January 6, 2012
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Technology analyst Gartner, Inc. has come out with it’s hottest mobile applications for 2012. All related to high-end devices ($300 average price tag), the pros at Garner have named their top 10 cutting-edge technologies and trends for next year.
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?
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Marketing, Resources, Small Business, Social Media, Software, Technology, Uncategorized
December 12, 2011
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As we wind down 2011, it is always a good idea to reflect on processes and focus on doing things better for the upcoming year. Have you ever thought about the passwords you use? If you are like most people, children’s birthdays, pet names and even the word “password” rank top of the list. However, these types of passwords make you an easy target for hackers.
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
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Resources, Small Business, Technology, Uncategorized
November 9, 2011
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Screen sharing is wildly popular these days and the team at LogMeIn has a great new app, join.me. This software lets users share screens to review files, images, and documents, demo new products, train staff and conduct meetings anywhere, anytime. You can sign up for free, and get a number of great features at no charge, including basic screen sharing, 250 viewers, share control, multi-monitor capabilities, chat, and the ability to send files along to other users as well.
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.
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Resources, Small Business, Technology, Uncategorized
May 27, 2011
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The battle of the browsers continues – here are the top five browsers (by number of global users):
- Internet Explorer (IE)
- Firefox
- Chrome
- Safari
- 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.
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April 1, 2011
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People have been wanting to process credit card payments on the go for years. As with anything, new technology makes it lighter and easier than ever. Take Square for example. It is a small little card reader that you plug into your phone or iPad!
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!
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Small Business, Software, Technology, Uncategorized
January 22, 2011
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In 2005 The National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) announced that January was designated as Get Organized Month. It makes sense that thy choose January as most everyone is making a list of resolutions for the New Year. One of the most common resolution is to get organized.
What does it mean exactly to be more ‘organized?’ And how do you accomplish that goal? The first step to getting organized is to write down your daily tasks and then decide which items you must do your self and what tasks you can delegate to someone like a virtual assistant. Think of all the time consuming tasks that you dislike or that take you away from spending time on growing your business.
The bottom line comes down to how you want to use your time; do you need to get the little things off your desk so you can focus on the core part of your business? Choosing how you will get organized is your first step. For some it can be difficult because it means you have to be willing to give up a bit of control and let someone else come in and help reach your solution. Accepting the fact that you need help is the first step. Contact a virtual assistant or professional organizer and let them know your needs. Be honest and they will lead you down the path to being organized! Happy New Year!
Posted in
Resources, Small Business, Virtual Assistants
November 21, 2010
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It’s hard to believe that it is already that time of the year again! Thanksgiving is next week and during this time try to take a few moments to give thanks for the wonderful things in your life. Many people are traveling, preparing their home for guests or getting things caught up in their business so they can finally take a few days off!
One of the things I am so very thankful for is my freedom. I am thankful for all the soldiers who are protecting us and our freedoms that we enjoy everyday and the sacrifice that they make. For those soldiers who are deployed overseas and who will be away from their families for the holidays we can do a few things to make it a little more bearable, such as sending a care package with some comforts of home. My family and I will be sending some care packages and notes of gratitude this holiday season and if you are interested in doing the same check out this wonderful website http://anysoldier.com./
All of us at Offsite Business Solutions wish you and your family a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving!
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Clients
November 12, 2010
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It’s great to build email lists, and we know that your subscribers love to hear from you – but how often? If you are a prolific emailer, your favorite subscribers may end up hitting the delete button before the ever open your message. Eventually, they may even unsubscribe just to lighten up their email boxes.
So why not help them lighten their load? With a couple of content changes and technical switches, you can create email lighter frequency lists that give your subscribers the options to get your broadcasts weekly, bi-monthly or monthly. Here’s how:
Condense your content:
- Highlight the top news stories or tips each day
- Remove any announcements for timely events that will be obsolete
- Merge related articles
- Create topic lists that link back to the full story on your Web site
Tweak the Opt-In
- Make sure that your subscribers who opt in to lighter frequency aren’t still on the original daily deluge list
- Create a self-explanatory Web form for each list that makes it clear they are signing up for fewer emails
- Create confirmation messages that spell out what they have signed up for and when they will get emails
If you make the decision to offer lighter frequency email content, now may be the perfect time to reach out t your subscribers who haven’t opened your emails in a while. Send them an email that lets them know they can opt- in for your email lite version. Write a subject that lets them know it’s a new opportunity. Ask them to select a frequency option and link them to a Web form that will set them up seamlessly. It may be just the way to get their attention again!
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Clients, Customer Service, Marketing, Resources, Small Business, Virtual Assistants
November 3, 2010
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If you aren’t using some type of Web analytics and Web usability tool, you should be. Now we have new, free usability tools springing up that are worth checking out and running on your site, even as a test. The latest cool tool is called Youseeble, a brand-new Internet tool that lets you see your Web site the way your visitors do.
Do you have your most important content in the right place? What are your visitors (and potential customers) really looking at? What gets ignored?
Youseeable doesn’t really replace a comprehensive Web analytics tool (Google Analytics is one that you can use for free), but it does let you see how people interact with your Web site, which is really the name of the game these days. Here’s how it works:
- Youseeable records the activity of each visitor then creates three different “heat maps” that show where people go on your site
- The Interaction heat map shows where visitors go and what they ignore; the Attention heat map shows cursor movement; and the Visibility heat map shows what visitors actually see on your pages based screen resolutions and browser differences
- Just insert a couple of lines of segments of HTML code into all your pages, then create a test
- Youseeable also offers a playback function that lets you watch the actions of a real visitor
The real benefit to Youseeable is the ability to take your visitor numbers and actually understand them by looking at the behavior patterns. It’s free to try – all you need to get started is an email address and the ability to add the code onto your pages.
Today’s Web marketers must be relevant, real and responsive. Tools like Youseeable help you create and place content and design to keep visitors on the site and to give users the information and applications they are looking for in Web 3.0.
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Marketing, Resources, Small Business, Software, Technology
September 3, 2010
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If you host small online meetings or conferences, teach online or have any need to share content but don’t want to pay high prices, then you should check out the latest desktop sharing tool – Mikogo.
Mikago lets you share any screen content or application over the Internet with up to 10 users simultaneously. And it’s free for both commercial and private use! Here are some of the applications:
- Web conferences
- Online meetings
- Product demonstrations
- Web presentations
- Remote support
- Team projects
- Webinars
Mikogo comes from BeamYourScreen, who offers a number of Web collaboration solutions. Most of BeamYourScreen’s products are not free – they offer more sophisticated features like a greater number of participants (up to 25), an HTML viewer and live customer support. The free version is great for small, simple applications. All of Mikogo’s features work on a Windows platform – a number will also run on a MAC platform.
Here’s how Mikogo works:
- The organizer initiates a phone conference.
- The organizer starts a Mikogo session, gets a unique 9-digit session ID from the Mikogo server, and distributes the session ID to the participants.
- Participants open their Internet browser, go to www.mikogo.com, and click on “Join Session”. No installations or registrations required for the participants. They simply join the session by entering the session ID.
- A connection is instantly established, and the participants can view the organizer’s screen in real time via the Mikogo viewer window.
Download it here and give the application a try. It’s cool, it’s free and it’s available in several languages.
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Resources, Small Business, Software, Technology
