Posted: 12:00 pm Mon, May 30, 2011
By ElizabethMillard

A glimpse inside executives’ phones

Smartphone apps can seem overwhelming to a new user because there are so many available – everything from time management to yoga poses. But when just a few are used, they can fuel a business and help executives stay connected better than ever before. We asked some local executives what they use most frequently. In addition to Twitter, texting, calendar programs and email, here are the apps that stood out from the pack:

Bloomberg

Several executives noted that when they need news and company information, they go to Bloomberg. Jason White, a financial adviser and principal at White, Ely and Associates, notes that Bloomberg is a simple app that quickly gives

The app is rich in data, giving users price charts, market trends analysis, customized lists of stocks, market leader information and even podcasts on financial topics. Because of its limited graphics, the app loads quickly and allows users to scroll through its functions with ease.

LinkedIn

“For me, the best apps are the ones that allow good viewing on my device, and speed plus convenience,” says Arvid Povilaitis, chief operating officer of Meritex Enterprises, a real estate investment company. He recently downloaded LinkedIn’s mobile app and can now easily view all the information about his contacts.

LinkedIn acts as a social network for professionals, with address books and networking groups. Some members use the service frequently to expand their business circle and meet potential clients and colleagues.

With the app, people can search on contact profiles, invite other LinkedIn users into their network and send messages to other users. “Before having this, I’d have to get on the BlackBerry browser, go to their site, log in and then once I was on, it was slow and impossible to read,” Povilaitis says. “Not now. Way better.”

Scan Life

Povilaitis also recently downloaded Scan Life, a barcode reader for smartphones. The app allows users to scan any kind of barcode and get pricing or other information on a product or service.

Companies are increasingly using the square-shaped codes to give people information on the go. The codes are cropping up in magazines, bus station ads, billboards, and have even been spotted on an occasional T-shirt. Povilaitis notes that these codes are becoming more popular on real estate leasing signs, allowing him to do a quick scan and get information instantly about the property. “Great, useful tool,” he says.

SugarSync

“This app was a lifesaver during the week I was out of the country recently,” says Jennifer Iwanicki, president of the software service Curation Station.

SugarSync works like a personal cloud service, giving users the ability to create online backup and to sync files. The service works in the background to back up files continually, and synchs up that data among multiple devices or computers. For example, someone can edit a document on a mobile device, and the change will be made on an office computer the next time that machine is online.

Even when in another country, Iwanicki and other users are able to access files as if using a desktop computer back at the office. She could keep in touch with employees at the company and even collaborate on documents without having to get on the phone or slog through multiple email exchanges.

Evernote

Sharon Olson, the owner of Olson Wealth Group, says, “I’m a crazy note taker and maker of to-do lists, so Evernote helps put all of those in one place.”

The app is similar to a large bulletin board, where notes, photos, Web pages and other information can be “pinned up” digitally. Unlike the offline world, though, this one is organized and easily searched. Everything that’s input into the app is automatically processed and indexed, and users can boost the system by adding tags or creating notebooks.

The system allows Olson and other users to find notes easily and search information within them. Even handwritten notes can be searched, as long as the note taker isn’t too messy. The app is a boon for keeping a wealth of data in one place. For example, a user can take a photo of a whiteboard after a meeting, and Evernote can make that information searchable.

Green Bay Packer Fanatic

Sometimes, the line between personal and professional can wear so thin that it ceases to exist. For some apps, fun turns into business. That’s what happened when Jason Simek began using Green Bay Packer Fanatic to begin following his favorite team.

As a broker at NAI Welsh and co-host of a radio show called “All Things Real Estate,” Simek forges relationships with clients and listeners, and he believes that the Packer app helps him in that effort. “I consider this business-related, since most clients and co-workers know that I’m a huge fan,” Simek says. They often ask him about the team, and with this app, he never disappoints.

Also, the application becomes a type of platform for news since it funnels all news feeds and Twitter into one place. “It’s pretty slick,” Simek says.

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Did the news about the iPhone logging users whereabouts jangle your nerves about mobile phone privacy? PrivacyStar aims to batten down your phone’s hatches by blocking unwanted calls or texts and allowing you to perform local searches without tracking or selling your location.

For fun, check out the clever contraption game Apparatus LITE and the two-player Paper War .

The sad reality: Telemarketers have discovered our cell phones. You probably already receive unwanted calls or texts from “unknown” sources. You may also be harassed via mobile by exes, stalkers, or potential serial killers. No worries, PrivacyStar to the rescue.

The service claims to have blocked millions of calls and filed thousands of complaints with the FTC. In addition to blocking calls, the service just added the ability to look up a text message’s originating phone number and then block future messages from it. Another new feature is Directory Assistance. Users can find places and directions to them without worrying that the phone is tracking and selling their location data.

This app provides access to the service free for a 7-day trial.

Want to build your own Rube Goldberg contraptions? This is the app for you.

The idea seems simple enough. Get the blue ball into the blue box. But, to accomplish the mission, you’ll need to construct a clever mechanism out of wood planks, wheels, and other components to roll, flip, and bounce the ball to its intended destination.

Each level ratchets up the puzzle difficulty and adds more challenges. You’ll need to use a hammer and wrench to connect objects together before letting the force of gravity start things in motion.

This free version of Apparatus LITE provides access to six different levels but for more levels and additional features ” like saving your contraptions in a sandbox ” you’ll need to purchase the paid app .

Rock-Paper-Scissors be damned! You don’t need your hands to decide who wins between two people ” you only need your fingers. Paper War provides three separate mini-games in one free app that will settle any score between you.

Two players use the same phone at the same time — to fire cannons at each other, shoot each others planes out of the air, or smash aircraft from above. Each game tracks the scores and tells you the winner. The doodle style graphics and paper background make it fun.

Use the app to decide who drives, who decides where to go for dinner, or who buys the next round.

Here’s how it works. A pregnant mom places her iPhone on a baby bump, where it will be able to detect when her unborn child kicks, via the device’s accelerometer. Small kicks are registered as the baby just scrolling through names, while a larger kick will confirm the choice.

There are thousands of names built into the app, divided between boys and girls, though parents also have the ability to trim the list to whatever they want. However, there’s no word on what to do if you’re expecting twins.

One can only hope this will spur a whole new line of prenatal iPhone apps.

The world around us can sometimes be quite a noisy and hectic place, and often the only thing that stands between ourselves and that noisy world is a good headset amplifier. Being able to hear properly on a cell phone is essential, of course, whether the call is being made for business purposes or for purely personal reasons. One of the problems with cell phones, however, is not being able to clearly hear what the other party is saying, and cell phone misunderstandings can be devastating to your business as well as your personal life.

In order to avoid these potential cell phone faux pas, it is a good idea to invest in a high quality headset amplifier before it is too late. There are many such amplifiers on the market today, made by a number of the most well known and well respected makers of cell phones and audio equipment companies on the market. It is important to find the best possible amplifier you can, and to determine just what you need in that amplifier.

The most important thing to look for when shopping for a cell phone headset amplifier, of course, is effectiveness. It is vital that the cell phone amplifier you use be loud enough for you to hear even the softest talker with ease. In addition, it is important that the cell phone headset amplifier have a volume control that it easy to operate and very effective. It is important to be able to easily turn the volume of the amplifier up or down with one hand, perfect for those busy executives on the go.

Another important thing to look for when purchasing a new headset amplifier is to make sure that the amplifier can be removed without disconnecting the call. The ability to disconnect amplifiers, hands free headsets and other accessories without disrupting the call is always an important thing to look for.

In addition, in some cases cell phone owners will have their own favorite brands in mind, making the process of shopping for the right headset amplifier a lot easier. For those cell phone owners with no pre established brand preference, however, it may be a good idea to read the various reviews of different cell phone headset amplifiers and other accessories in order to get a better feel for who the leading companies in the industry are.

After you have narrowed down the choice of headphone amplifiers to just a few choices, it is important to shop around for the best price. There are a number of stores that sell headset amplifiers and other cell phone accessories, and it is important to shop around for the best possible price and value and to shop around at a variety of different stores. The prices charged for amplifiers and other accessories can vary quite a bit from store to store, so it definitely does pay to shop around.

If you have a teenager in your home, do you follow their texting patterns?

The sheer monthly volume of a texting teenager can drive nearly any parent to count the minutes until they leave home … for good.

A recent survey shows all age groups are texting more than in previous years. And for teenagers between the ages of 13 to 17, texting takes up a major portion of their day.

The Nielsen Company found, in a 2010 survey, that the average teenager (13 to 17 years old) sends or receives 3,339 texts per month, a little more than 100 per day. Girls average a bit more, at 4,050, and boys a bit less, at 2,539.

Some local high school students shatter this average.

“Pretty sure 10,000 (a month),” said Mati Schwartzhoff, a sophomore at Cedar Rapids Kennedy.

“10,000, maybe? I send a lot,” admitted Annie Feltes, Kennedy freshman.

From a parent’s standpoint, trying to stay engaged in the activities of a teenager is a real battle. School lets out for the summer by late next week for most Eastern Iowa school districts. This will leave these teenagers with plenty of free time.

Capt. Steve O’Konek of the Cedar Rapids Police Department brought up this point during an April interview about the presence of drugs in the city. He said that, a generation ago before cell phones and texting became commonplace, parents could often hear half of a teenager’s conversation. But now, teenagers can send just about any message without detection because of the silence of a text message.

How can a parent find the balance between following their children and being the overbearing parent?

“It represents the issues of control,” said Wendy Stokesbary, a counselor at Family Psychology Associates in Cedar Rapids, and the mother of a teenage girl. “How much do parents get to know and how much does the teen get to assert themselves?”

Stokesbary said parents can find that ideal place by making sure to really speak with their teenager, whether at dinner time or driving in the car “with some actual eye contact happening”.

Through the Internet, some sites claim to offer technology that can “spy” on a teenager’s cell phone, even sending a copy of the content of a text message to parent’s cell phone. Employees at four different cell phone stores said on Wednesday that finding out the numbers the texts go is easy, but that actually reading the content of the texts themselves requires a court order.

While many have moved on from the “shocking” revelations concerning mobile phone privacy, thanks to the discovery of iPhone’s location tracking, some politicians are keeping the necessary fires burning. In fact, Senator Al Franken went even further, demanding the parent companies of these devices provide answers concerning these phones and the related privacy.

The two companies in question, are, of course, Apple and Google, makers of the iPhone and the Android OS, respectively. After representatives from both companies answered questions about location privacy on Capitol Hill, stemming from the iPhone issue , Senator Franken issued a letter to both asking them to clarify their policies on mobile device privacy.

It’s becoming clear Franken is one of the few politicians in the government who champion the user over the provider – at least on certain issues , anyway.

In his letter to Apple and Google (PDF), Franken’s target were the location-based applications that both environments so readily feature:

Although I believe there is a greater need for transparency and disclosure for the collection and sharing of all personal information, at a minimum, I ask that you require all location-aware applications in your app stores to provide privacy policies that clearly specify what kind of location information is gathered from users, how that information is used, and how it is shared with third parties. These apps constitute only a subset of all the apps available at your stores.

Franken goes on to say that since both companies tout their commitment to users’ privacy, this is their time to prove that what they say is what they practice. The senator also indicates that while such information wouldn’t eliminate privacy issues in the mobile industry, it would be a simple first step that could clear up a great deal of confusion.

Bud Tribble, Vice President of Software Technology at Apple, indicated that to better serve users, privacy controls are something that needs to be apart of the application’s programming, because Tribble doesn’t feel users would ignore the policies Franken’s asking for, something South Park covered quite nicely.