Appletell

DataViz a few years ago released a very promising product called Documents To Go. The main idea behind this application was to give mobile users the chance to manipulate Microsoft Office documents on a portable device.

It was the days when the Palm m100 just got out—when mobile devices without a color screen were still a normal thing to deal with—that I got to know this interesting product from DataViz.

I tried it back then, even through as many versions as I could install in my handheld, and it was great. It could never be a complete substitute to the desktop version for me, but it was a very powerful option for viewing and editing those Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on the go.

Now DataViz has announced they’re working on a version of Documents To Go for the iPhone

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In Chapter One of my Developing for the iPhone series, I shared some thoughts on the genesis of every project; the big bang for the entrepreneur, the idea that supports everything else. I also stated what I feel to be a truthful fact about the significance of the idea, and its role on the whole project.

What should I do now that I have that good idea? What do I need to make it happen? Is there any way to insure success?

More after the break.

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When it comes to developing for the iPhone, there’s no dramatic change in comparison to any other software development project. Aside from the technical aspects of programming for a mobile device, general guidelines have to be followed in order to achieve the highest chance of success.

This is the first of a short (I guess it’d be three of them) series of articles in which I will share some thoughts, explain some ideas, and lay out some strategies to deploy iPhone applications. I’ll be going through everything we need to start programming (ideas, time, skills, docs, tools, motivation, etc), and some of the best techniques to attack a problem and organize a team of professionals (developers, graphics designers, and more).

Learn more after the break.

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My relationship with Intuit is definitely a weird one.  It’s been on and off for years now, and while I can’t deny I’m not entirely satisfied with the treatment they gave Mac users in general, I still find myself falling back to their products. At least Quicken, with all its known faults, is one product I like.

I know there are other options, I just don’t feel interested in trying them out. Even though I think Intuit continuously drops the ball for us with some buggy features, delayed updates of applications, and Windows-based solutions as a priority, I can’t avoid feeling excited when I hear some new feature is out for the Mac community. That’s exactly what I’m bringing you today—a new service from Intuit, deployed for iPhone users, which I don’t completely like, but I’m glad it exists. It seems this relationship will continue the same for a while longer.

Details after the break.

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To secure our valuable belongings is always important. It doesn’t really come to just price; what makes an object valuable to his owner varies from one person to another.

There’s a wide range of solutions to secure everything we have, and even though I’d like to think common sense and care are the most important ones, it’s really difficult to be alert all the time. If we can get a little bit of extra help, there’s no reason to turn our backs against it.

When it comes to my Macs, nothing is too much to secure them; as I stated before, the reasons for everyone are different. In my case, I work with them, I paid a lot of money to get them (in Venezuela we don’t have prices as good as in the U.S. or even Europe), and, let’s admit it, I love them.

Learn about my security solution after the break.

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A few days ago, we brought you CampTune from Paragon Software. This group of software manufacturers offers some really interesting tools to help you improve the whole Mac user experience.

When it comes to recovering from a crash, you have many options and paths to take. It will always depend on the kind and source of trouble you encounter. One of my favorite options to recover from a classic crash (as in the Mac-won’t-start-after-an-update crash) is to connect a Firewire cable between the healthy Mac and the sick Mac, start the troubled system with the T key pressed on the keyboard, and try a few things like re-installing the problematic update, going backwards to a restore, or just backing up my data and reinstalling the system.

You have many options, and we’ll introduce a very nice one after the break.

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Pageonce is an interesting service, that provides centralized access to different types of Internet accounts. The main idea behind this service is to allow customers to get into their e-mail account(s), social networks, shopping pages, and financial services, among others, from one single virtual door where everything is organized and easily accessible.

One of the many features of Pageonce is the possibility of getting alerts from all your associated services, such as flight changes, earned miles, financial status, pre-programmed payments, etc.

Learn more after the break.

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A few months ago, we reported on the release of CheckUp 1.0 from app4mac, a health monitoring application for our Macs. Now, we bring you good news with the most recent version of this useful program.

For those of you who already know the application, the first two features to notice are the refreshed UI (User Interface) and the price drop. When it came out, CheckUp cost $49; a reasonable price for a well-designed application created to help you keep your Mac in shape, which is not an irrelevant task for anyone who appreciates his computer.

Now, we’ve found an updated version for just $29. It’s a nice price drop, which makes it even more desirable for those of you who wanted to wait, or just decided to pass the first time it came out.

Check out the new and top features after the break.

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When I switched to Mac a few years ago, I wasn’t really worried about the PC apps I used and their possible Mac substitutes. I know that a common and sensible worry to have, but I was so excited to finally be able to get my hands on a Mac, that I said to myself, “I’ll deal with it later.“

Today, I regret neither my decision nor my attitude towards the platform change, but there are a few things I certainly felt were lost in the crossover process. Like most people who make the switch, a great deal of that lost feeling has to be with our computer using habits more than with a lack of features or alternatives available on the new platform.

Find out what I got back with SizzlingKeys after the break.

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It’s clear for everyone who follows the iPhone, that Apple is interested in the enterprise environment. Since the iPhone SDK press event on March 6th, Apple made it clear they wanted to be a mayor player in the business of corporative mobile computing.

Apple claims to have the best phone for business ever, but we all know how good they are on making up convincing lines for us to consume. The iPhone, so far, has great features that makes it a potential contender in the enterprise arena, but, according to Gartner, after three weeks of testing and reviewing the 3G version of the phone in large businesses, the device can be supported by IT shops, but only for a narrow set of uses such as voice, e-mail, web browsing and storage of personal information. They claim some security issues as a reason for the limited use cases.

Even though the phone could not be entirely mature for the enterprise yet, some big players are betting on Apple’s device now. They know Apple, so they also know the Cupertino-based company does take its goals seriously, and they’ll probably overcome today’s limitation in the near future.

Learn more about IBM’s plans for the iPhone after the break.

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