Business User

When Verizon Wireless launched its vaunted HTC Droid Incredible April 29, it put out a statement touting the device as well-equipped for the business user with enterprise-grade security, always-on connectivity and much more. Unfortunately, the much more for the Android 2.1-based device doesn't include the ability to force the use of a complex device password or to create and wipe the device when lost or stolen. Analysts claim Android needs to support such features to be viable for businesses.
- When Verizon Wireless launched its vaunted HTC Droid Incredible April 29, it put out a statement touting the device as quot;well-equipped for the business user with enterprise-grade security, always-on connectivity and much more. quot; Unfortunately, the quot;much more quot; for the device, ba...

Research in Motion has announced two new BlackBerry devices today, the BlackBerry Bold 9650 and the BlackBerry Pearl 3G. The announcement comes a day before the company’s Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES), where it will show off further software and hardware developments. Both phones offer significant upgrades to their respective product lines.

The BlackBerry Bold 9650 is a CDMA device that appears to be a bit of a souped-up BlackBerry Tour in both appearance and features. However, the phone trades the scroll ball for an optical trackpad, more device memory (512MB as opposed to 256MB) and the addition of Wi-Fi support for 802.11b/g networks.

Check out this video for the BlackBerry Bold 9650:

The BlackBerry Pearl 3G is an update to the immensely popular BlackBerry Pearl series, which combines BlackBerry functionality with a more traditional candy bar design. The new phone adds speed, more device memory (256MB), 3G support, GPS and an optical trackpad. The phone includes support for Wi-Fi 802.11.b/g/n networks and has a higher resolution 360×400 screen. The Pearl has always been marketed as a starter BlackBerry, or a BlackBerry for the non-business user. This is in part because the smaller size compresses the QWERTY keypad.

The BlackBerry Pearl 3G will be available in two models with different key layouts. The BlackBerry Pearl 9100 has the traditional 14-key layout while the Pearl 9105 has an expanded 20-key layout for an enhanced QWERTY experience.

This video showcases the new BlackBerry Pearl 9100 series. Is it just us or is this ad pretty similar to what Microsoft is doing for the Kin — sexting controversy aside?

Carriers and pricing details were not released, but thanks to press photos, we expect to see the BlackBerry Bold 9650 on Sprint for sure, and likely also on Verizon. The BlackBerry Pearl 3G series is a standard GSM-compatible phone, and thus we expect to see it on T-Mobile and AT&T in the U.S. and on most major carriers in Europe.

What do you think of the new BlackBerry phones? Does either model entice you to continue to use or switch to BlackBerry for your next phone purchase? Let us know.

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Tags: blackberry, blackberry bold 9650, blackberry pearl 3g, RIM

14 Essential iPhone Apps for Small Business Users —

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Apple’s iPhone wasn’t originally conceived as a business-focused device; however, the advent of the App Store and the rapid rise in usage and adoption has really given the platform — and the phone — some pretty great use cases for business users. The iPhone App Store has more than 150,000 applications and separating the wheat from the chaff, especially when you have a specific goal or task in mind can be difficult. That’s why I’ve compiled this list of some of the best applications for the iPhone for the small business user.

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Access to Files and Folders

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Something that really sets this generation of smartphone devices apart from devices of even five years ago is the rise in cloud computing and ubiquitous connectivity. While accessing e-mail from multiple devices with full message history intact is old-hat, that capability has now extended to many other types of files.

Using programs like FileMagnet ($4.99) and Air Sharing ($3.99 for the regular version, $9.99 for Pro) you can easily transfer PDF, Microsoft Office and iWork files to your iPhone from your Mac or PC over WiFi.

As I’ve pointed out in the past, services like Box.net and Dropbox can be really great tools for small business owners. Both Box.net and Dropbox have free iPhone applications that let you access your files on those clouds directly from your phone.

If you’re a user of Apple’s MobileMe service, there is also a free MobileMe iDisk app that lets you access those files, folders and images directly from your iPhone.

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Document Viewing and Editing

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Accessing files and folders is great, but what about when you want to get some serious work done? There are a number of full-fledged productivity applications that make it possible to not only view, but also edit documents, even on cloud-based services.

QuickOffice Connect Suite for the iPhone ($9.99) is a great app because it not only lets you view your Microsoft Office documents, but also edit and create those documents — both stored locally on your phone, and on cloud services like Google Docs, MobileMe, Box.net and Dropbox.

This means you can view a file shared with you on Box.net or in your Dropbox folder, make some changes and save it back. Likewise, you can create a new document or spreadsheet and save it to a cloud service of your choice.

Documents To Go Premium ($14.99) also lets you view and edit Microsoft Office docs on your iPhone, but it only supports Google Docs right now.

If you really need to view documents more than edit, GoodReader ($0.99) is not only the best PDF viewer on the iPhone (you can view files up to 1GB in size without having issues), you can access files from WebDAV servers (including MobileMe), Box.net, Dropbox and for a $0.99 in-app purchase, you can also access GoogleDocs.

File editing is limited to text files for right now, but the viewing capabilities, the ability to transfer files over WiFi, download PDF files from a URL directly to the iPhone and support for stuff like zipping and unzipping of files make this app really fantastic. If you ever find yourself needing to deal with exceptionally large PDF files, GET THIS APP.

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Scan, Fax, Print

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That camera on your iPhone is for more than just quick snapshots and Facebook uploads. Believe it or not, it’s also a really good document scanner. This goes double for iPhone 3GS owners, as the improved lens and built-in auto-focus and stabilization features make it a real asset for document capture.

While the iPhone camera might not displace a high-quality document or business-card scanner, you might be surprised at how well it can work, especially when paired with the right software.

JotNot Scanner ($4.99) is a solid document scanner that lets you scan multiple page PDF files and then save them to MobileMe, Evernote, Dropbox. Box.net or Google Docs. If you upload to Google Docs you can even take advantage of Google’s OCR engine for better document processing. The app is really optimized for the iPhone 3GS but older iPhones can still utilize its featureset.

Scanner Pro ($6.99) is another solid scanning option. It also can upload to Box.net, Dropbox, Mobile Me (or any WebDAV service). It also lets you do custom-page sizes, send scans by e-mail and if you also have the Print n Share ($6.99), seamlessly send a document to your printer.

For users who need to send faxes from the iPhone, there are a number of faxing-specific apps but most of them charge a high per-fax (and sometimes per-document) fee in addition to the price of the app itself. That’s why, if you plan on doing any serious faxing, I recommend spending the $24.99 and getting the ScanR Business Center app because not only does it let you capture files as PDF and do OCR processing (with desktop web access too), you can send unlimited faxes from the app itself.

If you already have an e-mail to fax solution like eFax or Maxemail, check out Mobile Phax ($4.99) which will do document capture to PDF and easily integrate with lots of e-mail to fax programs. Of course, you can conceivably use any image to PDF app to send faxes as an attachment with your existing e-mail to fax subscription plans, Mobile Phax just makes the process a bit more seamless.

If business card scanning is what you are after, check out ScanBizCards ($5.99 or try the free Lite version).

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Which are most useful to you?

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Which iPhone apps do you find most useful for your small business? Tell us about your favorites in the comments, and look out for my next post, where I’ll discuss the best productivity apps for the iPhone for your small business.

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More business resources from Mashable:

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- 7 Essential Online HR Resources for Your Small Business
- Google Buzz: 5 Opportunities for Small Businesses
- 5 Ways to Avoid Sabotaging Your Personal Brand Online
- 4 Elements of a Successful Business Web Presence
- HOW TO: Implement a Social Media Business Strategy
- HOW TO: Use Social Media to Connect with Other Entrepreneurs

Tags: business, iphone, iphone apps, List, Lists, Mobile 2.0, small business

Google to Launch Server-Side Clipboard for Docs —

One of the features that Google's online office program Google Docs lacks is a cloud-based version of Microsoft Office's "clipboard" feature. Although you can copy and paste when using Docs, it's a much simpler procedure. The keyboard shortcut "Ctrl + C" copies and "Ctrl + V" pastes, but it's a one-time process. You can't accumulate a collection of copied items for later pasting as you can with the Office clipboard.

Some may argue that's by design - Google likes to keep things simple. However, it appears that may not be the case, after all. As spotted by the Google Operating System blog, a new server-side clipboard looks like it may be close to launch.

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A Real Clipboard! Google Docs Business Users Will Rejoice

Considering Google's continuing advances in the enterprise space, it's not surprising that the company is interested in implementing a cloud-based clipboard to rival the one in Office. Although this may not be the sort of feature that everyday consumers and users of the free version of Docs care much about, it's a perfect example of the sort of feature that a business user needs. When crafting long documents, the ability to store a collection of text, images and other media for re-use throughout a particular file is a time-saving feature that many cannot live without. It's arguably even one of the top reasons why some feel they can't make a complete switch from their desktop office software, be that Microsoft Office or Open Office or something else, to an online service like Google Docs.

Beyond Docs: A Clipboard for YouTube, Picasa and More?

According to the blog post that uncovered this feature (still in testing it appears), the Google Docs clipboard looks like an implementation of a service called Google Cloudboard, revealed back in fall of last year via an accidentally publicized internal feedback form. Cloudboard was described as a "server-side clipboard for Google Apps." Like Cloudboard, the new clipboard works within Google Docs and other Google services including Gmail and Calendar - at least that's what has been spotted so far. However, when the Cloudboard feature was discovered, it was described as working with services outside of Google Apps, too. For example, copying from Picasa, YouTube, Maps and even Google Image Search were cited as use cases for the Cloudboard.

The Cloudboard/clipboard Google has in mind could be handy for heavy Gmail users, especially if it became a feature of the Gmail service itself. It also somewhat brings to mind the Windows Live Mail Quick Add feature which integrates Bing searches, images and video into the online webmail program via a sidebar panel. Google's clipboard could easily do the same and more.

30-Day Retention Policy: This Clipboard Stays with You

In Google's case, clipboard content wouldn't just remain in the program while your Docs/Apps session was active - it would actually remain on Google's Servers for an entire month. According to a now-public Google Help Article:

Content you copy to the server clipboard is stored on Google's servers and remains there until 30 days have passed since you last took action on (for example, copied) a given content selection. Even if a document is deleted, anything you copied from that document to the server clipboard will still exist on Google's servers for that 30-day period. You can delete all items stored on the server clipboard by clicking the drop-down menu and selecting Clear all items.

The article also reveals how the Clipboard content is tied to your Google Account as opposed to one particular computer. "That means you can copy more than one selection and then choose which one to paste later, the page reads. "It also means you can copy something on one computer and then paste it on another."

Although the Google Docs blog hasn't formally announced this feature (as of the time of writing), we're confident that it's more than a rumor at this point. Usually when Google gets around to creating Help documentation, the feature is near launch...sometimes even hours away. We hope that's the case here, too.

Image credit: googlesystem.blogspot.com

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