I use a Blackberry Pearl and a variety of applications (primarily Google’s Mobile Suite and IM) for navigation and communication. While the interface is still limited it’s easy enough to communicate with a dispersed team or clients while in the field.

We have all been subjected to the onslaught of media surrounding the iPhone. It is, without a doubt, a beautiful and capable device, that is changing the cellular carrier and handset industries. With it, Apple is taking a leadership role in an era of mobile computing that is in it’s infancy. Their tactics in the media are worth mentioning, as they will come to affect us all eventually. There are are a few interesting aspects of this new era in computing that are rarely mentioned in articles or blog posts that I feel are some of the most important of these changes.

Teaching A Lesson
First and foremost, with the accompanying media campaign, Apple is teaching us how to use, and why we should want, a smartphone. Not just an iPhone, but access in general is what they are advertising. Anyone who does a side by side comparison will recognize the ease of use and what I’ll call the fluidity of the iPhone, but with a little effort there are several devices that can achieve the same level of access. Several of the iPhone commercials show off the capabilities of the iPhone by simply demonstrating this access, and that’s good for the industry as a whole, as widespread understanding of these capabilities is something that is missing among the general public. People know how to text, but the mobile web is something else entirely. Of course, this will all change over the course of the next 2-10 years as the interface evolves, which brings me to my next point.

Interface
With this device, Apple has taken the lead in defining the general interface for the next iteration of the mobile web. Eventually our devices will be capable enough to handle anything the web throws at it, but in the mean time there are a few design paradigms that are evolving based on this single device. The general layout and functionality of pages is being rethought, not just for screen size, but for viewing and entry as well. The great thing about all of this is the intense analysis of human interactions with technology that’s going on around it. We are getting to a point where the technology is adapting to us more than we’re adapting to the technology.

Controls
This is a critical point in how we develop touch controls for devices. There are currently only a few gestures in the Apple touch lexicon, but as the devices evolve along with their capabilities this will change. Apple is literally defining how we will interface with our devices across the board. Frankly, that doesn’t worry me, because I think they are on the right track and are listening to feedback. But will other companies adopt the same conventions that Apple uses? Will they be able to without licensing or getting sued? These are important questions that will play out over time, as more and more touch based devices come to market, and more users become familiar with the controls/interfaces. Using a chubby finger to navigate is now a consideration most web designers will need to address at one time or another.

Assumptions
With the next version of the device presumably ready to be released there’s an entirely new crop of customers who (myself included) that are about to get on board. Some of us have been waiting for the kinks to be worked out before diving in. With the further development of Android and Symbian, the future looks bright for the mobile market. I’m excited about the direction and look forward to the coming “endless summer” where technology allows me to work whenever, and from wherever, I want.

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About: Aaron Smith is the owner of Mixotic LLC. Aaron started his own business after seeing so many of the businesses he had worked for struggling with their technology, trying to figure out what tools to use, how to use them, and how to train staff. He believes that companies that don’t explore new technology solutions give up a competitive advantage.

The post Go Mobile! Apple’s iPhone Defining the Mobile Computing Experience appeared first on Small Business Trends.

For online merchants who sell products this is a no-brainer. But service providers should consider this option as a way to get paid faster, especially when dealing with other small businesses trying to handle their own cash flow problems.

A lot of entrepreneurs will go right to the bank to set up this service, but in my research that was usually the worst option in terms of fees and commitment. When I looked at setting up a merchant account with Washington Mutual the processing fees were much higher, and they wanted me to sign a two year commitment, with a $250 termination fee. Add to that a monthly service fee and it was going to cost me nearly $100 to process a $1,500 charge to one of my clients. When I saw that I nearly choked. $100 for some computers to pass a few packets back and forth, and change the balances in a few accounts?!?! I don’t think so ….

Here are a few easy ways to get started accepting credit cards, without the hassle or expense of setting up a merchant account with your bank.

ProPay

The payment service from ProPay is geared towards the small business that only has a few credit card transactions a month, and small ones at that. The service is very affordable to start out, but the trade off is the amount you can process per transaction, and per month. In addition, the percentage charged on transactions is pretty high, starting at 3.5% for the basic level of service. For a small business just starting out and desperate for a way to process cards, this could be a good way to go, but watch out for the higher fees as you cross your processing limits. The tiered levels of service give businesses more options, but if you need to process more than a few times a month, or for more than a couple thousand dollars, you’re probably better off elsewhere.

PayPal Merchant Services

PayPal’s merchant services integrate nicely with their existing payment services to offer businesses a more unified place to manage these types of payments. PayPal also offers a wide variety of ways to process the card. You can send email invoices, or let customers submit payment directly through your site. I haven’t completed the process of setting up a merchant account and processing a card, but the fees associated with the service are some of the lowest around. Once Google starts charging for their service, it will be worth taking a second look.

Google Checkout

Last year Google launched their PayPal competitor and offered customers $10 off their first purchase when they used the service. The service has been widely adopted by online merchants as an alternative payment method. In addition to the payment service, Google Checkout also allows users to create and send invoices via email. The emails contain a link to a page where customers can submit their payment. The transaction is processed, and funds appear in your associated bank account in about 48-72 hours. In an attempt to draw customers to the service, Google is offering to process cards without a fee through the end of the year. If you’re an online merchant just getting started this is definitely the way to go. With the holiday shopping season coming up, this could mean literally thousands in savings on processing fees. Once the new year rolls around, Google’s service will still be competitively priced, and it will still be free to non-profit organizations who use it to process donation transactions through the end of 2008.

I ended up going with Google and processed my first transaction for free – no charge at all! I’ll keep doing that while I can and will reevaluate the services when Google starts charging me next year. My clients are already singing the praises of the service and thanking me for letting them keep their cash on hand. Now I get paid faster than ever before, and that makes me sleep better at night.

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About: Aaron Smith is the owner of Mixotic LLC. Aaron started his own business after seeing so many of the businesses he had worked for struggling with their technology, trying to figure out what tools to use, how to use them, and how to train staff. He believes that companies that don’t explore new technology solutions give up a competitive advantage.

The post Let Your Customers Pay with Credit Cards appeared first on Small Business Trends.

There are a few more tools in this vein, so we wanted to look at a couple of the others that are available and do a quick comparison. The two we’ll be looking at are Skrbl and a GE proof-of-concept, Imagination Cubed.

Imagination Cubed allows a few users to draw on an online whiteboard, very similar to what Scriblink offers. With IC, you don’t need an account, but are limited to just two other collaborators. There’s a range of different tools and colors that can be used in your drawing and the interface for selecting them is very smooth and intuitive. There is a limit to how much you can draw, indicated by an “ink” meter at the top of the page. All in all, a fun application, but maybe not so useful for more than just simple sketching.

Skrbl offers similar capabilities to the others, with some expanded options … for a price. The free version has many of the same features, although the tools are not quite as easy, nor do they offer quite as many options (colors, stamps, drawing tools). There are a few things that look familiar in Skrbl though, specifically the Word-esque tool bar and work space. One great feature Skrbl offers is a free button that can be placed on a site with a snippet of code that allows users to start a collaboration session directly from your site with a single click.

Having the ability to draw ON a picture or design you upload would be an excellent way to use these tools. Unfortunately, only one of them has this killer feature, Skrbl Team. For $10/month you can upload and share documents, as well as view web pages with other team members (up to 5, with unlimited guests). This is the feature that makes the application useful for teams reviewing design work.

As anyone who has worked on a design project before can tell you, design by committee is usually a very bad thing. You end up with competing preferences and styles, and ultimately what is produced can look like a big mess.

That’s one of the reasons that I think the place for these applications is later in the design cycle, for review and comment. Giving a team the ability to mark up an existing design is a much better way to work than trying to get your team to think creatively together.

Also entering the scene are products like Stixy, YuuGuu, and Dimdim that offer various forms of online collaboration, meeting and file / screen sharing.

The market for these tools is probably going to start small as businesses learn to apply them. I imagine that a few will be acquired by larger hosted applications to add functionality. That said, there’s still a place for this kind of tool, it’s just a matter of figuring out how you might use it in your business.

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About: Aaron Smith is the owner of Mixotic Technology Solutions. Aaron started his own business after seeing so many of the businesses he had worked for struggling with their technology, trying to figure out what tools to use, how to use them, and how to train staff. He believes that companies that don’t explore new technology solutions give up a competitive advantage.

The post More On Group Drawing and Annotation Tools appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Editor’s Note: Aaron Smith joins us once again, this time explaining how you can take advantage of free or low cost software tools – IF you have reasonable expectations about them. That’s where the 90% rule comes in.

By Aaron Smith

I have seen it happen so many times throughout my career. I’m looking for a piece of software or an online service that solves a business problem. I know it’s out there, and when I find it I bring it to the decision makers for review.

They look at it closely, get excited about the features and possibilities, and then start asking questions. Invariably we get to a point where the managers start envisioning different aspects of the process, or brainstorming different ways it could be used. And then someone asks “Can you view the data in a standard deviation chart and compare it to the three data sets I created last week in Excel?” That’s when my contented smile disappears as I answer “Well, no, but ….”  and the whole room sighs collectively.

All of a sudden my fantastic tool that was going to revolutionize how we work is out the window.

What happened here? Someone decided they needed the “Perfect Tool.”

This is a common problem for businesses trying to adapt to changing technology. For decades, we have been building business tools to address very specific business needs. In the 80′s and 90′s that meant in-house development of specialized applications, defined by traditional software development guidelines and practices.

What this has created is a generation of managers who are used to getting exactly what they want when they define a system requirement. It has narrowed the vision of managers everywhere as they will only accept solutions that completely address every aspect of the business. Unfortunately, unless you have a large budget to pour into development, that will never happen.

The 90% Rule says “If you find a tool that can achieve 90% of the functionality of your ‘Perfect Tool’, you’re 90% of the way to finding a solution.” All too often, managers try to find tools that solve 100% of the problem, something that is often unachievable. Here are a couple of the traps that can lead to this thinking ….

“That’s not what we call it.”

You call them bugs instead of tickets, or tickets instead of tasks, or deadlines instead of milestones … so what? It might take a week or two, but a lot of times it’s easier to change the words you use to describe how you work, than to reprogram an entire application to match your existing terminology, and most of the time that’s not even an option. Just because a tool refers to various aspects of your business differently than you’re accustomed to doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from using it. People are pretty good about adjusting to these kinds of changes (that’s why people make better translators than computers).

“This won’t work for us. Our business is unique.”

Not to rain on your parade, but when it comes down to it, your business isn’t really that different. You offer a product or service, you deal with clients or customers, you charge a fee and create invoices, you pay bills and rent, etc. A lot of businesses sell their ‘process’ as what sets them apart, but that doesn’t have to change just because they change that process or enhance it by making the people executing it more effective.

“That’s so cool! But I want to do this too, and I want it to look like this…”

This is the key to the 90% rule. Being willing to make compromises on small features is the only way to get to 100% (unless, like I said above, you have the development budget to get there). If you need to view your data set vertically instead of horizontally, figure out a way to get what you want outside of the application. It’s usually pretty easy to take data from one app, import it into a spreadsheet, and get what you need. But having the ability to collect, track and manipulate the data in the first place is 90% of the job.

Since most small businesses don’t have the budget to devote to custom development, you are forced to adapt your processes to the tools that are available. Ultimately, no matter what tool you choose, you’re making a process decision for your business. If you choose flexible solutions, are willing to adapt your internal processes to better mesh with the tools, and trust your employees to bridge the gaps, there’s a lot you can achieve with what’s freely available out there.

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About: Aaron Smith is the owner of Mixotic Technology Solutions. Aaron started his own business after seeing so many of the businesses he had worked for struggling with their technology, trying to figure out what tools to use, how to use them, and how to train staff. He believes that companies that don’t explore new technology solutions give up a competitive advantage.

The post Perfect Technology Tools: The 90% Rule appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Editor’s Note:  Please welcome our newest guest expert, Aaron Smith. Aaron will be writing about  free and low-cost applications that you may find of value for your business. His first column is about the Big Daddy of them all, Google Apps.

By Aaron Smith

It seems incredible, but just over a year ago most businesses had to pay for their email. If you wanted you and your employees to have YourName@YourDomain.com you had to pay a premium for each mailbox.

Then, one day, Google decided that we could all change a couple of zone files and point our mail traffic at their servers, and they would be delighted if came in a used their beautiful applications … for free. And it wasn’t just email. It was integrated calendaring and chat, and it was all built on open standards with easy accessibility through a set of APIs. Google decided that anyone could use their suite of online applications to manage the communications within their domain.

I’m not sure I can express how significant this is for a small business trying to manage an email server. In a simple gesture, Google is alleviating a huge strain that small businesses can feel on a mission critical system. Having access to these hosted applications means that a business can manage a large portion of it’s infrastructure through a browser, while leaving the hardware administration to the experts in the massive data centers scattered around the globe.

What this means is that, with a personal computer and an Internet connection, anyone can register a domain and setup a basic business infrastructure. It also means that a huge portion of the administrative headaches that go along with maintaining your own email server go out the window. Instead of worrying about backup sets, intrusions and spam, you just worry about protecting your own computer.

Does this mean that you don’t use offline software any more? Of course not! While you can use all the Google Domain Apps in a browser window, most of the applications can also be used with traditional, installed software. Your email can be accessed using POP and downloaded to a local mail client, like Outlook or the free and excellent Thunderbird, for offline viewing and response. You can sync your Google Calendar with applications like Outlook or Apple’s iCal, and GTalk works with a free IM client provided by Google, or any number of third-party IM applications, like Trillium or Apple’s iChat.

For most businesses, this is a paradigm shift for the IT department, and some managers might initially reject relinquishing control of something they have had a long term maintenance relationship with. This is an understandable response, as there is a measure of control that is being traded for these new capabilities. In addition, some IT personnel might see this as a threat to their job, as the majority of the service support and administration is done at the user’s desktop, not in the server room.

I think Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, put it best when he equated Google’s services to those a bank offers. Your business doesn’t have a safe on-site where it keeps all it’s liquid assets, nor do you take your cash home to stuff in your mattress or bury in the back yard. You trust a financial institution that specializes in asset management to ensure your money is safe and sound. Why wouldn’t you do the same thing with your important data?

Visit Google Domain Apps to see what they offer.

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About: Aaron Smith is the owner of Mixotic Technology Solutions.  Aaron started his own business after seeing so many of the businesses he had worked for struggling with their technology, trying to figure out what tools to use, how to use them, and how to train staff. He believes that companies that don’t explore new technology solutions give up a competitive advantage.

The post Google Apps: The Sleeping Giant? appeared first on Small Business Trends.