Friday, May 15, 2015
Sunday, January 4, 2015
15 Mobile Trends to Watch in 2015
Mobile:2015
15 Mobile Trends to Watch in 2015
PRESENTED BY
A note from MasterCard CMO Raja Rajamannar
Ringing in the New Year at the Intersection of Consumer Experience and MobileAs we launch into 2015 with wishes and expectations for the year ahead, one thing is clear: We're in the midst of a global transformation as more and more people are moving from the offline and disconnected world to being constantly connected. Consumers all around the world are adopting smart devices at an astounding pace, opening up more and more opportunities to engage in new ways –changing the way we interact, entertain, educate and shop. And that pace is expected to continue with 50 billion connected devices projected by 2020.
As we think about the potential of this new age, our focus at MasterCard is on creating richer shopping experiences for consumers. If you think about a world where everything and everyone is connected, from your mobile phone to your smart-home -- your washing machine for example -- it’s critical that brands can deliver a consistent omni-channel experience -- in-store, in-app, and online.
Of course, none of this matters much if we don't provide consumers with an experience that is better than the status quo. Better, richer experiences -- built around security, personalization, rewards and exclusive access -- will drive adoption of new ways to pay and that’s what our focus will be as we head into the New Year.
New Year's Eve at the symbolic center of New York City has become more than just a celebration -- it's now a global tradition, facilitated by the technology that brings all of us closer together. As the famous New Year's Eve Ball descended atop One Times Square, an estimated one million people in Times Square, millions nationwide and over a billion throughout the world were watching, posting and sharing, united in bidding a collective farewell to the departing year, and expressing our joy and hope for the year ahead.
Our presence in Times Square went beyond the traditional to create true consumer engagement. Through Exclusive access and Priceless Surprises for attendees in Times Square, as well as a rich mix of social-first content and conversation starters, we tapped into people’s passion and leveraged the power of smart technology.
Smart brands will continue to create campaigns through this connected-consumer lens, and the confluence of product, marketing, technology, and other driving functions will be more important than ever -- as it’s this blurring of the lines that will enable these richer consumer experiences. You’ll see MasterCard activating this in full force whether around the GRAMMY Awards in the US, Rugby World Cup in the UK or SFX electronic dance music festivals around the world, because 2015 is the year for true digital transformation!
Our presence in Times Square went beyond the traditional to create true consumer engagement. Through Exclusive access and Priceless Surprises for attendees in Times Square, as well as a rich mix of social-first content and conversation starters, we tapped into people’s passion and leveraged the power of smart technology.
Smart brands will continue to create campaigns through this connected-consumer lens, and the confluence of product, marketing, technology, and other driving functions will be more important than ever -- as it’s this blurring of the lines that will enable these richer consumer experiences. You’ll see MasterCard activating this in full force whether around the GRAMMY Awards in the US, Rugby World Cup in the UK or SFX electronic dance music festivals around the world, because 2015 is the year for true digital transformation!
What will the next year hold for mobile tech?
As developers march toward a 5G moment — analysts suggest the next-level network milestone will arrive as soon as 2018–2020 — the size, shape, and functionality of our now ever-present portable devices are evolving in numerous and different directions.
Here's some of what we know: the number of mobile devices has now "surpassed the global human population," according to Steve French, global vice president at Amdocs' OpenMarket, "with nearly 90% of consumers owning a mobile phone and 30% a tablet."
Proliferation isn't the only factor in play, however, when it comes to mobile in 2015 (and beyond). Demographics are influencing the space as well.
"Millennials are changing the mobile landscape," French said. "The group is projected to have a purchasing power of $2.45 trillion by 2015 and prefers mobile as their number-one way to be reached and interact."
Only time will tell what comes next, for certain, but we can still venture some plausible yea-end predictions about what happens over the next 12 months. For additional insight, we'll turn to some of the experts in the mobile and technology field.
Here are our 15 trends that will shape mobile in 2015.
As developers march toward a 5G moment — analysts suggest the next-level network milestone will arrive as soon as 2018–2020 — the size, shape, and functionality of our now ever-present portable devices are evolving in numerous and different directions.
Here's some of what we know: the number of mobile devices has now "surpassed the global human population," according to Steve French, global vice president at Amdocs' OpenMarket, "with nearly 90% of consumers owning a mobile phone and 30% a tablet."
Proliferation isn't the only factor in play, however, when it comes to mobile in 2015 (and beyond). Demographics are influencing the space as well.
"Millennials are changing the mobile landscape," French said. "The group is projected to have a purchasing power of $2.45 trillion by 2015 and prefers mobile as their number-one way to be reached and interact."
Only time will tell what comes next, for certain, but we can still venture some plausible yea-end predictions about what happens over the next 12 months. For additional insight, we'll turn to some of the experts in the mobile and technology field.
Here are our 15 trends that will shape mobile in 2015.
1. The battle for the wearables market is about to begin.
Make no mistake, mobile tech is about to enter a brand new phase when it comes to wearables. Google Glass may have found more of a home in the business than the consumer sector — but nothing is set in stone, yet. And with the Apple Watch ready for tech-store shelves, prepare to see a push to win territory from all players. "I'm eager to see Apple Watch, how it works, how it looks," said Andrew Whiting, vice president of marketing at Solstice Mobile (he said his company was an early adopter of Google Glass as well). "I believe that having that push from Apple is going to make all the difference." In other words, Android Wear developers, start your engines.
2. Brands will push to engage many times via mobile (rather than sell just once).
What if your relationship with many of the brands you already use became more like a subscription for services? What if your bank, for example, interacted with you more like a Fitbit experience — your device telling you how much free cash you have at the start of each day, or helping you identify an opportunity to spend your credit card's loyalty points in the moment at a store, airport, or event? That's one idea on which Heather Cox, chief client experience officer at Citi, is training her eye for the next 12 months (and more). "The days of companies selling products to consumers is coming to an end," Cox said. "The whole element of moving the position from sell to buy is something we're going to be working on over the course of 2015 and beyond: how to engage customers with products and services very differently … the notion of the marketing funnel marketing fundamentally changes. It becomes much more about a lifecycle, that circular notion of over time — how do we catch people, using data, and actually help them in the moment?"
3. Mobile payments will grow as a local phenomenon.
Only a few weeks after its launch, Apple Pay supports cards that represent 90 % of the credit card purchase volume in the U.S. and can be used at 220,000 outlets – from national retail chains to your neighborhood store. With Starbucks' mobile payments success as validation," said Pascal Caillon, general manager of Proxama's North American operations, "consumers will soon be more inclined to use their phone to purchase low-value, daily items as a starting point. Merchants in these sectors will set the industry standard and will be the ones to watch."
4. The mobile-payment race will enter its global stretch.
"Move over mobile payments — it’s all about global mobile payments now," said Nataly Kelly, vice president of marketing for Smartling. "With a surge in global tourism fueled by the emerging middle-class in markets such as Asia, combined with the fact that more apps than ever are being localized into 10 or more languages, now app developers and mobile marketers will be challenged to support international currencies for people who might be traveling abroad." Or, for that matter, to support travelers and residents who are downloading the app in another country. Point is, mobile payments will move toward an international level of functionality.
5. Competition for the connected home will intensify.
With Apple's HomeKit already out there, and the Thread Group's wireless networking protocol poised to capture a similar audience, the charge is on for a slice of the smart-home sector. "In the coming year, expect these two camps to furiously court developers into their ecosystems," said Coby Sella, chief executive officer at Sansa Security. "Early rumblings suggest that Apple's HomeKit will be a closed ecosystem, akin to the company's App Store, while Thread Group will be more open, much like Google Play. No matter which protocol becomes the de facto standard, telcos and service providers such as Comcast and ATT, and alarm-systems companies such as ADT, will have to make sure everything they deploy works with both."
6. Vehicles will edge toward next-gen mobile integration.
Disruptive trends in 2015 will not be limited to portable and body-worn devices. They'll also continue to find their way into our vehicles. "Today's traffic-aware GPS will evolve to providing in-vehicle Wi Fi and enhanced location-aware, pushed information services downloaded to the vehicle," said Stu Lipoff, IEEE Fellow and engineering consultant. "Heads-up display should roll out on some premium vehicles to display status, guidance, and augmented virtual overlays on the windshield."
7. The Internet of Things will expand its footprint (but hold on a minute).
Keeping in mind the probability that wearables will make some kind of significant mark in 2015, the advent of these Internet of Things accessories may well amount to part of what is more a reset than a revolution, in the coming year. "The technology is there, but consumer awareness is not," said Matthew Davis, vice president of product marketing at StepLeader. "Companies and marketers haven't convinced the U.S. public that wearables, smart homes, and connected cars are must haves. They are still nice to haves."
8. Prepare for a data-request pushback.
Developers will increasingly feel pressure to cut back on building mobile apps with data collection that's unnecessary for core functionality. "Examples such as a flashlight app that taps a user's geolocation and accesses user's cameras and their calendars are raising some red flags," said Domingo Guerra, president and co-founder of Appthority. "The argument by developers, that they need to monetize, will increasingly hold less water as enterprises and users recognize the true cost of 'free' apps and require more transparency and stronger reasoning from developers … Developers that recognize this trend will be able to differentiate their app in a sea of competition by offering better security and privacy than their competitors."
9. 2015 will be the year when mobile becomes a target
Attendant to the rise of our increasingly mobile-savvy ranks and widespread mobile penetration, someone somewhere is going to attempt a bad thing. "At least one corporate data breach will be traced back to a compromised mobile device which was used to access corporate networks after the compromised device is brought into the enterprise and connects to a trusted enterprise wireless network," said Dwayne Melancon, chief technology officer at Tripwire. "iOS will continue to see a gradual increase of malware that's targeting both jail-broken and non jail-broken devices." Companies and security systems and consumers themselves will need to be vigilant and enable two-factor authentication and other security measures to protect their data.
10. The screen-agnostic experience will grow, along with broader platform integration.
"Seamless context transfer across devices will be the new big app feature," said Sravish Sridhar, founder and CEO of Kinvey. "Apps are increasingly becoming experiences that live across multiple endpoints — from wearables to phones, tablets, and web applications." As this trend proceeds in 2015, offerings that can seamlessly transfer between these states as you move from one device to the next will have a huge advantage.
11. Brands and retailers will pay additional attention to m-commerce opportunities.
Retailers' native apps will further leverage the barcodes that shoppers often scan with their mobile devices. That can mean stores and brands that are better equipped to keep customers engaged, drive sales, and increase customer loyalty and retention. "Retailers now recognize the power of barcode scanning in the context of high performance and reliable native mobile applications," said Samuel Mueller, chief executive officer at Scandit. "We expect the trend of mobile-enabled commerce to continue throughout the 2014 holiday shopping season and into 2015 and beyond."
12. Travelers will increasingly switch to brands' apps for bookings.
"Companies such as TripAdvisor, Hipmunk, Skyscanner, trivago and Dohop are going to make it increasingly easier next year to book flights and hotels right within their apps instead of sending consumers off to airline, hotel, or online travel-agency websites to complete their bookings," said Dennis Schaal, news editor at Skift (full disclosure, James O'Brien provides independent analysis to the company). "Another thing is that Expedia, Hipmunk, and others are increasingly making it easier to start your trip research on a smartphone, continue it on a laptop, and then pick it right up again on a tablet or smartphone — right where you left off."
13. Health and nutrition monitoring will expand.
"In 2015, health and nutrition monitoring will achieve previously unthinkable breadth and depth," said Rameet Chawla, founder of Fueled. That means that your mobile and wearable devices will generate real-time data regarding your individual body — tracking blood glucose levels following meals, sleep quality as indicated by REM cycles, carbon dioxide levels in your muscles, and the like. Not to mention smart armbands for workout-related notifications, and smart shirts that can notify you about stress levels or an elevated heart rate.
14. BYOD policies will shift within companies.
"In the face of distributed workforces and project-based working groups that include third-party contractors, apps need to be shared across borders without the limitation of BYOD policies to secure devices," said Art Landro, chief executive officer at Sencha. "Instead of practicing intrusive control over internal and external devices, enterprises will be turning to web-based tools that efficiently silo private and corporate data on the same device," he said. That means allowing IT departments to secure corporate information without mucking about with this one smartphone or that one employee's tablet. Prepare for more across-the-board solutions.15. Business will dive deeper into internal mobile-first deployment (and desktops will follow the format).
"For years the value proposition has been utterly obvious," said Matt Calkins, chairman and CEO at Appian, "and yet business have held back from mobile-first behaviors." In the coming months, companies that aren't already mobile-centric will start to cross the divide to increasingly screen-agnostic mobile platforms — allowing employees to keep working, no matter what devices they're using. Furthermore, Calkins predicts, desktop iterations of software will start to emulate those of the relative mobile interface. "The result of the battle between mobile and desktop apps will be as follows," he said. "Mobile wins, the device wins, the format wins on the desktop environment."Looking for a bottom line?
Consider the following takeaway, as given by Tolga Onuk, CEO of Thunderbolt Studios: "2015 is, more than anything else, the year the smartphones and mobile tablets will be used more than all other devices in the market," Onuk said.And the way we will use them? It will lead us to expect more, to get what we expect from our mobile devices sooner, and to have access to options wherever we happen to be located at the given time.
"Large on-demand applications such as Uber, Lyft, Amazon Fresh, InstaCart, Curbstand, and Postmates are also going to grow," said Onuk. "And they will help determine and inspire new on-demand platforms that will be built in 2015."
App to track if someone is spying on you
App to track if someone is spying on you
IMSI catchers are eavesdropping devices used for intercepting mobile phone traffic and tracking the movement of smartphone users, media reports said.
Security experts recently revealed a massive security flaw that could let hackers listen in on private calls and read text messages on mobile networks.
One way in which such hackers get access to such information is by using IMSI catchers or 'stingrays'.
SnoopSnitch can detect IMSI catchers and warn smartphone users if their devices are giving up their personal information and connecting to them.
The app scans for signals that indicate a switch from a legitimate tower to a 'stingray', where information may be being collected.
The app currently works with Android handsets that have Qualcomm chips inside such as Sony and Samsung Galaxy models.
Security experts recently revealed a massive security flaw that could let hackers listen in on private calls and read text messages on mobile networks.
One way in which such hackers get access to such information is by using IMSI catchers or 'stingrays'.
SnoopSnitch can detect IMSI catchers and warn smartphone users if their devices are giving up their personal information and connecting to them.
The app scans for signals that indicate a switch from a legitimate tower to a 'stingray', where information may be being collected.
The app currently works with Android handsets that have Qualcomm chips inside such as Sony and Samsung Galaxy models.
Monday, July 8, 2013
The Top 10 best iPhone apps for enterprise users
08 Jul 2013
As bring your own device (BYOD) becomes more prevalent within enterprises, the use of enterprise apps has also increased.
Apps that connect to back-office systems that enable users to view analytics in real-time on touch-based devices, along with those tailored for specific enterprise software offerings - such as Oracle's business intelligence app and Salesforce's mobile app - are becoming increasingly popular among business decision-makers.
But other applications designed to boost productivity and generally make life easier for employees are finding their way into the workplace in ever increasing numbers.
In this article, Computing takes a look at the top apps that enterprise users can download on the iPhone to boost productivity.
10. Week Calendar (£1.49)
Apple's pre-installed calendar app is good enough for most of us, but it doesn't quite match up to Week Calendar.
Positives: Users can customise their calendars with colour coding, and it has several different viewing options and is intuitive to use. Unlike the iPhone app, it is also highly graphical.
Negatives: Not a cross-licence app, so you can't load it up onto your iPad for free.
9. Any.Do (free)
One of the many task managers available in Apple's App Store, Any.Do, is superior to its competitors because entering tasks on the app is quick and easy.
The interface is simple and straightforward to use - you can add things to your ‘to do list' for today, tomorrow, upcoming or ‘someday' either by speech (which it recognises reasonably well) or by typing the task in. Thereafter you can share the task with your contacts (if you're logged in through Facebook), add an alarm for when you want it done by, highlight it so you know it's more important than everything else, add further notes, and put it into a personal or work folder.
Positives: It's easy to use; it syncs quickly across each device, and allows you to take control of each day.
Negatives: The ‘moment' feature allows users to play out their day and it looks good - when it works. But it has frozen several times on a blank screen, meaning that the user has to shut down the app or even the entire device and restart.
8. TurboScan
One of the worst things about business travel is the need to file expenses. TurboScan makes this a lot easier, ensuring that instead of carrying a load of receipts with you, you can take a snap of it, crop it, forward it as a PDF, and get rid of your paper receipts. Of course, you still have to file the expenses, but at least you won't have to worry about a receipt being lost - especially if it's one worth a lot of money.
Positives: It's easy to use and has plenty of options. For example, the SureScan 3x function allows you to take three pictures and combine them into a single document. You can name your documents, which is also useful for when you're sifting through a library of files. You can send documents to your email account, Evernote account or Box.net account to store it. You can also send the document as a PDF or JPEG, in black and white or in colour - ensuring that you've got plenty of choices to suit your work environment.
Negatives: The app has problems detecting the edges of a document, but this is not a major issue, particularly as the edges of many documents aren't crucial. Most people will probably still hang on to their paper receipts even if they do use the app, and in some cases, businesses only accept paper receipts as a proof of purchase, rendering the scanned documents only useful for personal record-keeping.
7. Camcard (free, usually £1.99)
Swapping business cards is easy enough at a conference, but keeping hold of these cards and uploading them onto an Outlook contacts list can be a tedious task. With CamCard you can take a photo of the business card and the details are automatically uploaded onto your phone contacts and other email accounts. You can then sync the data across other devices too. At the time of writing, CamCard was offering iPhone users the full version for free, but it usually costs £1.99.
Positives: A feature that isn't present in a lot of other business card scanning apps is to be able to take multiple images at once and import them all together. It processes the cards quickly and reasonably accurately.
Negatives: The iPhone screen is pretty small, and so the interface can at times feel crammed. The scanning function has difficulty reading certain fonts and runs into difficulties when people have added their area codes such as replacing a bracket or parenthesis with a number one.
Honourable mention: CardMunch (free)
LinkedIn members can use CardMunch to take a snap of a business card and automatically save the contact into your iPhone. The information can include LinkedIn's profile data when available.
6. Instapaper
As employees are becoming more mobile, it means that they want to be able to read the things that interest them at any time, whether that be on the tube, on a flight or even while walking. So when colleagues or friends send over relevant links to articles, or when you come across an interesting article but don't have time to read it - you can make a note of it on Instapaper, and then read it in your own time in a personalised newspaper format.
Positives: Instapaper doesn't need a connection to the internet for you to read the articles, as the articles are stored offline, meaning even when you're underground on the tube, you can still read them. It's also very simple to use.
Negatives: Considering this is a paid-for app (£2.49), it's surprising that much of the functionality is available for free - as many may decide to just keep links saved elsewhere, or load up the links on the iPhone so they are ready to view, for free.
5. Evernote (free)
When attending conferences, many professionals conjure up new ideas while listening to an expert. But then the expert makes another point with another five related ideas and you can't keep up. But Evernote allows you to make notes, take pictures (of, say, the presentations that the speaker is using), or make a recording in the style of Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman) on Suits - without the self-absorption, of course.
Evernote will soon be releasing an updated app, with features a form of its Evernote Hello application, which enables you to capture people you meet, their name, email address, and picture and scan their business cards.
Evernote Premium enables additional functions such as more bandwidth, offline editing and a PIN lock on the app for those highly secretive strategic ideas.
Positives: The best note-taking app on iOS in Computing's opinion. Syncing between devices over the internet is also easy.
Negatives: The new rich-text editor is a good idea but can be frustrating to use, while the app could do with GPS-enabled location-based notes.
Honourable mention: iThoughts (£5.49)
iThoughts, a brainstorming app, allows users to plot their ideas while on the move. While a nice idea, the app is probably better suited to an iPad (for which there is a separate version).
The controls are a little over-complicated although a YouTube video displaying how to use the app does help to simplify the process. But it isn't the "pick up and start using app" that it ought to be.
The doodle concept is also great, but the problem with the app overall is that you need a large space for brainstorming - and an iPhone doesn't give you that.
4. Box (free)
Box‘s free cloud storage app allows users to store 5GB worth of data for free. The app allows you to share files from your iPhone with your colleagues, view the latest update to a spreadsheet, and sync files to other devices. It also has file-level encryption, requires a password and has an auto-logout feature when the app is closed - all essential for enterprise users who want to keep their data safe.
Positives: Ability to edit files, access to Box files on other apps, and compatibility with a wide range of file types are all plus points. It also gives users more free storage space than its rivals.
Negatives: In a business sense, I can't see why a user would want to share something on Twitter or Facebook, but it would be better to have the option than not - and Box doesn't offer it.
Honourable mention: Dropbox (free)
Dropbox does allow you to share documents easily on social networks like Facebook or Twitter. However, it only gives new users 2GB of space when they sign up.
3. 1Password (£12.99)
1Password allows you to store all your passwords in one convenient place on your smartphone. All you need is a "master password" and a PIN code to access the app.
Positives: Those annoying websites that generate a password for you will no longer need to be remembered, and the same goes for those pesky services that require one upper case letter, one lower case letter and a combination of numbers and letters. You won't get locked out of anything ever again. It also has a nice ‘password generator' option to make new and random passwords. On top of that, the security issues found with many of these 'all your eggs in one basket' apps isn't there as it encrypts everything using AES technology.
Negatives: The problem with putting all of your passwords in one place is that if your phone is stolen, the passwords go with it. However, the thief would have to know an awful lot about hardware accelerated AES encryption to be able to access them.
2. TripIt (free)
If you're a frequent flyer for business, and hate always having to log on to your work email account to look for your travel itinerary, then the TripIt app is a useful way to ensure you've got all of the information you need on your smartphone. You can send your travel itinerary to TripIt's email address, which automatically identifies your account and updates your app with departure times for flights and check-in and check-out times for accommodation. You can put in as many trips as you like, including past trips (although I'm not sure why anyone would want to put that information up), you can connect to TripIt's "network", and you can track your reward accounts with TripIt Pro (the paid-for version).
Positives: For the most part, the tool is useful and it enables you to look up your flight times without having to search through your work email account or rummage through a pile of papers. It also details check-in and check-out times for your room.
Negatives: If your iPhone App Store is connected through a personal email account, and you don't have corporate email access on your mobile then it may be a lengthy process to email the initial travel documents from your work account to your personal account and then to the TripIt address in order for the information to be uploaded onto the app.
While TripIt can scan a lot of the travel itineraries, Computing found many which it cannot pick up or read, particularly those that are sent with HTML formatting. However, it lets you know it can't read it and you can access it online and update the flight details/accommodation information yourself.
Honourable mention: FlightTrack Pro (£6.49)
The £6.99 FlightTrack Pro app enables jet-setters to ensure that they don't miss a flight and know of a delay as soon as it occurs, as the app gets real-time data from all flights. It works in conjunction with TripIt, so could be useful addition to your smartphone, to make business trips even easier.
There are other options like Flight+ free, but FlightTrack Pro is the best of the bunch.
1. CloudOn - Microsoft Office (free)
While Microsoft finally decided to offer its Office suit to iOS, it is useless unless you (or your business) have already paid for a subscription for Office 365. This means that unlike Windows Phone where Office Mobile is free, the best option for the iPhone in order to write Word documents, look over the numbers on a spreadsheet or flick through a PowerPoint presentation is CloudOn.
Unlike many of its competitors, such as Quickoffice Pro (£10.49), it is free, and is probably the most powerful office tool out there, as long as you've got an internet connection. The iPhone screen isn't really suited to viewing and editing, but the app makes it as user-friendly as it can possibly be. It hooks up to Dropbox, Box, Google Drive or Skydrive to enable users to access documents stored in the cloud.
Positives: If you have an iPad you can access the same Word, Excel and PowerPoint files that you've saved on the iPhone version as they would be stored on the same online storage service that the app connects to. If you're looking for an office app with great functionality, this is definitely the one for you.
Negatives: Lengthy wait times for files to load, and glitches are common, and if you'd prefer to just simply view and edit a Word document, there are simpler apps out there.
Read more: http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/feature/2279000/the-top-10-best-iphone-apps-for-enterprise-users#ixzz2YSJDOi00
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Read more: http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/feature/2279000/the-top-10-best-iphone-apps-for-enterprise-users#ixzz2YSIzXKfJ
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Read more: http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/feature/2279000/the-top-10-best-iphone-apps-for-enterprise-users#ixzz2YSIhnRvl
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But other applications designed to boost productivity and generally make life easier for employees are finding their way into the workplace in ever increasing numbers.
In this article, Computing takes a look at the top apps that enterprise users can download on the iPhone to boost productivity.
10. Week Calendar (£1.49)
Apple's pre-installed calendar app is good enough for most of us, but it doesn't quite match up to Week Calendar.
Positives: Users can customise their calendars with colour coding, and it has several different viewing options and is intuitive to use. Unlike the iPhone app, it is also highly graphical.
Negatives: Not a cross-licence app, so you can't load it up onto your iPad for free.
9. Any.Do (free)
One of the many task managers available in Apple's App Store, Any.Do, is superior to its competitors because entering tasks on the app is quick and easy.
The interface is simple and straightforward to use - you can add things to your ‘to do list' for today, tomorrow, upcoming or ‘someday' either by speech (which it recognises reasonably well) or by typing the task in. Thereafter you can share the task with your contacts (if you're logged in through Facebook), add an alarm for when you want it done by, highlight it so you know it's more important than everything else, add further notes, and put it into a personal or work folder.
Positives: It's easy to use; it syncs quickly across each device, and allows you to take control of each day.
Negatives: The ‘moment' feature allows users to play out their day and it looks good - when it works. But it has frozen several times on a blank screen, meaning that the user has to shut down the app or even the entire device and restart.
8. TurboScan
One of the worst things about business travel is the need to file expenses. TurboScan makes this a lot easier, ensuring that instead of carrying a load of receipts with you, you can take a snap of it, crop it, forward it as a PDF, and get rid of your paper receipts. Of course, you still have to file the expenses, but at least you won't have to worry about a receipt being lost - especially if it's one worth a lot of money.
Positives: It's easy to use and has plenty of options. For example, the SureScan 3x function allows you to take three pictures and combine them into a single document. You can name your documents, which is also useful for when you're sifting through a library of files. You can send documents to your email account, Evernote account or Box.net account to store it. You can also send the document as a PDF or JPEG, in black and white or in colour - ensuring that you've got plenty of choices to suit your work environment.
Negatives: The app has problems detecting the edges of a document, but this is not a major issue, particularly as the edges of many documents aren't crucial. Most people will probably still hang on to their paper receipts even if they do use the app, and in some cases, businesses only accept paper receipts as a proof of purchase, rendering the scanned documents only useful for personal record-keeping.
7. Camcard (free, usually £1.99)
Swapping business cards is easy enough at a conference, but keeping hold of these cards and uploading them onto an Outlook contacts list can be a tedious task. With CamCard you can take a photo of the business card and the details are automatically uploaded onto your phone contacts and other email accounts. You can then sync the data across other devices too. At the time of writing, CamCard was offering iPhone users the full version for free, but it usually costs £1.99.
Positives: A feature that isn't present in a lot of other business card scanning apps is to be able to take multiple images at once and import them all together. It processes the cards quickly and reasonably accurately.
Negatives: The iPhone screen is pretty small, and so the interface can at times feel crammed. The scanning function has difficulty reading certain fonts and runs into difficulties when people have added their area codes such as replacing a bracket or parenthesis with a number one.
Honourable mention: CardMunch (free)
LinkedIn members can use CardMunch to take a snap of a business card and automatically save the contact into your iPhone. The information can include LinkedIn's profile data when available.
6. Instapaper
Positives: Instapaper doesn't need a connection to the internet for you to read the articles, as the articles are stored offline, meaning even when you're underground on the tube, you can still read them. It's also very simple to use.
Negatives: Considering this is a paid-for app (£2.49), it's surprising that much of the functionality is available for free - as many may decide to just keep links saved elsewhere, or load up the links on the iPhone so they are ready to view, for free.
5. Evernote (free)
When attending conferences, many professionals conjure up new ideas while listening to an expert. But then the expert makes another point with another five related ideas and you can't keep up. But Evernote allows you to make notes, take pictures (of, say, the presentations that the speaker is using), or make a recording in the style of Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman) on Suits - without the self-absorption, of course.
Evernote will soon be releasing an updated app, with features a form of its Evernote Hello application, which enables you to capture people you meet, their name, email address, and picture and scan their business cards.
Evernote Premium enables additional functions such as more bandwidth, offline editing and a PIN lock on the app for those highly secretive strategic ideas.
Positives: The best note-taking app on iOS in Computing's opinion. Syncing between devices over the internet is also easy.
Negatives: The new rich-text editor is a good idea but can be frustrating to use, while the app could do with GPS-enabled location-based notes.
Honourable mention: iThoughts (£5.49)
iThoughts, a brainstorming app, allows users to plot their ideas while on the move. While a nice idea, the app is probably better suited to an iPad (for which there is a separate version).
The controls are a little over-complicated although a YouTube video displaying how to use the app does help to simplify the process. But it isn't the "pick up and start using app" that it ought to be.
The doodle concept is also great, but the problem with the app overall is that you need a large space for brainstorming - and an iPhone doesn't give you that.
4. Box (free)
Positives: Ability to edit files, access to Box files on other apps, and compatibility with a wide range of file types are all plus points. It also gives users more free storage space than its rivals.
Negatives: In a business sense, I can't see why a user would want to share something on Twitter or Facebook, but it would be better to have the option than not - and Box doesn't offer it.
Honourable mention: Dropbox (free)
Dropbox does allow you to share documents easily on social networks like Facebook or Twitter. However, it only gives new users 2GB of space when they sign up.
3. 1Password (£12.99)
1Password allows you to store all your passwords in one convenient place on your smartphone. All you need is a "master password" and a PIN code to access the app.
Positives: Those annoying websites that generate a password for you will no longer need to be remembered, and the same goes for those pesky services that require one upper case letter, one lower case letter and a combination of numbers and letters. You won't get locked out of anything ever again. It also has a nice ‘password generator' option to make new and random passwords. On top of that, the security issues found with many of these 'all your eggs in one basket' apps isn't there as it encrypts everything using AES technology.
Negatives: The problem with putting all of your passwords in one place is that if your phone is stolen, the passwords go with it. However, the thief would have to know an awful lot about hardware accelerated AES encryption to be able to access them.
2. TripIt (free)
Positives: For the most part, the tool is useful and it enables you to look up your flight times without having to search through your work email account or rummage through a pile of papers. It also details check-in and check-out times for your room.
Negatives: If your iPhone App Store is connected through a personal email account, and you don't have corporate email access on your mobile then it may be a lengthy process to email the initial travel documents from your work account to your personal account and then to the TripIt address in order for the information to be uploaded onto the app.
While TripIt can scan a lot of the travel itineraries, Computing found many which it cannot pick up or read, particularly those that are sent with HTML formatting. However, it lets you know it can't read it and you can access it online and update the flight details/accommodation information yourself.
Honourable mention: FlightTrack Pro (£6.49)
The £6.99 FlightTrack Pro app enables jet-setters to ensure that they don't miss a flight and know of a delay as soon as it occurs, as the app gets real-time data from all flights. It works in conjunction with TripIt, so could be useful addition to your smartphone, to make business trips even easier.
There are other options like Flight+ free, but FlightTrack Pro is the best of the bunch.
1. CloudOn - Microsoft Office (free)
While Microsoft finally decided to offer its Office suit to iOS, it is useless unless you (or your business) have already paid for a subscription for Office 365. This means that unlike Windows Phone where Office Mobile is free, the best option for the iPhone in order to write Word documents, look over the numbers on a spreadsheet or flick through a PowerPoint presentation is CloudOn.
Unlike many of its competitors, such as Quickoffice Pro (£10.49), it is free, and is probably the most powerful office tool out there, as long as you've got an internet connection. The iPhone screen isn't really suited to viewing and editing, but the app makes it as user-friendly as it can possibly be. It hooks up to Dropbox, Box, Google Drive or Skydrive to enable users to access documents stored in the cloud.
Positives: If you have an iPad you can access the same Word, Excel and PowerPoint files that you've saved on the iPhone version as they would be stored on the same online storage service that the app connects to. If you're looking for an office app with great functionality, this is definitely the one for you.
Negatives: Lengthy wait times for files to load, and glitches are common, and if you'd prefer to just simply view and edit a Word document, there are simpler apps out there.
Read more: http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/feature/2279000/the-top-10-best-iphone-apps-for-enterprise-users#ixzz2YSJDOi00
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Read more: http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/feature/2279000/the-top-10-best-iphone-apps-for-enterprise-users#ixzz2YSIzXKfJ
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Read more: http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/feature/2279000/the-top-10-best-iphone-apps-for-enterprise-users#ixzz2YSIhnRvl
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Read more: http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/feature/2279000/the-top-10-best-iphone-apps-for-enterprise-users#ixzz2YSIESwcw
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