(This isn’t a Windows Mobile-specific application, but it is such an awesome product I couldn’t give up the chance to write about it.)
So, your child comes home and you ask her how school was, she replies with “fine” and walks out of the room. This of course is the typical answer and you wanted a less generic one so you pull out your cell phone and send a text message to your child’s school and in a few moments you have a message with all your child’s up-to-date grades. Now, don’t start pulling out your cellphone right away, but this may be in the future for your school, and many other businesses, in the near future. How, you ask? Well, thanks to Nick Bolton and Mobile Data Now, you will be able to get data from any company by SMS, IM, and Email very soon.
I got the chance to talk with Nick over the phone the other night (Nick is in New Zealand so it was around lunch a day ahead of me there) about his new application and he sounded very excited about his product. Truthfully, when I first heard about Mobile Data Now, all I could see it in was a business situation, suits and all, but after talking to Nick I saw all the possibilities that could open up with Mobile Data Now.
The idea is simple: A company, group, or organization sets up a server that will intercept the messages received and installs Mobile Data Now (MDN) on it, MDN now takes that message and runs the query on the server. Once the query is run the reply is sent immediately and the user has her information right when she needs it. The service can be set up to receive messages from “named” users, users specifically named in MDN’s admininstration console, or it can receive and process messages from anyone, making MDN a very versatile system to get information out to as few or many people as your organization needs. Nick also said that in the next version you will be able to access web services (such as Amazon to search for book prices).
MDN is free to download and use for one user, all you need is an SMS Modem (if you want to use the SMS functionality) and a PC running either Windows XP, Windows Server 2000 or Windows Vista. Linux and Mac support is coming soon, Nick said. If your organization is larger than one user, you’ll need to contact their sales department for pricing.
If you have anyquestions about Mobile Data Now, you can contact Nick Bolton. I’m sure he would be more than happy to help you with any questions you might have about MDN.
For years the eastern world have been using QR (Quick Response) Codes to point users in the right direction, bringing them URLs, contact information, and text at the scan of a 2D barcode. But us in the west have been blissfully unaware of all that QR Codes can do for us, up until now. There are more places adopting QR Codes, especially online where it is easy to make your own code for whatever need you might have, and for those of us with Windows Mobile phones it’s been hard finding an app that will read the codes as most of them are in Java. But, fear not young technophile, I-nigma has brought a reader forward that just might do the job!
The I-nigma Reader is an application for Windows Mobile and does exactly what it was meant to — read and decrypt QR Codes to make them useable. Just download the app to your device, install, and run. The only screen, besides options, is the camera viewer, which you need to scan in your code. You don’t have to perfectly line up the code for the reader to pick it up and decrypt, actually it will probably decrypt and display the code’s message before you even get the whole QR Code in the viewer, just move it towards it and let the app do the rest. It will then switch to a display page where it will let you open the URL, display the message, call the number, or whatever else the QR Code is encrypted to show.
The reader works, that’s it, it just works. The only gripe I have about it is that it flips the camera over so you have to kind of work upside-down and backwards, so it’s a little different at first. Other than that, though, it’s a great little app that does what it does wonderfully. I-nigma Reader is freeware from I-nigma, no strings attached. You can check to see if your device is supported here, although it seems that pretty much all phones are.
Also, if you would like to make your own QR Codes for your site, publication, or whatever else, I-nigma has a free code creator that generates the codes on the fly. There’s also this one by Kaywa.com, it has a few more options.
It’s easy to take a photo or video on your phone and then send it in a MMS to a friend, or even multiple friends, but it’s not as easy to take that same picture and post it to Twitter or Photobucket. Sure you can go online and upload it, plug your phone into your computer and download it, or send it to yourself in an email, but there just has to be a better way! Enter Shozu, an undercover app that, like a stealthy ninja, sends your pictures to your online photo hosting sites as soon as you take them.
It takes opening Shozu twice to actually get to the app the first time you use it, this is because the first time you open it you are starting it and every time after that you are opening the app. Of course you don’t have to open the app to use it every time, when you take a picture Shozu pops up and asks if you would like to send it to your photo hosting page right away (This is a wonderful idea as I generally forget to send the photos to the sites after I’ve taken them).
Shozu currently supports photo sharing sites such as Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, PhotoBucket, Twitter, Friendster, Kodak Easyshare Gallery, Picasa and more! Also, Shozu supports blogging sites like Blogger, LiveJournal, and Wordpress (plus others!), a few citizen journalism sites (e.g., BBC News, CNN, etc.), and FTP and email. If you want to send your photo somewhere more than likely Shozu supports the site or plans on supporting it in the future.
You can read more about the freeware app, Shozu, or you can go ahead and sign up right away! Shozu is definitely worth the time to sign up and get this service on your mobile phone. Shozu is currently supported on most mobile phones with a camera, but you may wish to check for availability on your phone. Remember, Shozu uses a data connection to upload and download files so it is best to get an unlimited data service from your provider.
