Technology has brought us a lot of good things. It has a huge impact on our daily lives whether we like it or not. Science has helped us communicate better, eat better and improve every aspect of our lives. Unless you live in a rock, you might have noticed that most of the television sets are now bigger, all household appliances are digital and laptops are powerful and even lighter.

Nowadays, phones are really “smarter.” That is why mobile apps have become really popular and in demand. Mobile apps can be used by virtually anyone – business professionals, students and even children.

How Can Schools Use Mobile Apps?

The use of smartphones and tablets among faculty and students is increasing. Schools are capitalizing on this trend by developing and releasing personalized education apps. In fact, top universities like Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Duke University have their own mobile education apps.

Harvard University’s mobile application is a robust app which delivers a lot of information. The school developed the app to improve the communication of the faculty, students, alumni and even visitors. It is used to distribute useful information such as the campus map, shuttle tracker, the latest Harvard news from the Harvard Gazette, complete course catalog, campus events and more.  The app delivers some of the fun stuff such as videos, sports information, and dining hot spots in and around the campus. Furthermore, the app highlights Harvard’s tweets and Facebook updates.

QR codes are similar to the standard barcodes that you usually see in retail items found in malls or grocery stores. The barcodes are used to track inventory and are scanned when you purchase an item. QR codes can be used in the same way. However, QR codes are a lot more powerful since it can do so much more. It can carry about a hundred times more information than the one-dimensional barcode. When scanned by an appropriate scanner or a mobile device, QR codes can trigger a number of functions such as sending an SMS, launching a website, viewing Google maps and even downloading a file.

The retail industry has been using QR codes in the recent years and many are starting to adapt them to link to mobile apps and coupons.  QR codes have the capability of connecting commercial businesses with consumers. The good thing about this technology is that virtually any type of organization can use QR codes. It can be utilized for a variety of marketing campaigns and printed on marketing materials including the following:

• Product Labels
• Direct Mail and Postcards
• Catalogs and Corporate Brochures
• Print Ads
• Business Cards
• Flyers and Posters
• Other Promotional Items

Consumers can retrieve the data just by using their iPhone, Blackberry, Android phone or any other smartphone. QR codes can contain information about products, installation instructions and even coupons. Since smartphone usage is on the rise and still expected to grow immensely in the next few years, more and more businesses will be utilizing QR codes for their marketing promotions.

The tourism industry is also a growing business. They allocate a big chunk of their budget to attract visitors to specific tourist attractions.  You might now know it but tourism organizations are really great in adapting with technology. Nowadays, a lot of travel organizations use QR codes to boost visitor arrivals. They produce self-guided audio tours through QR codes.  These QR code tours are used to substitute human tour guides, if they are not available.  Data such as interesting places, information about landmark and even the best dining places in a particular area can be retrieved from the QR code.

As you have just read, there are so many uses of these two-dimensional codes. It offers convenience and savings to customers. Any business or firm can bring in more customers just by using QR codes strategically and creatively. If you are on a lookout for a new way to attract more customers, it is worth to give QR codes integrated with mobile apps a try.

Betty Penny

Betty Penny. Mobile App Builder and Consultant

Smartphones were not built for just taking calls or playing Angry Birds. Our phones were made for something greater. You can use your mobile phones to look for the best deals at great prices. Up to date, there are a lot of mobile apps which can help organize our finances and track spending. Using money-saving mobile applications is a very smart way to save your hard-earned money! Here are just some of the few of the best money-saving apps that are available. It is possible to save thousands of dollars just by downloading these.

PRICE COMPARISON APPS

Price comparison apps let you compare prices from various retailers. Instead of checking each store for prices, you can do it using your mobile phone. Amazon’s Price Check is a wonderful price comparison mobile app. Red Laser by eBay is another great choice. Aside from getting the new prices, you can also look at product descriptions and reviews. With these apps, you don’t only save money but your precious time as well.

You can also look for mobile applications of your favorite stores. If you love shopping at the Gap, look for a Gap mobile app. This way, you will receive special discounts and deals that other shoppers won’t get.

SHOPPING LIST APPS

Shopping lists can help you save money. Creating a list before heading to the grocery store will eliminate impulse buys. Without a list, it would be so easy to fill-up the cart with unnecessary things. Aside from this, it will help you remember everything you need to buy. You do not have to go back to the supermarket to be tempted with unneeded purchases again. This is where the shopping list apps can help you. An app called Grocery iQ is a shopping list app which helps organize your list by brand or aisle. It is superior to your normal paper shopping list because there is a sync option which prevents multiple purchases from different members of the family.

COUPON APPS

Using coupons can save you more money that you have ever expected. Mobile coupon apps will save you the trouble of finding, printing and clipping coupons. All you have to do is download the app and you are good to go! One of the most popular group buying sites, Groupon, has a free mobile app. Their app will help you find discounts for shops, restaurant and other products and services. Although they do not offer a lot of deals, you will be sure to see one that you want.

PERSONAL FINANCE APPS

Forget your spreadsheets and calculators! You can stop crunching numbers every night just to make sure your books are balanced. There are many personal finance apps that can help you easily manage your finances anywhere. There are many apps there under this category. However, most are paid apps. Mint stands out from the rest because it is free. It doesn’t mean that it is not up to par with the paid ones. In fact, it was among the 50 best iPhone apps this year. You can use it for budgeting, expense tracking and analyzing spending habits. It connects directly your bank account and even notifies you of suspicious transactions.

In this economy, we all should look for ways to stretch our budgets a little bit. There are a lot more apps out there that can help you save more. Take time to look at the other apps – who knows what you will discover? The important thing is to get the apps which are appropriate for your needs.

While mobile websites are more or less a smaller version of a website, to build a mobile app is much more comprehensive on a smartphone with its features and functionality. It is a known fact that mobile apps increase productivity in the workplace as well as the entire business process scenario. There are various reasons why you should get your own business app and an operations app if you want to see yourself growing in your business. Apps not only help you with building a community but they also are good for customer relationship building and task management. Here are a few examples that can you help you understand the benefits.

Benefits for a web designer

If you are a web designer, you could be facing time management issues with clients calling you for updates, mock sites to be finalized and final sites to be given that last finishing touch. When there is so much is to be done, it makes sense to have an app keep track of all the latest developments without you having to figure out and navigate through a maze of websites to find out who needs you and why? You can put your entire team on an app and links to various parts of the process. Connecting some of these options such as Dropbox and Evernote with your main app for project management on a smartphone is making life much easier for web designers.

Benefits for business people and corporate executives

For corporate executives and business people on the move, the need for constant communication and latest updates on everyday decisions and reports are making them search for mobile applications that will keep them in top notch control always.

Mobile apps make communication among team members faster enabling them to deliver information at the snap of a finger even to people who are in some other part of the world. This helps business decisions to be finalized faster, thus increasing productivity.

Integrating with Google Apps, Google Docs and apps such as Documents to Go (for viewing, importing and exporting files), Box.net (for content management), Evernote (for using notes, photos and anything else), HootSuite (for monitoring your social networking), DragonDictation (for voice-recognition and messaging) and reQall (for reminders and organizing) are continuously increasing the productivity of the workplace enabling each team member to seamlessly integrate information with others and make both personal and professional life easier.

Mobile apps are continuing to be developed using real life scenarios to understand the needs of different businesses and professionals from different walks of life. Call us at Appsmakerstore to let us help you create mobile web app that help you with your business  needs. If you want to learn more about smart phones and apps and how you can help manage your life and join me in my full day workshop  at the Quality Inn Conference Centre in Oshawa , post code earlybird for $100.00 off on November 19, 2011.

Betty Penny

Today it is amazing, how advanced we are now in communicating mobile with apps on devices and with mobile phones that fit  in our purse or back pocket, it is really hard to imagine what the world was like when we didn’t have cell phones or visuals such as digital TVs, CD players, Labtops and computers. I know that I can’t live without my gadgets especially my smartphone and Ipad and my many apps.

Joel was in his early 20′s when radio was the only method of  broadcast communication,  he had just come back from world word II after he led a flight  of 20 Lancasters home to Canada. At 28 as a decorated war hero, he landed his first real job at the CBC based on a wager that he couldn’t get  a job there.  He did  live air commercials on radio shows that were broadcast across Canada when TV was not yet mainstream. He was in demand in  the American networks, and moved onto to becoming a popular TV pitchman of live commercials of various shows like Dana Shore, Bob Hope and Perry Como show and  being one of the highest paid broadcast pitchman in Canada.

In the late 50′s, Aldred was instrumental in being one of the founding directors for the two of today’s Canadian media giants Rogers Communications and CTV.   The TV and broadcast community was controlled tightly at time and there were no private broadcast communication companies until a corporation was formed in 1958 called Baton- Aldred – Rogers Braodcasting Ltd. to start CFTO- TV which is now CTV the largest privately held media company in Canada, the original shareholders were the Telegram, Aldred Rogers, Foster Hewitt, Sovereign and Heathcourt.  Now the media giants are known as CTV and Rogers Communications. It is interesting to look at some history to see where we are today with mobile technology and where we came from.  Visit Joel Aldred’s website as it has some of his commercials and history, he was a very interesting man and will be missed, but his footprint will remain with all of us and his voice in cloud technology and Utube for all of us to hear again.

Sincerely,

Betty

Please visit through the AppsMakerStore Link below.

http://appcreatorsite.ca/

Everyone today has got apps! The craze come from Apple themselves that started this whole thing with their iOS App Store that launched in 2008. Now even our web browser got these built in markets where you can download small apps / plugins for your Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox web browsers!

Also Amazon have now their open their own app store called Amazon Appstore which started back in March this year. Obviously there have been a lot of other mobile companies that have their own store with apps like Android market place. Apple also recently started the Mac App Store we’re they are trying to bring the success from their iOS devices back to the Mac!

So the first thing you want to do, to become the next success out there is to remember that the competition is tough. There are a ton of different platforms you could pick between to start your app journey. Many use different coding languages, something you should think about. If you want to code iOS apps you have to learn Objective-C. Most of the iOS app developers out there probably use a Mac for their coding because Objective-C is more Apple optimized. That will be the place were you will be able to get the most support for that language.

If you never coded before I would suggest to not go out and buy an expensive PC. Just learn the basics first. If you’re an easy learner then you should begin with the basics in coding. Start building websites with HTML just to get your feet wet. Continue with Javascript & PHP. The more languages you learn the easier you will have in the future to understand how code works. You will have to do a lot of problem solving with your coding language no matter how good you are. In times like that you just have to remember that Google is your friend. Remember that it could take days to solve a problem but that good feeling you get after you’ve solved something is so worth it.

If you’re just only one of these people that wanna do a cool game and then show it to your friends then there always tools out there that will help you create your own game by using game creating tools that still could be very advanced.

The most important thing is that starting is always the hard part. Remember that you do something you think is fun. So you don’t get bored 2 weeks in and get frustrated. Making an app for the money usually never works out there are thousands of freebie apps out there, unless your app serves a particular purpose. Forget about all this coding as there is a better way to build an app that is good for all platforms, for Iphone, Ipad, Android and all smart phones and you need no programming skills. You can visit  If you want to try to build your own app without any coding language for marketing visit our services, we can set you with a template to get started. You then can have fun building a personal or business app once we get you started, the possibilities are endless, all you need is time.
Cheers

Betty

Part of the dilemma springs from women in the workplace, and how we have evolved in our business attire. In the late 1970s’ when masses of women in the business world were mad as hell abut being condescended to and decided not to take it anymore, the best-selling book of the time was “Dress for Success”. It recommended that women wear work uniforms that are parallel to men’s gray flannel suits – dowdy bit it did gain respect.

Today, many women in positions of authority look to role models on television who wear short, tight, sculpted power suits. That is fine if you have the body and the position to pull it off.  Many more of us, however, are in a position of either trying to gain employment or trying to not be overly authoritative with respect to trying to gain clients. Those trying to get in the door stick to more conservative choices that show they are prepared to be serious.

Now there’s another evolution taking place, the casual-Friday look trend that dovetails with the statistics which show women spending less on clothes and more on feel-good services. Today, a woman executive is probably wearing a comfortable pantsuit and flat shoes.  So what does one wear to the big day? This is a bigger decision than dressing for a date: Unless you’re trying to get a job at a fashion magazine, a great Gucci knock-off won’t gain you any points. What counts is an image that’s confident and appropriate.

The statistics show that yes, a pretty face does fare better than an “I-just-got-out-of-bed” look.  But, surprisingly, a study done on attraction showed that 8% of those who considered themselves to be unattractive gained an 8% advantage by being appropriately dressed.  Attractive subjects had an 18% advantage in interviews. The bottom line: if you’ve got it, flaunt it. Turns out too that men did not judge as harshly as other women when judging proper attire.  It seems conservative is the way to go these days.

Like many things in life, choice and style are personal things. Wear what is comfortable, both in how it wears and how it feels to wear on the inside. Granted, when the invitation says evening gown, go as the invitation states, but when the choice is yours, dress appropriate to your own taste. Wear what makes you feel confident and is appropriate to the occasion. In the end, our taste will reflect our style.  So be confident, wear what you feel good in and go with your instincts.

The Quick Response (QR) is a two-dimensional matrix barcode that can be read by smart phones, QR readers and webcam-equipped computers. It consists of several black modules that are arranged in a square pattern with a white background. The information encoded in these black modules may be URL, text or other data.
The QR code is widely used in Japan, where it was created in 1994 by Denso Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota. It is considered the most popular type of two-dimensional barcode and was purposely designed to allow high speed decoding of data. Though QR codes are becoming popular on many products and advertisements, a lot of people still do not know what the dark modules stand for.
These two-dimensional matrix barcodes require special QR barcode readers to decode the data in them. Though they were created several years ago, their use in many products just started recently and this revolutionized technology may still become popular in the near future. Since QR codes have high data storage capacity and provide more advantages than linear barcodes, a lot of business owners use them. Furthermore, here are some of the benefits that a business owner can get from QR codes:
1. QR codes may be read anywhere and anytime using mobile phones. This makes them the data in them easy to decode. They also offer convenience because you do not need high end scanners to decode data.
2. QR codes are becoming popular. Though they were developed more than a decade ago in order to meet the demand of the inventory control in Japan, a lot of European countries and American cities start using this technology.
3. QR codes offer multiple uses. They offer simple access and won’t require you to type anything. With this technology, you may be able to dial telephone numbers, send messages and emails, see images and text, and visit websites.
The use of QR codes has spread like a wild fire in many industries as they bring convenience and many benefits. With the existing technology that we have, here are some of the common uses of QR codes:
QR Codes and Social Networking Sites
These codes may be generated and linked to several social networking sites like Facebook. They provide ease in sharing of identities.
QR Codes and QR Code Application Readers
There are several applications that can read QR codes. These applications may be downloaded directly to your iPhone, Blackberry or any Smartphone. Most of these applications may be downloaded for free.
QR Codes and Advertising Prospects
QR codes may be used to advertise in the fashion and jewel industry. In fact some business owners provide advertisements and offer promos and discounts using QR codes. They may be saved in the mobile phone which may serve as future reference both to the business owner and customer.
QR Codes and the Hospitality Segment Industry
These codes give positive results because of easy accessibility. They are seen in many locations which make them easier to identify. Some restaurants even use QR codes in their menus to provide their customers further details about the dish.
QR Codes and the Retail Industry
QR codes provide convenience in inventory management and purchasing. Some movie theaters allow mobile phone bookings and the ticket is sent through a QR code. Once scanned, it allows the person to enter the movie house.

Do You Need a Ipad Stylus Pen and How Do You Pick One? Have you recently bought an Ipad? The excitement of owning an Ipad alone is great and you will really enjoy using your new electronic tablet. However, after a few days of using it you might realize that the fingerprints all over the screen are starting to really annoy you or your freshly manicured nails are scratching the screen.

You might not mind cleaning off the screen a few times in a week but after every use it can become a dull chore. The question now is should you invest in a Ipad Stylus Pen. For most people the answer is yes right away, however you might be the kind of person that needs some proof that a stylus pen is worth it. Below you will discover three benefits of buying an Ipad Stylus Pen and you will also figure out the best way to pick the right one for you.

The first benefit is the fact that the stylus pen will prevent fingerprints.Fingerprints are annoying and require people to stop and rub them off with a cloth after a few minutes of use. When you invest in a Stylus Pen you don’t have to worry about getting any fingerprints on your Ipad screen.

The second benefit is that it is much easy to navigate around the Ipad system with a Stylus Pen. Have you even clicked the wrong thing with your fingers? It can be annoying and stressful when you are trying to work on something and you keep clicking or selecting the wrong thing. With a Stylus Pen you will be able to click the right item because it’s nothing like your finger tips.

The third benefit is that it is much easier to write handwritten notes with a Stylus Pen. the ability to write notes on a tablet is very important. Without the stylus pen you will have to point to all the letters you need to write your note. If speed is what you are searching for, a stylus pen will allow you to write a handwritten note as quickly as writing one onto paper.

After reading those benefits, you may be thinking that right now a stylus pen seems like the perfect idea. Then it’s time to decide which one you should buy. The great thing is that there are many different types of Stylus pens and not all are designed the same. Some are better than others and work well with the Ipad with the sensitivity as with your own finger.Purchase one that has good ratings and recommendations by others, it may not be the less expensive buy you will feel good knowing that you have a IPad pen that works.
There are many benefits of using an Ipad Stylus Pen. The three main benefits are that you will have no fingerprints , you will be able to navigate around the system better and you will be able to write handwritten notes with very little stress. All of these benefits make the Ipad Stylus Pen the perfect accessory for your Ipad. As an added bonus an Ipad Stylus Pen is a great accessory that makes your IPad a productivity tool that helps

Ciao for now!

Betty