Winning mobile apps are no longer just extensions of online services – they offer specific, unique features that cater to the mobile environment.

“Mobile applications will be a highly competitive marketplace that attracts the interest of many stakeholders,” said Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner. “Increasingly, mobile applications will define the user experience on high-end devices and device vendors that proactively integrate innovative apps and technologies at the platform layer will have the competitive edge.”

Did you know that mobile apps generate a huge amount of revenue ($15.9 billion expected in 2012), but will also drive hardware sales, advertising spending and technology innovation.

Gartner tells us that more and more big brand companies will shift more of their marketing budget to the mobile channel, and experiment with cutting-edge apps. Companies must focus on the latest technology to help their products and services stand out in a highly competitive marketing environment. Here’s the top ten:

1. Context-aware consumer location-based servicesthat take the user’s location, personal preference, gender, age, profession, intention and more, offering a much more-intelligent user experience than basic location services can. Gartner analysts believe context-aware services are a key trend for mobile apps, and location is a key enabler of that.

2. Mobile social networking, the fastest-growing consumer mobile app category of the 19 currently followed by Gartner.

3. Mobile search - advancing  price comparisons product information searches to the next level, where  apps allow users to take actions based on the result, such as making a call or reservation, buying a ticket, placing an order, and other similar functions.

4. Improved mobile commerce applications that let consumers “check in” to a store to alert a retailer and the ability to add items to a shopping cart simply by taking a photo of an item or bar code in the physical store.

5. Mobile payment solutions that improve ease-of-use and implementation for users without compromising security.

6. More context-aware apps that improve user experiences by using the information about a person’s interests, intentions, history, environment, activities, schedule, priorities, connections and preferences to anticipate their needs and proactively serve up the most appropriate content, product or service.

7. Object recognition (OR) where the mobile camera, as well as other device sensors, will act as a communication tool when OR capabilities are combined with more-traditional app functions, giving users advanced search capabilities and extended entertainment and productivity options.

8. Mobile instant messaging (MIM)  that offers new types of unified communication (UC) clients, provided by over the top (OTT) service providers like Skype.

9. Mobile email -  Gartner expects mobile e-mail users worldwide to increase from 354 million in 2009 to more than 700 million by 2014, accounting for 10.6 percent of the global mobile user base.

10. Mobile video applications that work with YouTube and other popular video providers, with mobile device manufacturers integrating HD and 3D capabilities in their high-end devices and bundling content pre-loaded or as free downloads through an app store.

Mobile services are all about the user experience. These exciting app trends will continue to focus on what consumers really want for entertainment, productivity and ease of use. We are looking forward to all the new and exciting apps yet to come this year!  What app is on your wish list?

In fact the password “Password” ranks first on password management application provider SplashData’s annual list of worst internet passwords, which are ordered by how common they are. (“Passw0rd,” with a numeral zero, isn’t much smarter, ranking 18th on the list.)

The list is somewhat predictable: Sequences of adjacent numbers or letters on the keyboard, such as “qwerty” and “123456,” and popular names, such as “ashley” and “michael,” all are common choices. Other common choices, such as “monkey” and “shadow,” are harder to explain.

Many websites have started a new trend  that requires passwords to include both numbers and letters, it makes sense varied choices, such as “abc123″ and “trustno1,” are popular choices.

SplashData created the rankings based on millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers. Here is the complete list:

•1. password
•2. 123456
•3.12345678
•4. qwerty
•5. abc123
•6. monkey
•7. 1234567
•8. letmein
•9. trustno1
•10. dragon
•11. baseball
•12. 111111
•13. iloveyou
•14. master
•15. sunshine
•16. ashley
•17. bailey
•18. passw0rd
•19. shadow
•20. 123123
•21. 654321
•22. superman
•23. qazwsx
•24. michael
•25. football

SplashData CEO Morgan Slain urges businesses and consumers using any password on the list to change them immediately. “Hackers can easily break into many accounts just by repeatedly trying common passwords,” Slain says. “Even though people are encouraged to select secure, strong passwords, many people continue to choose weak, easy-to-guess ones, placing themselves at risk from fraud and identity theft.”

The company provided some tips for choosing secure passwords in a statement:

•1. Vary different types of characters in your passwords; include numbers, letters and special characters when possible.
•2. Choose passwords of eight characters or more. Separate short words with spaces or underscores.
•3. Don’t use the same password and username combination for multiple websites. Use an online password manager to keep track of your different accounts.

Are these lists helpful? Do you need to rethink any of your password choices?  Contact us and we can help get you on the right track to keeping your accounts safe!

Article by:  Zoe Fox

This free screen sharing tool is very easy to use. For more advanced users, a Pro version of the tool is available for a fee that offers all the functionality of the free service, plus presenter swap, pro desktop app, a personal link and background function, a meeting scheduler, user management and international conference lines.

Using an iPad or iPhone? The join.me app in the iTunes App Store also gives you VoIP solutions that let you have voice conversations as you share your screens. The addition of VoIP means that uses can have voice conversations and talk about the session with no additional hardware required.

This summer, TIME named join.me one of the 50 best Web sites of 2011, calling the free version one of the Web’s ‘great bargains’ and a viable alternative to more complex paid services like WebEx and GoToMeeting. With no registration and a simple click-though process, join.me is definitely worth a try.

Like so many things Facebook, the rumors precede the products by months, and the latest rumor has to do with a Facebook music service – apparently due to become a reality this month with an announcement coming at the company’s F8 Developer Conference on September 22.

Is it real? We think so – after all, FB has been toying with a music platform in its video chat code. Instead of taking the responsibility (and cost) of directly hosting and streaming music and media, we understand that Facebook will work with partners to provide music content.

This approach aligns with Facebook’s game plan to provide a platform for media content as it does for applications and games.

The launch partners are said to be Spotify, Rdio and MOG. Much like Pandora, these services act like virtual radio – letting you listen to nearly unlimited music selections and playlists with limited commercial interruption. After the initial launch, we expect that Facebook will open this platform to other 3^rd-party developers, as it has one with other media.

Also in the rumor mill – that FB will extend the music service to include streaming video. Our guess is that many platforms will wait on movies and television until the Netflix shakeout with both pricing and its STARZ relationship settles down. As we’ve seen with Netflix and others, providing content has a lot to do with negotiating deals with studios and record companies – even when working through partners.

Facebook now has nearly 750 million users – are they all hungry to listen to their favorite tunes courtesy of their favorite social media provider? We’ve all seen that a Facebook release does not guarantee overwhelming success – take note of Facebook ‘Places’ and ‘Deals.’

Whether Facebook Music takes off or becomes another fizzle, we have to hand it to them for continuing to bring content and ideas to the social media table. Time will tell.

This type of location surveillance is nothing new – your cell phone carrier has been able to track your movements for years – long before smartphones came on the scene.

Now, there’s an app for that - iPhone Tracker software, which accesses the hidden tracker file and then plots your movements like pins on a map. There’s a number of uses for an app like this – reviewing sales appointments, real estate showings, vacation spots, or even seeing where your teenager has been.

Have you used Foursquare? This social networking site lets you both check into a location and then share it with all your socially lined friends. Knowing where you’ve been and where doesn’t have to be an invasion of privacy, just a cool way of looking at your activities.

Of course, if you have something to hide…

Don’t worry – we have no reason to believe that this data ever leaves the security of your phone for any reason other than Apple’s ability to build additional databases using location tracking for even better application development, including applications like Maps.  Still concerned? Apple gives you the ability to disable Location Services, so you can control whether or not the tracking capability is live on your iPhone.

This year’s (second annual) event takes place Thursday, June 30^th and is proclaimed to be a “celebration of the technological advancements that enable everyone to connect with real-time information, communicate from miles apart and have their voices be heard.”

If you love social media – and come on, who doesn’t? This can be a fun way of connecting with local social media enthusiasts in your community. It’s a great way to socialize with your online community – at a real life location near you.

Mashable asks you to host a Social Media Day Meetup in your area. A Meetup Group is nothing more than a local community of like-minded people. A Meetup Group hosts the actual Meetups, which are face to face meetings between members and Organizers.

A Mashable Meetup can take place where and when it works best for your group. Need some ideas? For planning tips, check out Mashable’s how-to guide.  To get the latest updates between now and Thursday, you can check out Mashable announcements on Social Media Day by following its @mashsmday Twitter account and its Social Media Day Facebook Page.

From Mashable, here are some tips for how you can join the fun:

• Sign up to attend or organize your own event on the Mashable Meetup Everywhere page.
• Share what you’re doing for your Mashable Meetup or leave suggestions for others in the comments below.
• Use the #smday hashtag on Twitter.
• Find your Mashable Meetup community:

Last year’s event created more than 600 Meetups in 93 countries with nearly 12,000 attendees. Go ahead – mash it up and get involved in your local Social Media Day Meetup!

1. Internet Explorer (IE)
2. Firefox
3. Chrome
4. Safari
5. Opera

IE still has a commanding lead, but its followers are dropping, while Firefox users are consistent (not much growth or decline) and Google Chrome users are rising and may overtake Firefox soon. No browser is perfect, and each one has strengths and weaknesses that the individual user has to either accept or find add on features to make it usable for specific functions.

Most of us get comfortable with a specific browser and stick with it – however, there are a number of either new or updated browsers worth looking at if you are ready for a change. ‘s take a look at some of the rising stars.

Chromium is the open source project that developed Chrome, but the the browsers are not identical. For those of you frustrated with the limitations of Chrome, you may want to look at both. Chromium and Google Chrome both offer Search Suggest, but Chromium does not offer PDF Viewer and Adobe Flash Player. To make up for the differences you can access extensions in Chrome’s Web Store in Chromium.

SRWare’s Iron Web browser is also based on Chromium open source, and is similar to Chrome, but reportedly much faster.

RockMelt is one of the truly new browsers available, and is in fact, just in beta version. RockMelt is designed for social media mavens on Facebook, Twitter and email, integrating notifications from social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and also has the ability to synch your items through Facebook.

Mozilla-based Wyzo keeps reinventing itself. Wyzo offers FireDownload, a download accelerator, and FireTorrent. One of its new features (Wyzo 3) is SkipScreen, the extension that allows you to skip waiting screens.

Maxthon has also been around for several years, starting as an extension of Internet Explorer and using the same rendering engine. It also gives you Webkit, which powers Google Chrome and Safari and helps load pages almost instantly. Other great Maxthon features include as mouse gestures, bookmark sync, Passport, speed dial, popup blocker, online notepad, RSS reader, instant translator, screen capturing tools and resource sniffer.

Opera has stood the test of time and continues to be one of the world’s most popular browsers. Opera offers a desktop mail program, torrent client and Web server. Opera also offers browsers for mobile phones and tablets, sync features, speed dial and custom searches

The top gun, IE has come out with IE9, which testers tell us is much improved from recent predecessors. Its top feature over the competition is its integration with the Windows OS. IE9 jumplists enhance Twitter and Facebook, which behave more like applications here.

If you’ve stuck with the same old browser for a long time, give one of these latest versions or new browsers a try – each has something cool to offer.

It is the National DO NOT CALL list It will only take a minute of your time.. It blocks your number for five (5) years. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a different phone number.

HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON .. It takes about 20 seconds.  Read more here:  https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx

When you sign up for an account with Square,  you will get the card reader free in the mail. Then you can start processing payments. There are no monthly contracts or fees or merchant account involved. They do take a cut out of each payment and card swipe but that’s to be expected.  The fee’s however are very reasonable; 2.75% for swiped transactions, 3.5% + 15¢ for keyed-in transactions.

Supported phones or devices are iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and selected Android devices but they plan on adding additonal phones in the future.  If you have been looking for a tool that can help you process payments on the go check this unique new tool!

Many logos are simply graphics that are designed with little to no thought about how the logo becomes a brand.  There are many things to take into consideration when branding a small business because your brand is your identity to your customers.  However, does it make a difference in the marketing of your products or services?

In the case of Nike for example, the “brand” was already in place before a clever marketer made a slogan which will forever be connected with that swoop.  The phrase “Just Do It” in many minds is interchangeable with the “brand” itself.  So, did the swoop help sell shoes?  The answer is no, the brand in itself identifies the product on the shelf.  If a person is already looking for Nike shoes they will be able to pick them out.

There is no branding substitute for a good product and great service.  Nick Rice who writes for SBB had the following to say:

The design of your logo really doesn’t matter. Would you choose MSN as your search engine over Google because of their logo? No, having a nice professional logo is great, but it very rarely increases sales. I’m all for a professional logo, but don’t think you need to spend a fortune on it. It’s more important to include your logo on every piece of communication. Put it on business cards, letterhead, envelopes, invoices, yellow page ads, building signage, newsletters etc..

Stand for something. People latch on to something they can understand and appreciate. If you’re trying to be everything to everybody, chances are you’ll attract no one. If you think it’s too controversial to choose a niche, remember the power of being seen as an expert. Experts are not good at everything, they’re awesome at one thing. This allows you to better position yourself and charge more for your services. People seek out experts, not generalists

So, while it may not be a substitute for a great product, your brand may be the difference when you already stand out as a company.  Keep in mind that the Logo you choose will be identified with your company indefinitely.  Like a tattoo, make sure its something will be proud of and that you can live with.  While some companies have successfully done it, changing a logo years after you are established can be tough and risky.  It takes a sizeable effort to re-brand your company.