UPFRONT: Mash Up

As Published In
Oracle Magazine
January/February 2011

  

Mash Up

News • Views • Trends • Tools

  

Organization Apps

Remember the Milk

Organize your to-do lists, sync them with your calendars, get reminders via Twitter or text, and locate tasks on a map.
Free (iPhone and Android; sync to BlackBerry and Windows Mobile Tasks applications).
rememberthemilk.com

  

Splash ID

Keep passwords, credit card numbers, and PINs in one secure place. Organize on your computer and then sync to your smartphone; if your phone is stolen, records self-destruct.
US$10–$19.95 (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry).
splashdata.com 

 

Mint.com App

Associated with the mint.com Website (with free software for money management) this personal finance app puts all your bank accounts, credit cards, loans, and investments in one place. Build a budget and track your spending.
Free (iPhone, Android).
mint.com 

 

My Stuff

Long overdue on your home inventory project? Track your possessions with as many as 10 photos per record and flexible custom fields. Import and export CSV files to your computer, and password-protect everything.
US$4.99 (iPhone).
maddysoft.com 

 

Scribe Smarter

Tired of a leaving meetings with scribbled, nonsensical notes? With the Livescribe Echo Smart Pen and special paper, you’ll capture the most-important points by taking notes and recording audio simultaneously. The same size as a ballpoint pen, the Echo has a micro USB connector, headphone jack, microphone, built-in speaker, organic light-emitting-diode display, and memory storage. Tapping the Echo anywhere in your notes triggers the related audio playback. Connect the pen to your PC or Mac running the Java-based Livescribe Desktop software, and save your notes and audio files digitally. Several apps, such as dictionaries and translators, are available—or write your own with Livescribe’s Java-based development environment.
US$169.95 (4 GB storage), $199.95 (8 GB storage).
l ivescribe.com 

 

Who’s Using the Cloud?

Small companies — 36%
Midmarket — 64 %
Large companies — 58% 

Small companies: less than US$10 million annual revenue
Midmarket: US$10–$99 million annual revenue
Large companies: more than US$100 million annual revenue
 

Most-Popular Cloud Services

Business productivity — 40%
Document and content management — 38%
Security — 35%
Storage — 35% 

The survey of 542 U.S.-based IT end users was conducted online in June and July 2010.
Source: CompTIA

“If your team cannot take full advantage of technology with gusto and verve, [it] will lie fallow—and you will fail as a leader.”

— Scott Klososky, author of The Velocity Manifesto (Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2011)

 

PII Rarely Encrypted

Fewer than 30 percent of 430 Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) members surveyed encrypt personally identifiable information (PII) in all their databases.

Source: 2010 IOUG Data Security Survey

  

Speedy Tablet

If you’re shopping for a technology companion (aka a tablet), consider the A7 Internet Tablet from eLocity. This 7-inch Android 2.2 tablet has a high-resolution 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen and the fastest mobile CPU currently available—NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 dual-core 1 Ghz CPU—which means it should handle multimedia like a dream. The A7 comes with several preinstalled applications for Android 2.2, but you can choose from tens of thousands of apps—from mapping and social networking to office productivity—that are available for that platform. The A7 also features connectivity with 802.11 b/g wireless and Bluetooth, and monitoring connections is easy with a wireless status screen and an airplane mode that lets you disable all wireless connections in one place.
US$369.99.
elocitynow.com

  

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