Reshaping future with Disruptive Technologies
It’s hard to believe that it’s been over 6 years since the launch of the iPhone. This groundbreaking phone has changed life as we know it. If you think that this is an overstatement, take a look at what people are doing on subways, in line at the grocery store, at the office, in the bathroom… the list goes on and on.
This infographic by Top Tien Mobiel does a nice job at breaking down each iPhone variation in a nice visual package.
Thanks to mobile technology, keeping track of your finances and the economy at large is easier than ever, even when you’re on the go. In fact, the resources available to smart phone owners vary, so it’s easy to get overly caught up in weighing your choices against one another. Which apps should you trust and how much should you be willing to pay for their services?
No need to worry. As it turns out, you don’t need to put a price on useful financial info. We’ve put together a list of excellent investment apps, and the best part is that they’re all completely free. If you’re looking for the perfect mobile money manager, try out a few of these apps, with no strings attached.
Image via iTunes
When it comes to up-to-the-minute information on stocks, bonds, commodities, and currencies all over the world, few apps do it better than Bloomberg. Besides trackers for this info, which you can customize as you see fit, the app also offers breaking news and headlines from Bloomberg’s global journalism network. The app presents these features in an easy-to-use, highly eye-pleasing package.
Bloomberg is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, iPad, and Android.
Image via iTunes
We can’t all be financial experts. It takes a considerable amount of study and research to decipher the mysteries of the market, but without such a background certain industries make for a dangerous investment. Motif Investing lets you try out your investment strategies in a safe environment. The app uses themed portfolios to illustrate the ups and downs of niche markets, creating a valuable learning experience endorsed by MIT finance professor Andrew Lo.
Motif is available for iPhone.
Image via iTunes
Many apps offer comprehensive services for storing and checking investment data and updating your portfolio; SigFig is no exception. However, it stands out for going the extra mile, providing a service that could just make the app your most trusted adviser. SigFig will check your portfolio for hidden fees, overcharges, underperforming funds, and other problems that may otherwise go unnoticed, and will offer suggestions on how to optimize your gains.
SigFig is available for iPhone and Android.
Image via iTunes
Most of the time, what you need isn’t all the information but the right information. Too much data (or worse, conflicting data) often just leads to confusion, and following a false lead will bring trouble. Fisher Investments’ MarketMinder app cuts out all the filler and comes clean with clear, insightful commentary on the latest market events. Thanks to Fisher’s investing global research platform, you can rest assured that the app’s commentators are well-informed and on the right track.
MarketMinder is available for iPhone.
Image via iTunes
Budgeting is a complex process, especially when you’ve got investments tied up in plenty of different areas and a long list of expenses to boot. Personal Capital does its part to simplify this process by giving you a platform to organize all of your investment info in one convenient place. The app’s greatest service is simple but effective; it condenses your broad financial status in its entirety into a quick, concise summary.
Personal Capital is available for iPhone and Android.
Image via iTunes
When you’re shopping for a product online and need to judge its quality and customer satisfaction, the first place to look is the review section. Whether they love it or hate it, customers will have plenty to say about their experiences, and this will often decide between buying or not. With StockTwits, you can apply the same principle, essentially, to stock investment.
The app finds and pulls out posts from Twitter from professionals and ordinary investors alike about the stock of your choice, so you can gauge its popularity before committing.
StockTwits is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, and iPad.
Image via iTunes
When you’re dealing with a specific type of investment, you’ll naturally want to focus on information tailored to it and thus a general news app will be more than what you really need. Fortunately, technology will find a way to satisfy any niche. A great example is ETFdb, which stands out as a top resource for all of your needs on exchange-traded funds. If you need help with ETFs, the app’s sharp focus will get you the info you’re searching for straight away with no digging required.
ETFdb is available for iPhone and iPad.
Given that these apps are all free, there’s nothing stopping you from exploring their functions at your leisure. Any one of them could be the tool that transforms your investment experience for the better. Give them a try to find out.
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“Finance Strategy” image courtesy of Shutterstock.
There’s a reason that companies like Apple and Microsoft have been in slumps over the last year or so. There hasn’t been anything to come out that has really impressed us. Sure, there are smartphones and smartwatches, tablets and glasses, but the wow factor hasn’t come along and smacked us on the face in quite a while.
In essence, we’ve grown complacent to “smart” things. We want something brilliant.
Everything was pacing in that direction. The advancements from 2001 through 2006 were impressive with both internet technologies and gadgets galore to add to enhance our lives. The iPhone and subsequent mobile connectivity devices and software ramped up the innovations from 2007 through 2011.
Something happened. It slowed down. Yes, there are more devices coming out, more websites being built, and better software being released, but there hasn’t been anything that has blown our faces off. The Samsung Galaxy 4 and iPhone 5 were nice with interesting new features, but Siri was the only lukewarm addition that had any real play.
What’s next? When does the next generation of super-technology start?
Some would say it will happen in the automotive industry as driverless cars and connected dashboards are starting to really make a move. Others look to the home-based lifestyle changes that companies such as Microsoft are proposing, a world in which mundane acts such as cooking or taking a shower are made elaborate through technology.
Gaming is something that might bring the spark. Sony and Microsoft are bringing out their next generation devices shortly and if they’re nothing like the “innovations” that Nintendo brought to the table with the WiiU, they should be in good shape.
Expansive. All-encompassing. Intuitive. These are the traits of technology that can take us from “smart” to “brilliant” in a short period of time.
The venues and devices are changing. Wearable tech is supposed to be more of a thing, but there are skeptics regarding that possibility. Will people really want to be wearing connected devices all of the time? Will the really enhance the experience or make it more clunky, more tedious?
Perhaps the real jump into the next era of technology will be within the human body itself. Genetics, implants, mind-controlled devices – all of these and more have the potential to emerge in the coming months and have real applications for use in today’s society. Imagine not having to wave your hand or push on the controls to make characters in a game move. Imagine if you simply have to think about it to make it so.
As Facebook and Google push down the road of making the internet more accessible to the rest of the world, are we approaching a tipping point of connectivity that can bring a true artificial intelligence into play? Can enough data and enough opinions collected and sorted appropriately reveal a technology that can think for itself and possibly think for us? It’s been the topic of discussion for decades in science fiction, but it shouldn’t be too far off in the horizon now with the technology that we have at our fingertips.
Regardless of what the “next big thing” is, one thing is certain. It cannot be more of the same. A breakthrough is necessary or we’re just going to get bored. It isn’t just the consumers and the users. It’s the innovators as well. Many are so focused on the next iPhone app that they’re not bothered with working on the next iPhone replacement.
Something needs to come soon. Our attention spans are shortening and nobody is stepping up to impress us. Everyone is putting out technology that is smart. When do we get to see the technology that is brilliant?
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“Technology” image courtesy of Shutterstock.
No piece of new technology this year has attracted as much interest, controversy, parody, and speculation as Google Glass. Wearable technology like Glass has the potential to enrich our interactions with our environment, help us gather information, and share this information with friends.
Wearing Glass for the past three weeks has provided a variety of positive and negative experiences, ranging from fascinating conversations with people who want to try it on to strange looks and more than a few off-color remarks. Here’s a look at some of the applications for Glass and what we can anticipate in the future.
Within the first 96 hours of wearing Google Glass, I was confronted with two very distinct reactions. In the technology haven of San Francisco, I found myself a target of a surprising level of ridicule. To mention just a few of the less-than-pleasant comments:
On the other hand, once I returned to my home city of Sioux Falls, Iowa (which is not as tech-savvy), I encountered an entirely different response. Reactions were mostly, well, confused:
Based on my experience, the general public’s response to Google Glass — whether positive or negative — seems to be based on a lack of knowledge as to what it is and how it can potentially change our lives.
While the potential for Google Glass has only scratched the surface, a handful of third-party apps are springing up to extend the functionality of Glass. Here’s what it already does well:
Provides recordable, shareable experiences: Google Glass allows me to keep my head up and stay engaged in an experience while capturing it on video or in a photograph that’s easy to share with friends. I’ve found myself snapping interesting photos I wouldn’t have taken with my phone because it’s so convenient. You can even record video and start a Google Hangout with your friends to show them what you’re looking at.
Enables discovery: Google Now offers local discovery potential that displays useful information about the world around you, pointing out restaurants, events, news, and other tidbits. This feature is awesome when traveling to new places, and I expect it will become even more useful as Glass evolves.
While I expected Google Glass to provide enhanced experiences, it offered some surprising enrichments:
One of the most exciting aspects of Google Glass is that at this early stage in the game, it can be developed to do much more.
Google has placed a ban on facial recognition with Glass to circumvent potential privacy concerns, but as more third-party apps and sites are developed, this will be very difficult to enforce. If this function were linked to my address book, Glass could help me out in situations when I’ve forgotten someone’s name. It could pull people’s data and store their contact information for future reference.
Glass also has the potential to heighten a user’s experience during live events, such as sports or concerts. It could provide highlights and applicable information in real time, allowing you to keep your eyes focused on what’s happening.
The possibilities for the power user are endless, but the reactions I’ve received from the general public indicate that Google Glass will have to become more natural-looking before it enjoys wide acceptance. Glass is already compatible with prescription glasses, and once the technology evolves, it could even be available for contact lenses.
As various wearable technologies meet with a broader base of users, the next step will be to find ways to aggregate the data and use it more effectively. We need to discover methods of normalizing the data, then presenting it visually so people can learn to adapt their habits and thinking. Who knows how far it can help us push both our bodies and minds?
The potential for Glass is exciting, but I don’t see it becoming as widely accepted as iPhones or tablets — at least not in the immediate future. Wearable technologies such as Glass, Nike+ FuelBand, UP by Jawbone, and Fitbit will continue to develop as excellent complements to “home base” mobile devices, but Glass likely won’t be replacing smartphones any time soon.
The wait is almost over. Apple has started airing a teaser video from WWDC that reveals the sleek new look to its next generation desktop. According to sources, it will be released this Fall.
The newest entry into the long line of desktops is a complete redesign unlike anything that’s hit mainstream computing in the past. It’s smaller, faster, and may be the first exciting thing to come out of Cupertino since last year. Here’s the teaser video:
One of the challenges of living in the Information Age is managing all that information. With notices about important dates, meetings and events scattered across so many platforms, from email and text messages to social media posts and old-fashioned appointment books, it’s easy to lose track of the stuff that matters.
Thankfully, there are plenty of mobile applications out there to keep you up-to-date, minus all the hassle of juggling multiple sources of information.
Afraid of forgetting birthdays? Cleverbug‘s got you covered. This app syncs with your Facebook account to tap into its birthday alert system. When one of your Facebook friends has a birthday coming up, the app will drop you line and give you the opportunity to create a custom card using pictures from your own albums.
You can even ask Cleverbug to print and mail the custom card in time for the occasion.
It’s the oldest story in the book: your schedule is hectic, you’re running late and wouldn’t you know it, you’ve lost your keys. Hone is a great peripheral/app combination that makes finding lost keys as easy as the push of a button.
The Hone bluetooth device is a simple key chain attachment that will buzz, beep and light up when remotely activated by the smartphone app. Hone uses these indicators to tell you how close you are to your quarry, too, with simple feedback. Though it was designed with keys in mind, this app is easy to adapt to other commonly lost items.
Keeping track of your medication schedule and the schedules of your loved ones can be difficult over the course of a busy day. RX Pal is an app that covers all the bases. You can set custom alerts for multiple medications and people, making it easy to keep tabs on who needs to take what and when.
The app is also easy to sync with any online pharmacy, letting you know when your prescription is running low and allowing you to buy refills quickly.
This handy app makes taking notes and setting appointments a regular, streamlined procedure after every call. After you end a call, Call Tools prompts you to take a variety of actions while your memory of the call is still fresh. The app allows you to make immediate notes about the call, create or add to a to-do list, set an appointment and compose a new message by email or SMS.
Call Tools is handy for personal use as well as in business environments that promote BYOD and coexisting devices so you won’t have to scramble with multiple calendars.
This is one of the most robust to-do list apps on the market. Astrid not only lets you create and modify lists, it also integrates info from multiple sources in the cloud to keep you 100 percent synced. It can access your calendars on other platforms and fold in tasks from elsewhere, as well as letting you set priority alerts and create tags for the ultimate in organization.
Don’t just think of your mobile device as a supplemental piece of technology. With the right apps, you can turn your device into the personal assistant of the future. Whether it is the biggest priority or even to remember to get your discount via DirectTVDeal.com because the new season of Dexter is coming, these apps can help you remember.
Tumblr didn’t say it was hacked. They didn’t say that any data was lost nor did they say that that there is any reason for concern. They did, however, tell all iOS app users to download the new version with a “very important” security update.
Oh, and they also told everyone to change their password on the app as well as any other accounts that have the same password.
According to a quick blog post:
If you’ve been using these apps, you should also update your password on Tumblr and anywhere else you may have been using the same password. It’s also good practice to use different passwords across different services by using an app like 1Password or LastPass.
It is reminiscent of the scene in Airplane when the flight attendant casually asks if anyone knows how to fly a plane.
Android app users seem to be safe as of now. Tumblr was purchased by Yahoo last month for $1.1 billion.
We’ve seen it many times before. Once a year, Girl Scouts around the country market and sell different types of cookies to sweet-toothed enthusiasts and soft-hearts all over the nation. These little girls with their badged vests and gap-toothed smiles invade your supermarkets, neighborhoods and offices to offer up their wares. Their wagon is a neverending pile of cookie boxes awaiting the always-up-for-more public. They grab your attention by sweetly asking to help them out… and then they hook you with the Samoas and Thin Mints.
As years have gone by and girls have gotten older, the competitive aspect of the cookie-selling game has developed an intense rep. Recently, the Scouting society, Troop leaders and Girls have turned to social media to try and return the biggest number of boxes and ultimately call themselves champion of the troop. It seems as if there is no more knocking on the door of your neighbors or asking Aunt Ethel to buy boxes of cookies for her knitting group; these ladies are turning to social platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Even the pageant star Honey Boo Boo has used social media to market cookies for a friend in the past, offering to sign each box a customer buys from her on Facebook.
But one thing’s for sure: the Council Members are stuck in their old ways. In the past, Scouts have tried to sell cookies online and have even created PayPal accounts to reach a mass number of customers. Unfortunately, this has now been deemed a violation of Girl Scout policy, with the National Council disallowing it. Though they have turned to social media marketing to promote cookie sales, the Council has ruled that the girls can still only sell in person, having customers pay in check or cash for their cookie fix.
…What? Girls can’t receive money through PayPal or sell online, but can use social media to get the word across that it’s cookie time? Why allow the ability to market it all over the Internet, but not sell it there?
I can’t imagine why the National Council would think they could afford to cut out potential online sales with the financial issues they’ve experienced in the past few years. Due to lack of donations and declining membership since 2003, the Society depends on the cookie season for almost 80 percent of some Council revenues. To help soften the blow, Councils are selling camps and holding many fundraisers to make up for it. One new idea the National Council has implemented is the “find a cookie” search box on their official website to help customers looking for cookies find a local spot to buy from. The box is a way to help people find a booth sale in their community. They even have a free “Cookie Finder” app for iPhones and Androids.
Back when I was a Scout, I never had the luxury of digital assistance to boost my sales. I spent countless hours knocking on doors and standing around at booth sales to try and be my troop’s winner. Times are definitely changing, so maybe the National Council should get with it. The days of door-to-door sales are over. Now, parents worry about who’s going to be on the other side to answer. I see selling online a much safer way to market cookies instead of having Girl Scouts go up to a complete stranger’s house not knowing what could happen as soon as they knock on the door. The Council believes the girls will lose their entrepreneurship skills by selling online – but isn’t learning online technology a good way to help strengthen these skills? Seems like just about everything is conducted online these days; shouldn’t the Scouts step out of the dark ages and be educated on how to use online commerce?
The Scouts’ CEO, Anna Maria Chavez, simply can’t afford to disallow online selling. The new director (also known as the “Cookie Monster”) has an annual salary just under $400k. Not only is she making the big bucks, she recently had a $65,000 renovation done of the executive bathroom in the Manhattan headquarters. Apparently marble finishes and a new shower were on the priority list for this new Director.
The 101-year-old organization also faces an extreme pension deficit. Forty-seven percent of the pension plan is unfunded. How are the Girl Scouts going to be active and sustain this Society if they can’t even support their staff? The publication Pension & Investments reports that the organization’s liabilities ($819 million) almost double their assets ($433 million). The National Council doesn’t have time to waste. They need to react to these numbers and make changes before the Society really starts to go down the tube. One easy, no-brainer change they can consider is selling their cookies online. I hope they’re working on it.
What do you think of the Scouts’ financial trouble?
Keeping track of financial changes in the world — heck, just keeping track of your own personal finances — can cause a lot of stress. Financial situations constantly change, and struggles can appear at any moment.
But, that’s why we have smart phones: they help us with complex (and sometimes simple) tasks on the go. Lucky for us, those smart phones have apps to help us with finances. Let’s take a look at a few of the ones available for BlackBerry phones.
Let’s start with the basics. Mobile Checkbook lets you see your checking, savings, and credit card transactions and the resulting balances all on your device. You can record transactions while they occur, and even reconcile your balances. This is very helpful for when you just need to know exactly what your balances are before making purchases.
Mortgage Calculator Pro can help you see what you’ll be paying for a mortgage in multiple international financial systems. You can also calculate cost of living expenses for properties as well. This is a great app to help you set a budget for when you need to save up or hold onto your money.
Finally, we’ve reached an app for investors. Y! Finance offers customizable market summaries, quotes, comparable graphs, and detailed statistics. You can use the app to research the industries and track commodities, and of course, import your Yahoo! portfolio.
Wallet does what it sounds like; it does its best to serve as a virtual wallet, but with a focus on retail. Like many other apps, Wallet helps save credit card data. It also helps keep track of your gift card, shipping, and reward program information.
SAP, who has had a partnership with BlackBerry for some time now, has finally released their financial apps for the new BlackBerry 10 OS. One of the most interesting among them is the customer financial fact sheet. Perfect for account executives or sales representatives, the CFFS lets your business see how its customers are doing financially, their spending and sales for the past fiscal year. It even lets you filter the information to a particular invoice.
Personal assistant shows you your bank account status, investment portfolio, mobile minutes, travel itineraries, frequent flier miles, shopping expenses, bills, helps you manage your credit cards, and even keeps track of your Netflix account. It certainly serves as an all-encompassing financial assistant.
You have to love investment apps. The amount of information they put in front of your eyes in such a convenient way is invaluable. iStockManager shows you charts, real-time quotes, level II quotes, trade stocks and options, market data, option chains, news, order status, position, and balances. It offers fully integrated trading.
Isn’t it nice when app names don’t leave much mystery to the product? Home Inventory helps you track your valuables and assets and calculate them for insurance purposes. The app can also be useful for keeping maintenance on your belongings.
This app helps you keep track of your finances by allowing you to keep track of investments, regular transactions, and multiple accounts as well. A great app if you are simply looking for a sum of your money movement. You can even estimate future balances and net worths using the app’s calculations.
To finish off, we’ll bring it back to a simpler app. ICC serves as a quick, real-time currency converter for the world traveling business person.
Countless other amazing financial apps exist for BlackBerry phones, far too many to cover all of them in this article. Hit up the BB10 webstore to see what’s available.
