Business

So you’re an iPhone type person but you’re also a business tyoe person. What you want is a list of business apps to make your life easier. And your life is tough. You’ve got to submit expenses, convert currencies on over seas trips and track your time. Usually that kind of stuff means dragging your notebook around and a lot of phone calls.

Not anymore. Resourcenation has a pretty great list of 11 surprisingly useful business apps for your iPhone. We haven’t tried out any of the apps yet but if the descriptions are correct some the apps on the list are pretty damn cool.

“We think there is strong reception of AAPL’s new iPhone 3G Gift Card program,” Wu wrote in a report to clients Wednesday, “where the process of giving the iPhone as a gift is greatly simplified without the need for activation and personal information. … We estimate several hundred thousand to one million units could be impacted.”

That’s Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu commenting about Apple’s iPhone Gift card prospects as reported by Fortune.

The article continues to explain the upside of gift cards for Apple (more cash) and the downsides (the recipient probably won’t activate the gift card until after Christmas). For Apple any gift card sale is a good news and an unactivated gift card sale is pure awesome (more on this later).

Will people really be buying these things up and giving them as Christmas presents? First off, unless you’re buying a Chris Howard a gift card for vegemite there’s a no way to know if the recipient is really going to use it. This is doubly true with the iPhone. An iPhone gift card is kind of like giving someone a puppy, you save them the expense… more...

So you’ve got a great idea for an iPhone app but you can’t write a lick of code. The world is worse for your inability to code, that great app rattling around in your head will never benefit anyone. And when you’re on your death bed you’ll lay there looking at the ceiling wishing you could’ve made a difference. If only you had the ability to write an app…

Wow, that’s sad stuff. An entire life filled with regret because you couldn’t write an app? Worry no more (or maybe worry a lot more) because it is iPhoneFreelancer to the rescue. You’re probably already familiar with the concept: You post the specs of the program you want written and someone who can actually program bids on the job. Programmer writes program, program gets into the App store, you pay programmer, PROFIT! See no question marks or anything.

I’ve never tried out one of these things before and, since I am about as creative as a sea cucumber, won’t be trying this out. That said I’m sure there a ton of pitfalls when building an app using this method but there is also a huge upside. Let us know… more...

IT isn’t a secret that life in the Business world has been a little hard of late. All the economic news seem to be bad. But, if you’re in the Business world, negative economic indicators don’t mean you can quit trying. In fact it usually means you’ve just got to go a little harder. You can work harder if you can get work a little smarter on the stuff you already do . And that is where the iPhone comes in.

InsideCRM has published a list of 46 tips to get you a little more productive, a little more businessy, with your iPhone. The tips range from the monumentally banal

24. Use Wikipedia. Get all of Wikipedia on your iPhone, with access to millions of encyclopedia articles.

What? I’ve got an internet enabled iPhone and I can get Wikipedia on it? What are the chances? But all the tips aren’t that bad. There are some questionable ones when applied to the business world:

13. Pay the right tip. If you need help with calculating the right tip — or splitting the bill with friends — try CheckPlease.

If you need to… more...

You know things have been great for the iPhone lately. Apple has surpassed the goal of selling 10 million phones in 2008 and outsold RIM for the most recently reported quarter. But, according to JPRG research, the 6.9 million iPhones Apple sold last quarter might be bested by the 8 million Apple could sell this quarter. Wow, talk about moving some phones! The reasoning for the high hopes and reasons that the quarter might be bullish or outlined at Tech Daily Radar.
Via: MacDailyNews

If you want to get your hands on an iPhone and you live in China you can either get a job building the things or pay top dollar for an unlocked iPhone. AFP reports that that is about to change. Sources tell AFP that Apple is in the final stages of talks with China’s largest telecom provider China Mobile. According to AFP the holdup was over Apple’s revenue sharing demands. Apple wants a big slice of the iPhone pie? Is such a thing even possible?

China has a population of 1.3 billion and 608 million current cell phone users,so the opportunity is huge. If Apple can make the iPhone cool in China expect big sales and the goal of 10 million iPhones sold in 2008 to seem quaint.

AT&T must be sending Apple a huge fat ham or some nice flowers or whatever companies give other companies. Because AT&T released first quarter earnings yesterday and “net income rose by 22% over last year’s first quarter and income per share was 57 cents compared to 1Q2007’s 45 cents”.

This is, no doubt, partially due to the success (and the exclusivity) of the iPhone on AT&T’s network. If the rumors are true, and Apple approached Verizon before AT&T and was shot down, At&T should maybe start preparing that gift basket to Verizon as well.

In an article on Seeking Alpha: “A key piece of its wireless success has been thanks to the “must-have” technology of the iPhone, which continues to benefit from consumer willingness to spend aggressively when they believe a product worthy of the added cost.”

With the supposed release of the 3G iPhone 2.0 this summer, this can only mean better returns for the communications giant.

[Via Seeking Alpha]

Wherever I turn, Apple has a lawsuit against them. I guess it is inevitable. Someone wants to propher from Apple’s success.

This time it’s a patent lawsuit by a Massachusetts man named Romek Figa. He claims to have patented a caller ID system infringed by the iPhone.

His patent, which was granted in 1990 and references two-line LCD screens and external caller ID equipment, describes a way to associate incoming numbers with stored contact names, and he is surpringly looking to halt sales of the iPhone and have Apple give a great amount of money and license his patent. Apple says “NO.”

Statements reveal that a few other companies have agreed to license the patent, such as Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung, but Apple refuses. Aparently, this guy directly sent Steve Jobs a letter demanding some sort of response. Probably not advice I would have given Figa, but more power to him.

It’s a sad state when normal consumer electronics are rendered as tools only meant to be handled by technicians when it comes to the most minute of Hardware upgrades such as changing the battery (but then again we’d be depriving people of money). Although you can pay to have the privilege of Apple gracing your iPhone with a new battery, those with a sense of danger (or have the misconception that their wallets are deeper than they really are) and actually have a scrap of knowledge of busting open small, delicate devices can indulge in a cheap battery replacement kit for the iPhone.

I can only think of a few good reasons why this would be a good idea for the same reason you dislike mango juice with your filet mignon. A word of caution to those insane enough to try this: your warranty will be violated and you must know how to use a solder gun and no they do not function like a stun gun. But for the curious, you can reference iFixit for a take apart guide and battery installation.

The battery itself is being sold by… more...

I just ran out of space on my 8GB iPhone today. I was adding the soundtrack to “Across the Universe” when iTunes notified me that I had to get rid of some of my photos if I wanted to have a complete library on my phone. I knew it would happen one day. Sigh. What I didn’t expect was that it would occur at the exact moment 16GB iPhones started to show up. Perfect timing Apple. I congratulate your precise sales plan. You know me too well. I am assuming they also know their other customers. Apple knows that some people want more space on their Touch-Screen iPods; and that some previous owners may realize that 8 or 16GB is simply not enough and may decide to upgrade. I am jokingly considering upgrading my phone to a 16GB, which is still $100 cheaper than the initial price of the 8GB iPhone. How ironic.

I have heard that there may be yet another price drop, so it would be wise to hold off on the upgrade. I am fine with 8GB, but it looks like I will be living with a fraction of my library.… more...