If you’ve not heard of Square, it’s a device that allows anyone with a phone to accept a credit card payment. You plug it into your phone, start the app, put in the amount, and run the card. You can even have the person sign their name on your touchscreen. At the Chevy Tweet House, they were giving a ton of them away. I grabbed 5 for readers of this blog. The first 5 people to comment on this post will get the free Square devices.
As I’ve been preparing for SXSW, I’ve been getting things ready, including my iPhone. Along with making sure I’ve got an extra battery pack, chargers, etc., I’ve been organizing my phone based on the apps I’m planning to use:
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Twitter – Last year, every session had a hashtag, so I could almost follow a couple sessions at once just by knowing the hashtag of the sessions. It also alerted me to activities, events, and allowed me to meet people who I followed. This will be an essential app for this year. |
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WordPress – As you can tell (by this blog), I’ll be blogging again live from SXSW. This app is great for quick photo/video uploads, posts, and edits to my blog. It’ll also be essential for keeping this blog going. |
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Dragon Dictation – You speak it, and it dictates what you just said. It’s fairly accurate, and it’s a very quick and easy way to jot down my thoughts. Whether it’s a blog post that I simply want to dictate, or a tweet or status update, this app will do it. |
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Camera – There’s plenty of stuff to take in at SXSW, and the camera on the iPhone 4 was the reason I upgraded. The pictures are great quality, and I’ve got an HD video camera in my pocket. I’m planning on taking and posting a whole lot more pics and video this year, so watch here. |
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Foursquare – It’s hard to believe at SXSW last year, Foursquare only had a half million users. It was the first time I really saw the power of Foursquare – when I could look and see where my new friends were, as well as what venues were kickin. With over 5 million users, I’m certain it will be even bigger than last year. |
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Gowalla – Almost exactly the same reason as I chose Foursquare with one addition – virtual items. Last year Adobe partnered with Gowalla and was dropping copies of CS4 that could be traded for real copies. I didn’t find one, but I did find an “ice ball” which was good for a sample of The Macallen at a party, as well as a VIP wristband for the Gowalla party. |
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SCVNGR – Staying in the location based area, this is one I’ve been using since last SXSW, but I have a feeling this one will take off this year, as Seth Priebatsch, the “Chief Ninja” of SCVNGR is one of the keynote speakers this year. I’d be surprised if they didn’t have some sort of SXSW event tie-in. |
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Beluga – Unlike many, I don’t have an unlimited text package, so I was searching for a service that would let me connect with my friends at SXSW without running up a big texting bill. This seems to be the solution for that. It should help us keep track of each other in real time and give updates about which sessions suck and with ones rawk. |
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Skype – Unfortunately, like last year, I’m missing my daughter’s birthday to be at SXSW. So, I’ll be using Skype to check in with my kids and wife and see how they’re doing. Let’s just pray the wifi at SXSW can hold up for decent video. |
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i-nigma – Other than the QR codes on the badges, I didn’t see many of them last year. However, this year, I suspect there will be hundreds of QR codes directing me to new apps, parties, etc. While there are a ton of QR code readers out there, I find this one to be the simplest. |
While there are many more apps I’m planning to use, I’m thinking these will be the ones I use several times a day. Are there any apps you’re planning to use while at SXSW? Any recommendations for me, let’s hear ’em…
It’s finally here… one of the apps I’ve been waiting for since I purchased my iPhone – Skype. If you’re not familiar with it, Skype is an instant messenger, voice-over ip, and video teleconferencing service. It’s free as long as you use it to contact other Skype users through the service… however, you can pay for the service and use it to make/receive phone calles, etc. With Skype on my iPhone, I’ll now be able to chat (only on a wi-fi network) without having to use my cell phone minutes. I’m only hoping that the next version of the iPhone firmware will surprise us with video capabilities and we’ll be able to use the Skype app for video conferencing (although I’m not quite sure how to watch the other person and shoot video of myself at the same time – at least without doing it in front of a mirror).
Google announced today it is going to test downloadable videos on their site for veiwing offline on portable devices like the iPod and iPhone. This is great for being able to take videos with on a plane and other places where you can’t get Internet access. I really hope this will be successful and will encourage other video sites (like Hulu) to do the same. For now, Youtube is merely testing this and may actually charge for downloading videos that you could veiw on their site for free – and it’ll only be an option for a few of the sites professionally produced content. At least some will be downloadable and that is progress.
One of the prevolent technologies at this year’s CES was touchscreens and new ways of movement/navigation – from phones and displays to videogames, there was a big focus on this interactive element. Take a cue from the iPhone, many of the cell phone makers at CES were eager to show off their own touch-screen models, from the Blackberry Bold to the new Palm Pre, the new standard for cell phones is touch screen. However, this touch-screen revolution isn’t just for phones, many computers, tablet PCs, and netbooks featured touch screen technology as a way to replace the mouse. Most of what we saw was pretty good, but (more…)
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