Essentially, and for the sake of argument, I found that there are two types of apps in this category. The first type are the apps that are designed to integrate your existing merchant account with Paypal or the like. The second type are the apps designed to provide you with a fully functioning and new merchant account. The problem I have with the first type are the simple expense of the affair. You have the cost of your existing merchant account which probably runs from $15 to $30 per month (paypal is $30) and then the additional expense of either the app download or the monthly fee to the app provider who marries your phone to your merchant account.

In order to decrease overall expenses and keep the system fairly simple I was on the look out for an app/account that would be minimum in expense and from which the app developer could provide me with a merchant account. After doing some basic research I chose Paynet.

Paynet’s app is very simple to use and free to download. I called them directly on the phone to start the application process and after 24 hours I was approved. They sent me a merchant number and after a few setup items online I got a mobile pin number that I used to activate the app. This entire process didn’t take anymore than an hour and its super easy to use. I can use the app or the online virtual terminal to process a charge and the system auto-generates and emails a receipt to the customer if you want. It also keeps a log of all the charges so you can view your past history.

The first charge I made was on a Friday and the funds were in my checking account by Tuesday of the following week. The best part: the monthly fee for EVERYTHING is $10!!!!!!!! I canceled my Paypal Virtual terminal on the spot and am now using this exclusively!

Thank you PaynetSystems for making this a great App and a great and affordable way to accept credit cards online or from my phone!

If you are going to look into this I can also recommend one of the sales reps. I delt with Bill Johansen and he was really great. He has given me permission to list his direct number and email here so that our readers can reach him directly. His number is 1-800-809-1989 Ext 109 and his email is billj@paynetsystems.com. When he asks how you how you found them just mention our website or “jpsquared.” That way Bill will know you saw this article when you call or email. If you would prefer just go to the site and start the application process click here.

Jacob S Paulsen
www.jacobspaulsen.com

If you are in the process of researching merchant accounts I am providing here some additional information you may want to consider.

If you know anything about merchant accounts then you know there are thousands of different providers online that are eager to take your money and set you and your business up to take credit cards. What are some of the different factors that you should consider when looking at Merchant Account providers:

• Account Setup Fees
• Per Transaction Fees (fixed rate fee per charge)
• Processing Fees (% of each charge)
• Monthly account fees (anywhere from $10 to $40 per month)
• Escrow (Often they require a certain amount of money be held in a fund in case your customers request refunds)
• Processing Speed (How long until the funds are in the bank)

If you go with the PaynetSystems.com solution I described below you will find the absolute best of all of these options!

The most recent studies suggest that 1.6% of all USA website usage is done from a mobile phone. WOW!!! 1.6% is a huge number considering the competition of endless numbers of corporate America employees who spend all day on the internet from their desktop computers. 76% of adults say they have done a Google search from a mobile phone at least once! If you have a website or blog it has become imperative that you make your site mobile friendly.

If you are utilizing Wordpress (the most popular website/blog hosting service online) then this process can be quite painless. The most popular plugins available are WPTouch iPhone Theme and Wordpress Mobile Pack. As you can imagine I tend to prefer the Wordpress Mobile Pack plugin since I’m a little anti anything that looks like an iPhone but there you have it. Both plugins allow a great deal of customization including widgets, RSS, pages, and theme options.

If you are using something other than Wordpress I suggest contacting you web developer and emphasizing the importance of getting your site up to mobile standards!

Jacob S Paulsen

Mobile Browser Emulators:

Opera Mini: http://www.opera.com/mini/demo/

Android Broweser: http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/emulator.html

The wordpress app supports both Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org sites. To learn more about this project visit http://android.wordpress.org/

Heaven DeHoff
http://heavendehoff.wordpress.com/

I dislike comparing Apples to anything. The debate is as pointless as it is old. PC verses Mac commercials are funny; even more so if you own a Mac, or you’re a person capable of laughing at yourself and use a PC. Toss Linux into the mix and you’ve got an interesting situation. Mac people are generally fanatical about their computers. PC people are either all business or didn’t know there was an alternative. Linux users think they’re superior in every way for having discovered the best software is open, non-proprietary and they’ve figured out how to use it.

The problem with Linux in a nutshell is that it exists to be modified to fit a need. It’s open, usually free, particularly stable, and cryptic. It’s employed by elitist sysadmins who bathe as often as they reboot and who pride themselves on using an operating system that is arguably the best of what both Apple and Microsoft have tried to accomplish.

Lots of cell phones run on Linux, but just as Linux is employed and developed to fit a need that’s where they stop. They make calls, they’re stable, and that’s all. Enter Google and Android.

Why did I switch to Android and what have I learned about the differences between the iPhone and Android platforms? I switched because we’ve “gone Google” at work and decommissioned our Microsoft Exchange email server in favor of Google Apps Premiere Edition. I’m a big believer in native synchronization whenever possible, so I picked up a T-Mobile myTouch 3G with Google.

Physically, the hardware is very close to the same size in the hand. The iPhone is slightly wider and longer, while the myTouch 3G is a bit thicker. They both feel roughly equal in weight.  I also found that the way I’d become accustomed to holding my iPhone doesn’t benefit the myTouch 3G. The iPhone’s power/lock button is atop the upper right edge of the device, but the lock/off button of the myTouch 3G is found at the lower right corner on the face. Holding the myTouch 3G in my palm with an index finger on the upper edge, like I typically held the iPhone, results in an awkward thumb stretch to power off the myTouch 3G, and that’s where things get interesting.

Where should the power button be located? Am I holding the myTouch 3G incorrectly? These questions spawned this article and they don’t stop at the hardware. Where Android truly wins is in the ability of the software to run on vastly different hardware. The myTouch 3g is about as close to the physical form of an iPhone as Android gets, and it’s still radically different. But Android also runs on devices with full, sliding qwerty keyboards, trackpads or scroll wheels, bigger screens, and smaller ones. The choice isn’t iPhone or Android anymore; it’s what hardware do you want your Android device to have? Oddly enough, the thing I miss most about the iPhone is that SMS notifications would periodically repeat until I read the message. Now I enjoy a blinking LED when messages await. Why didn’t Apple think of that?

Which brings us to Google. Because Google is platform independent, it’s an excellent and free replacement for Apple’s MobileMe (known as me.com now). Each member of my family has a Gmail address, we all share our individual calendars, Google Latitude allows me to check in on the kids location whenever I want, and since my daughter has a myTouch 3G too, she can use Google Maps turn by turn navigation to direct her to my current location. My wife and son’s iPhones use ActiveSync technology to enable Gmail with true push notification. When their iPhones give up the magic smoke (AT&T doesn’t offer handset insurance on any iPhone), they’ll inherit the myTouch 3G, and I get to refresh my hardware to the latest iteration of awesomeness that Android has spawned.

Chris Swanson
http://www.covertpenguin.com/

When he’s not practicing Krav Maga or training for an AGPMA black belt, Chris writes from his offices in Houston, TX where he serves as IT Director for a trucking, transportation company. He’s worked in networking and systems administration since leaving the US Coast Guard in 1995 and shortly thereafter married the love of his life and raises 2 children. Chris has previously worked with Apple Computers, Kaiser Permanente, and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Chris bathes regularly.

Android 2009

April- Cupcake (1.5) officially released
July- T-Mobile starts pre-order on MT3G
August- MT3G officially released
September- Donut (1.6) officially released
October- Eclair (2.0) officially released
Sprint releases HTC Hero
November- Verizon releases Droid
T-Mobile releases Cliq and Behold 2

Android 2010

January- “Google Phone” Nexus One release???
1st quarter- Xperia X10a release???
1st half of 2010- Adobe Flash for Android???
2010- Sprint to possible get LG Prada 3???
Motorola Sholes to be released???

So in the end we may look back at 2009 with a touch of sadness in our hearts, but we can look torwards 2010 with excitement in our eyes and dreams of more Android to come.

Heaven DeHoff
http://heavendehoff.wordpress.com/

The Cliq does run on Android 1.5, with MotoBlur running on top. If you are not familiar with Motoblur it is Motorola’s own special blend. You create an account and with that account you sign in. The Moto Blur service is quite unique for many reasons.

1. First, if you need to do a reset on the phone it saves your settings, which in my opinion, is a very nifty idea.
2. Second, say your phone gets lost or stolen you are able to login to your Moto Blur account from another computer and wipe all your information from the phone and track it. You can also put the info back on the phone. Thankfully I have not had to do this.
3. Third, the Motoblur service syncs all you contacts and accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Gmail, and more. It is a little much at first but you are able to link the accounts together. Say your Mom has Twitter, Facebook, and Gmail you can link all three contacts together to make one. Also you can choose which account your contact’s pics come from.

Unlike the MT3G and G1 you have five screens instead of three. So there is plenty of room for widgets. The Happenings widget displays all updates for your accounts. Let’s say Mary updated her status on Facebook, it will show up right in the Happenings widget.
The Messaging widget displays any and all messages you receive such as Text, Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook messages. So instead of having to sign in to multiple accounts you can do it all right from your screen. You can also add news widgets and stay up to date with all your RSS Feeds. All you have to do is click and scroll.

Now the phone itself I think is lovely. The overall design makes it really attractive. The screen is a little bit smaller than my MT3G, but like I said just a little. The phone is not heavy at all in my opinion it feels quite solid.
Oh and the keyboard is excellent, it is small and compact, the buttons are raised a little bit so you can actually feel them. The only draw back is no backlight inless you hit the alt button, which truthfully does not help that much at all inless you want to type with numbers and symbols.

The battery life on the phone is basically the same as all other smart phones. Depending on how much you are on the phone surfing the net,playing on Myspace, Facebook, or Twitter determines how long your battery will last. Let’s put it this way I am easily on my phone 12 hours a day, since I pretty much manage my life from my phone. So I usually go through, on average, three full charges a day. Like I said if you are going to own a smart phone expect poor battery life, it just comes with the package.

On to the camera/ video recorder. I like it, it takes decent pics nothing to get all crazy about. I do believe it would have been quite a bit better if it had flash.

Now the biggest debate concerning the Cliq is weather or not it will be updated. Truthfully, I do not know. However, I do believe it will be updated probably around the same time all other android phones get updated.

Overall, if you are big on social networking and staying connected to the world I would recommend the Motorola Cliq, it is an excellent phone with a lot of features to keep you connected.

Heaven DeHoff
http://heavendehoff.wordpress.com/

Skip to the DEMO Video

THE APPLICATION:

• Access to all the files: documents, pdfs, ppts, pics, etc that are on your desktop
• Full Monitoring of others including children while on your computer
• Utilize your full desktop browser for websites that otherwise don’t display correctly on your mobile browser.

FEATURES:

(Click any feature for additional info on Dev’s Site)

• Control Mouse+Keys
• Control Screen Resolution Manually or by setting presets for 3G or WiFi
• View Snapshot
• View Live
• Interact Live
• Full MULTI-TOUCH Zoom Control.
• Extremely Easy Setup (View Tutorial Video Below)
• Execute Actions
• Control Processes
• Control Windows
• Install and Access Multiple PCs

LIFESTYLE:

Keep in mind that everything we do here at Android Social Media is geared toward lifestyle. This app really fills all the gaps between what you can only do in your office and what you can do from your phone while on the go. It no longer will matter if you are on the beach in Cali when you need access to your desktop computer.

There are a few other applications out there that will allow you to remotely connect to your computer from your Android device but none have all the features that this supports and none are so easy to setup and maintain.

WARNING: My understanding in talking with the developer is that the app will only be available for $9.99 in the Android Market until the end of the year. As they finish some of the more refined features the app will no longer be in BETA mode and the price will go up. I highly encourage you to get this app right away.

Android Bargain Shopper’s Guide

I once heard that in a classroom of 30 people if one person asks a question, statistically 7 other people had the exact same question but didn’t know to ask it or were too afraid too. so assuming that there are 3 million android phones out there (random uneducated estimate) this is for the remaining 689,999 of you.

I found a great list at android-dls.com and wanted to include it and expound on some of those points to illustrate which ones i have used and have benefited me.

1. Full control over your system
2. Ability to alter system files. You can replace many parts of the “Android Core” with this including:
   • Themes (pictured below)
   • Ability to alter the number of home screens from 3 to 10 or anything in between.
   • Core apps (maps, calendar, clock etc. Google is fighting some of this. They don’t want anyone to tamper with their “Google Experience” applications. They are Google’s property so i guess they have the right to do that.)
   • Recovery image (apply updates, preform total phone backups, access console, partition your SD card to use less phone memory and actually run your apps and store data on SD card and have a ton of phone memory so that it runs fast.)
   • Bootloader
   • for the G1 there is a 10MB ram hack that makes your phone run faster. Helpful when your running so many apps and widgets on 7 screens.
   • Toolbox (linux binary that lets you execute simple linux commands like “ls”) can be replaced with Busybox (slightly better option)
   • Boot images
   • Add linux binaries
   • Overclock your phone. Manage power to CPU to fine tune speed and response time.
3. Run special apps that need more control over the system
   • SuperUser (lets you approve or deny the use of root access to any program)
   • Task Manager For Root (Lets you kill apps that you otherwise could not kill)
   • Tether apps (like like aNetShare that turns you phone into a mobile Wifi hotspot, Pictured below)
   • Take screenshots using the android SDK or thru downloaded apps (part of being a superuser)
4. Backup your system
   • You can make a folder on your sdcard and backup all of your .apk files to your sdcard (helps if an author decides to “upgrade” you to a version that requires you to pay to use the version you just had)
5. Relocate your (browser/maps/market) cache to your /sdcard
6. Relocate your installed applications to your /sdcard meaning your phone runs faster with way more apps on it.
7. Reboot your phone from the terminal emulator app easily (su <enter> reboot <enter>)

What Do I Lose Having Root

1. The ability to accept Over The Air updates (apps exist to do it simply though, and you get updates pre-OTA )
2. There is a small chance of turning your phone into a paper weight. But if you follow instructions and let the programs run their course then you should be ok. Even people who are not great with computers but enjoy figuring stuff out can easily root their phones. We have written instructions on how to root to the latest Cyanogen Mod and enjoy the full power of a rooted Device.

These are some screen shots that show what themes are, no they are not the annoying and ever popular apps that bog down your android market searching (try reading our article on My Market its an app that filters the crap out of the android market) no, they are like a whole new updated system that just looks cooler…

This is the standard C.M. version of 1.6 (Cyanogen Mod 4.2.7.1 as of the writing of this post) available to root users as a modded User Interface:

You can see the standard clock and everything… the blocky fonts, the original battery and 3G and service bar monitors. Oh, by the way, i want to reiterate, this is running cyanogen’s version of 1.6 when all my friends unrooted phones are still using 1.5 and waiting for the Over The Air update.

This is the “Enoch Dark” Theme it changes just some small details but i really like it. There are a ton available, at http://android-themes.net/ and if the developer has updated them then they work great on your phone.

There are a bunch of other themes that have also been available on that website, Enoch is most frequently updated to match the latest Cyanogen Mod versions. Meaning as of right now its the only one I know of that’s working properly.  Some of the other built themes are:

Sponge Bob Theme:

then some other ones “Dark” Themes:

It changes the font, the colors, a lot of the icons are changed. They create there own icons and pull down menus and home screens. Its just fun. Like I said it can also be a little bit finicky you have to make sure that if your updating thru Cyanogen that the themes you like and are using also support his latest versions otherwise you’ll be stuck in the boot screen and have to take out the battery, restart the phone in recovery mode and re-apply the previous OS.

This however (to me) is the biggest reason to root an android device, So that you can use it the same way you use a wireless router at home. I use an app called aNetShare. This is what it looks like when you open it up:

Then you click the “Start – WiFi AP” Button and it will tell you this message:

Now you can use your G1 or Mytouch (Right now we can only figure out how to root T-Mobile HTC devices, Motorola and Verizon, have put blocks against rooting the phone because Motorola is feeling overprotective and Verizon wants to charge you 15.00 a month starting in Feb 2010 for mobile tethering) as the internet connection for your computer! Data speeds depend on your data connection, 3G is super fast (considering its a mobile phone) Just use a speed tester on your computer to find out your up/download speeds.

Its also Secure! When people want to log on to your phone the bar will pop up and you can click the check mark to enable/disable their access!

The biggest downside is this app DRAINS your battery. So have it plugged in either to your computer to charge or the wall. But its not nessecaryto run the application, just my personal recommendation. Then when your done, Push the “Stop – WiFi AP” button and aNetShare will stop and you’ll be back to using your phone like normal!

aNetShare cannot be downloaded on the android market in the U.S. But can easily be found on the internet. just search “aNetShare.apk free download” in Google, download it and also download a “tether.tar” and use the instructions to apply it on the android developer forum. Install the app from your SD card using an App installer and your good to go! Comment at bottom with any questions and “may the Droid be with you!”

-ASM