Your Phone is Money

Square

Take payments anywhere.

Need a way to take mobile credit card payments? Get a free account from http://squareup.com. All you have to do is enter your bank account info and you have a gateway for incoming cash flow. They even send you the square device that attaches to your mobile phone for free. Processing fees are 2.5%, or 3.5% if you manually enter card info instead of swiping.

 

 

Mint

Manage you budget real time.

You may know that a Mint.com account is a way to see all of yor bank accounts, credit cards, and investments in one place. You can set up budgets, classify transactions and get a grip on your finances in one place. The Mint.com mobile app lets you do all this from your Android or iPhone. Just set up your Mint.com account online, download the app, and sign into your Mint.com account from your mobile phone.

 

Bloomberg Mobile App

Keep up with the market, and you portfolio.

The Bloomberg iPhone app packs a great set of investment-related tools and real time portfolio tracking, for free. The latest version enhancements include a more stable app, audio news, and news can be sorted by date. The Bloomberg iPhone App is currently available in 12 languages.

 

 

CheckPlease Light

Figure out that bar tab.

CheckPlease Lite is a free lightweight iPhone app that is a simple calculator for dividing a bill or figuring tips on your iPhone. This app is free and has an advertising banner running across the top, so is best used for trying the app out. If you like CheckPlease Lite, 99 cents lets you lose the banner. Uses local currency, available in 4 languages.

Make Your Projects Easier With Home Improvement Apps

Believe it or not, your Smart Phone can be a big help with home and garden projects. (And not just to call the plumber.) With the use of some well thought out smart phone applications, you can turn your handset into a tool kit or a decorating partner.

 

 

 

 

Ben Color Capture from Benjamin Moore, ColorSnap from Sherwin-Williams

Let’s face it, no matter how good your eye is, sometimes you pick the wrong paint color. These two smart phone apps let you find hue you like in the real world and turn it into a gallon (or 5) of paint. Both Benjamin Moore and Sherwin-Williams offer free applications that analyze the colors within photos you have snapped or uploaded to your mobile, and then display the closest matches in their line. Sherwin’s ColorSnap adds a palette of complementary shades to choose from for trim possibilities. (For iPhone; free)

HandyMan Sidekick

Nothing worse than buying too much paint. Wait, trying to wrap up a project and finding out that you are missing a few inches of wallpaper or tile is much worse. This Home Depot wingman calculates exactly how much you need of whatever you need. Plug in your room’s dimensions, including how many windows and doors are in it, and HandyMan will tell you how much paint to pick up. It can do similar computations for flooring or gardening projects. Extra perk: a feature that displays a bright compact-fluorescent bulb on your phone’s screen — an impromptu flashlight when you’re working in a dark corner. (For iPhone; $1.99)
For Android, there is a Quick-Paint Calculator (free)

Home Sizer

Planning to build an extension? This app lets you map out square footage, as well as construction costs. If you’re gearing up to build your home from scratch, the application breaks down mortgage costs so that you can make size adjustments, as well as changes to your loan term to more closely match your monthly budget. (For iPhone; $2.99)

I.D. Wood

Fifth-grade wood shop taught you only so much. This pocket guide gives you everything you need to know in the lumber aisle, including detailed specs and photos of 160 cuts of wood. You can find out how durable and sustainable that bed frame you’ve been eyeing is, or browse woods by color. Once you find the ideal timber, the program will show you appropriate cutting techniques and even the right nails to use for your project. (For iPhone; $2.99)

iHandy Carpenter

Five carpenter’s tools in a single application mean less sifting through an old toolbox to hang a picture. A digital plumb bob tells you if your walls are straight, while a bubble level helps keep things straight. Coolest feature: a digital ruler that measures items larger than your iPhone by using the mobile’s touch screen. Use the digital protractor when designing D.I.Y. pieces; when you’re done, pull out the surface level to make sure the desk you just built is on the straight and narrow. (For iPhone; $1.99)

 

PaintRemedy

There are any number of reasons why an old paint job may begin to crack, fade or chalk. PaintRemedy can help you identify the cause of the problem before you go grabbing for the dropcloths. Scroll through dozens of photos of common paint problems to pinpoint the issue in your house, and then read up on solutions to guide your next steps. (For iPhone; free)

Eden Garden Designer

Tulips or petunias? A successful garden is as much about planning as it is about a green thumb, so before you dig in, sketch out your perfect landscape. Snap a photo of where you’d like to plow and then select from a library of plant images to fill out your flower patch. You can filter by climate zone, blooming season, color, sun exposure, height and type. (For iPhone; 99 cents)

Garden Buddy

This landscaper’s assistant helps out with your backyard overhaul by calculating how much mulch, topsoil and sod to use, along with what types of fertilizer to add once you’ve plugged in soil-test results. When your dirt is ready, Garden Buddy lets you know how many plants to sow to cover a specified amount of space, and its database of 47 common vegetables tells you when to plant what, how much to grow to feed your household and how long to wait to harvest. (For iPhone; $1.99)

Garden Insects

Did you know one of the best ways to control nasty aphids is with ladybugs? No need to douse your plants with chemicals when there’s almost always a natural solution. Pinpoint what is bugging your botanicals using this full-color guide of 18 common garden pests and then read about home remedies to get rid of them. (For iPhone; 99 cents)

The Plant Doctor

Finger through this horticultural cheat sheet to find what is afflicting your houseplants. Select from 32 common symptoms and the Plant Doctor will deduce the root of the problem and come up with a game plan to resuscitate your foliage. If your problem is not listed, the app collects user-supplied text and photos and sends them to a professional plant pathologist, who will send back personalized advice. (For iPhone; $1.99)

Vegetable Gardening Guide

For those dabbling in urban gardening, this agricultural tool is rich with information. It has simple step-by-step planting instructions, including how to install drip irrigation, growing-season information and, for the edibles you harvest, nutritional details and recipes. (For iPhone; $2.99)

Like Movies? You will love the AMC Stubs App

Earn rewards, keep track of your movies, and view AMC movie times all on your smart phone.

Pre-Loaded Apps? Why, thank you!

Many people complain about preloaded apps on Android smart phones, saying that they are useless clutter. I can’t speak for any other carrier, but as far as Sprint’s apps are concerned, I say “Nay.” Read on to find out more.

The Sprint Zone. Manage all that is your Smart Phone.

The Sprint Zone  is an easy way to access your account using one-touch access. You can check your usage or upgrade eligibility on any of the lines on your account, pay your bill, or find a store close by. As if that wasn’t enough, below that is the most useful section of the Sprint Zone App, the “I Need Help” area. You can click on this to perform a self-diagnosis on the device as well as your voice & data connection, update your software, and view other tips and tricks to get your device in working order. If you scroll further down from this, you will see “Suggested Apps”,  Sprint-branded and other.

Entertainment Central

Sprint TV & Movies: Streaming video for TV shows & movies. Doesn’t get any simpler than that, does it? This comes for free on any Android phone, and works pretty well. However, what TV shows & movies that are available for free is entirely dependent on the content providers, so you have to peruse for yourself between the free content and the paid content, not unlike the apps in Google Play Store.

Online shopping without all that typing.

Sprint Mobile Wallet: a way to make online purchases safely with any website that has the Sprint Mobile Wallet icon. Try it sometime!

Pick your fancy, and get all the apps you need in one download.

Sprint ID: Customizing your phone is fun, but sometimes can be tedious, because of all the ways you can change the Android environment — wallpapers, sounds, apps on the home page(s), etc. Sprint ID makes it super simple: pick an ID pack that you like and it will change all that for you with the click of a button! Various ID packs include MTV, NASCAR, “Green” (for the environmental enthusiast), Latin, Sprint Relay, and lots, lots more!

I get around.

TeleNav GPS Navigator: how can we forget this app? Sprint is the only carrier to bundle free turn-by-turn GPS navigation software with their devices, and I’ve used it more times than I can count! With TeleNav, you’re never lost, just boot it up and ask it where to go. It stores your home and work address, keeps “favorites”, logs your recent visits, can search near you or a location, locate a friend or even just listen! Best part is that the TeleNav seamlessly integrates into your device, if you click on an address in any app, it will offer you the option of routing you there!

That was the preloaded apps, but there are quite a few Sprint-branded or approved apps available to download from the Play Store:

Nascar Sprint Cub Mobile: Track your favorite driver with this app, which includes live in-car audio, race audio, video, and real-time telemetry data.

Sprint NBA Mobile: Watch & listen to live NBA games for free!

Sprint Music Store: Sprint’s official store & Player for DRM-free songs & ring tones.

Sprint Mobile Alerts: Keeps you up-to-date with text messages about news that’s important to you.

Sprint Family Locator and Sprint Mobile Controls: We are entering a smart phone world, where kids younger and younger are being given smart phones by their parents, so Sprint offers ways for those parents to keep up with technology. Sprint Mobile Controls give you a greater control over their phone usage, as it enables you to be able to block their ability to call or text during a time preset by you, either family time, school hours, or bedtime. Sprint Family Locator, an invaluable service that Sprint offers for a scant $4 a month, allows the main account holder to track any phones on their account using the phone’s built-in GPS.

Lookout, Norton Mobile Security Lite, or Sprint Total Equipment Protection: Again, being in a smart phone world means more and more personal data and irreplaceable stuff is on your phone; what happens if you lose it, or download a malicious app that results in your phone crashing? Sprint has partnered with businesses and app developers to provide not just one, or two, but THREE choices of mobile security apps. The first available has been Lookout, which has quickly risen to the top of everyone’s list for security due to their easy-to-use interface. Just recently, Norton Mobile Security Lite has been made available (the Premium is available for $2.99 a month), utilizing Norton’s 20-year reign as the king of anti-virus protection. Last but not least is my personal favorite, Sprint’s Total Equipment Protection app, which has been available for over a year now. If you have your Android device signed up for Total Equipment Protection — Sprint’s insurance program that covers any kind of damage, including water damage, and even lost or stolen phones for only $8 a month — then this app offers you free backups of your device, as well as the ability to track it if it’s lost or stolen by simply signing into sprint.com/protection and entering your phone number and PIN. It doesn’t get any easier than that!
I saved the best for last…
Code Factory’s Mobile Accessibility App, which is designed for people who are blind or visually impaired and for elderly individuals who cannot read print on smart phones because of physical, perceptual, developmental, cognitive or learning disabilities. The app features a simplified UI and textual information that is spoken aloud with voice synthesis to help users who have trouble seeing with the usage of their Android devices. Want to hear the part that makes this the best offer? The usual price is $99, but Sprint customers get it for FREE.

With all that Sprint has to offer, it’s a no-brainer to say that the pre-loaded and Sprint-branded apps are a benefit, not a detriment, or to be ignored in favor of others. Try them out today!

Keep in Touch!

5 Easy Ways to Save and Maintain Phone Contacts

We’ve all been there: you get a new phone or have to do a factory reset, and suddenly the hundreds of phone numbers you’ve gathered over the years are gone. For a regular person, this can be anywhere from problematic to an easy fix with a Facebook group. But for business professionals, the loss of so many phone numbers and personal information can be down-right catastrophic. So what can you do? It’s not always easy to be prepared for a random data-wipe, or worse yet, the theft of a phone.

I am here to tell you, that with a quick download of one of these three applications, you will never have to worry about losing a contact again.

Lookout Mobile Security

Now, I like to be as honest as possible, so I just want to disclose my bias for this particular application: I have used Lookout Mobile Security since the very first day I activated my smartphone. It serves as a malware and net, scanning every single application you download and if you upgrade to the Premium Edition, will monitor your web-browsing for any malicious programming. It also has a Missing Device tracker and a Privacy Adviser that monitors applications with access to your private data. This will all be covered in my next blog post, but the most important feature for today is the Backup function.

Backup works exactly like you’d expect – it downloads your contacts to your Lookout Account and keeps them stored to an online account. Backup can be customized to download your contacts list daily or weekly and can be set for specific times so it doesn’t bog down your phone in the middle of an application download or phone call. If you find yourself getting a new phone, replacing a stolen/broken one, or just recovering from a factory reset, re-downloading the free application and signing in with your username will restore your contact list to your phone. Sign up for the premium edition of Lookout and you can even backup your pictures and call history to your Lookout Account.

Lookout Mobile Security is a free application available for Android and iPhone users. Lookout Premium is available for Android at $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year.

Gmail

Since I’m an Android user, of course this is on my list. Gmail’s back up is a god-send amongst Android users. With a simple click we can sync everything from contacts and calendar events to eBooks to our Google Account and restore it to our phone in less than 5 minutes. I have never had a worry about resets or data wipes, because  my Gmail Account has everything I need synced up and ready to work with just a few taps of my fingers.

It’s a fantastic application and since Android devices are required to have a Google Account in order to access the Play Store and download applications, there is no real reason for any Android user to completely lose their contact list. iPhone users aren’t left out in the cold either; Gmail is easy to set up on an iPhone and as long as you enable Google Sync you will be able to keep your contacts safe just like us.

MyBackup Pro

MyBackup Pro is one of those applications that makes having an Android just a little bit easier. While it does cost money, it is one of the best applications for saving your data in case of an emergency. MyBackup Pro is an application that allows you to back up absolutely everything; applications, SMS, contacts, eBooks, browser bookmarks, Calendar, Alarms, Music, Photos, and even your Android System settings. The information can either be loaded to your SD card or their secure online servers. I got to play around with the free 30 Day Trial version and while it was initially confusing to set up, the Developers and community are really good when it comes to offering information to fix any problem you have.

My Backup Pro is $4.99 on the Play Store.

Stay tuned for next week’s application review; Lookout Mobile Security!