reasons I switched.
I read an article in MacWorld Magazine on The IMAP Advantage and decided to make the switch. At the time I had over 13,000 e-mails in my main e-mail account. It was suggested I save these in a folder on my computer. Sorting out 13,000 e-mails would take too much time so I tried dragging them to a generic folder and received an error message.
GoDaddy said they it would be okay to make the POP account inactive while activating the IMAP account. And this worked fine. But then something happened and a few days later all 13,000 plus e-mails became blank. They were missing. Yikes, I said to myself.
With frantic calls to Apple Support I managed to restore most of my old e-mail to my computer from my Time Machine backup. How ironic that the main reason I switched from POP to IMAP was to have a safe back up for my e-mails and in the process I lost (temporarily) all my old e-mail.
So always be sure to save your e-mail to your computer if you are switching from POP to IMAP. And have a backup plan. Hard drives do fail and e-mails do disappear.
As everyone around the world knows, the iPad is here and its received mostly positive reviews. I love all things Apple and I’m sure I would use the iPad all the time. I wanted to rush out and buy one immediately. Actually I wanted to order it the moment that it became available to order. But I didn’t. And here’s why.
- I don’t have the available cash and don’t want to go into debt for a fun new gadget. At least not yet.
- I love my iPhone and use it constantly. The iPad would duplicate most of the things I use the iPhone for. But is it really worth $500 plus to be able to read my news feeds on a larger screen while watching TV? Possibly.
- WiFi only would be great at home, but what if I venture elsewhere?
- 3G would come in handy and will soon be available. But do I want to spend another $129 plus $15 – $30 a month in order to have that capability which is already built into my iPhone?
- Apple is known to change things 3 to 6 months after the release of a new product. Depending on demand, I suspect prices will either go down by Xmas or else you will be able to get the WiFi 3G models for the same price as the WiFi models today. And possibly the WiFi only models will drop in price.
- The apps are in flux. For now the pricing seems pricy. By the end of the year they may be cheaper, again depending upon demand. And I hate the thought of buying apps for the iPad which I already own on the iPhone.
- I’m planning to buy the next generation iPhone. Did I mention I love my iPhone? The iPhone has built in GPS and I already pay for a 3G plan. And so far I can still read the little type on the screen.
- I can take my iPhone to the gym and read books or RSS feeds or whatever while on the StairMaster. I’d hate to take an iPad to the gym and possibly damage it. Plus without 3G the iPad at the gym would be just an expensive ebook reader.
- I don’t play games and I don’t subscribe to NetFlix.
- The next generation iPad will be better, faster, cheaper and really, really cool. By then this original iPad will seem like old news and I’ll be able to get a shiny new toy without regretting already buying one a year earlier.
So unless I come into a lot of extra cash or win an iPad, I’ll probably be waiting for the next generation. It won’t be easy, but I’ll try to be strong.
Collecting apps for business and pleasure.
I love adding apps to my iPhone. Especially the free ones. And it’s always fun to get free updates. Here’s a list of my new (not necessarily free) favorites:
- Accounts – Checkbook
- This is an easy way to keep track of all your checkbook accounts.
- HootSuite
- Send a tweet from any Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn account, among others. You can also set the time the tweet should go out. Very convenient.
- Send a tweet from any Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn account, among others. You can also set the time the tweet should go out. Very convenient.
- Facebook
- Keep track of your Facebook accounts wherever you are. Lots of goodies like News Feed, Friends, and Chat.
- Analytics Pro
- It’s easy to keep track of all your Google analytics accounts.
- It’s easy to keep track of all your Google analytics accounts.
- Lynda.com
- Now you can watch videos about your favorite software wherever you are.
- Now you can watch videos about your favorite software wherever you are.
- Barnes&Nobel eReader
- Buy a book and read it on the go. Great for the gym.
- Amazon’s Kindle eReader
- Same as above only from Amazon. If you can’t sleep, reading in bed is a lot easier.
- PayPal
- Keep track of your PayPal account. You can even arrange a transaction with another iPhone user by bumping phones together. Yikes.
- WordPress
- Update or review your WordPress blogs anywhere. Convenient and fun.
- 1Password
- Store all your many passwords in one safe place.
- Constant Contact QuickView
- Now you can keep track of all your email newsletter statistics.
- GoDaddy
- Find a domain name or review your account. Another convenience I love.
- Carbonite
- Back up your computer hard disk and view all your files on your iPhone. You must have a Carbonite account for about $50 a year.
- Instapaper
- Save any website or newsfeed here and read it later in a format optimized for the iPhone.
My contract is up with AT&T in April. That means I’m eligible for a new phone at the usual discount price. Typically Apple introduces a new iPhone model in June or July. So far, no firm news, just some rumors about the next iPhone being an A+ upgrade. Possible multi-tasking, better 5 mp camera, flash, increased battery life. Maybe even video teleconferencing.
Whatever the next generation iPhone is, I’m all set to buy it. I’m holding off on the iPad until I see how things play out. Knowing Apple, if you wait several months there might either be a better price or more of something. Perhaps the 3G model will end up being the same price as the WiFi only model. Apple is tricky that way.
Are you struggling to market your business with a blog, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn? Juggling all the social media with new content can be quite a job in itself.
I recently discovered Hootsuite and love it. This piece of software, available for your Mac, PC and iPhone, allows you to write one message and send it to all your social media at once.
Just set up your login info for Twitter, Facebook, Facebook Fan Pages, MySpace, LinkedIn, WordPress and much more. Then write your message and check the accounts you want it to be sent from. Very easy. Plus you can view all your feeds in one place. How convenient is that?
Great news for those of you who have an iPhone. Lynda.com just released a new free app where you can watch any of their hundreds of software learning videos wherever you are. The only trick is that you have to have really good eyesight to see the tiny, tiny print. But it works great when you’re on the StairMaster at the gym and want to learn a new trick or two in Photoshop or even Facebook.
Lynda.com is always adding new courses and I find myself going back to it practically every day. I like the service so much I signed up to be an affiliate. The service costs only $25 a month and you get unlimited access.
Check it out for yourself by clicking on the ad. Here’s what lynda.com has to say about their new iPhone app:
“You’ve always been able to access the lynda.com Online Training Library® anytime, anywhere. Now you can access your learning on the go with the new, free lynda.com iPhone app, featuring high and low video quality for optimal streaming no matter what your connection.
“lynda.com members have access to their accounts just as you do on your computer. Just log in and start learning! Once logged in, you’ll see the most the most recent video you watched, whether you watched it on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or on your computer’s web browser. Just pick up where you last left off.
“Watch lynda.com for free before you sign up!
Try lynda.com content for free! Sample thousands of tutorials by tapping Try for Free on the Home screen.”
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