The SMB Tech Report

Lantronix Announces Printing App for iOS Devices

Lantronix has introduced PrintServer, an app that allows printing from an iOS device to network-attached printers. Lantronix estimates 50% of iPad owners use their tablets in business, making the ability to print directly from an iOS device to network printers rather than having to send files to a desktop computer or use other workarounds will be a great benefit to such users. more

FreeConference Android App Provides Conference Call Capabilities

FreeConference Mobile for Android provides access for a conference call on Freeconference.com and automatically connects the user to a dial-in and ID number for easy connect and management of the call from within the application. The app is available from the Android app store. more 

EFI Releases PrintMe Mobile System

Digital printing system developer EFI has announced PrintMe Mobile, an app designed to support printing from tablet PCs and smartphones. more

Fonality Study Tracks Mobility Trends for SMBs

Fonality’s State-of-the-Market 2011 Report: Mobility Trends in SMBs finds 50% of SMB employees work outside the office and with as many as a quarter of staff out of office at any given time. These employees can have difficulty accessing critical business applications. The study recommends SMBs provide unified communications on a mobile platform and estimates that by doing so an average company with 137 employees (including 67 mobile workers) could recoup $700,000 annually in measurable staff productivity gains--more than $10,000 per mobile employee. more

Xerox and EFI Expand Mobile Print Options

EFI has introduced a new, cloud-based solution for mobile computing users who need to print documents while traveling. EFI PrintMe allows users to print from many mobile devices to Xerox Corp’s multifunction printers. Users upload their documents to ww.printme.com or e-mail them to print@printme.com. A document ID code is then e-mailed to to the user to release the document for printing. more

AT&T Announces Webinar on Using Mobile Technology in Small Businesses

AT&T will present a free Webinar with technology expert Mario Armstrong on using mobile apps and smartphones to increase business productivity on April 14 at 1 PM EDST. Armstrong will discuss why mobile technology can be a game-changer for SMBs, how mobile apps can boost productivity and increase ROI, which apps are most effective for various business functions, and how to access important business and customer data and information while on the road. more

TeamViewer App Available on Android

TeamViewer, which provides one-click access to Windows, Mac, and Linux systems, is now available on Android-based devices. Free for non-commercial use, the app was originally developed for the iPhone and iPad. The Android version provides complete access to computers from Android smartphones and tablets using ID-and-password-based security. more

OneNote Adds Electronic Note Capability to iPhone and Windows Phone 7

Microsoft has released the OneNote iPhone app in the iPhone App Store; the app allows users to replace scribbled notes with electronic notes that are always on your phone, kept in order, and can be searched electronically for the information you need. OneNote is available for the iPhone, Windows Phone 7 and Office Web Apps. The app is free for a limited time. more

Hewlett-Packard Offers Unlocked Palm Pre 2 to Small Businesses

According to a report in PC World, Hewlett-Packard has announced plans to sell the unlocked version of its Palm Pre 2 smartphone to small businesses as well as to mobile application vendors. The term “unlocked” means the phones will be sold directly by Hewlett-Packard and not through a cellular carrier and will not be “locked” to any carrier's service. The purchaser can buy a data plan for the phones from the carrier of his (or her) choice or use the phone without carrier service as pure PDAs that connect through WiFi hot spots only. The company is already selling the Pre 2 through French mobile operator SFR and has announced plans to sell it through Verizon Wireless in the United States and through an unannounced carrier in Canada. The unlocked version of the Palm Pre 2 will work on Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) networks, the 3G variant of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) used by AT&T and T-Mobile USA in the United States. more

Cisco Announces New Borderless Mobility Components, Cloud Security Services

Cisco has announced a series of new products and network and support services to support the transition to the mobile workplace. The latest announcements include the Aironet 3500 Series Access Points with ClearAir technology, which combats wireless network interference by detecting, classifying, locating, and mitigating conflicts. it also has announced advanced e-mail and Web security services to provide stronger cloud security for enterprise users. more

FileMaker Introduces Bento Organizer for iPad

FileMaker has introduced Bento for the iPad. Based on Bento for the iPhone, enhanced to make the most of the iPad screen, and replicating many of the functions of Bento on the Mac, it is a multi-function personal organizer that allows users to manage contacts, track projects, plan events, and conduct many other planning functions in a single, unified application. more

Cred-Ex Announces Mobile Payments Solution

Online payment processing provider Cred-Ex has announced a new Mobile Payments Solution service that extends its payment processing tools to support purchases made on smartphones and other mobile platforms. The technology includes as set of application programming interfaces for merchants and mobile developers. more

Palm Releases webOS Plug-In Development Kit Beta

Palm has released a public beta version of the Palm webOS Plug-in Development Kit through the Palm Developer Center. The new kit complements the webOS Software Development Kit, allowing developers to mix C and C++ with Web technologies seamlessly in a single app. more

Mobile Market to Exceed $12 Billion by 2014

One-to-one marketing and the rapid proliferation of smartphones will help to drive double-digit growth of the mobile retail market, which will exceed $112 billion by 2014 says the latest Mobile marketing and Retail Strategies report from Juniper research. The market will initially be dominated by coupon redemption, with mobile advertising expenditures passing coupon revenues by 2013. more

Google Closes On2 Technologies Purchase

Google Inc. has completed the purchase of On2 Technology Inc., a provider of video compression and encoding and publishing software for use in providing high definition video over the Internet, cellular networks, and cable systems to a variety of consumer devices ranging from smartphones to TVs. It closed the purchase, valued at approximately $124.6 million, after On2's stockholders approved Google's offer. more

Adobe to Bring AIR to Android

Adobe Systems expects to release a version of Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) for Android in 2010 and will introduce versions of AIR to other mobile platforms subsequently. AIR is a platform used by standalone applications that use Flash or Web technology. Adobe made the announcement at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona. more

Verizon Partners with Actsoft to Provide GPS-Based Workforce Management

Verizon Wireless has partnered with Actsoft Inc. to bring mobile, GPS-based workforce management systems to business users of Verizon's network. Actsoft's applications include:

• Comet EZ - A Web-based GPS tracking and time-keeping application, accessible from any PC with Internet connectivity;
• Comet Tracker - A tracking and time keeping solution that is client-and Web-based and supports order entry dispatch, wireless forms, customized alerts, and reporting capabilities; and,
• Comet Mobile Worker - An advanced turnkey solution for everything from work order management to vehicle engine monitoring.

Actsoft will be an early user of the new Verizon Wireless single-billing option, providing users with a unified bill. more

Mobile Computing Microsoft Introduces Windows Phone 7 Smartphone Platform

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has introduced the next generation of Microsoft's smartphone operating environment, Windows Phone 7, at the Mobile World Congress 2010. Described as a "fresh approach to phone software," Windows Phone 7 will combine Xbox LIVE games and Zune music and video on mobile phones. more

Flury Report Focuses on Mobile User Customer Loyalty

Mobile industry watcher Flury has issued a free online report on customer loyalty as measured by use of third-party applications on various high-end handheld devices including iPhones, iPad Touch and Android phones. The report is based on data Flury collects through third-party applications that include a link that reports usage statistics back to Flury. more

Quickoffice Announces Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Quickoffice, which provides full office software suites for many mobile handheld platforms, has announced the Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The Connect Mobile Suite adds access to mobile cloud services such as Box.net, Dropbox, and Google Docs. The new application will be available in the iTunes App Store Business category for an introductory price of $9.99. more