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Posts Tagged ‘apple iphone’

An iPhone App that Pays YOU

May 26th, 2010 by Erin Posted in Technology | No Comments »

It seems far-fetched.  A FREE Apple iPhone application that pays you.

It’s called Field Agent – and if you don’t have it, get it.

While it’s not going to make you millions – or even thousands – Field Agent will put a few bucks in your pocket by giving you access to odd jobs in and around your neighborhood.

When I say odd jobs, I mean simple tasks like collecting retail pricing and display information, event images, photos of items for sale and consumer surveys.

Complete the jobs, earn real money!

The Field Agent software uses the iPhone’s built-in tools to provide clients with information including agent history, GPS location, time and date stamps, and photo confirmations. Payments can range from $3- to-$8, depending on the job’s degree of difficulty. Clients, in turn, can rate agents for their reliability and accuracy.

Field Agent requires iPhone OS 3.1 or later and is compatible with iPod Touch – even the iPad.

I’d love to say Field Agent is unique to the recession-friendly outsourcing market – but it isn’t. There are other sites just like it on Internet – oDesk, CloudCrowd, and Fiverr just to name a few. But, Field Agent is the first application of its kind. And, one a lot of people will be using.

Will Field Agent replace your full-time 9-to-5 job?

No.

But the app will give you a little walking around money – and that’s something everyone could use.

 Tags: apple iphone, field agent iphone app, odd jobs, outsourcing marketing

Apple iPhone vs Nexus One

January 13th, 2010 by Erin Posted in Technology | No Comments »

It’s on!

The big reveal has taken place.

Finally, we know what the Google phone – Nexus One – is all about.

And while the world is giddy, Apple is no doubt a tad bit nervous today.

Truth be told, I haven’t seen Nexus One with my own eyes – but I’m hearing it is about to give the iPhone a run for its money. Its specs alone are enough to take the iPhone head-on.

Comparisons between the two have just begun – and, well, by the sound of what’s being said on the street, Nexus One simply obliterates the iPhone.

But the experts at Techtree offer a different view. Here’s their objective take on the iPhone vs. Nexus One in some key feature areas:

Screen

When they launched the iPhone in 2007, a resolution of 320×480 was insane. Remember, these were the days of the N95s and the P1i’s, where QVGA resolutions ruled the roost. 240×320 was the best you could get and I remember looking at the N73 once and my jaw dropped when I saw the screen resolution of the now outdated phone. Just when I was sure that mobile phone screens couldn’t get any better, they launch the iPhone. If that wasn’t enough, they add multitouch to it, something unheard of then.

Fast forward to 2010 and almost three years later, while Apple is still stuck at 320×480, the likes of Symbian S60 have moved to 360×640 and the Nexus One with a 800×480 pixel screen makes the iPhone screen look pedestrian. Add to it the fact that the Nexus One boasts of an AMOLED screen, which further tilts the scale in favour of the Google Phone. Another thing that should not be forgotten is that the Nexus One has a larger 3.7- inch display. The extra few inches does boost your ego by 10x, doesn’t it? (Warning: Proximity to HTC HD2 users not recommended for Nexus One users) So, if you bought the iPhone for the sole reason that it had a kick-ass screen, it’s time to change your phone!

Imaging

This was a grey area in the iPhones armour during the time of the 2G and the 3G iterations of the device. In the company of the 3.2 and 5 megapixels of the world, the iPhones 2 megapixel camera was simply outdated. It did not have autofocus or flash and some even termed it a bad job at making a pinhole camera. To add insult to injury, it was incapable of capturing videos unless you jailbreak the phone and defy Apple’s command. With the arrival of the 3GS in 2009, Apple played catch-up with the world and managed to cram in a 3.2 megapixel camera. This took far better pictures and supported video recording as well, that too at a very decent VGA resolution.

The first generation Nexus One already boasts of a 5 megapixel camera, with LED flash and autofocus and at least on paper should take far better pictures than the iPhone. The video recording too is better (not by much though). The Nexus One is capable of recording videos in D1 (720×480) resolution at 20FPS. While we are yet to see how the videos turn out, this is still better than what the 3GS can do now.

Operating System

To start with, this is not an iPhone OS Vs Android battle but why the Nexus One is simply a more open platform as compared to the OSX platform of the iPhone. Apple’s policy of not allowing developers to make apps that mimic the core functionality of their own existing apps viz. the calendar, browser and even an e-mail client is not applicable to Android. This throws in a lot of options for the consumer. I don’t need 200 different apps to fart online! Give me a better e-mail client or at least the choice to switch between the applications of my choice.

Similar is the case with browsers. Who wouldn’t love to see Opera Mobile run on an iPhone? Yes, the existing browser on the iPhone is quite capable, but then, all we are asking for is a choice! Apart from this, from what we hear from primary reports, the Nexus One seems to work a lot faster than the iPhone – even with the phone multitasking. While this might be attributed to the higher Clock speed of the Snapdragon processor inside the Nexus One, we should not forget hat the iPhone 3GS too is powered by a very competent ARM Cortex A8 processor, which by no means is a laggard.

Voice Command

Whats the big deal huh? The iPhone already has it. I can just say in the artistes name and the iPhone will play it for me. I can even call my friend by simply saying her pet name on my iPhone. And that’s where it all comes to an abrupt halt. The Nexus One’s biggest and probably the most praiseworthy feature is the amazing speech to text ability it possesses. Too bored to type in your e-mail or update your facebook status or even tweet? Simply say it aloud and the phone will type it for you! While watching the launch of the phone on Tuesday, if there was a feature for which there was a collective applause, this was it. Who needs a physical keyboard if this works the way it is supposed to work? However, we will still take the voice commands with a pinch of salt as we Indians tend to have accent issues. If Google has taken care of that part as well (I’m quite sure they would have), this is something that would make even Swype look passe’ and so 2009!

Application Approval

While this does not have anything to do with the iPhone and the Nexus One directly, the eco system in which both operate are important. iPhone’s app store was a revolutionary initiative. Whatever we see now in the form of the Android Market and the Ovi Store and the BlackBerry AppWorld are nothing but copies of Apple’s idea of a centralised app store.

While the app store has been a roaring success, it still suffers from a “fascist” app approval process. The Android Market on the other hand has lesser apps and from a developer point of view, the process of approval is far less tedious. Also, thanks to the open platform, Android guys have a lot less to bother about than the ones who affix the stamp of approval at Cupertino.

Battery

So you love your iPhone very much and use it 24/7. But one fine day you realise you haven’t turned off the phone in two years and that the battery inside it (yes there’s one in there) needs to be replaced. Under normal circumstances (read, if you use a normal phone), you buy a new battery, open the lid at the back and replace it and continue what you were doing. But hey, this is Apple, we do things differently here. If your battery goes kaput on the iPhone all you need to do is to drag yourself to the nearest Apple Store (or a dealer in India) to have the battery replaced. This is because Apple thinks batteries are immovable objects and should remain inside till it meets its fate. The Nexus One happens to fall under the “normal phones” category and if you ever feel you’ve had enough of its battery, go ahead and get a new one.

Last, but not least, I’d like to add that Google has not married itself to one service provider – as Apple has done with AT&T.

That, in my book, is the biggest boon of all.

 Tags: apple iphone, google phone, iphone vs nexus one, nexus one features

The Reality Of A BlackBerry

August 13th, 2009 by Erin Posted in Technology | No Comments »

Let me preface this post by saying that I think the terms “CrackBerry” and “BlackBerry Addiction” are so passe.

Yet, when I was recently asked to ponder the convenience of my BlackBerry, I felt a resounding force that made me want to scream: “Yes, I am addicted to my BlackBerry!”

Admittedly, I brought this upon myself – and I suspect a lot of Apple iPhone users feel the same way.

I chose to buy a BlackBerry.

I chose my BlackBerry apps – and shamelessly, I use them countless times a day.

Am I a slave to this device? Obviously, yes.

But yet, without it, I would be glued to my computer – checking emails, checking my social networking accounts, checking Twitter.

Convenience really is a factor with a BlackBerry. I am able to pull away from the computer throughout the day to spend time with my family, really give them my undivided attention.

Sure, the BlackBerry is attached to me like an appendage, but at least I can choose to ignore it at dinner time. I know I can respond to whoever made that God forsaken red light flash after dinner – without having to boot up the laptop.

Yes, my BlackBerry is certainly a convenience – but it’s at my side everywhere I go.

At the market.

To a restaurant.

In the backyard.

Sometimes I have to force myself to leave it in the car – just for a break.

Perhaps I’ve said too much in this post. But it’s my reality – and if you own a BlackBerry or iPhone, it’s probably yours too.

If you feel you’re immune to this – please step forward. I’d really like to hear from you.

Send me an email.

I’ll get back to you – on my BlackBerry.

 Tags: apple iphone, blackberry addiction, blackberry apps, blackberry convenience, crackberry

Apple iPhone 3.0 More Business Friendly

March 26th, 2009 by Erin Posted in Business | 1 Comment »

Blackberry is out. iPhone is in.

If anyone ever had any complaints about the Apple iPhone in the past – well, it’s time to take another look.

This week Apple released a beta version of its next generation software and it will no doubt heed to the newly emerged apps craze.

Aside from new peer-to-peer connectivity, turn-by-turn directions, and a much anticipated cut and paste feature, the Apple iPhone 3.0 is essentially a third-party developers dream – and could become quite the little handy device for businesses.

Right now, there are already more than 25,000 applications in the Apple App Store; buy ‘em and download ‘em just like iTunes. In an effort to fuel the craze even more, iPhone 3.0 software will include more than 1,000 new application programming interfaces.

Developers need not worry about finding work in this economy. Apple’s got them covered.

Here, though, is the real highlight of the 3.0 upgrade: business support.

Until now, it had been thought that iPhones were just cool consumer devices and inappropriate for business. Now it seems business software companies are clamoring to get in on the apps action.

Here’s a look at what some of the bigger names in business software are doing:

-Workday, a provider of hosted business software, plans to post an application on the Apple App Store that will let customers tap into their human resources and financial systems from iPhones.

-Sybase, which has already released a mobile client “in-box” for e-mail, data security, and business processes for Windows and Symbian devices, plans to post an iPhone version on the App Store next week.

-Oracle now has five apps on the App Store. It’s most successful one, for accessing Oracle business intelligence software, has been downloaded by nearly 44,000 iPhone users.

Wow! Imagine what we’ll see in future upgrades? I guess it really is okay to bring your iPhone to work.

 Tags: apple iphone, business apps, iphone 3.0, iphone business