Globe to launch GCash mobile app for iPhone, BlackBerry

Starting March, Philippine telecommunications provider Globe Telecom will make its GCASH micropayment service available to users of smartphones and devices running Apple's iOS and Research In Motion's BlackBerry platforms.

 

The GCASH iPhone app will be available for download at the iTunes App Store for free, Globe said in a news release.

 

“The new GCASH Mobile App for iPhones will make our customers enjoy doing their GCASH transactions. We are setting a new standard for customer experience in the field of financial services,” said Paolo Baltao, President of G-Xchange, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Globe and operator of GCASH.

Apple iPhone

 

Globe said the new GCASH iPhone app makes it more convenient for users to do their GCASH transactions like sending money, buying airtime load, and paying bills, without the need to memorize keywords or access numbers.

 

Also, the app for Apple's iPhones boasts of a new feature enabling users to send money not only to people in their phonebook but also to their e-mail and Facebook contacts.

 

When a subscriber launches the GCASH mobile app, he or she just needs to type in his mobile number and Mobile PIN (MPIN) to log in.

 

He or she will be greeted with his or her “moneybook” which lists down all GCASH transactions for the month in real-time.

 

Globe said clean and intuitively-designed screens will guide the subscriber in doing his GCASH transactions.

 

BlackBerry phones

 

Globe said a similar app for GCASH can be downloaded from the BlackBerry App World.

 

Usere need only click on the GCASH icon on the Main Menu of their BlackBerry® to launch the application.

 

"There is no need to go to any website to transact. Internet connection is also not needed. The app is very accessible and easy to use. Subscribers only need to enter the details of their transaction together with their Mobile PIN (MPIN) as prompted by the application to conduct any GCASH transaction," it said.

 

It added there is no need to memorize any keywords or access numbers.

 

The new GCASH application for BlackBerry® smartphones displays the wallet balance at the top of the screen which is automatically updated after every completed transaction, providing the user with easy reference to his wallet balance.

 

Sending money via the GCASH application is also made easier. The application allows the user to access his BlackBerry Contacts List without switching applications.

 

BlackBerry users who have downloaded the GCASH mobile application will automatically receive upgrade notifications for them to immediately enjoy the latest version.

 

“With the GCASH BlackBerry app, customers will enjoy a richer experience when doing GCASH transactions,” said Baltao.

 

Instead of just using SMS or the GCASH Menu on the Globe or TM SIM, subscribers may now do transactions via a more interactive, user-friendly, and stylish manner. —TJD, GMA News

 

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GSMA Announces New Initiative Addressing Mobile App Privacy

Publishes a set of global Privacy Design Guidelines for Mobile Application Development

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobile World Congress -- The GSMA, with the support of leading mobile operators in Europe and following consultation across the wider mobile ecosystem, has published a set of global Privacy Design Guidelines for Mobile Application Development. The guidelines aim to provide users with better transparency, choice and control over how apps use their personal information. Mobile operators in Europe will implement the guidelines for their own branded applications.

"Mobile has become an incredibly important and influential tool for people around the world, regardless of age or geography," said Anne Bouverot, Director General, GSMA. "However, with this growing use come significant privacy concerns over the ability of mobile users to exercise choice and control over the use of their personal information. The publication and implementation of the Privacy Design Guidelines for Mobile Application Development will help preserve the trust and confidence of users as they navigate this new world of applications."

The GSMA is committed to working with stakeholders from across the mobile ecosystem to help establish effective and consistent privacy experiences for mobile users, and to ensure that privacy is a key consideration of all mobile services.These guidelines build upon the Mobile Privacy Principles introduced last year and describe the way in which consumers' privacy should be respected and protected when they are using mobile applications and services that access, use, or collect their personal information.

Mobile operators in Europe, including Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom - Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, Telekom Austria Group, Telenor Group, TeliaSonera and Vodafone, are now starting to implement these guidelines for their own operator-branded mobile applications. It is hoped other parties in the mobile ecosystem will follow the lead of mobile operators and consider how they can adopt the guidelines.
"Protecting our customers' data is of paramount importance to Orange, and we are fully supportive of this initiative that clearly puts customers' needs for privacy at the forefront," said Jean-Marie Culpin, Group Director of Marketing, Orange. He continued: "As more and more of our customers reap the benefits of what the digital age has to offer, Orange is here not only to provide these opportunities, but to support, guide and protect them on this journey of discovery."

"Customer privacy is a priority for Telecom Italia, and since adopting the GSMA Mobile Privacy Principles, we have actively worked with the wider community to develop the Privacy Design Guidelines for Mobile Application Development," said Franco Bernabe, Chairman and CEO of Telecom Italia Group and Chairman of GSMA. "The adoption of these guidelines is a starting point to define a whole ecosystem in which mobile network operators, vendors, Over the Top Players and third parties collaborate for a single, global privacy approach."

"Customers' confidence and trust in our mobile services are key for our business. Thus, Telekom Austria Group supports the Applications Developers Guidelines and is fully committed to implementing this initiative," said Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO, Telekom Austria Group.

"Telenor participated in the work with the GSMA Privacy Principles that were released by the GSMA in January last year, and has, as a natural continuation of this work, been involved in the work with Privacy by Design Guidelines for Mobile Apps," said Kjetil Rognsvag, Group Privacy Officer Telenor Group. "Telenor believes that it is necessary in the ever more global application market to do our best to safeguard our customers' use and thereby also safeguarding our own business. The guidelines are a step in this direction, and Telenor has already started implementing them in our organization."

"In order to maintain the strong growth in both the sales and popularity of mobile apps, customers need to be confident that their privacy is protected when they use them," said Stephen Deadman, Group Privacy Officer, Vodafone. "This is the responsibility of the entire mobile industry, and these guidelines set an important standard in defining what consumers should expect from their apps."

The Mobile App Privacy Design Guidelines are aimed at all those in the mobile app or service delivery chain who are responsible for collecting and processing personal information about mobile users, including developers, device makers, OS companies, mobile operators, advertisers and analytic companies. The guidelines encourage the development, delivery and operation of mobile applications that put users first and help them understand what personal information a mobile application may access, collect and use; what the information will be used for and why; and how users may exercise choice and control over this use.

"The Privacy Guidelines which are being implemented now are an important first step, but to effect real change, there needs to be close collaboration between the mobile industry, Internet industry, civil society and regulators," continued Bouverot. "Today's announcement is a good first step in establishing best practices for our industry. We encourage an active dialogue and broad support of these guidelines across the entire ecosystem to ensure we deliver a secure environment that respects the privacy of mobile consumers."
For a copy of the GSMA's Privacy Design Guidelines, please visit http://www.gsma.com/Mobile-Privacy-Design-Guidelines.
About the GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide. Spanning more than 220 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world's mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as the Mobile World Congress and Mobile Asia Expo.

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Online Privacy Agreement Targets Mobile Apps

Although it applies only to apps used by California residents, the state's plan is expected to have national and possibly international impact.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced in San Francisco that she has determined that a state online privacy law covers the hundreds of thousands of mobile applications used by Californians and that she is taking steps to enforce it.

Harris said she has reached an agreement with six leading Internet platform operators, including Google, Apple and Microsoft, on principles for making mobile app developers aware of the law and requiring them to observe it.

If the app developers don't obey the law, Harris said, "We can sue and we will sue."

"We have forged an agreement to strengthen privacy protection for millions of mobile app users in California and around the world," Harris said at a news conference at the State Building.

Mobile apps, used on devices such as smartphones and computer tablets, are connections to websites designed for specific tasks, which could range from finding the next bus to creating an online journal.

Photos and Videos

The California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003 requires an operator of a website or online service that collects personal information from California residents to "conspicuously post its privacy policy."

 The policy must explain what information the app collects and what entities are given the information.

The law doesn't prohibit developers seizing personal information, such as a contact list or identifying data, from the devices of consumers who download their apps. That practice by some developers, often carried out without consumers' knowledge, has been the subject of recent news reports.

But Harris said enforcement of the law will help consumers by enabling them to learn in advance whether a mobile app will collect personal data and giving them a chance to refuse to download it.

"The consumer has the right to know this information and to have the tools to have control," she said.

The agreement with the six Internet companies that offer platforms for mobile apps provides that a developer will be required to display its privacy policy before a consumer downloads the app, Harris said.

She said that until now, there has been some confusion about whether the privacy law applies to mobile apps, but her staff has now resolved that issue by determining that it does.

Violations of the law could result in fines of $5,000 per user, she said.

In addition to Google, Apple and Microsoft, the platform operators that signed on to the agreement are Amazon, Hewlett-Packard and Research in Motion, the maker of the Blackberry smartphone.

Harris said the Apple App Store sells nearly 600,000 mobile apps and Google Android Market sells another 400,000. These apps have been downloaded more than 35 billion times, she said.

Although it applies only to apps used by California residents, the state's plan is expected to have national and possibly international impact because of the number of Californians and because it would be complicated for developers to work out a way to display their privacy policies only to Californians.

Harris said she and her staff has been working with the platform companies to develop the agreement since August.

Mitchell Kapor, a San Francisco technology expert and founder of Lotus Development Corp. who has been an advisor to Harris, said he thinks the agreement is a good first step.

"A big impact of having this agreement is that there is much more clarity on what's fair territory and what's foul territory for app developers," he said.

"They will now pay attention to this issue and it means there are very many privacy infractions that will never take place," Kapor said.

He called the state's plan "a significant series of steps on a long and ongoing journey" to consumer privacy and to "how we will live with all this technology and how it changes our world."

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Victoria's Songspin Launches Mobile App for its Free Internet Radio

Victoria-based Songspin has launched its first mobile app. The internet radio startup has brought its web-based radio platform to the iPhone and iPad, allowing users to discover new music on the go.

Its ad- and interruption-free and there are no disc jockeys blabbing between tracks. Like on the website version, Songspin's mobile app enables users to filter tracks by a variety of genres. Listeners can then share choice tracks through social media and craft their own personal playlists, all for free. Do note, though, that each song will run you about three to four megabytes of data—so make sure you monitor your usage when not on wifi.

"With the release of this free iPhone app, we're moving one step closer to our plan of bringing Songspin to all devices," says James Gagan, Songspin.FM co-founder. "Our Android app will be released soon so we'll have all the major bases covered. We want our users to be able to enjoy Songspin radio anywhere they go."

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Twitter updates mobile apps, goes to Kindle Fire

The updates create a more optimized user experience, fix a few glitches here and there, and take advantage of touchscreen functionality such as swiping gestures to reply or tag your friends' tweets.

Twitter has just rolled out updates to its official mobile apps, and as part of the process has released a Kindle Fire-optimized version of its Android app.

It has also joined Facebook and a growing crowd of app developers in creating a special Android app that is designed specifically to be optimized on the Kindle Fire, the #1 Android tablet on the market right now.
But let's get serious; there's one major reason why Twitter needed to update its mobile application - privacy. It came to light recently that the microblogging site's mobile app has a propensity to store complete contact info on someone's phone, not only of the person using the phone but every single one of his or her contacts.
In other words, even if you've never been to Twitter before, your name, phone number, and e-mail address could be on Twitter's servers just as long as one of your friends has a smartphone and used the Twitter app's friend-finding feature, which scours the phone's entire contact list and copies pertinent information about those contacts.

Now, as part of the app update, when that feature is used, users are warned, "We will securely upload your contacts to help you find friends and suggest users to follow on Twitter."

Previously, there was no such indication that users would be uploading their entire contact list to Twitter. It's still not ideal, but in this world no one really cares about their privacy anymore anyway.

The updates apply to both the Android and iOS versions of Twitter's official apps.

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Mobile Meets SMB: How Mobile Apps can Help Small Businesses Compete

 

When was the last time you used a mobile app at work?  I would guess you’ve already used at least one mobile app today.  According to a study by the Small Business and Entrepreneur Council, small businesses that use mobile apps to manage their operations save more than 370 million business hours and more than 725 million employee hours annually.  That’s a huge amount of time saved which is so important for any company – after all, time is fleeting and needs to be invested wisely.  The study, which surveyed firms with 20 or fewer employees, found that 31% of companies saved an average of 5.6 hours per week because of mobile apps.  So what are the best apps for saving your company time and money?  Below is a list of some of my favorite apps to up your company’s productivity and profitability.

Apps to Manage Money

Accounting can be incredibly time consuming.  When an employee travels for work, have them download Expensify.  Expensify allows an employee to import expenses straight from their credit card or bank account.  The app even lets employees scan their receipts for inclusion in expense reports.  Expensify lets employees track mileage by entering their destinations on a map.  The app has QuickBooks integration built in which is quite a boon as many companies rely on QuickBooks for accounting.  Expensify is free for individuals or $5 per user per month to approve expense reports as a company.
If you are a business that accepts payment on the go, you should consider Square.  Square provides a credit card reader that attaches to iPads, Androids and iPhones.  The app and the card reader are free and every swipe costs 2.75 percent.

Note and Document Apps
With many employees working from home, accessing documents from mobile devices is more important than ever.  One solution is Dropbox, a cloud storage system that’s free for up to two gigabytes of storage.  The advantage of Dropbox is that you can directly share documents with a group of people without crowding their inbox. 

Now, how do you manage all the documents and materials you come across?  Evernote is designed just for this purpose.  It’s not only creating a to-do list on your mobile device; Evernote captures and labels all of your documents, pictures and notes.  This way, you can document on the go and always tie your documents back to a specific project.

Desktop Virtualization from Anywhere

Enterprise solutions have really started to catch up to the mobile trend.  Two very popular virtualization services, VMware and Citrix, both have mobile versions.  VMware View allows for a personalized experience for each user while still allowing IT to maintain security and control.  Citrix Receiver makes it easy to provide a store-like interface for users so they can access desktops, applications, and IT services from their mobile device.  Citrix, like VMware, still keeps IT in the driver’s seat for security and control, and Citrix allows companies to maintain centrally-hosted service delivery. 

So, those are my favorites. Which mobile apps do you like best for business?

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Mobile App Development

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Antenna service supports full lifecycle of mobile app

Businesses can use the new AMPchroma hosted service to design, publish, manage and analyze mobile apps

Antenna Software on Tuesday plans to launch a hosted service that will let businesses design, build, publish, manage and analyze mobile apps that are geared toward employees or customers.

AMPchroma, the new suite of services, is based on the Antenna Mobility Platform, which Antenna has been using to develop, manage and host apps for customers. It is now opening up the platform so that customers can access it to build and manage their own apps.

An IT administrator at a business using AMPchroma can set permissions so that individual workers can log into the service and only access certain functions. For example, a product developer, who might have scant software development skills, can be given access to a drag-and-drop service for designing the functionality of an app. A marketer might have access only to the analytics.

The product developer can choose from design theme templates created by Antenna or create a new template. The user can then drag and drop images, RSS buttons, advertisements and text boxes onto each page of the app. The user can preview the app as it would look on the screen of a specified phone.
Antenna maintains a database of phone models available around the world that grows by around 200 devices a month and currently includes 10,000 devices, said Jim Somers, chief marketing and strategy officer for Antenna. On the back end, AMPchroma optimizes the app to fit the device.

AMPchroma isn't designed only for non-technical users, however. A developer can also use an Eclipse workbench to do deeper development. Users can build native, Web and HTML5 apps and mobile websites.
AMPchroma lets users build private application stores so that a developer can push out an app to an internal store only accessible to the marketing team, for instance, which may need to review and approve a new app before publishing it more broadly.

AMPchroma also lets users build public branded app stores and stores that all employees could access for corporate applications.

When a customer is ready to publish the app to all users, Antenna is keen to host the app for them. With three data centers around the world, Antenna maintains that it can offer a high-quality and reliable service that is geared toward hosting the mobile apps its customers build.

AMPchroma also collects data about how many people are using the apps and how, so that a marketing person, for example, can examine usage information and suggest changes to the app.
With AMPchroma, Antenna hopes to help businesses consolidate the number of vendors and products they are using to develop their mobile apps, Somers said.

"We've found that most companies are managing four mobile projects on average and three to four vendors, depending on the size of the company. They're having a hard time keeping up," he said.

While Antenna hopes that customers will exclusively use all of the tools in AMPchroma, it also tries to make it easy for customers to continue using other tools if they want. For instance, if developers are using something like Jquery to build an app, the developer can continue to do so and publish and track the app through AMPchroma, he said.

Antenna is among just a few vendors offering a service that aims to take care of the full range of functions related to mobile app development and publishing. But it joins a host of companies like Rhomobile and Appcelerator that aim to make it easier to develop once for multiple phone platforms, and others like Appmobi that offer developer tools as well as analytics.

Nancy Gohring covers mobile phones and cloud computing for The IDG News Service. Follow Nancy on Twitter at @idgnancy. Nancy's e-mail address is Nancy_Gohring@idg.com

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ATandT Launches Mobile Health Developer Portal

With Developer Center ForHealth, AT&T looks to enable the development of health care applications that can connect to clinical data.

Print Version Sponsored By More than 17,000 mobile health applications are on the market, yet they're not compatible with each other. To resolve this problem, AT&T is planning to hook up these proprietary tools. The company has launched a beta version of a cloud developer portal called Developer Center ForHealth to allow these mobile apps to be accessible by hospital systems and medical peripherals. The Developer Center will consist of an open set of developer tools and infrastructure to help health care organizations deploy and manage mobile health apps. Software producers can access the Developer Center at mhealth.att.com. ForHealth, the health care practice AT&T launched in 2010, will oversee the Developer Center. AT&T also formed Development Center ForHealth through the AT&T Foundry, a unit that fosters innovation in applications, devices, cloud computing, enabling technologies and operational support. The Developer Center also features an API gateway and mobile client that developers can embed into third-party applications, allowing them to link to each other, as well as to medical devices and peripherals. Through the API gateway, applications will be able to link to blood pressure cuffs, weight scales and other devices. While 500 million people are expected to be using mobile health apps worldwide by 2015, many of today’s apps can't connect to clinical workflows, said Eleanor Chye, executive director of mobile health care and pharma at AT&T. "We're going to create the common pipes through which data will flow," she told eWEEK. AT&T will provide a free software development kit (SDK). By using AT&T's tools, developers will be able to create both mash-up and umbrella applications to make these apps compatible, Chye said. Through the Developer Center, IT professionals designing applications will be able to create GUIs to allow doctors and patients to access information such as lab reports or electronic prescriptions in various formats, she added. The developer kit will enable developers to install soft keys in applications to allow individuals to manage their health care data, Chye said. "The AT&T Developer Center ForHealth is fundamental to our m-health strategy, as we plan to use the same infrastructure and services that we make available to developers to create our own interconnected health care applications focused on mobile patient care and enterprise mobilization," Chris Hill, vice president of advanced mobility solutions at AT&T Business Solutions, said in a statement. Proprietary mobile health apps are like "stand-alone electronic log books," AT&T reported. In addition, AT&T is working on creating a data-integration engine to link apps to data systems for hospitals, physicians and health insurers. "We're creating an ecosystem where they can easily utilize an open environment to build apps that transmit consumers' data from a variety of sources in a highly secure manner," said Hill. AT&T will collaborate with partners, such as health IT conference organizers HIMSS and Health 2.0, on hackathons and codeathons to get the development community to test the Developer Center tools, said Chye. The company will also collaborate with health care IT startup accelerator Rock Health on developer boot camps. With a need to invest in HIPAA- (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)-compliant data storage, hospitals find it costly to get applications connected, Chye said. She noted that connecting mobile health tools and using them with patients could cost hospitals $3,000 per application. Original Source

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WML emulator brings classic Windows Mobile apps to Windows Phone 7

Microsoft may have given up on the Windows Mobile operating system, opting to start over from scratch with Windows Phone 7. But some users haven’t given up on Windows Mobile, and the thousands of games and other apps designed to run on the aging mobile operating system.


The folks at the Dark Forces Team are working on a new project called WML which allows you to load Windows Mobile in an emulator window on a Windows Phone 7 device.

That means you can run classic Windows Mobile apps such as the TCPMP media player or games like Worms World Party.

DFT hasn’t released WML to the public yet, but the team has published a video showing the emulator running Windows Mobile 6.1 on an HTC HD7 smartphone. Windows Mobile 6.5 is also supported, and you can switch back and forth between WML and native Windows Phone 7 apps.

You’ll need an unlocked phone with a supported processor to run WML when it’s eventually released to the public.

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Mozilla Eyes Windows 8 Compatibility, Firefox Mobile App Store 

Internet application developer Mozilla unveiled its revamped 2012 Strategy & Roadmap this week, demonstrating a desire to move Firefox, the company’s popular Web browser, further into the field of mobile technology. New versions of the browser, and its improved functionality, also appear aimed at making Firefox more competitive with the likes of Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) browser, Chrome, released in late 2008.

A product of open-source software development, Firefox will be getting overhauled to better suit the much-anticipated Windows Phone 8 operating system from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). Windows 8 will include both “Classic” and “Metro” styles, with the latter referring to the simplified touchscreen-oriented interface first developed for Windows Phone 7.

Mozilla will make Firefox more touchscreen friendly while also reducing its bulk to accommodate Windows 8’s partial reliance on low-powered ARM microprocessors. The efficacy of Windows 8 will be a huge metric in deciding where browser technologies will flourish in the mobile sphere, and adapting Firefox to Windows 8 will be necessary if Mozilla wants to remain competitive on Windows devices.

All of this could be good not only for the Mozilla team but also for smartphone adoption, since smartphone users will be able to use familiar tools to navigate the Web. Microsoft also is loading a new version of its Web browser, Internet Explorer, onto its forthcoming smartphones and tablets. In addition, a newly launched Google Chrome app, now available in the Android Market, will eventually become available for all platforms.
In general, mobile browser users are expected to gravitate toward whatever browser they use on their computers, assuming the mobile option offers comparable performance features.

Building a library of Firefox mobile apps

There are further plans to build a library of applications for Firefox, much like what is currently available in the Google Chrome Web Store. The Firefox application store, whose name is rumored to be “Open Web App Store,” will make games and applications available in a manner that’s easy to navigate for a general user. The browser’s add-on, downloadable customization tools will continue to be offered separately and are expected to receive their own update.

Borrowing again from Chrome, Firefox is expected to improve the browser’s synchronization ability, which ideally will allow users to work with the same open tabs, bookmarks, and add-ons when moving between computers and mobile devices.

Mozilla is in a position where it really does need to keep pace with Google. Firefox was the second most popular Web browser worldwide up until last fall, when Chrome moved ahead.

According to StatCounter, Internet Explorer led global browser usage in January of this year with about 37% of the market. Chrome came in second with 28% while Firefox lagged in third place with 25%. Internet Explorer has the advantage of appealing to those not technically savvy, as it comes preloaded into most Windows products. Chrome gets to build upon the powerhouse Google brand. Firefox’s popularity has increased steadily among tech-savvy users but has had little expansion outside that group.

Even though Mozilla is a privately held company, its successes and failures can cause market ripples for its publicly traded competitors. And while it’s unlikely that even a revolutionary Firefox redesign would take down Chrome or Internet Explorer, it could instigate changes to the other browsers. The browser wars have no clearly defined frontrunner, forcing each company to continue retooling its product to retain and attract new users.

Original Source
Mobile App Development

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Google Translate – A Mobile App We Have All Been Waiting For

Are you struggling to learn Turkish and find you are misunderstood even when making the simplest of sentences? Well Google have an App that could be the answer to many a confused conversation.

A few years ago as an April Fool spoof we wrote about a gadget that would translate the spoken word into another language so we could hold a conversation with someone.

Well the day when that gadget may become reality has taken a step further thanks to Google.
Google continue to develop amazingly useful things to help us with our daily lives. From their excellent mapping services to the very reliable Gmail they seem to have their finger on the pulse of what we need.

Their latest and, in our opinion, greatest development has to be their translation service. Whilst being far from perfect it is a massive step in communication.

And, if you have a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet (e.g. Ipad) you can now download their latest development of the App (Application). It translates from English to many languages including Turkish!
With Google Translate you can:

• Translate text between 63 languages
• Translate by speaking the text instead of typing it (17 languages)
• Listen to your translations spoken aloud (24 languages)
• Display translations in full screen mode to make it easier for others nearby to read
• Star your favourite translations for quick access even when you’re offline
• Access your translation history even when you’re offline
• Spell out the translation of non-Latin script languages (e.g. Chinese, Japanese, etc..) in Latin characters to read it phonetically (e.g. Pinyin, Romaji)

We downloaded the App for the Apple IPad, as we have one, to see just how good it is.

Herhangi bir iyi? Is it Any Good?

Click on the microphone button and the App will record your speech and then translate it! And then, if you click on another button, it will translate and read out your speech in the language of your choice.
We tested the new app by starting with easy phrases and seeing how they came out.
We started with the simple ‘hello’ and then worked up to more complicated phrases.
Hello – Merhaba
How much – Ne Kadar
Is there a discount? – Bir inderim var
Where can I get a boat trip? – Nerede bir tekne turu alabilirsiniz
We are on holiday for 2 weeks – Biz 2 hafta tatilde
Someone has stolen my credit card – Birisi benim kredi karti caldi
In each case the App writes the Turkish and then, if you press the speaker icon, will read out the phrase in Turkish.

You can make the translation larger to show the person you are speaking to.

Initially we found the app misunderstood our sentences. But once we slowed down, spoke clearly and into the microphone the accuracy was much better.

With our Ipad we need to be on a wireless network for the App to be able to translate because it has to go off and get the data it needs. But one fantastic feature is that you can prepare a whole range of phrases, translate and save them for use when you are off line.

So, you could for example, prepare a whole list of phrases you may use when you go shopping and then use the App as you need to.

Limitations

Don’t expect you can read out a page of text and get the App to translate. It can only translate sentences of 100 characters or less but we found that enough for most of our day to day needs.

One area we found did not work very well was when we tried translating the time phrases. It translated Two Thirty into 230 and ten past three into 10 son 3.

If there is a great deal of background noise or chatter then the speech recognition can be hit and miss. However, if that does happen you can just type in your question and press play for the app to speak the phrase in Turkish.

But despite these limitations we think this is one App that will just get better and better and should be a great help to anyone trying to communicate in a foreign tongue.
Kolay Gelsin!

Google Translate mobile is available for Apple Iphone and Ipad, Andriod devices and more.

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Mobile App Development

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How does mobile device management (MDM) work?

Enterprise IT and security teams are stretched thin by the growing number of mobile device types invading the enterprise -- many owned by employees -- the variety of OSs and the sheer volume of mobile apps users are requesting. Questions abound.

This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter's approach.

Enterprise IT and security teams are stretched thin by the growing number of mobile device types invading the enterprise -- many owned by employees -- the variety of OSs and the sheer volume of mobile apps users are requesting. Questions abound.

How, for example, will IT ensure corporate intellectual property remains intact? Who has responsibility for updating, distributing and securing mobile apps being developed by various departments and/or geographic divisions? How do enterprises gain an acceptable balance of security and corporate resource-access across all of the leading mobile platforms (Android, BlackBerry, iOS and Windows Phone)?

CLEAR CHOICE TEST: How to protect smartphones and tablets

GARTNER: How to get a handle on mobile device management

Organizations seeking to address these issues are increasingly turning to mobile device management (MDM) software. The MDM market is evolving rapidly, meaning vendors that previously had first-mover advantage have had to evolve to support new platforms and the enterprise's shifting needs. In addition, new disrupters have tried to enter the MDM space with repurposed product, primarily from adjacent markets such as mobile services management (MSM), mobile security (endpoint/VPN), and telecom expense management (TEM).

Regardless of its origin, the complete MDM solution should address the complete enterprise mobile security, device, data and app life cycles.

Securing enterprise mobility with MDM typically involves four primary phases. Phase 1 focuses on provisioning, during which devices "inherit" an enterprise persona, as determined by the mobile IT and security staff in charge of enterprise mobility. This phase includes leveraging all existing corporate network infrastructure to help avoid resource complexity and duplication.

Many of the devices being provisioned are personally owned mobile devices that are also used for business apps. This bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend is one of the more dramatic results of the consumerization of IT, in which consumer preference, not corporate initiative, drives the adoption of technologies in the enterprise.

Mobile IT has increasingly allowed BYOD to drive employee satisfaction and productivity through the use of new technologies, while simultaneously reducing mobile expenses. However, many newer smartphones, tablets, and their apps were not built with enterprise requirements in mind, so IT teams often feel uncomfortable about security and supportability. [Also see: "Can employee-owned devoices save companies money?"]

BYOD has many complex and hidden implications, such as the need for privacy policy, separate policies for corporate vs. personal devices, and certificate-based identity, for which a strategy needs to be defined in advance of implementation. For example, MDM software ideally uses an enterprise's existing certificate authority to secure the device, thus leveraging security and network investments IT has already made. In fact, the MDM software can serve as the centralized certificate authority server for corporate resources, including ActiveSync (email access).

Phase 2 involves the mobile IT team actively managing all devices -- phones, tablets, iPod Touches, etc. -- to help ensure the original enterprise persona remains intact. At this point, users are given wide-ranging access to corporate resources, including apps, email, secure directories and even cloud-based file storage. Ideally, the mobile IT team has also published a corresponding "declaration" to its mobile users, outlining what is permissible (e.g., using your device for non-business gaming) and what is not (e.g., downloading a virus-laden open-source game).

When new devices are added to the enterprise, the existing persona is literally imprinted via MDM software before the device can gain access to corporate resources. MDM controls different levels of business permissions, including those derived from LDAP and Active Directory, so that rules and policies are granularly defined based on an employee's role, division or seniority. For example, a company implements different security policies for senior executives in finance than it does for entry-level sales staffers.

Lastly, with the growing use of open source apps and operating systems, mobile IT can easily deny access to the corporate network based on the security posture of the device, denying network access to compromised (jailbroken or rooted) devices, app permissions (including whitelist and blacklist) and policy sharing, so new mobile apps have enterprise permissions "pre-baked" before deployment.

In Phase 3 mobile IT is now responsible for managing mobile apps for business users. In this phase, mobile IT management must address a nearly infinite variety of apps, devices, personas and operating systems. MDM helps solve this complex set of issues, including the ability to deliver a private, company-specific enterprise app storefront. This corporate application library is discoverable and provides both the tightest security and best end-user experience for the distribution, inventory and delivery of mobile applications companywide.

Last, Phase 4 of the continuous MDM software life cycle has users limiting their costly mobile service plan overages with the help of MDM software application programming interfaces (APIs) designed to detect and reduce international plan overages. Of the millions of the Fortune 1000 enterprise users depending on MDM software, a majority of them experience international plan overages measured by $10,000 or more per month.

Of course, when the user leaves the company, the mobile IT group uses MDM to simply remove the enterprise, personal and all accompanying permissions to protect their intellectual property. MDM software accomplishes this task on employee devices (BYOD) by means of a selective wipe, ensuring that no pictures, music or other non-work files are removed. For corporate-liable devices, MDM software offers a complete wipe and device "retirement" before it can be re-enabled for a new user.

MDM software has clearly become an indispensable tool for mobile IT as all of these enterprise devices undergo rapid consumerization. In closing, the recent Forrester "Consumerization Drives Smartphone Proliferation" report validates three MDM trends:

1. Consumerization is the dominant force in smartphone selection. Seventy-seven percent of smartphones used at work are chosen by an employee, and 48% are chosen without regard for IT support. That means only 23% of the smartphones used at work in the U.S. are delivered as a take-it or-leave-it device by IT. And three-fifths of that 23% are BlackBerries.

2. Consumerization means choice, which means Apple and Android devices. RIM still has a plurality of smartphones in U.S. companies and organizations with 42% of the installed base. But together, Android (26%) and Apple (22%) have a bigger slice of the workforce market than does RIM. The force of consumerization becomes even clearer when you see that when people choose their own phone, 59% choose Android or Apple while 25% select BlackBerry. [Also see: "Mobile device management: Apple's extra little tricky requirement"]

3. Consumerization also means that employees are willing to share the cost burden. Employees pay all (48%) or some (9%) of the cost of the smartphone they use for work. They also pay all (40%) or some (14%) of the cost of the monthly bill. While there is no guarantee that every employee wants one phone for both work and personal use, it's clear from the data that a majority of U.S. information workers today are willing to share the cost and the benefit of a smartphone used at both home and work.

Enterprise IT and security teams ultimately need MDM software to keep secure pace with the growing complexity of device types, OS options and sheer velocity of mobile apps in their user's hands.

MobileIron's purpose-built MDM software provides global companies with a highly scalable solution for mobile device management, security and enterprise app storefronts and was positioned in the Leaders Quadrant of Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Mobile Device Management.

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Vonage Introduces New Mobile App for iPhone, Android

Vonage has introduced a new app for iPhone and Android platforms called Vonage Mobile that allows users to make free high-definition calls and send free texts to all users of the app worldwide.

The Vonage Mobile app, which puts the company in direct competition with VoIP giant Skype, offers free app-to-app texting and calling and works over Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G wireless data networks.

“Vonage Mobile consolidates the best features of our prior applications, while adding important functionality, better value and improved ease of use. It combines the best of free high-def voice and messaging along with incredible value for traditional international calls, all while using the existing mobile number and address book for unsurpassed ease of use,” said Marc Lefar, CEO of Vonage.

The Vonage Mobile, which doesn’t require users to be Vonage subscribers, is now available for free from the iTunes App Store or Android Market. The iOS app can also be used with the iPad and iPod touch devices.

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Mobile apps need clear copy, not a privacy summit

It's great that mobile app makers are waking up to the trouble of "sharing" everything in opt-out fashion. But a few words would make all the difference.

If you haven’t heard about Path, it’s probably because none of your friends uploaded your name, email address, and phone number to their servers yet.

Path is a mobile app for iPhone and Android that acts as a valet service for all your social network transactions. From one stylish, flowing app, you can share a photo, a thought, or a link through Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, or Instagram, or you can share it to only your close friends you’ve connected with through Path itself. Like most social-minded apps, Path can scan your address book and find connected friends.

Unlike most apps, or at least the way most apps claim to work, Path, until recently, automatically uploaded your address book and all the people in it to Path’s servers, without really stating that it was explicitly doing so. That behavior was noticed by a developer trying to craft a related Mac app for Path, and Path rather quickly apologized in a blog post, wiped all the data it had collected, and sent out an iOS update that now asks users to opt in or out of having their address book sent over for analysis and friend-finding.
That would be a case study in decent mobile app response, but it turns out Path isn’t an isolated case. Hipster, which creates digital postcards from your photos and shares where you are, also sends your address book along, or it did, until Hipster’s CEO apologized and forced an app update, which we can now call “Pulling a Path.”

The interesting thing is that Hipster also called for an “Application Privacy Summit” to “discuss … user privacy in mobile applications.” Not a bad idea, but here’s the thing: couldn’t you have made it clear what the app was doing in the first place?

iPhone and iPad apps are submitted and downloaded through Apple’s App Store, where, presumably, Apple’s staff is checking that everything is kosher. That doesn’t always happen. Android apps are submitted in much freer fashion, but the Android development kit and Market check to see what aspects of a device the app asks for in its code--location, the camera, your contacts, and so on--and should make it clear when you’re installing the app that it has access. But there’s both a Boy Who Cried Wolf problem, due to the huge list of “demands” every popular app makes, and a few cases niche cases where apps have used Google’s generalized language to slip in some tricky stuff. It’s similar to the problem with software agreements--too long, too complex, and so too often ignored.

It’s an obsession of mobile apps to move as quickly as possible thorugh signing in, starting up, and getting to the first screen where somebody gets to actually do something. It’s why signing in via Facebook or Twitter or a Google account have become almost a default option. What those big firms do with your data is whole other matter.

But here’s the easiest solution to the problem of apps assuming users are okay with, say, having their entire address book uploaded: tell them exactly what you’re doing. Do it in crisp, mid-century Swedish typography that drops down from the top of the screen. Do it with cute stick figure illustrations that show you don’t take yourself too seriously, even if you have $10 million in venture funding and should totally take your business a bit seriously. Just write to the person with the phone, “Can we grab a copy of your address book to check for other HappyApp friends? Only our server programs see your book, and we’ll delete it after 90 days.” Or ask if it’s okay that the app sends your photos to their servers for compression before sharing them.
You’re selling your app to people, even if it’s something that’s nominally free. If you can’t ask them for something with a straight face, than you’re not really selling, you’re marketing. There’s a notable difference.

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Car insurance firms revving up mobile app features

Progressive's new mobile app allows anyone with a smartphone to get car insurance quotes by taking a photo of their driver's license.

Called "Image Capture," the app is free and works with most mobile devices, including iPhones and smartphones that run on the Android operating system. Once downloaded and installed (it can be found at Progressive's mobile hub), policy-seekers take a snapshot of their driver's license, their auto's vehicle identification number (VIN) or existing insurance ID card. The app scans the image for necessary information such as name and address.

Once the details are confirmed by the user, Progressive sends a quote "in minutes," according to a company statement.

"The new technology, only available from Progressive, simplifies the insurance quoting and buying process," the statement says. "Image Capture is a first in the insurance industry, capitalizing on the popular technology used to deposit checks in the banking industry."
Progressive hopes to offer the app in every state by the end of the year, says Matt Lehman, the company's mobile business leader. So far, it's available in 15 states:

• Arizona
• Colorado
• Florida
• Iowa
• Illinois
• Minnesota
• Missouri
• Nebraska
• New Hampshire
• Nevada
• Ohio
• Oregon
• Texas
• Virginia
• Wisconsin

Lehman says the app meets the needs of those who increasingly turn to technology in their daily lives. "We introduced Image Capture with the goal of simplifying the process" of auto insurance quote shopping, he says.

"The new technology gives consumers another way [to shop for insurance quotes] by using items most people have in their pocket or purse -- a smartphone and a driver's license."

In regard to privacy issues, Lehman says the information gathered is confidential and "not stored on the mobile device. If the consumer decides not to buy the policy, it's no different than getting a quote online and choosing not to get the policy."

Which car insurance firm takes the checkered flag in mobile app usage?

Many insurers now have mobile apps. Here are some of the key players in the car insurance mobile app market and what they provide:

• USAA: You can download an app at the company website that's compatible with all the major smartphones. The app provides coverage quotes, policy details, a rental car locator and roadside assistance. The app also helps you obtain an auto insurance ID card. USAA's app was recently rated the best in the insurance market by research group Key Lime Interactive (KLI).
• Allstate: You can get this one at Allstate Mobile. It also works with most devices and can retrieve premium quotes and review an existing policy. The app also includes an "accident checklist," which lets you take notes after a mishap and list insurance and other information from the other driver.
• GEICO: You can find apps at GEICO Mobile. You can access coverage quotes, as well as cost and coverage facts for individual policies. You can also contact agents, pay bills, get accident-related information and help, and access insurance ID cards.
• State Farm: The insurer says it has added new features to its mobile app, "Pocket Agent." Besides quotes, the app now allows you to pay premiums, go through a checklist when filing a claim and access your insurance ID card. The app also provides a list of nearby repair shops if you've been in a collision.

According to KLI researchers, the apps should appeal to many consumers. "The ability to submit bill payments, view their detailed policy information, and enter detailed accident information including photos, scene details, date, etc. are reported to be the elements that mobile auto insurance users rank most critical," according to a KLI report.

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Secure Coding Practices Out The Window With Mobile Apps

Developers not applying secure development life cycle practices in mobile app production

With every business from the tiniest SMB to the largest enterprise looking to plant its flag in the ground with regard to mobile applications, the mobile app development boom is on in a very big way. Amid this blind rush to beat the competition to the market, mobile developers are feeling their way around in the dark -- and with a development environment still in its infancy and no real standards to lead the way, it's an adventure for all parties involved.

Particularly scary to many security professionals is the fact that the speedy mobile development cycle and this lack of experience in the platforms is causing coders to throw all of those secure development principles the industry has fought for over the past five years right out the window when it comes to mobile apps.

"Rapid and Agile Development causes changes to happen in very short iterations, thus security gets overlooked and becomes a nice thing to do but rarely gets done. This happens at large corporations -- look at Google Wallet and, even worse, startups," says Tyler Rorabaugh, director of engineering at application security firm Cenzic. "When TechCrunch announces the hottest new startup of the day, week, month, almost every single one of those companies lack the secure coding practices and are rarely even concerned until something goes wrong. Most of the time they are not even aware of these issues."

According to Rorabaugh, big mobile platform vendors like Apple and Google have only just now started to think about secure mobile coding and "have mainly been interested more in looking the other way."
The difficulty is that even for established firms that are aware of their risks and want to securely code their mobile apps, there are few standards for development and very few tools for testing code for vulnerabilities.

"Some of our clients are developing mobile applications to be introduced to their customers, and we are doing reviews of those to make sure they're secure before they get rolled out," says Scott Laliberte, managing director with security consulting firm Protiviti. "That has required us to rethink our application-testing methodologies because testing mobile apps is quite a bit different than testing normal applications. Identifying the key risks and the technologies you need to use to test it properly is a challenge, and lack of standards is another big challenge."

As a result, mobile applications are already starting to flood the market with major vulnerabilities that put customers and business resources at risk. For example, Rorabaugh says mobile apps developers aren't testing the mobile services that mobile apps are using in the cloud and are introducing a whole spate of encryption flaws through their apps, such as leaving unencrypted passwords in data cache files. In fact, last August, digital forensics and security firm viaForensics reported that 76 percent of popular consumer applications running on Android and iOS devices stored passwords in plain text

"Local apps are storing too much data on phones in a nonencrypted format," Rorabaugh says, explaining that even if passwords are encrypted, now attackers "have all of your other information, like Social Security number and credit card information."

OWASP has been working on mobile app security. OWASP's Mobile Security Project aims to offer developers and security teams tools and resources for writing and supporting secure mobile apps. The Project includes a threat model, training, and platform-specific guidelines.

But meanwhile, mobile app vulnerabilities are showing signs of growing pains. Google Wallet, for example, was shown in a different viaForensics report in December to be storing all sensitive information except for credit cards locally on the devices in plain text.

And just today, news hit the wire that an engineering employee at Web categorization vendor zvelo easily cracked the PIN at Google Wallet on rooted smartphones.

As organizations release applications that tap into more sensitive information and tap into payment systems like Google Wallets does, they need to be mindful of the inherent risks, Rorabaugh says.

"Don’t skip security just because you need a release ASAP; rather, look at the places where you can be most liable or at risk," he says. He encourages organizations to test both the client and services portion of the mobile application using a combination of both dynamic and static testing technology and both internal and external test teams.

Original Source

Read more »

Mobile apps need clear copy, not a privacy summit

It's great that mobile app makers are waking up to the trouble of "sharing" everything in opt-out fashion. But a few words would make all the difference.

If you haven’t heard about Path, it’s probably because none of your friends uploaded your name, email address, and phone number to their servers yet.

Path is a mobile app for iPhone and Android that acts as a valet service for all your social network transactions. From one stylish, flowing app, you can share a photo, a thought, or a link through Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, or Instagram, or you can share it to only your close friends you’ve connected with through Path itself. Like most social-minded apps, Path can scan your address book and find connected friends.

Unlike most apps, or at least the way most apps claim to work, Path, until recently, automatically uploaded your address book and all the people in it to Path’s servers, without really stating that it was explicitly doing so. That behavior was noticed by a developer trying to craft a related Mac app for Path, and Path rather quickly apologized in a blog post, wiped all the data it had collected, and sent out an iOS update that now asks users to opt in or out of having their address book sent over for analysis and friend-finding.

That would be a case study in decent mobile app response, but it turns out Path isn’t an isolated case. Hipster, which creates digital postcards from your photos and shares where you are, also sends your address book along, or it did, until Hipster’s CEO apologized and forced an app update, which we can now call “Pulling a Path.”

The interesting thing is that Hipster also called for an “Application Privacy Summit” to “discuss … user privacy in mobile applications.” Not a bad idea, but here’s the thing: couldn’t you have made it clear what the app was doing in the first place?

iPhone and iPad apps are submitted and downloaded through Apple’s App Store, where, presumably, Apple’s staff is checking that everything is kosher. That doesn’t always happen. Android apps are submitted in much freer fashion, but the Android development kit and Market check to see what aspects of a device the app asks for in its code--location, the camera, your contacts, and so on--and should make it clear when you’re installing the app that it has access. But there’s both a Boy Who Cried Wolf problem, due to the huge list of “demands” every popular app makes, and a few cases niche cases where apps have used Google’s generalized language to slip in some tricky stuff. It’s similar to the problem with software agreements--too long, too complex, and so too often ignored.

It’s an obsession of mobile apps to move as quickly as possible thorugh signing in, starting up, and getting to the first screen where somebody gets to actually do something. It’s why signing in via Facebook or Twitter or a Google account have become almost a default option. What those big firms do with your data is whole other matter.

But here’s the easiest solution to the problem of apps assuming users are okay with, say, having their entire address book uploaded: tell them exactly what you’re doing. Do it in crisp, mid-century Swedish typography that drops down from the top of the screen. Do it with cute stick figure illustrations that show you don’t take yourself too seriously, even if you have $10 million in venture funding and should totally take your business a bit seriously. Just write to the person with the phone, “Can we grab a copy of your address book to check for other HappyApp friends? Only our server programs see your book, and we’ll delete it after 90 days.” Or ask if it’s okay that the app sends your photos to their servers for compression before sharing them.
You’re selling your app to people, even if it’s something that’s nominally free. If you can’t ask them for something with a straight face, than you’re not really selling, you’re marketing. There’s a notable difference.

Original Source

Read more »

Secure Coding Practices Out The Window With Mobile Apps

With every business from the tiniest SMB to the largest enterprise looking to plant its flag in the ground with regard to mobile applications, the mobile app development boom is on in a very big way. Amid this blind rush to beat the competition to the market, mobile developers are feeling their way around in the dark -- with a development environment still in its infancy and no real standards to lead the way, it's an adventure for all parties involved.

Particularly scary to many security professionals is the fact that the speedy mobile development cycle and this lack of experience in the platforms is causing coders to throw all of those secure development principles the industry has fought for over the past five years right out the window when it comes to mobile apps.

"Rapid and Agile Development causes changes to happen in very short iterations, thus security gets overlooked and becomes a nice thing to do but rarely gets done. This happens at large corporations, look at Google Wallet and even worse, startups," says Tyler Rorabaugh, director of engineering at application security firm Cenzic. "When TechCrunch announces the hottest new startup of the day, week, month, almost every single one of those companies lack the secure coding practices and are rarely even concerned until something goes wrong. Most of the time they are not even aware of these issues."

According to Rorabaugh, big mobile platform vendors like Apple and Google have only just now started to think about secure mobile coding and "have mainly been interested more in looking the other way."
The difficulty is that even for established firms that are aware of their risks and want to securely code their mobile apps, there are few standards for development and very few tools for testing code for vulnerabilities.
"Some of our clients that are developing mobile applications to be introduced to their customers and we are doing reviews of those to make sure they're secure before they get rolled out," says Scott Laliberte, managing director with security consulting firm Protiviti. "That's required us to rethink our application testing methodologies because testing mobile apps is quite a bit different than testing normal applications. Identifying the key risks and the technologies you need to use to test it properly is a challenge and lack of standards is another big challenge. There is no OWASP or any real coding standards yet for mobile, so some of it is done on the fly." As a result, mobile applications are already starting to flood the market with major vulnerabilities that put customers and business resources at risk. For example, Rorabaugh says mobile apps developers aren't testing the mobile services that mobile apps are using in the cloud and are introducing a whole spate of encryption flaws through their apps, such as leaving unencrypted passwords in data cache files. In fact, last
August, digital forensics and security firm viaForensics reported that 76 percent of popular consumer applications running on Android and iOS devices stored passwords in plaintext.

"Local apps are storing too much data on phones in a nonencrypted format," he says, explaining that even if passwords are encrypted, now attackers "have all of your other information like Social Security number and Credit Card Information."

This was found to be the case for Google Wallet, which was shown in a different viaForensics report in December to be storing all sensitive information except for credit cards locally on the devices in plaintext.
And just today, news hit the wire that an engineering employee at Web categorization vendor zvelo easily cracked the PIN at Google Wallet on rooted smartphones.

As organizations release applications that tap into more sensitive information and tap into payment systems like Google Wallets does, they need to be mindful of the inherent risks, Rorabaugh says.
"Don’t skip security just because you need a release ASAP, rather look at the places where you can be most liable or at risk," he says. He encourages organizations to test both the client and services portion of the mobile application using a combination of both dynamic and static testing technology and both internal and external test teams.
 
Have a comment on this story? Please click "Add Your Comment" below. If you'd like to contact Dark Reading's editors directly,

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Ease of use drives Ryder’s mobile app

Consumers can find Ryder truck rental, maintenance and fueling locations.

Whether driving a Ryder Systems Inc. rental truck for a short stint or a longer period as part of a commercial fleet, sometimes a driver needs a quick and easy way to find the closest Ryder location.

Ryder hopes its new app, dubbed Ryder Locator, fulfills that need. The app relies on a smartphone’s built-in GPS capability to find the nearest Ryder rental, maintenance and fueling locations. Users tap the Nearby Locations link on the home screen to automatically generate a map view of the closest Ryder facilities. They also can search by city and state and ZIP code. There’s also a Roadside Assistance button to tap to quickly connect to that service.

Ryder chose a Mobile App over a mobile-optimized web site because an app is easier to use, says Sheryl Pattek, Ryder vice president of marketing for Fleet Management Solutions. A tap is all it takes to open the app compared with tapping the web browser and typing in the URL in the web address bar.

 A simple tap opens the app, which users can then use to search for the closest maintenance, fueling or rental location.

The app also simplifies access to many smartphone features. For example, once a user selects a location he can tap the Get Directions button to generate a route using the smartphone’s map application. The location information page also includes the site’s phone numbers, shop and rental hours, and a list of services, such as showers and a driver’s lounge for commercial drivers.

The app is available for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry smartphones.

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Vonage dials up new mobile apps

Vonage on Wednesday rolled out Vonage Mobile, new iPhone and Android apps, that allow for texts and calls while undercutting Skype rates.

It remains to be seen whether Vonage can make much traction against Skype’s installed base. Vonage’s international calling rates are 30 percent less than Skype's.

But that’s only part of the story. The larger tale here goes well beyond a mobile app. Just a few years ago, Vonage was on financial death watch. The company has rebuilt a balance sheet that looked like it wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on. Mark Lefar, CEO of Vonage, talked last month about how the company refinanced its debt twice in the last 13 months, cut those liabilities in half and trimmed interest rates in the 20 percent range to less than 4 percent.

In other words, Vonage is poised to report positive earnings growth on Feb. 15. Today, Vonage is known for more than its quirky commercials. So what’s the strategy? Can Vonage really grow beyond its U.S. base?
The answers to those questions were outlined during Lefar’s talk a month ago. Here’s the short version of Vonage’s strategy.

Grow international. Fifty percent of Vonage customers are on the Vonage World plan and 35 percent regularly make international calls. Vonage has opened three bilingual sales and services sites. Hispanic callers are the primary target. Lefar said that the consumer communications market outside North America tops $300 billion.

Snatch share in the U.S. In the U.S., Vonage research shows there are more than 20 million households that are looking to switch carriers.

Mobile growth. Lefar said there are free VoIP players that have invested as much in mobile. Vonage’s new apps use the phone’s established contact list. The plan is also to add feature phone software and a low-cost international roaming service.

For Lefar, Vonage’s mobile efforts at the very least will bring in more active users. “What we are finding is that those who download the applications do become active users. The issue becomes one of frequency of use, pricing structure, and simply getting penetration of those downloads,” said Lefar.

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Mobile App Development

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Microsoft to Roll out Wave of Native Mobile Apps for Its CRM Software

Microsoft is gearing up to release a phalanx of native mobile applications for its CRM software, with clients aimed at BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7, iOS, and Android 2.2 and higher devices, the company announced Monday.

The release, which is scheduled for the second quarter as part of Microsoft's regular CRM (customer relationship management) service update, will also build on existing browser support with Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Safari, running on Macs, iPads and Windows PCs.
In the future the native mobile applications will be updated at the same time, but features and functions may vary depending on the relative capabilities available on each platform, said Craig Dewar, director, Dynamics CRM.

"We're doing as much as we can on each platform, and not choosing to do the lowest common denominator approach," he said. "We're optimizing for the device. You chose that device, and we should light it up as much as possible."

The new CRM mobile capabilities also include a hosted-server component that provides management and security, including the ability to remotely wipe devices of sensitive data should they become compromised. IT administrators will also be able to "mobilize" all of their CRM customizations without having to re-code them, Dewar said.

Each native application will allow for offline usage and data synchronization with online systems, according to a statement.

Microsoft is charging US$30 per user per month for the mobile service, with each subscription allowed up to three devices. It is a purely user-based pricing model, with no separate fee for the hosted-server tools.
Meanwhile, Microsoft's close CRM competitor Salesforce.com offers a Lite mobile application at no charge, with the full-featured version available at no additional cost for Unlimited Edition subscribers but $50 per user per month for Professional and Enterprise edition customers.

While other CRM vendors, including Salesforce.com, have moved quickly to embrace HTML5 for mobile in hopes of writing a single rich application that will run on multiple platforms, Microsoft is taking a more deliberate pace.

"We're watching HTML5 very closely, we're working on it," Dewar said. "It's a very important development technology. But our focus is to provide the best possible experience on native devices today." Microsoft will likely do more with HTML5 upon the arrival of Windows 8, which will provide ample support for it, he added.

Another feature planned for the upcoming service update, which will apply to both the on-premises and online versions of the software, is Activity Feeds, which provides users with a familiar Twitter and Facebook-like stream of updates on information in the CRM system.

Microsoft is also planning to add new BI (business intelligence) capabilities to the on-premises version, which are based on the Power View visualization technology in SQL Server 2012. Those capabilities will become available in the online version over time, Dewar said.
 
Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service.

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