Recently in Mobile Category

I'm a big fan of PortableApps.com. It can be a lifesaver when traveling or using someone else's computer. There wasn't a good way to check all the version numbers and keep them up to date, however.

This slick utility shows you the version number you have, the current version number, and gives you the ability to download and install the updates.

Portable Software Updater will help you keep your portable software up-to-date. No need to open each program's webpage every day, waste time visiting the download page, wait for the download process to finish, copy it to your portable apps folder and run it. Portable Software Updater is a freeware program that can help you skip all these steps with just one click!

 

Vista and Windows 7's Snipping Tool is great and a welcome improvement from PrintScr, but it comes up short when you're writing documentation or when you need to annotate a screenshot.

I'm in love with FastStone Capture. In addition to having much better control of what's captured than native Windows or the Snipping tool, it has an image editor that makes annotating the screen captures effortless (including boxes, arrows, and "blurring"). From there you can copy the screen capture to the clipboard, save it, email it and so much more.

It's incredibly lightweight and very unobtrusive. There's even a portable version that's perfect for a thumb drives.

FastStone Capture is $19.95 for a lifetime license.

Give Back and Have Your Donation Matched by Google

The holidays are about giving and we hope that you can continue to spread holiday cheer by making a donation via Google Checkout to any of the participating non-profits listed below. At the end of the program, Google will match donations made via the WiFi network, up to a maximum of $250,000 across the three non-profits. Just look for the link to donate once you connect.

The airport that gets the highest dollar amount contributed per passenger (based on 2008 FAA data) by January 1, 2010 will also receive $15,000 to donate to the local charity of their choice. If you'd like to make a donation but aren't traveling this holiday season, we encourage you to make a direct contribution to these organizations by visiting the websites below.

This rocks. Google is sponsoring free WiFi at selected airports this holiday season. While the WiFi is free, they will accept donations. Google will match those donations, up to $250,000.

So, that $9.95 airport WiFi you were thinking about buying because your flight is now delayed 2 hours is free. Or, you could donate, say, $5.00 which would end up being $10.00 to charity.

How cool is that!

The MiFi, or the "intelligent mobile hotspot", may sound like one of the most pointless devices ever created. It's a small, battery powered gizmo that converts one wireless network protocol (3G) to another even less efficient protocol (WiFi).

I'm dieing to ditch my Sprint broadband card for their MiFi one. My iPod Touch would be just that much better!

The BOLT mobile browser has been through eight months of beta testing and the developers, Bitstream, are now ready to launch out of beta into version 1.5.

The browser has so far been downloaded 2 million times and rendered in excess of 200 million web pages. The latest iteration of the browser includes the following:

• Cache Support to speed users' ability to move quickly back and forth between the currently and previously viewed Web pages through the use of backward and forward navigation.
• Download Manager for easy download of files directly from BOLT and the ability to save them to specific folders on the mobile phone (requires JSR75 support on the device).
• Support for Streaming Videos of Any Length that overcomes limitations on some phones' ability to stream videos of longer lengths. The new approach ensures video clips will play on all devices, for any length video.
• Video Wizard to assist users in configuring their device for optimal video playback.
• Dedicated Search Bar on home page, for easier and faster online searches.
• Improved Ability to Manage RSS Feeds by allowing users to arrange and file feeds just as they do with their favorites and bookmarks.
• Enhancements for Touch Screen Devices such as simple volume controls for the BOLT media player which now offers volume controls on the screen.
• Enhancements for BOLT Servers in the cloud, which increase the already fast BOLT mobile browser by an additional 10 to 20 percent.

Try the BOLT browser for yourself and let us know what you think.

FINALLY! A BlackBerry browser that doesn't totally suck.

With the increase in the number of mobile users, growing organizations are finding it difficult to maintain connectivity with their mobile workforce, when they are not connected to the network. This has an adverse impact on the productivity because the users are unable to connect to corporate resources easily. Also, because mobile users remain disconnected when they are outside the network, it is difficult for the administrators to keep the mobile computers up-to-date.

Windows 7 improves connectivity with the help of features such as Mobile Broadband DirectAccess, VPN Reconnect, and BranchCache.

This is huge! Windows 7 + Windows Server 2008 R2 enable mobile users to access the corporate LAN more readily and cut down the need to connect via VPN.

Outlook Anywhere allows Outlook 2007 to connect to the Exchange 2007 server using any Internet connection. It makes it simple to check e-mail during those 15 minutes you're at the airport connected via your Mobile Broadband card or those 30 minutes you're connected via wi-fi at Starbucks while enjoying your latte.

Anywhere Access goes one step (one giant step) forward to include the corporate LAN. While there will still be applications that require a VPN connection, there should be far fewer now.

Windows 7 can connect directly with your Mobile Broadband card and no longer requires the proprietary dialer application. Anyone with a Mobile Broadband card knows the dialers are not without their quirks and add an additional layer of complexity to the connection. That alone is worth the price of admission.

Administrators can push security updates or policy changes to the remote computer without waiting for the user to connect via VPN or return to the office. This should make all those machines more secure and reduce the amount of time spent applying updates when re-connecting to the LAN or connecting via VPN on a slower Internet connection.