Erich Stauffer

Category: Technology

  • How to Go from VGA to HDMI?

    I have a client using a Vostro 2510 laptop who wanted to display the contents of demonstration from the computer onto a HD TV via HDMI. Unfortunately, the Vostro 2510 only has a VGA output, which is analog, and HDMI is digital, so we needed to get a VGA to HDMI converter box. I normally recommend buying through Amazon.com, but due to time constraints, they needed to get it somewhere local like Best Buy or Fry’s Electronics.

    If you get a converter box, make sure you get an HDMI cable long enough too. They come in 6 to 50 ft cables. The converter boxes are easy to use, plug-and-play devices, but make sure it comes with a VGA cable and audio cable, too. Once you have it, it’s a matter of connecting the VGA cable and audio from your computer to the box, plugging in the converter box to a power outlet, and then run the HDMI cable from the converter box to the TV. Change the input on the tv to HDMI and you’re all set to go. Here is a video on Youtube about how to use the device I’ve linked to above.

  • White-Label Apps

    Apps that do the same thing, but can be branded for different businesses under a licensing agreement or for a large fee are white-label apps.

    Major brands, universities, chambers of commerce, and businesses are all in need of certain types of mobile apps that don’t need to be redeveloped, just re-branded. Appetyte makes trivia and location based guide applications for the iPhone.Whiteapp is “a directory of mobile applications (apps) that serve as building blocks for yours. Starting from an existing application saves a lot of creative and production cost.” Their white label apps directory featuring a shopping cart app, not 1, but 2 augmented reality apps (1 and 2, a QR reader, desk clock, and a GPS store finder – just to name a few. One other example is FormEntry, which is an app that handles forms that can be what they call “private labeled”, which is another word for “white label”.

    How the white label app purchase and rebranding process works

    Your marketing or technology agency inquires about or identifies an app that is currently available to be white-labeled and the price for re-skinning it. You then propose the idea and it’s price to your client. The client is delighted with your proposal and price and says, “Yeah, go!” Everybody discusses objectives over beers or coffee. The best method of implementation is discovered. The details are written up and agreed to. You provide the clients relevant assets (pictures, logos, text content) to the developer. The developer makes it shiny, new and awesome. The application submission and acceptance process with Apple or Android is started and once accepted, you’re published for a fraction of the cost of a totally new app development.

    Both Appetyte and WhiteApp are located in the UK, but we use an iPhone developer in the US called Orange Group Apps who we are currently in discussions with creating a white label app to reskin and sell to prospective markets all over the US. If you are interested in developing an iPhone app in Indiana or are willing to work remotely with the developer, consider Orange Group Apps. We have been really pleased with their work and they are a great couple of guys on a personal level. They have helped us through the app development process all the way through helping us manage ad networks and the Apple app submission process.

  • Are You Overwhelmed with Spam in Your Email?

    When business owners ask me what they can do about all the spam they’re getting, I recommend Google Apps. Not only does Gmail stop most of the spam they’ll get, but it also allows them to create email addresses for all of their employees, setup distribution groups, and access their email from anywhere, including their mobile devices.

    But while spam might be the reason to switch to Google Apps, Gmail is not the only benefit. Your company will also get shared calendar, contacts, documents, and an internal website which you can use as a wiki or as a CRM. And if the tools Google Apps provides by default aren’t enough for you, there are hundreds of add-on software packages for project management, accounting, and customer relationship management that make Google Apps one of the most compelling tools for business owners today.

    Erich Stauffer has helped many businesses switch over from their standard POP accounts to the enterprise-level services that Google Apps provides. If you’re looking to reduce spam in your email and communicate more effectively with your employees and your customers, Google Apps may be right for you.

  • Having Trouble Installing XP Professional on a Dell XPS 400

    I’ve been trying to install XP Professional on a Dell XPS 300 that originally came with XP Media Center Edition. It has a SATA hard drive that requires a driver before Windows Setup will recognize the hard drive. This requires using a program like nLite to create a ‘slipstreamed’ version of XP.

    Each iteration of this process involves copying the source files from the original CD, adding the drivers for the SATA drive, and then building and burning a new CD or DVD to try. I’ve done this 3 times so far and am on my 4th attempt. I’m pretty close to just buying Vista or Windows 7 to put on this machine in order to get it to join to a domain (Windows XP Media Center doesn’t join domains by default).

    [Update 1/1/2011: I ended up just swapping out the SATA drive with an IDE drive and moved forward. It’s like breaking down and using tables when you can’t get CSS to work (which I haven’t had to do in a while).]

  • How a Trust Metric System for the Internet Might Work

    YourSCOR – A New Metric for a New Economy: Ebay came up with one of the first ‘social vetting’ mechanisms, which was their feedback system. For a while, people talked about how it was more accurate than a FICO score. What if there was a way to know ‘trust’ and ‘feedback’ “across all contexts”?

    SCOR stands for “Self-Compiled Opinion Report”, which is created by individuals and purchased by corporations like banks and human resource departments to get a better feel for who society thinks the person is. The site would allow you to bring in some ‘guided metrics’, but would also let you add your own. Guided metrics would include:

    • Linkedin recommendations
    • Ebay feedback rating
    • Flippa feedback rating
    • #of Twitter Followers
    • #of Facebook friends
    • YourSCOR recommendations

    It could also store achievements and statuses like:

    • Married or single
    • High school, college, post graduate education
    • Foursquare badges
    • Boy scout rank
    • Military rank
    • Tenured status at your job

    It could also compile the person’s FICO score (for a small fee), help you apply for credit cards (for affiliate revenue), and even pull background checks as an attachment. It would be like a personal Yelp.com or BBB where people could manage their own reputation online in one place, where they would have a publicly recognizeable score that would be trusted across the country. It may use a Pressure score like Product Management uses or a straight FICO-like score.

    Update from CNN 8/26/2013: “A handful of tech startups are using social data to determine the risk of lending to people who have a difficult time accessing credit.”

  • How to Auto-Forward Text Messages to Email in Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Palm Pre, and the iPhone

    It may seem counter-intuitive to some to forward a SMS message to an email address when most devices that can receive text messages can also receive email, but sometimes you don’t have access to your phone, yet you still need access to the text messages. This could happen if you lose your phone, leave your phone at work or in the car, or simply not be able to bring it to work or some other restricted location.

    I personally started using it when my customers started texting me long requests that I’d have to retype or manually forward to get into a usable form on my computer. It could also be useful for those of you who run a business on the side and want to keep your day job. You can use tools like this to forward text messages as emails to a personal assistant or your partner. For whatever the reason, you’re probably here looking for the answer, just like I was before I found the solution.

    Below are solutions for how to auto-forward your text messages to email for Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Palm Pre, and Apple iPhones.

    Android Phones

    TextBusy by Gatehill Software – $1.23

    I use TextBusy, which works great. It requires you to use a Gmail account to forward the emails so all of the SMS messages will be coming to you from whatever address you specify. Whatever bad reviews you see out there from August – disregard as those have been fixed by now as you can see by the latest review on September 15th. For $1.23 it’s well worth the money. It currently has 9 reviews on the Android Market.

    txtForward by Electric Pocket – $3.19

    txtForward txtForward automatically sends a copy of your SMS text messages to any email address you specify, for backup or as a handy way to get your messages at your desk.
    Send your SMS messages automatically to any email address, and easily back them up or read them from your desktop email client. It’s available for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile too. It currently has 38 reviews on the Android Market.

    SMS2Gmail by EireApps – FREE

    SMS2Gmail forwards SMS and missed call information to Gmail account. This application allows you to forward your SMS messages and missed calls to a user defined gmail account, and you can activate it remotely. If your phone is at home for example and you are not, send it an SMS from a friends phone or webtext and activate this service. It currently has 57 reviews on the Android Market.

    Blackberry Phones

    SMS Auto Forward to Email Pro by Value Apps – $3.99

    SMS Auto Forward to Email lets you forward all incoming SMS messages to an email address automatically. Very handy if you keep changing your handsets or like to delete your text messages. Keep a log/backup of all your text messages. Once installed and running, you don’t need to do anything. The app runs in the background and send every incoming text message automatically to an email address of your choice.

    txtForward automatically sends a copy of your SMS text messages to any email address you specify, for backup or as a handy way to get your messages at your desk.
    Send your SMS messages automatically to any email address, and easily back them up or read them from your desktop email client.

    Windows Mobile

    txtForward automatically sends a copy of your SMS text messages to any email address you specify, for backup or as a handy way to get your messages at your desk.
    Send your SMS messages automatically to any email address, and easily back them up or read them from your desktop email client.

    Palm Pre

    SMS Auto Forward/Reply by Grabber Software

    NOTE: This app does not work on webOS 2.x. SMS Auto Forward/Reply forwards text messages to the mobile number of your choice (number must be in your contacts). You can also send an auto-reply message to the sender. Your phone must be turned on and in coverage for this application to work. While this isn’t text-to-email, it may be the best a Palm Pre user can get. If you know of another app for Pre’s let us know in the comments.

    Apple iPhones

    Unfortunately, there are no apps to auto-forward text message from the iPhone (this is an opportunity for app developers!). For iPhones using firmware 3.0 or higher, manual forwarding of SMS messages is a built-in feature. To manually forward a text message, simply:

    1. view the SMS text message you’d like to forward
    2. select EDIT at the top of the screen
    3. check off the message(s) you’d like to forward
    4. tap FORWARD at the bottom right of the screen

    iSMS/weiSMS

    For those using older firmware, there is a third-party application for the iPhone, iSMS/weiSMS, with which it is possible to send text messages to multiple individuals as well as forward text messages.

    SMSD

    SMSD is a free and easy to use iPhone SMS management application which lets you delete individual Messages, backup all message through mail, manually forward messages, and manually Send/Forward messages to multiple contacts.

  • 6 Ways to Install Android APK Files

    MID Tablets had a post on how to add the Android Market app to a Coby Kyros tablet without rooting, but I wanted to revise the article to be about different ways to install Android APK files in general.

    Different Ways to Install Android APK Files

    There are various ways to install Android apps, which are really just “APK” files, besides using the Android Market. APK stands for “Android Package Kit”, which would be like an “EXE” on Windows PCs. While Android Market is the most popular and most trusted way to add and install APK files to your Android device, there are other ways to go about it. Here are some of the most popular:

    • Android Market – an online software store developed by Google for Android OS devices. Its gateway is an application program (“app”) called “Market”, preinstalled on most Android devices, allows users to browse and download mobile apps published by third-party developers. Users can also search for and read detailed information about apps on the Android Market website.
    • Amazon Appstore – a mobile application store for the Android operating system that includes a “free app a day” feature. Every day, an application, frequently a game, is offered for free. The Amazon Appstore is currently only available in the US and no official announcements have been made about increasing availability to other regions.
    • AppsLib – A marketplace aimed at all kinds of android devices; Appslib specializes in android devices that can’t get google certification; tablets, eReaders, PMPs and more. With over 30 thousand applications available, worldwide, it has a simple, hassle-free certification process, and all updates to Appslib are automatically pushed to users.
    • GetJar – GetJar is the world’s largest free app store with over 2 billion downloads to date. The company distributes more than 350,000 mobile applications across a variety of operating systems including Android, Blackberry, Java, Symbian and mobile web. 395,000 developers have registered with GetJar to distribute their apps.
    • Android SDK – a comprehensive set of development tools for Android. These include a debugger, libraries, a handset emulator (based on QEMU), documentation, sample code, and tutorials. Currently supported development platforms include computers running Linux (any modern desktop Linux distribution), Mac OS X 10.4.9 or later, Windows XP or later.
    • Easy Installer – a free Android app from Infolife, LLC that installs apps from APK files on SD cards. It lists all the apk files on the SD card, allowing you to select apps that you want to install. Click the “Install Selected Apps” button for easy installation.

    (more…)

  • Best Android Tablet PCs for Any Budget

    If you’re in the market for a new Android tablet PC, Tablet Comparison has compiled a list of the the best tablet PCs under $300 and the best tablet PCs over $300. You may be surprised how far your dollar can go this Christmas season. Most are Android tablet PCs with the exceptions being Apple’s iPad 2, which runs Apple’s iOS. In the tablet market, Android is like Microsoft Windows and iOS is like Apple’s Snow Leopard or Lion OSX.

    While there are many Android tablets under $300, there were only 5 tablets listed over $300 and of the five, the top two models, Apple’s iPad 2 and Motorola’s Xoom battle it out. While at first glance, the Samsung Galaxy Tab may have seemed like an iPad-killer (especially due to the pending patent litigation in multiple countries between Apple and Saumsung) and more recently, the Kindle Fire, the people actually buying these tablets are the one doing the most comparing between the iPad 2 and the Xoom. The one reviewer who compared the iPad and the Xoom to checkers and chess said it well. If you want easy and repeatable over time, get the iPad, but if you want a more in-depth experience over time, you’ll want the Xoom. The Xoom is an Android tablet. You could just as easily compare any Apple device to any Android device with the same chess/checkers analogy and be right. This is how Apple wanted it to be (and vice versa).

    Of the Android tablets under $300, the three that stick out to me are the Amazon Kindle Fire, the Coby Kyros, and the Nook Tablet. Of those three, although the Kindle Fire is only $199, the Coby Kyros Tablet may just be the best value as it’s models range from $205 for the 10.1 inch tablet to $157 for the 7 inch tablet. For comparison, the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet are both 7 in Android tablets. Not that size or price is the most important factor in choosing a tablet PC, but out of 352 reviews, the tablet is averaging 3.5 out of 5 stars, 107 of those being 5 stars.

    One other factor to consider is the availability of covers, cases, and accessories for your tablets. The Apple iPad 2 and Nook Tablet both have the same form factors as their iPad and Nook Color predecessors, but the Kindle Fire, Motorola Xoom, and Coby Kyros tablets are new form factors that accessories makers may be behind in creating new after-market products for. A new website, MID Tablets plans on covering the different Coby Kyros tablet models (each prefaced with a different ‘MID’ which stands for mobile internet device) and the availability of Coby Kyros cases, chargers, and accessories. The same people who brought you Nook Share, which covers the Nook line and their accessories, are the ones behind this new MID Tablets site and the Tablet Comparison site.

  • How To Run Google Maps On the Kindle Fire

    The new Amazon Kindle Fire is a full-blown Android tablet for only $199. However, by default, Google Maps is not installed and neither is the Android Market, but this doesn’t mean you can’t install Google Maps – you just can’t do it from Amazon’s App Store.

    The workaround is to use an Android phone which can access the Android Market.

    And the best part? You don’t need to “root” your phone or Kindle Fire tablet to do this PLUS Amazon doesn’t oppose adding apps in this way (like Barnes and Noble did initially with the Nook Color).

    The Kindle Fire can install any app in the standard Android APK format and you can find APKs scattered around the Internet on various sites, but it’s recommended to only use the ones found in the Android Market to avoid infecting your phone or tablet.

    Next, we’ll explain how to move any Android APK app from an Android phone running Gingerbread (Android 2.3 – check your system settings to know for sure) to a Kindle Fire.

    7 Steps to Installing Google Maps on the Kindle FireGet the Google Maps App on the Kindle Fire

    1. Using Astro File Manager on your Android phone, change the Preferences of the Backup Directory to “/mnt/sdcard-ext” or “/mnt/external-sd” or “sdcard”, whatever the MicroSD card is called. Click OK twice, then Back three times.
    2. Still in Astro File Manager, click “Application Backup” then select Google Maps and any other apps you want to move to the Kindle Fire. Click Backup. The Android APK files have now been copied to your external MicroSD card.
    3. Now hook your Android phone up to your PC using a USB cable. Open the drive which appears on your PC, and look for the “backups” folder. Open the “apps” folder within backups. Copy all the APK files from there onto your PC.
    4. Now pick up your Kindle Fire and browse to the Appstore for Android to download “Easy Installer” from INFOLIFE. Don’t worry, it’s free.
    5. Plug your Kindle Fire into your PC using a USB cable and when it’s drive appears on your PC, copy the Android APK files (Google Maps and whatever else you copied) into it.
    6. Now disconnect the Kindle Fire from the PC and open Easy Installer in Apps. You will be able to choose an app to install from a list of the APK files you copied.
    7. Choose Google Apps and any other apps you want to install and click, “Install Selected Apps.” You now have Google Maps installed on your Amazon Kindle Fire!