Mobility Insights for Tuesday

Mobile technologies can be so clever and interesting.  They can provide so many useful tools.  Let me share a few recent examples and experiences.

Example #1 - My good friend Jody Sedrick and his team here in Boise (home of the Boise State Bronco football team) have a mobile application called Find Things Fast that enables you to organize and quickly find your stuff.  First you take a photo of your possessions, and then identify the storage container and location of each. The end result is that you can quickly find your favorite winter sweater by searching your application and seeing quickly which box it is in, and where the box is located in the garage. This is like a consumer version of an enterprise asset management system. Very cool! 

Example #2 - Last week, while traveling, working and playing in Europe I used my iPhone (the WiFi connection) constantly for information, maps, looking up the history of a region and language translation. I also used skype on my iPhone to speak with my clients overseas. This would have been cost prohibitive without skype. I could not have done my job, while traveling, without the internet and mobile devices. 

Example #3 - I found an iPhone application called TextGrabber that enables you to take a photograph of a business card, article or page, and the app will automatically use OCR (optical character recognition) on the photo and import the text into a note page.  Now I can quote, cite or reference a statement in an article, word for word without re-typing.  This app cost something like .99 cents.

Example #4 - My wife kept a travel journal of our family vacation this year.  While sitting in an outdoor cafe or traveling on a train she would write about our experiences.  She did nearly all of her typing on an iPhone and then transferred it to her MacBook Pro later for additional editing.  She can type very fast and comfortably on her iPhone.  She proved the ability to take extensive notes and seamlessly transfer them back and forth with her laptop.  This is very useful for people that produce a lot of written content in mobile environments.

Example #5 - I read about a new language translation app for smartphones that enable you to take a photograph of any menu, sign, page, etc, and then the app will use both OCR (optical character recognition) technology and language translation software to convert the photo into print and then translate it for you.  Wow!  No more surprise dishes at the French restaurant.

Upcoming Events

Live Webinar - Learn how Carefusion mobilized SAP CRM Field Service with Syclo, June 22, 2011
Eggs with Benedict - European Tour - Mobility Strategies and More, June 27 – July 1, 2011
ClickConnect APAC 2011, July 11 – 13, 2011
Syclo Mobile Conference 2011, July 13 – 15, 2011

Whitepapers of Note

The Business Benefits of Mobile Adoption with SAP Systems
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Mobile Adoption Among Gas and Electric Utilities
Mobile Adoption in Life Sciences
Mobile Adoption in Oil and Gas
Networked Field Services

Recorded Webinars of Note

3 Critical Considerations for Embracing Mobile CRM
The Future of Enterprise Mobility
The Latest m-Business Trends and How the Onslaught of Mobile Devices Affects Development Strategies
The Real-Time Mobile Enterprise:  The Benefits of Rapid, Easy Access
Syclo and SAP Deliver Mobile Apps on Sybase Unwired Platform



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Kevin Benedict, Independent Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst, SAP Mentor Volunteer
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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Interviews with Kevin Benedict