diary - Tag Archive

Useful apps for those in the busy world of business

7 Replies Christopher Roberts

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If you work in business, then this article is aimed at you. If you have a busy diary which you need to keep track of, always seem to need to be paying someone, and like to check your stocks and shares from anywhere, at any time, then these three apps will (hopefully) be right up your street.

PayPal

The first app I am going to look at is the PayPal app. If you haven’t heard of PayPal, it is a free online service, which lets you send money to people via simply using an email address. I should point out that there are costs/fees involved, which is how PayPal make their money.

The PayPal app lets you request money, as well as send money. It also shows you your accounts recent activity, so you can keep track of your finances.

The app has a few cool and really useful features, that you should know about. The first cool feature is the ‘Bump’ feature, this feature lets you send or receive money to/from your phone, and someone else’s, simply by bumping/tapping your phones together. Pretty clever?

One of the really useful features I should also mention is the check deposit system. Usually, to deposit a check, you need to go to a bank, pay it in and then wait for it to clear. With the PayPal app, you can do the whole process a lot quicker, simply take a picture of the check and it will deposit it directly into your bank account.

Week Calendar

Nick recently wrote a post about how to climb the mountain to success in online business. A key part of Nick’s article was his ‘effective time management’ section. Nick wrote how you need to plan in advance, and allocate certain activities certain time, whilst not forgetting others.

To help you stick to your business schedule, online or off, the next app is the Week Calendar app. This app is much more advanced than the standard iPhone/iPod calendar, with loads of extra features and helpful tools. Check out the screenshot below to see the apps calendar interface in action.

A screenshot of the Week Calendar app The disadvantage of this app is that it costs £1.49, so you can judge for yourself if the interface and features (like handy drag and drop event tool) are worth the extra money.

City Trading Pro

The final app on my list is called City Index iPhone Trading platform Pro, which gives you access to market data from all over the world. The app is a spread betting app, which means that it enables you to trade on the price movements of thousands of markets, including shares and currencies.

Any good businessman has to take risks, and this app gives you a good way to make money from taking calculated risks. If you think a market value is going to rise then you can buy, and if you think it will fall you can sell. Each market has a sell and buy price – the difference between the two is what is referred to as the spread, hence ‘spread betting’.

To ensure you are always kept in the loop, the app gives you access to the value of shares from a whole host of different companies, currencies, commodities and indices including the FTSE 100, the Dax and the Dow Jones.

The app also lets you can set a stop loss, buy with one or two clicks of your finger, (it is even faster than doing it online!) view your orders, pending, completed and cancelled, create your own ‘watch list’ so that you have super quick access to the data you need, get detailed historical data, and so much more.

Below is a screenshot of the sort of information you get when looking at a firm.

A screenshot of the City Trading Pro appThe charting features on the app are really good, they are very detailed, and if you tip your iPhone on its side, the graph reorientates itself, to give you a clearer view of the data you are viewing.

You may be worrying about security, but there is no need. Probably the most comforting feature of the City Trading Pro app is that you can be confident that all your information and transactions are secure, so there is no need to worry.

Unlike the Week Calendar app above, this app is free, you just need a City Index trading account.

So, there is my list of apps! Feel free to try them out and leave feedback in the comments section, to let us know if you like them as much as me 🙂

Google Android powered glasses

11 Replies Christopher Roberts

Google shocked us all last week, when it launched its ‘Project Glass’ video. If you have seen it you will know what I am on about, if not, check out the video below.

Here is what Google have to say about the video:

“We believe technology should work for you — to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t.”

I am still not 100% sure that Google are completely serious about Project Glass, but from everyone else’s response, it would seem they are.

The glasses are viable, and could actually be made, so it is possible. Using very advanced technology, cloud computing, advanced Wi-Fi, projection technology, voice interpretation technology and Android, it is possible that these glasses could be developed.

See the weather with Google's Project GlassIn the video Google have produced, they show the glasses doing things that our smartphones can already do today, just being done right in front of your face, as a projection, rather than a physical object that you have to hold and more around.

There are some issues with this futuristic design though, and most of them are with privacy and security.

What happens if you put the glasses down? Your virtual life is connected to those glasses, your emails, potentially bank, diary etc. so what happens if you put them down, and someone picks them up. They could have access to all your data, right in front of them.

Another issue is that it could be hard to distinguish reality from virtual reality! At first it could be very confusing for you, and others around you. You may start looking where you wouldn’t be without the glasses, you could start talking to yourself, or the glasses. It could be a bit difficult to deal with socially. How would we deal with these problems?

Remember when wireless headsets first came out, people used to look like they were talking to themselves, now we know of the technology thought we know that it not the case. Would the same be the case with the glasses.

Another big issue would be ads. People are currently unhappy how Google watches them on the web, and then presents them with ads relevant to the content they are browsing. Imagine the uproar, were Google to see everywhere you are going. They would then be able to present you with perfectly tailored ads!

For more information, check out Project Glass Google+ profile.

What do you think about the glasses? There are loads of rumours and a lot of speculation out there, but what do you believe, and what do you think will/wont happen?