Android Social Media

I spent the last week or so investigating the number of different Merchant Services Apps available for download in the Android market. In all the private consulting I do its quite handy to have the ability to take credit card charges at all let alone on my phone while I’m on the go.

Essentially, and for the sake of argument, I found that there are two types of apps in this category. The first type are the apps that are designed to integrate your existing merchant account with Paypal or the like. The second type are the apps designed to provide you with a fully functioning and new merchant account. The problem I have with the first type are the simple expense of the affair. You have the cost of your existing merchant account which probably runs from $15 to $30 per month (paypal is $30) and then the additional expense of either the app download or the monthly fee to the app provider who marries your phone to your merchant account.

In order to decrease overall expenses and keep the system fairly simple I was on the look out for an app/account that would be minimum in expense and from which the app developer could provide me with a merchant account. After doing some basic research I chose Paynet.

Paynet’s app is very simple to use and free to download. I called them directly on the phone to start the application process and after 24 hours I was approved. They sent me a merchant number and after a few setup items online I got a mobile pin number that I used to activate the app. This entire process didn’t take anymore than an hour and its super easy to use. I can use the app or the online virtual terminal to process a charge and the system auto-generates and emails a receipt to the customer if you want. It also keeps a log of all the charges so you can view your past history.

The first charge I made was on a Friday and the funds were in my checking account by Tuesday of the following week. The best part: the monthly fee for EVERYTHING is $10!!!!!!!! I canceled my Paypal Virtual terminal on the spot and am now using this exclusively!

Thank you PaynetSystems for making this a great App and a great and affordable way to accept credit cards online or from my phone!

If you are going to look into this I can also recommend one of the sales reps. I delt with Bill Johansen and he was really great. He has given me permission to list his direct number and email here so that our readers can reach him directly. His number is 1-800-809-1989 Ext 109 and his email is billj@paynetsystems.com. When he asks how you how you found them just mention our website or “jpsquared.” That way Bill will know you saw this article when you call or email. If you would prefer just go to the site and start the application process click here.

Jacob S Paulsen
www.jacobspaulsen.com

If you are in the process of researching merchant accounts I am providing here some additional information you may want to consider.

If you know anything about merchant accounts then you know there are thousands of different providers online that are eager to take your money and set you and your business up to take credit cards. What are some of the different factors that you should consider when looking at Merchant Account providers:

• Account Setup Fees
• Per Transaction Fees (fixed rate fee per charge)
• Processing Fees (% of each charge)
• Monthly account fees (anywhere from $10 to $40 per month)
• Escrow (Often they require a certain amount of money be held in a fund in case your customers request refunds)
• Processing Speed (How long until the funds are in the bank)

If you go with the PaynetSystems.com solution I described below you will find the absolute best of all of these options!

The open source wordpress project is now building an official app for Wordpress. The author of the wpToGo app that we previously suggested to our readers is at the front of this new official app now available in the Android Market. So far I’m very impressed with what we are seeing the the development. It is necessary to enable Remote Publishing via XML-RPC in your Wordpress Writing Settings. This quick video will introduce you to the app if you haven’t already downloaded it.

The wordpress app supports both Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org sites. To learn more about this project visit http://android.wordpress.org/

Have you ever been out and about and had need of a specific file on your home computer? The solution is here with the PhoneMyPC app now available in the Android Market. I admit I was skeptical that an app could truly deliver the remote desktop solution over 3G but I was stunned at how well this works

Skip to the DEMO Video

THE APPLICATION:

• Access to all the files: documents, pdfs, ppts, pics, etc that are on your desktop
• Full Monitoring of others including children while on your computer
• Utilize your full desktop browser for websites that otherwise don’t display correctly on your mobile browser.

FEATURES:

(Click any feature for additional info on Dev’s Site)

• Control Mouse+Keys
• Control Screen Resolution Manually or by setting presets for 3G or WiFi
• View Snapshot
• View Live
• Interact Live
• Full MULTI-TOUCH Zoom Control.
• Extremely Easy Setup (View Tutorial Video Below)
• Execute Actions
• Control Processes
• Control Windows
• Install and Access Multiple PCs

LIFESTYLE:

Keep in mind that everything we do here at Android Social Media is geared toward lifestyle. This app really fills all the gaps between what you can only do in your office and what you can do from your phone while on the go. It no longer will matter if you are on the beach in Cali when you need access to your desktop computer.

There are a few other applications out there that will allow you to remotely connect to your computer from your Android device but none have all the features that this supports and none are so easy to setup and maintain.

WARNING: My understanding in talking with the developer is that the app will only be available for $9.99 in the Android Market until the end of the year. As they finish some of the more refined features the app will no longer be in BETA mode and the price will go up. I highly encourage you to get this app right away.

Around this holiday season everyone is looking for a great deal. Follow the link below to download your copy of our Android Bargain Shopping Guide handout. We would love to hear your comments and stories about how you were able to save money utilizing the apps outlined in this guide.

Android Bargain Shopper’s Guide

On Nov 23, Google announced that the Google Maps Navigation — that at first was only available to Android 2.0 users (Droid users) — is now available to devices running Android 1.6. Google Maps Navigation offers FREE turn-by-turn, (sexy) voice-guided directions between two points. Google Maps Navigation for Android 1.6 also offers support for more layers. The new application is available for free in the U.S! Download it now!

I first started using Fring on my Windows Mobile phone about 2 years ago. Fring is best known for their light weight IM capabilities including Skype calls. I copied the following press release directly from the fring.com website:

Android device users can now get onto fring (we know you’re been missing us since some of you recently switched to Android devices ) with (the first) free VoIP calls over Skype, MSN and GoogleTalk and via hundreds of SIP providers. As always you can see real-time presence and live chat with your ICQ, Yahoo! And AIM buddies too. You can also use Twitter there, as part of  your integrated contact list.

fring on android works over 3G, GPRS or Wi-Fi internet connection.

What do you need to do to get your hands on this brand-new version?

You have 2 simple options for getting fring onto your Android device:

1.    Get it directly from the Android Market:

•    Start the Market application on your phone

•    Search for fring and install

2.    Get it from fring’s WAP site:

•    On your Android phone, go to Settings > Applications and check the box to allow ’unknown sources’

•    Point your phone browser to m.fring.com and download

A big thank you to our early access group for your invaluable feedback over the past few weeks!

Welcome to the big, happy, free fring family fringdroid-ers!

Known Issues (Will be fixed in the next version):

- GSM contacts do not appear in fring’s buddy list on the Motorola DROID device
- Call disconnection tone may be heard a few times when terminating a call
- SIP and SkypeOut calls are not yet available on the Motorola DROID device

The fringTEAM

[Update]: Here’s a direct link to the .apk [Link]

Source: http://www.fring.com/blog/?p=1735

In the past, keeping track of your life online meant logging in to each of your accounts separately. Is your flight running on time? How many minutes are remaining on your monthly cell phone plan? How much money do you have left in your checking account? Now thanks to Pageonce – your Personal Productivity Assistant – you’ll be able to find the answers to these questions and more on a single page. With Pageonce, you’ll have access to what you need to know, when you need to know it, while increasing the security of your personal information.

Your Personal Productivity Assistant will help you save time and money while simultaneously managing your online accounts:

1. Monitor banking, credit card transactions and investment accounts
2. Keep track of frequent flyer miles, travel itineraries and flight information in real-time
3. Track cell phone minutes and get reminders when your bills are due
4. Stay on top of bill due dates and expiration dates
5. Guard against fraudulent activity
6. View your Netflix queue, eBay bids, and view feeds from your social networking sites

And much more…

Source: http://pageonce.com/personal_assistant_android.html

Flixster is the most popular movie application on Facebook and has become it’s own social network at Flixster.com Like any other social site you can add friends, send messages, and even IM om the site. It’s an easy way to network with similar people since you can see other user’s movie ratings and reviews but also a percentage 1-100 of how similar your tastes are in movies.

Flixster has had an application available in the Android Market for some time which allows you to view movies currently in theaters and on DVD. You can view reviews and watch the trailers. On October 27th they updated the app to allow you to login and view your own movies as well as rate and review new movies!

These new features set it apart as the premier movie app on Android and designate it a social media application! Rating movies may sound like a weak way to go about doing some social networking but people are passionate about cinema and the application will automatically match you up with people who have similar tastes.

Making contacts and adding friends directly from the application can be easy and the more moviews you rate and review the more people who will be likely to find you and add you as their friend.

In addition to being a great social tool, the Flixster app is also a great local movies tool. you can look up all your local theaters and check showtimes. You can read critic and user reviews and watch trailers. If you are at all into movies you need this application.

Jacob S. Paulsen

A few more ScreenShots:

So I was playing basketball with some friends about a month or so ago. My buddy LOVES his iPhone and literally cannot separate himself from it for more than just a few minutes. So were at the gym playing ball and we didn’t notice it but some kids were hanging around our stuff in one corner of the gym.  When we were done playing his phone was gone. Stolen. We knew what the kids looked like and everything but could not do anything about the stolen phone. He was just out 400 bucks. Bad day.

Enter Mobile Defense For Android (also available for Blackberry ….but not the iPhone). It took first place in the android developer challenge in the security category, for a bunch of reasons but to really understand its power you need to try it yourself. Its free.

Installing the Mobile Defense application and setting it up is really easy. You however will need a computer to get everything to the point that you can actually use and enjoy the application.

After you have downloaded and installed the application it will prompt you to sign in, both online and on the phone itself. Then once both accounts are created and everything is all set up the application will ask you to reboot the phone. At which point the icon will disappear from your pull up menu housing all your applications at the bottom of your screen and there will be no way to know that it is installed on your phone until you access a more administrative menu such as the one used to uninstall applications.

Now for the fun part. After logging in to the dashboard on their website and signing in to your account, the real power of the application is there at your fingertips. it will give you the option to connect with the device. Clicking that button prompts Mobile Defense’s server to send a text message to the phone activating a secure remote session with the phone itself thru the application.

From there your phone is just a click away. You have the ability to see a real time GPS location of your phone and it is displayed in a Google maps window. You also have a few other options…. It will tell you what network the phone is running on, its battery level, whether or not it is charging, how strong of a signal it is sending, its lattitude, longitude, and it will indicate how fast the phone is traveling.

The alarm feature in this application is in my estimation the most useful feature of the entire app. In the event you believe your phone is stolen you have the option to set off a ONE TIME SILENCE-ABLE alarm. Basically it sounds like a car alarm going off in someones pocket. That really caught my attention because imagine finding the phone on the embarrassed theif because you set off its alarm.  But to me the more likely application of this feature would be; you realize your phone has been misplaced and rather that having your buddy call it over and over again you can set off the alarm that rings loudly and obnoxiously for as long as the phone has battery life to sustain it.

Upon seeing this message the user does have the option to silence the phone, and contact you. Also, its up to you what to write in the message that is sent to the phone, you can change it and update it and tweak it all in real time.

So then i wanted to test, if i were to steal this phone and it were to go off, I would be interested in immediately silencing it and walking away. So i looked into how to defeat the alarm and i came up with one solution. Turn off the phone. Or push the silence button. I tried to just deactivate the ringer that will work only once), and i tried to adjust the volume of the phone down, but to no avail. The only way to defeat this app, is to turn off the phone. That will immediately end all tracking and alarms and texts received by the phone. But as soon as the phone is turned back on it is fully controllable again. For me however, the main functionality of this app will be finding it in the couch at a friends house or in a car under the seat or something. Luckily we have few opportunities in our lifetimes to chase down phone criminals and bring them to justice.

Download Mobile Defense in the market, its free, adware free, and almost flawlessly functional.

-ASM

PANDORA APP ONLY AVAILABLE IN THE USA ANDROID MARKET::

Music, like most people I’m sure, is one of the biggest parts of my life. When I was working for T-Mobile, news of the G1 and the android open source project hit like wildfire in July. My first question upon hearing about the concept of “the iPhone killer” was how much of my HUGE iTunes library is it going to be able to handle. Originally Android would support up to a 4G micro SD card, so i was a little disappointed. Cupcake

however improved that to be able to handle a 16G micro SD, so I was a little happier with the release of Cupcake, but still not satisfied.  I remember watching Steve Jobs in the iPhone roll-out video hammering over and over again the iPhone’s potential to be the one device that seamlessly handles all of your needs from communication, to business, to entertainment.  So as I frequently peruse the android market for things that make my life easier I am consistently blown away at the inventive and intuitive ideas that people are using Google’s development tools (of which there are tons) to make my life better by organizing them into applications. With the release and superior functionality of the Pandora internet radio I literally don’t even need to store music on my phone so i have since deleted any songs i wasn’t immediately interested in editing into ring-tones with Ringdroid and using that space to download more apps.

Back in 2000 a handful of music lovers and techies got together with the idea of creating a website that delivered streaming music to its users. They decided to create what they call “the most comprehensive analysis of music, ever.” Pandora internet radio has been the result. I have enjoyed the service for about the last 6 or 7 years ( i was a late bloomer i guess) and it has been the source of some new favorites at least 3 times that i can recall.  Tim Westergren writes on the site:

“Since we started back in 2000, we’ve carefully listened to the songs of tens of thousands of different artists – ranging from popular to obscure – and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time. This work continues each and every day as we endeavor to include all the great new stuff coming out of studios, clubs and garages around the world.

It has been quite an adventure, you could say a little crazy – but now that we’ve created this extraordinary collection of music analysis, we think we can help be your guide as you explore your favorite parts of the music universe.

We hope you enjoy the journey.

Tim Westergren
Founder
The Music Genome Project”

The journey for me, continues with the Pandora internet radio application for android.  Currently the Pandora app occupies the 8th most popular download in the Android market just behind Google maps and Facebook.

I keep the Pandora app on my screen with the apps that I use most that are not necessarily related to the apps on the other screens… The widget has a couple of features that make me feel warm and fuzzy… This is what it looks like when your signed out of the app. Attractive, clean, accessible.  I have it set right underneath my widget for the music player on the phone because for me, they are truly interchangeable.

Then the app works in a few different functions. It can play in the background which is sweet. When it is activated the Pandora Icon remains in your notifications bar as an ongoing app so you can quickly open and control it from any application on your phone. This was fun today, i was sitting in a parking lot tweeting and editing our Twitter account (follow us if your not already) while connected to the internet using my G1 as a wireless router. Salt Lake Cities’ brand new 3G (launched in

the middle of Sept. 09) was handling perfect uninterrupted streaming of the Pandora music while it was also carrying all of my data that i was using with the computer having like 9 tabs open in Firefox.

Then, you can pause Pandora from streaming music, do other things on the phone and pick up right where you left out while not having to sign out and sign back in.

Pandora lives up to its name, the Greek translation of the word Pandora means “all-giving,” and i cannot find a downfall to this app it really is all giving! I simply cannot get enough of it. I use it when im driving around (which i do a lot for my job, about 250 miles a day or so) if i get sick of my tunes on shuffle or my playlists or whatever then I just go to Pandora and let it feed me with great variety and even stuff I have never even heard before. Kudos to Pandora! I click their Google ads every once in a while just to cash flow the app a VERY little bit every once in a while (they get like .20 cents any time you click). We give it 5 stars for functionality, aesthetics and ease of use! We recommend it to anyone who loves using their phone as a music player!

-ASM