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Thursday, 25 February 2010 00:00 |
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RIM recently launched BES Express, a stripped down version of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, its well known mobile messaging server. It will be evailable for free, and is targeted towards small and medium sized businesses which could earlier not afford BES. It allows users to push data to their BlackBerry devices, and synch information with MS Exchange or Small Business Server wirelessly. As Larry Dignan said in his recent article at ZDNet, the latest development is RIM's attempt to keep its products on small business servers. According to him, it should have ideally been a hosted service, not expecting companies to load and manage anything on their own servers. Moreover, BES Express also assumes that SMBs already have MS Exchange installed on their servers. Although this may be true for mid sized businesses, the MS Exchange burden itself is too much for small businesses. So there is a great gap for a solution that pushes email, contacts, calendars and tasks and synchs them wirelessly, irrespective of device, and does not require any software hosted on the users servers. HyperOffice say they have that covered with a soon to be announced mobile collaboration solution. Lets see what they offer.
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Friday, 29 January 2010 00:00 |
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The much awaited iPad was recently launched by Apple with much pomp and aplomb. With iPad, Apple intends to create a new device category which is in the middle of laptops and mobiles, and serves mainly the purpose of internet browsing, email, photo sharing and calendars. The tech crowd has not received the new Apple product with too much entuseasm, as they feel it has too many limitations - memory too limited, the inability to multitask, no camera, and the limitation of having to use AT&T as an internet service provider. Some even question whether it is logical to have a new device between laptops and mobiles. One thing is for sure. The device is a lot more mobile than a laptop with its 1.5 pound weight and 10 hour battery backup. On the other hand, its screen is a lot bigger than that of mobile devices and betters them in terms of internet experience. Like the iPhone and the iPod, if this device catches on, it may mean a lot for enterprises and collaboration software. The iPhone is increasingly being seen as a business device, especially because of its internet abilities and computing power. Since the iPad is so internet friendly, it definitely suits web based (saas) applications. In recent times, SaaS has been emerging as the hottest technology, and there is a greater need for teams to be able to collaborate remotely, even while travelling. The proliferation of an internet friendly device like the iPad which improves upon both laptops and mobiles in terms of internet experience, may provide both yet another thrust.
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Wednesday, 18 November 2009 00:00 |
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Top lists are an all time favorite topic to write about. So for this month of November, I ran across another good list at the Impact Lab site, which i borrowed from, and added a few of my personal favorites to. Without further ado, here is the list:- 1) iTerminal - iTerminal lets you accept credit card payments wherever business takes you. 
2) Analytics App - View Google Analytics reports on your iPhone. 
3) Evernote - Keep track of everything that happens in your life. 
4) HyperOffice iPhone Collaboration Suite - Access and share business email, documents, calendars, contacts and tasks right through your iPhone.  5) Tungle - Coordinate meetings with teams. 
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Last Updated on Monday, 23 November 2009 14:52 |
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Friday, 04 September 2009 00:00 |
 The golden boy of internet telephony, Skype, has been sold by its previous owners eBay, to a group of private investors. Specifically, eBay is selling 65 percent of the company to a group that includes Silver Lake, Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board. Earlier in 2005, eBay had purchased Skype for $3.1 Billion, hoping to "create an unparalleled ecommerce and communications engine for buyers and sellers around the world with Skype, eBay and PayPal". Ironically, that was not to be, as eBay never could exploit the possible synergies between its online marketplace and Skype's VOIP capabilities and ended it on the note of “Skype is a strong standalone business, but it does not have synergies with our e-commerce and online payments businesses.” All this has happened against the backdrop of continuous growth by Skype as a stand alone product. A few months ago it was reported that Skype has become the largest provider of cross-border voice communications in the world. Apart from being god sent for end consumers who can now communicate for free with relatives and friends around the world, it has increasingly making inroads into the business segment. Its recent "Skype for business" contest revealed innovative ways in which companies are using Skype to augment domestic and international operations. HyperOffice won the contest for North America. |
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 08 September 2009 11:21 |
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Tuesday, 28 July 2009 00:00 |
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The latest controversy in the world of mobility is, Apple has suddenly decided to take off Google Voice from the iPhone App store. Although its name might suggest otherwise, Google Voice is not a web telephony software like Skype, it is more a liaisoning service which uses voice over internet protocol (VoIP) to link customers' phone numbers together, to a single number. Even earlier Apple had taken down Google's voice enabled applications citing the reason that they "duplicate features provided by iPhone". In the current instance, more than a few people can see the invisible hand of AT&T at play in the background. Google Voice offers a number of features which clash with services ATnT provides - It allows users to send free SMS messages and get cheap long-distance over Google Voice’s lines. It also makes it trivial to switch to a new phone service, because everyone calls the Google Voice number anyway. The tech community is currently pretty irked at Apple, or AT&T behind the scenes, trying to stifle innovation. Update - Taking a cue from the enraged tech community, the govt has gotten involved. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has sent a letter to Apple, AT&T and Google asking, “why Apple rejected the Google Voice application for the iPhone and removed related “third-party applications” from its store.” Apple has some good explaining to do.
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Last Updated on Monday, 03 August 2009 18:41 |
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Tuesday, 07 July 2009 00:00 |
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I came across a nice list of iPhone business apps on BusinessWeek, which I thought I would share for you. There are an endless number of iPhone apps out there, both business and consumer, serious and non serious. BusinessWeek lists out what it thinks are really useful apps for corporates, and I will add a few favourites of my own. Citrix Receiver Lite - This app gives users access to Microsoft (MSFT) Windows applications and documents via iPhones. FedEx Mobile - This free app allows you to track your FedEx packages around the world right from your iPhone. Recorder by Retronyms - This voice recorder makes up for iPhone not having an inbuilt voice recorder. Salesforce Mobile - This is the mobile version of SF's famous CRM software. And now for my personal favourite:- HyperOffice - HyperOffice is a web app which lets you access and manage corporate mail, contacts, tasks, calendars and also documents from your iPhone.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 14 July 2009 11:42 |
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