Many small business owners and larger business managers with mobile or regionally based employees have found that much work can be accomplished with free or inexpensive mobile software applications, or “apps”.

These business apps can provide simple calendar synching or allow users to grab data from their business computer for viewing, editing and storing text and data. Business apps can help users make the most of their time and technology while away from their office for business or pleasure.

If you own an iPhone or smartphone and are not using business apps, you are missing out. Check out a few of these potentially useful apps, listed below. Some may be especially useful for your business needs!

Quickoffice Pro

Most business use some form of office software that bundles together word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software. Additionally, these documents are used for collaboration and communication between employees and outside consultants. Often, if a Microsoft Word document is involved, you can receive and view it by email on your mobile phone, but cannot edit it.

A small investment in Quickoffice Pro for iPhone overcomes this shortcoming by allowing editing of Microsoft Word and Excel documents. These documents can be easily exchanged for editing or can be used to provide the latest sales pitch, prices or sales numbers for a sales presentation.

Download Quickoffice Pro from iTunes.

mbPointer

An application designed for business presentations, mbPointer is compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint (2003/2007/Mac 2008) and serves as a remote pointer during presentation of any slide show. This app can help navigate a sales pitch to a client, go through a company’s outlook for investors or help you outline company goals with your staff.

The mbPointer app uses a Wi-Fi connection to any presentation computer on which the included receiver software application has been installed. With mbPointer your phone can act as a PowerPoint remote a virtual pad to completely navigate through your slide show.

Download mbPointer from iTunes.

Google Analytics

For many businesses, the beginning of any daily task is accessing and analyzing traffic data on websites and blogs crucial to business success. The best available tool for this purpose is Google Analytics.

With your iPhone or smartphone and the Analytics App, your Google Analytics account is available almost anywhere and anytime with access to all your sites.

Check different Google Analytics accounts by changing the login info and view the data over thirty available reports including data checks for today or over the last 30 days. Access overview, visitor, traffic, content and event tracking pages to find out what keywords, search engines and websites are sending you traffic with custom reports from multiple accounts to determine your RIOs.

Download Analytics App from iTunes.

??eBay Mobile

Whether you are just an occasional eBay buyer or seller or full time e-bay entrepreneur, this app is an indispensable tool for auction tracking to keep on top of bids and new items when away from your business computer.

Developed by eBay, this app has the excellent compatibility and stability you will need during those crucial last minutes of the bidding process. However, if you win an auction, you will have to pay from your computer.

Download eBay Mobile from iTunes.

??Evernote

Evernote is an app that serves the individual by taking notes of your ideas and meeting reminders for your personal use and for the businessman this app features sharing options for collaboration with employees and clients.

Moreover, Evernote adds your iPhone items and notes to the Evernote’s Web version and your PC or Mac for harmonious synchronization.

Download Evernote from iTunes.

This article was written by Karl Stockton for the team at Compare Insurance Quotes. If you want to learn more about the cheapest car insurance cover, apply online.

This article lists the eleven essential steps necessary to develop successful custom iPhone applications. This list is not all inclusive, but stick to these general guidelines and your understanding of app development should be clearer.

Come what may, there will always be an increasing demand for custom iPhone applications in the market; the reason behind this demand is the fact that the iPhone users want better and innovative apps for their devices each time they visit the App Store.

Thus, it is crucial that iPhone developers and designers must take care of certain steps that are essential for building custom apps for their end-users. Let us take a look at some of these steps:

1. Analysis of Project Brief

Developers and designers are briefed about the project by their clients’, which essentially is the start of the process of design and development. As can be imagined, the project brief is of utmost importance and they must understand it well to make a wireframe of the app they will be developing.

This calls for a thorough analysis of the project brief, which gives them a clear and well-defined understanding of the project and the demands that it has placed on them.

2. Feasibility Study

This step of the project determines whether the project is technically feasible; and if it is feasible, then what will be the resources required. This in turn allows the determination of the estimated cost of the project and also the delivery timeframe.

The feasibility study also determines whether the concept of the project will be able to offer the kind of benefits that the client wants. If the team finds that the project lacks feasibility, they offer suggestions to improve its feasibility.

This step also includes an overview of the existing system and the proposed system, its problems and the goals that need to be achieved. The whole idea behind doing a feasibility study is to ensure the viability of the project and in case a few aspects of the project aren’t viable, to find an alternative that can be implemented as a part of the project master plan.

3. Risk Assessment

A project development process will be incomplete without assessing the risks involved. Risk assessment consists of identifying the potential risks and the corresponding preventive measures.

There are plenty of problems that may occur during the course of project development. If these problems are identified before the process actually begins, the development team will be better prepared should they arise.

These risks may be related to the scheduling of the project or more often than not are of technical variety. Some of these risks can include:

• Failure to identify the complex functionalities associated with the iPhone
• Coding errors
• Potential failures during module integration and many others

Risk assessment allows the project to be on track for on-time submission and also makes sure that the project doesn’t exceed the budget.

4. Requirement Gathering

The next step of the iPhone application development process is requirements gathering. This is the stage where the developers must take into consideration both the client and user perspective and identify the tools and technologies, which will be utilized in developing the app.

For this purpose, it is essential that they must keep both client requirements and user expectation in mind while zeroing in on the tools and technologies that can best satisfy their demands.

5. Planning

The entire planning process consists of identifying the actual tasks that will be performed by developers and the methodology that will be employed to optimally complete tasks.

Essentially, it breaks down the entire project into smaller, manageable parts. Defining the resources and tasks, making a schedule and are some of the important considerations while planning the project.

6. Resource Allocation

A company has resources in terms of its tools, technologies, infrastructure and manpower. As and when the planning stage is complete, these resources can be allotted as per the needs of the project and the tasks involved in it.

7. Clearly Defining and Assigning Roles

Clearly defining the roles helps assign responsibilities to the right people, who have the right talent to perform a particular task. This can be done by assessing the expertise and experience of the professionals, relevant to the current project.

For instance, the roles can be that of a Project Manager, Project Leader, Team Leader, Developer, Analyst, and Designer etc. When such roles are defined in the beginning of the project, there are less chances of conflict at the later stages.

8. Design and Development

During the design phase, designers will collaborate with developers and analysts to assemble an app designed per the app’s concept. This stage includes the creation of a detailed design document supported by a mock-up to illustrate various user interface elements, and the actual design of the app itself. This is accomplished with regular feedback from the developer.

After this, the developers will manage the database and generate the code to build the app how the designer envisioned it.

9. Control

Basically, the project control process is all about supervising the project in an effective manner. It involves evaluation of the progress, tracking the changes or deviations from the plan.

Additionally, control is also about managing the unexpected delays effectively so that project deadlines are met and also ensuring that the budget allocated by the client for the project is not exceeded.

10. Testing

During the test phase, all aspects of the app are tested one by one for their functionality and performance. It involves bug tracking in the code, checking the proper functioning of the features and integrations, and whether the system meets the designated quality standards or not.

A system can be tested any number of times – during the coding phase and after the coding phase (checking the beta version of the software) so that product flaws are minimized prior to submission.

11. Submission

Submitting the finished project – an iPhone app in this case, is the last and final step. The developers themselves can submit the app on the iTunes Store and wait for Apple to approve it.

However, no one knows for sure, on what grounds Apple will reject the App and thus, it is mandatory that developers stick to the iOS guidelines right from the beginning of the project until the end. Also, they should try to make the app absolutely bug-free since correcting bugs after an app is submitted, can be time consuming and cause the app to receive unnecessary negative reviews on the App Store.

Carlos is an expert in iPhone application development with MyFirstMobileApp.com who loves facing challenges of all sorts. This explains his love for adventure sports. He’s a passionate writer as well and shares his write-ups on different guest-blogging sites with other like-minded people.

Many casual and “power users” want their mobile phone to act more like a desktop PC, not the other way around. No matter how convenient or even ubiquitous mobile phones become, they are unlikely to replace desktop PCs until they experience quantum leaps in usability. Why is this the case?

Why aren’t more people rushing to embrace the concept of distributed computing and collaboration via mobile phone?

Reliability

Whatever might be said in praise of the wireless Internet, no one can claim it is as reliable as a hardwired connection. This isn’t the only area of a standard smartphone where we have grown accustomed to expecting much lower performance than we would expect from PCs, but it is perhaps the most obvious one.

Reliability is an issue that creeps into every area of a technology’s profile. Mobile devices like Droid smartphones are notoriously sensitive and difficult to diagnose, troubleshoot and debug. This makes it more difficult for end users to keep them in working condition and renders the tech community hogtied.

Safety

This is another area where mobile devices suffer from their association with Wi-Fi. Even computer novices are coming to the conclusion it’s much easier to hack a smartphone than an ordinary computer. Sensitive financial and personal information transmitted over wireless connections may be stolen practically at will.

Combine this with the safety hazards inherent in an expensive, portable device that may be discreetly removed from the owner’s possession and you have a serious double whammy. If a phone or tablet is lost, untold damage could be done before service is cut off and sensitive data can be recovered or secured — if even possible.

Portability Isn’t Always Important

Droid phones and devices like them sell heavily on the idea that portability is a necessary virtue for any computer of the future. Truth be told, though, it’s not always important that computing power — or even data itself — be portable. Although there is a segment of the business community that relies heavily on portability, it is not as important to the average user that a phone be a complete PC replacement.

Rather than portability, many users are concerned with usability — each of these factors can easily be sacrificed in favor of the other, but few devices offer a good balance of both. The smaller screens, touchpads, and keyboards inherent in portable devices make them harder to use, especially among people with poor eyesight or low thumb dexterity. If a device is unusable, it doesn’t even matter how convenient it is!

What This All Translates To

Integration is the Way to Go Maybe PCs shouldn’t become more like mobile phones, but Microsoft has one thing right: Integration between devices is key. Despite the general enthusiasm for mobile devices, they have limitations — simply within the nature of what they are and can do — that they may never be able to overcome.

Ensuring that devices work effectively together means users won’t have to settle for “one (small) size fits all” solutions to their needs.

This article was written by Karl Stockton for the team at Center Networks. Click http://www.centernetworks.com/godaddy-review/ for their godaddy review.

It happens quite a bit, but with practice and the tips below you will be getting the right results in no time.The Internet is its own universe and thankfully Google does a good job of indexing. As an Internet user it is your job to learn how to search smart and get the information you are looking for.

The following is a list of few search tricks that will save you lots of time searching with Google.

1. Location Specific Information

Today we all live in a global environment. We have friends, family members and clients that live in different parts of the world. If you want to know the time in a particular city, just type “time in” and hit the return key.

You will immediately get the time in that particular city in big bold font before any relevant search results. This is not only restricted to time but can also be used for other vital information like weather, population, etc. The same can be done using the name of a particular country.

2. Measurement and Currency Conversion

There are multiple units of measurement used around the world. Though most of us were made to memorize the conversions during school, we may not always remember the exact equation to convert celsius to fahrenheit and vice versa, luckily Google can help us with this and more.

Head over to Google and enter “unit1 in unit2″ and you get the exact conversion. Same applies to currencies. No need to pull out (or open) a calculator and convert currencies. Just write “50 USD into pounds” and you see the answer right away.

You not only get the conversion factor but the exact calculated value as a result.

3. Calculate Almost Anything

Speaking of conversions and calculations, Google Search also does a great job of calculating numbers when you perform a search.

It can do basic calculations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, square, square root, etc. You can either use function names or mathematical symbols to do the calculations. Decimal numbers can also be used.

4. Define Words

With Google Search you can eliminate the need for your hardcopy of Merriam-Webster’s dictionary. If you need to find the definition for any word simply enter define: term in the search box, hit enter and you will be presented with the definition of the word you entered.

5. Narrow Search to Specific Words

If you search any word or phrase with quotation marks, you see those websites in the search results that have the word on phrase in their website content. This ensures that the website is relevant and sometimes results in more efficient search results.

This is also a good search option if you are monitoring a brand or doing some research on a very specific topic. Again, if you are looking for a famous poem or prose, you can write some words from it on quotation marks, and get the remainder as a link in the search results.

6. Search Only Specific Sites

Do you want to narrow your search results to a specific website, say About.com or Mashable.com?

Google gives you the option to search within a specific website when you preface the search term(s) with site: This is a great feature if you can’t remember the title of an article but know what it’s about and where you read it.

7. Search for Files Online

If you want a presentation or a workbook for a very specific task, you can ask Google to filter your search results accordingly. To use this filter you can either use the Advanced search options or you can enter the keywords, then Filetype: and then the extension for the file you are searching for (example below).

If you need a presentation(.PPT or .PPTX) on the topic of search tips and tricks, you would enter searching tips and tricks filetype:ppt. The results should only list presentations related to the keywords you entered.

8. Find Instant Answers to Common Information

If you want to know about a disease or the schedule of your favorite sport, you can quickly find this information using Google.

Not all queries will provide you with relevant answers right away, but most related to movies, diseases, sports, news, weather and other commonly sought information will be summarize above the search results.

One has to use trial and error for searches like this. Just don’t be formal while searching. Be as naive as a child asking questions and Google will most likely get you the answers you seek. Like all things, the more you use it, the better you will become in using Google to search for information on the web.

About the author: Alia Haley is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology and autos. Beside this she is fond of cars and fancy dresses. Recently an article on birdman net worth attracted her attention. These days she is busy in writing an article on LG optimus 3d price.

With these systems comes the need for cyber security. Taking measures for computer security and network security is essential to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data. It is important for you to put in place systems that prevent data theft and detect unauthorized access.

As all data is stored on computer systems, you cannot afford to jeopardize system security in a manner that you lose important data. Cyber security measures are essential even for small businesses for the following reasons.

1. Guarding against data theft

In organizations, not all information is accessible to everyone. Give the right to access and to make changes to information only to a specific group of people to retain data confidentiality. Put in place systems that allow you to detect an unauthorized access and its origin.

2. Security of sensitive financial data

Customers share their contact details with organizations with a belief that the data will not be shared with a third party. Information collected from people may also relate to credit card data. It is important for you as an entrepreneur to protect data of your client base to make sure that your clients do not suffer due to a lapse in information security at your end.

3. Securing systems against sabotage

As software applications form the core of our businesses processes, it is important to make sure that the system is not subject to malicious piece of code that can wreak havoc on normal functioning of a system. Use firewalls and anti-malware applications and secure the system and network settings.

4. Avoiding loss of productivity

Protect the systems to avoid data corruption and system sabotage which may lead to loss of employee productivity. It is important to backup important data. A back server is also needed to enable smooth functioning of business processes even when a system is subjected to cyber attacks.

Make sure that you do not compromise on security for the sake of ease of use.

5. Preventing denial of access (DoS) to e-commerce websites

A denial of service is possible through an over the web attack on an e-commerce portal. This is likely to lead to loss of business opportunity for the organization. It is also possible that you may end up with a disgruntled set of consumers if they are not able to get immediate attention to issues faced by them.

Websites serve as the basic platform for interaction with consumers in case of e-commerce portals. Order data is received here for further processing. In case of organizations that are not into e-commerce but are using software applications in business processes with a distributed database system, securing of data is important.

As a small business owner, you must make sure that your systems are secure against data theft and other threats.

About the author: Alia Haley is a blogger who is a tech freak. She has a weak side for gadgets and fashionable stuff she loves collecting them. Recently she added an organic foundation makeup and an electronic grooming kit to her collection. Recently she wrote articles on office design ideas and Flying car.

Image Credit, Flickr User - Lasse Kristensen

Google has taken this concept event further and now allows users to hide those morning and evening hours that take up precious, unused calendar space.

The new setting can be found by following the instructions below to activate the new feature.

Enable Hide Morning/Night

In the steps below we will enable the new labs feature in Google Calendar.

1. Click the gear icon (Options) and then click Labs from the drop-down that appears.

2. Click the Enable radio button for the Hide morning and night labs feature.

3. Click Save to enable the feature. Return to the calendar.

Hide Morning & Nights in Google Calendar

In this section I will show you how to use the new hide morning and nights feature to make your calendar leaner.

After you return to the calendar you will notice that the upper and lower ranges of the time scale will appear with grey shading.

When you place your cursor on the edge of the shading between morning and daytime hours a slider will appear.

1. Move the slider to adjust the time range to hide. The selected range will hide.

2. To view the hidden range just click on it (specifically where it says “time-time” shaded in grey).

Once clicked the range will expand. To hide it again simply click on the hidden range again and it will collapse.

Note: If you have appointments in the hidden  areas they will still appear in a condensed view, so don’t worry about appointments disappearing. They will all be there.

Software/Hardware: Google Chrome running on Mac OS X.

The average office computer will be on for at least 8 hours a day during working hours and a home computer will often be on for a similar period whilst owners use programs or listen to music, even if they are not actively engaged with the computer. There are steps, however, that you can take to make your computer last longer and save you from costly replacements.

This article will consider some of the steps you can take to keep your computer running quickly and last for longer.

IT Support

When running an office, computer maintenance will take up a large amount of time so it is wise to seek computer support. This support should include maintenance of anti-virus software and the general condition of the computers. In an office, computers often become very slow because there is data stored under multiple users on the same machine.

To avoid this you can use an internal or external company server to store all of the information. One of the best steps is to ensure that the data from any members of staff who have left the business is promptly wiped clean once they leave so that it does not clog up the system.

Cleansing

One of the most common reasons for a computer becoming slow is a simple overloading of information. Data quickly builds up on a computer as we collect music and videos alongside completed work projects. It is important to regularly cleanse your computer by deleting unwanted data or at least storing it elsewhere.

A full hard drive will never run as smoothly as one with space to spare. A regular cleansing of your hard drive will allow your computer to continue running smoothly for longer.

Defragmentation

After cleansing your computer it is important to defragment your hard drive. When data is stored on the hard drive it is saved after the previous bit of information. Whilst this is the most obvious way to store data, it is not the most efficient.

What defragmentation does is reorganize your data to make it easier for your computer to access it quickly. By storing all similar files in the same place your computer increases its access times and raises the overall operation speed of your hard drive, thus speeding up your computer.

Replace Old Parts

Often, people replace computers that are actually in excellent condition because of a lack of understanding. It is often easy to replace parts of a computer to bring it back to its original quality so it is sensible to consider computer repair before replacement.

A broken laptop screen, for example, will cause your computer to appear broken when really it could just be a small wiring issue caused by the repeated opening and closing of the screen. Repair is far cheaper than replacement and repair companies will often waive the cost if they are unable to fix the problem.

Back Up

In some cases you will be unable to repair your computer and it will be necessary to replace it but this does not mean that you should sacrifice what your computer had become.

A computer becomes a collection of photos, videos and documents which make up large portions of our working and recreational lives. By backing up your computer on a regular basis you will be able to save everything that your computer contained when you change devices.

Backing up your device is the best way that you can protect from the loss of data so invest in an external hard drive and a USB pen for short-term back up.

Some of the new features, though, may be just enough to persuade the Apple faithful to take the plunge.

Better Processing

One of the biggest changes to the hardware is the new A5 chip. It’s a dual-core version of the A4, which provides double the processing speed.

This is great news for those who like to multitask and/or play mobile games with high-end graphics. It also ramps up download speeds for apps and web pages.

Pretty Sweet Camera

This results in sharper images and brings 1080p HD video recording to the iPhone for the first time. Apple also added image stabilization to make videos smoother and less shaky than before.

Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T Internet Plans

If users wish to travel overseas, customers will have to check to see if their Sprint, Verizon or AT&T internet plans will work without additional fees being added to their bill.

Aside from the new hardware features, the iPhone 4S comes off as a sport version of the previous version. If consumers want faster download speeds, a better camera, or simply want to use Sprint’s network, then this version is worth buying. Otherwise, they may want to wait until the next one (iPhone 5?) comes out.

As for which carrier to buy one from, Verizon and AT&T internet plans are the cheapest but they’re also limited in terms of the amount of data consumers can download each month. Sprint is the only carrier that still offers unlimited data, but it comes with a hefty monthly fee.

It may not be the iPhone 5, but the iPhone 4S is definitely a step in the right direction and a great vehicle for the latest version of iOS.

Blake Sanders is a writer of high speed internet news and information at broadband comparison site Broadband Expert. He also specializes in service providers and AT&T internet plans.

Photo courtesy of tenz1225 / via FlickR Creative Commons

Asking for help at the record store always seems intimidating because of snotty store clerks, and on the flip side finding help at a big box electronics store is next to impossible unless you want tech support or a new home entertainment system.

With streaming Internet websites you can increase your obscure music knowledge and gain a stronger sense of melody.

Pandora

Pandora has become the industry standard for providing streaming music content. Most businesses and restaurants have an iPhone connected to their speaker system with a streaming connection to a Pandora Station.

When you sign up for Pandora you can select an artist you are interested in and create a radio station that will include artists similar to your original selection. The only drawback to using Pandora is the 40 hour monthly limit it allows for usage.

By upgrading to a premium service you not only gain unlimited access, but you eliminate annoying ads between songs.

Create a free Pandora account and start enjoying great music today.

Last.fm

Last.fm is an excellent service to use if you want to keep visitors on their toes at all times. By setting up a profile you can pick an artist and hear other songs other users think are similar.

Not only does Last.Fm provide a streaming music service, it allows you to connect with other users in the form of a social network exclusive to the site. You can also discover concerts and festivals taking place throughout your area.

Create a free Last.fm account and start enjoying great music today.

Spotify

New to the streaming music scene, Spotify is quickly gaining popularity among the young social media elite.

By integrating a Spotify account with your Facebook profile, you can share what you are listening to with your Facebook friends, listen to playlists created by friends with Spotify, and generate playlists by integrating with Last.fm.

According to Reuters, the service is so popular that Facebook is even looking to integrate it into user’s profiles by-default.

Sign up for a free Spotify account today.

Music Videos (NetFlix, Hulu, YouTube)

If you need a visual form of entertainment to keep guests occupied, there are several streaming services at your disposal. For a fee of $7.99 you can have access to an extensive library of movies, television shows, and documentaries by purchasing a subscription to NetFlix.

If you want to see what everyone is talking about at work regarding the latest shows; Hulu provides the latest episodes of hit television series’. The old standby of YouTube is also a great way to beef up on your pop culture knowledge and find new videos because of the new recommendation feature.

There is no excuse for you not to be uncovering music and other entertainment. What was once buried in the annals of hipsterdom and snobbery is now available at your fingertips through a smartphone.

Vanessa Burke has been communicating to anyone who will listen to her ever since she could first make a sound. It seems that not much has changed over the years. She is a fanatic of anything digital, including books, music, and technology in general, and the business processes that make it happen.

The world is a complex place and she wants to leave no stone unturned.

Here are 6 ways you can improve your home office.

1. Decorate

Sometimes, it’s just easier to turn the ‘leftover’ room into your home office which is the room that often gets very little attention from the paintbrush.

Any other room in the house where you plan to spend time would be decorated so why should your office be any different?

2. Ergonomics aren’t Just for Formal Offices

Just because you’re not that worried about suing yourself for breach of health and safety laws, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t observe what measures larger organisations put in place to ensure their staff don’t end up calling in sick with all the common RSI related pains.

By simply observing very basic advice you can save yourself a lot of pain, stress and time in the long run.

3. Dedicate the Room to Work

People who have difficulty sleeping are advised to dedicate their bedroom to a place of sleep and nothing else. No TV or other things that are unnecessary for sleep. The same logic should be true for your office. Nothing that isn’t required for work.

Of course, this isn’t always practically possible, but if somehow you can make sure the room is solely for work purposes, you’ll keep yourself focused on the job at hand. You need to be able to motivate yourself without having the boss breathing down your collar.

4. Get a Comfortable Chair

It sounds basic, but if you’re spending time sat at your computer tinkering away, you’re not going to be effective with backache and neck pain.

Invest in a comfortable chair that suits you personally and make sure you stand up once in a while, you’re still human whilst you’re working.

5. Have Temperature Controls Handy

Just having a fan or heater nearby will save you time in finding these things if you suddenly need to change the room temperature. Leaving your work for just a few minutes can ruin your focused attitude and cause a distraction.

Just having these things in the room will save you lots of time when they are needed.

6. No TV in the Office

It’s worth mentioning as its own point. Unless you have a specific reason to have a TV in your office, it’s probably best to leave it out. As much as you may love your work, distractions can prove costly so in order to keep yourself in order, save TV till when the work is done.

Craig P. Is a furniture designer and put his critical eye on interior design and trend changes in the similar industry. He specially writes about Chesterfield Leather Sofas and Chesterfield Sofas, for more information please visit the official Website Chesterfield Heritage.