Box.net + LG Android Devices = Incredible Freebie

So I think this is the first time that I wished I had a LG Android device...

See this article for more details :

50GB Free Cloud Storage On Box.net For All LG Android Devices

Siri for iPhone 4s Meet Iris for Android

In all the ads for the new iPhone 4s, the main portion of what they are marketing is Siri.  Siri is a voice recognition program that intelligently responds to your questions.  For an overview of all the things that it can do, click here.  Siri is only available on the iPhone 4s

There were some similar apps to this in the Android platform, but when Siri came out, one development team (Dexetra) went into an eight hour binge to come up with a comparative app for Android.  After the eight hours, Iris was born.  

To give you an idea of what Iris is capable of, check out these screen shots.  What is in white is what I dictated to the device.  In Blue is the answer from Iris (these were taken on my Samsung Droid Charge).

So, you can see a couple of things from this.  A: Iris has a bit of an attitude when it doesn't know the answer and B: It might be a little dated when it comes to the Jim Tressel reference...

Here is another mix up that Iris had in my testing...

Oh, and by the way, this is what a Pug Jack Russel mix really looks like (not quite the worst thing that one could imagine):

So, all in all, the Iris program has a bit to do to go all the way to Apple's Siri, but given that this program was only made in 8 hours, I think Android's version of Siri will only get better.  In the meantime, we can still sit back and enjoy all the mix ups that it is giving us.

Here are some links to some of the apps and devices that I talk about in this post:

Iris Android App

GO Dev Team Launches New Beta

The team that has came out with great apps for Android such as the Go Launcher and Go SMS has recently released a new Beta called the Go LaucherEX Locker.  Basically, you can have your own custom lock screen from the options that they have...

That way, you won't have to have a regular lock screen like this one that is on my Droid Charge:

Here is a link to download the Beta Version of the Lock Screen:
GOLauncherEX Locker V1.0 Beta

Note: I believe the developers are Chinese so sometimes that translation may be a bit off...


Here are some links to get the devices and programs that I talk about in this post:

Go Launcher EX
Go SMS Pro

Get Contapps Pro on the Amazon Market for Free Today!

Contapps (Pro) Icon

I have been using the the contact replacement program Contapps for my Samsung Droid Charge for quite a while now, so when I checked out the Free Amazon App of the Day, I was really excited to see that Contapps (Pro) was their offering for today (10/19/2011). I highly suggest you give it a try (as the price is right)...

If you have never used the Amazon Market, here is a link to help you get it installed on your Android Device:

Getting Started with the Amazon App Store

This offers step by step instructions to get you started.  If you have any problems, feel free to comment below, and, and I will do my best to help you out...

It is worth while for me to have the Amazon App Store just for the Free App of the Day. These are some of the previous apps that I use on a consistent basis, that I received for free: SwiftKey X, Angry Birds (Ad-Free), Cardio Trainer Pro, and WiFi File Explorer PRO.

Catch Me Tomorrow on WCIT 940

Tomorrow (10/13/11) I will be doing an interview on  WCIT 940 AM at 4:00 PM regarding Capabilities, Inc.  I will be appearing on Talk with Ron Williams.  I will be talking about technology and how this integrates with what Capabilities does.  I am also going to be talking about how Capabilities helps advocate for people with disabilities.

Check out their webpage here, and you can even listen live from there!

Dropbox Funny Message

I am an avid user of Dropbox, as I have multiple devices that need to sync up and share all of my files seamlessly.  Luckily, Dropbox does this.

I was setting up a laptop to use, and I came across this message that I just had to share:

I love it when developers have a sense of humor...

Mailchimp: A Quality and Cost Effective Email Marketing Solution

 When I wear my marketing hat at Capabilities, Inc., I have a couple of prerequisites when I am choosing any service or product.  The first two things I look at are the quality and the cost of the product or service.  When I started looking at email marketing solutions, I first thought that I could just get away with making custom mail merges with Microsoft Outlook (Although I still use this method to attach items to emails to emails).  Unfortunately, using that method did not satisfy my design needs when it comes to using CSS.

So, after weighing all my options, I decided to go out and find a mass mailing service.  Since I work for a small business that has never had a mass mailing service, I thought that this would be a hard sell to my employers as to why we need to pay for this service.  So, I then hit up one of my favorite review sites, Top 10 Reviews.  In looking at the prices for the Email Marketing Services, my first thought was that this was never going to fit into our marketing budget.  In looking at the prices for all the different services, one of them caught my eye when I saw this: FREE.

So, I jupmed on the free service's website, and I anticipated seeing a less than ideal solution.  The company offering the free service is called MailChimp.  Since the setup is even free, I thought I would give it a try to see how it worked for me.  After our first few messages that I sent out using it, I was sold.  Firstly, I was amazed of the design and feel of the site.  It is very appealing to the eye, and it seems very modern.  An added bonus is that they throw in links that they think people will enjoy like this:

FYI: This is the link that they lead you to: http://bit.ly/mWhiNr.

After using it and getting all the great statistics that you get by using a mass mailing service, I quickly did not know what to do with out it!  Now all the staff updates and marketing emails are all routed through MailChimp, and better yet, I can even measure the results of all the emails that I am sending out using those great stats.

In have tried out and played with Constant Contact (another mass mailing service- albeit a dreaded paid one), and I have to say that MailChimp has one feature that Constant Contact doesn't have that I couldn't live without.  This is how MailChimp handles bad email addresses.  If MailChimp gets an error back from the email address, that email address is automatically put into a list of contacts that will not receive emails. So, the next time a message is sent out, that bad email address is automatically excluded!  In Constant Contact, this is not a feature that was provided.  The one thing that I did prefer about Constant Contact was that they seemed to have a few more templates to use.

With the use of the Wordpress Plugin that they provide, I was even able to have a sign up fields on the site that I was working with at the time.  This makes it very easy for people to sign up for mail lists.

So, all in all, I have not been let down in my choice of MailChimp at all.  I believe that it would even be worth it to pay for their service, as they offer an intuitive and easy to use interface.

Note: MailChimp does offer paid services, which you have to move to if you deal with a higher volume of emails or subscribers.  To find out more about their pricing structure, please visit this site: http://www.mailchimp.com/pricing/.