Payment by cell phone is an option that can offer a huge number of benefits to both businesses and consumers. Vensi believes that businesses may eventually look to smart phones that aren’t carrier based, whether they use voice over IP options or other technologies, in an effort to develop products for phones that aren’t limited by carrier restrictions. It can be very frustrating for a large corporation to be restricted based on what large cell phone carriers are targeting at consumers. Some of these restrictions can seem arbitrary and self-serving…cell phone carriers can act like bullies in this country.

A prime example is the newest Android, the Galaxy Nexus. As a mobile development firm, we’ve been waiting anxiously for the Galaxy Nexus to be released. It’s supposed to have Ice Cream Sandwich, a new operating system for the Android platform designed to enhance functionality. It was also supposed to have both NFC and Google Wallet. The phone was delayed, however, because unfortunately, one of the major carriers nixed Google Wallet from the phone.

The problem with cell phone carrier bullies is that, in some ways, they control the market – and the technology that is available to businesses and consumers. They become very protective and territorial, wanting all of the services to go through them as a carrier, placing a lot of restrictions on their OEMs.

Google Wallet was removed from the new Android because it represented a loss of control to the carrier. Cell phone carrier bullies, rather than using an already-developed service that would immediately benefit businesses and consumers, are greedy and try to develop their own service first to maximize their profit.

Some of the larger cell phone networks have caused an unnecessary challenge for developers, depriving businesses and consumers from the full technological advantages that other people around the globe have been enjoying for a long time. From a mobile application development perspective, adopting a European attitude toward cell phone carriers and cell phone technologies would provide a huge benefit to businesses and consumers in the US, increasing innovation and reducing costs.Sadly, that won’t change until we all stand up to cell phone carrier bullies and demand full access to all the breakthroughs and advances.

At its core, Siri is a very sophisticated voice recognition program that shares a technological history with other voice recognition platforms such as OnStar. Siri works worldwide with over a dozen applications such as stocks and weather, and (so far) English-only applications in the US such as maps. There are imperfections, however, that can cause frustration and dissatisfaction.

Misunderstanding the speaker is one of them; it’s going to happen with any voice recognition application. Imagine that a real person gives you a phone number over the phone. Do you think you would be able to get it on the first try? Isn’t it likely that you ask whoever you’re talking with to repeat it at least once? You probably do this for the simple reason that it’s hard for anyone to understand what another person is saying with 100% accuracy 100% of the time. It makes no difference what the topic is. Everyone has different speech patterns, accents, tonal values, etc., that make occasional misunderstandings inevitable. A speech recognition program is no different in that respect. It can misunderstand despite the developer’s best intentions.

With Siri, it’s a case of people having unrealistic expectations and just assuming Apple will always get it 100% right. Sure, Siri gets better as it gets to know you and builds its knowledge base. It’s unlikely, however, that Siri will ever get to 100% infallibility with its current software, or even with periodic upgrades.  But that’s okay because 100%  is really not necessary.

This premise can be true for any technology, even Vensi’s. Because of the complex nature of software development and its ongoing evolution, not all of the projects we do are going to be 100% perfect. We are able to meet our clients’ expectations in terms of functionality, delivery timetables and cost without trying to achieve the ambitious goal of perfection. We can get pretty close though, by partnering with our clients so that we really understand their needs, goals and objectives. We make sure that we satisfy every requirement, and deliver on time and on budget. We strive for perfection while balancing the real-world limitations of a competitive marketplace. That’s what Apple did with Siri: They set the bar at accomplishing the best that they could and they launched when they felt it was good enough. Like every technology and software company out there, they go to market as early as possible, knowing they will continue to make improvements and understanding that they will probably never get all the way to 100%.

Sometimes people expect perfection, but more often than not, our clients understand that perfection is not always possible or even necessary. Even if it is possible, it’s not something many clients really want because the cost and effort necessary to reach that last few percent of perfection far outweighs any value it might have.

Here at Vensi, we understand Pareto’s Law: if we can get 80% of the functionality in 20% of the time, the remaining 20% of the functionality will take 80% of the time. Our goal is to balance functionality with our ability to provide high quality, cost-effective mobile and web solutions in a timely manner to our clients. This approach works.

Jobs was a visionary and a pioneer. He can be described as one of the giants in an industry that has had the same kind of impact as the industrial revolution had in the world. The invention of the steam engine changed our lives, and we went from products being made by hand, one at a time, to mass production. The iPad, iPhone and iTouch are among the creations credited to Steve Jobs that many of us now can’t live without, again changing how – and where – we work and play.

Tech companies spring forth on a daily basis and all of them as excited as Steve Jobs was about the numerous directions each path can take us.  Right now, the focus is on making the things we do every day more mobile: mobile payments, mobile applications and mobile cloud computing.  Terms that did not even exist five years ago have dramatically changed the tech landscape and our lives. Cloud development is now a viable option for many companies.  The applications for multiple systems have become so numerous the acronym “apps” was born.  At last count, the number of apps for the Apple store alone is in the six digit range and there’s no signs of stopping. Work and play are also expanding into the social media field.  People talk about their lives and the products they use.  They play games, they share information, and they stay in touch, and all of this will shape the future of marketing and product development.

What’s around the corner?  What’s the next leap, the next step into technology going to yield?  Steve Jobs was one of the masters who was instrumental in helping us to open the door to a world that is growing at the speed of light, the speed of technology.  How much faster will it go, how much higher will it fly?  The only limit is our imagination. As Steve Jobs said, “We don’t know where it will lead. We just know there’s something much bigger than any of us here.”

We are proud of our amazing staff, who tirelessly work to find innovative solutions that don’t just meet requirements but truly engage our clients and their customers in new ways and on different levels. We are thankful to have colleagues who are committed to making a difference in the lives of business owners every day.

Most of all, our entire team at Vensi wishes to express gratitude to our clients, who have allowed us the privilege of partnering with them in ground-breaking technological efforts. We wish all of you, and your families, joy during the holidays and the happiest of new years.

The Samsung Nexus is the first phone to come equipped with Google Wallet, which is an Android app that stores credit card information and uses Near-Field Communications (NFC) to pay for goods, redeem points and share other types of information. The system works with MasterCard. Visa and iPhone have a similar venture going on in Europe.

The buzz in the tech world has been mounting over bringing NFC to the mainstream in the United States. It’s already old hat in Japan and some parts of Europe where consumers bump their phones to pay for a ride on the subway or purchase movie tickets.

Applications. Although making and receiving payments via the smartphone is an exciting new frontier for your business, it’s certainly not the only way NFC can make your shop run smoother.

Trade Shows. Imagine exhibiting at a conference and rather than lugging or shipping thousands of your own brochures, your booth visitors simply bump their smartphones. In one fell swoop they could automatically transmit their contact information to you and download your material in exchange.

If you’re running the show, the smartphone could eliminate the exorbitant expense of conference badges and automatically do the sorting of who belongs in what meeting and when. You would also have an automatic way of determining when you’re overcapacity and need overflow, and you could easily text room changes and cancellations.

Home/Office Security.  NFC can also extend to many of the security features you control via computer or landline phone. We’re thinking about operations like unlocking your home or garage or conducting access control at the office with the phone.

Social Media and App Development. Foursquare and Facebook’s location-based services have been experimenting with NFC technology for use in check-ins. If your small business runs an active social media program, you could enable NFC to pass along points, discounts and other rewards at the point of sale/transaction. And you could allow your customers to lend their own points to friends by bumping each other. Earlier this month RIM announced the NFC capabilities of two lines of BlackBerry and unveiled BlackBerry Tag, which allow users to bump phones and exchange data.

The app development potential is boundless at this point, from NFC-based purchases, ID and rewards point inventory management, social media integration, games and much, much more., The field is wide open for market leaders to step in and offer exciting and compelling new ways to help enhance customer’s shopping experience and to customize promotions and advertising directed at customers.  How will your business leverage this amazing new technology opportunity? Will you lead or follow?

A Primer

NFC is a type of short-range radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. It enables device-to-device data transfers, payments and a host of other business solutions. The device of choice is the smartphone. That’s what the major smartphone makers are betting on anyway. Google has added NFC support in Android. Samsung’s new Nexus S handset has NFC capability, and reports of Apple’s integration of NFC into the next iteration of the iPhone continue to mount.

The big picture is that you and your customers will be able to use your iPhone or Android to participate in loyalty and social media programs, share business cards and sign up for and receive various other types of information..

The real excitement around the NFC–mobile union, however, is the ability to make and receive payments.  All of this can be accomplished by simply passing your phone near a reader. Phones can act as both a tag and the RFID interrogator.

Ready for Primetime

In the coming months, we’ll likely see a number of applications for smartphone NFC use in the small business arena. One of the classic arguments against NFC is what happens if you lose your phone. Businesses do not need to use this as an excuse to avoid the technology; NFC data are encrypted and the ability to siphon someone’s private data requires proximity of less than four inches. Some NFC renderings will also require use of a PIN, and when linked with credit card processors, offer the same $0 liability as the credit card company.

The point is, NFC is not just some obscure technology that only large enterprises can take advantage of. With use of smartphones peaking, the onus is on business to explore ways to take advantage of their convenience and ubiquity to develop closer and deeper relationships with their clients with applications designed to make the consumer’s experience quicker, more convenient, and more data-centric.

We talked to you about cloud computing just a few months ago. In its simplest form, cloud computing offers your business a way to host data and applications over a shared resource.. Rather than running a full IT shop in your physical location, you simply plug into a service — akin to a utility — like Google Apps for Business, Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services (AWS). As a matter of fact, our very own Nediso runs on AWS.

We’re keeping abreast of how the platforms continue to merge so that we can provide effective and secure solutions to our clients. At Vensi, we are marrying cloud and mobile technology in useful and creative ways. For example, we’re currently building or planning to build mobile solutions that leverage  cloud technology in the education, logistics, service, entertainment, retail, and food industries. With the massive adoption of smartphones, and now tablets, it’s become a mobile world… Even the mobile app world is moving at break-neck speeds thanks to the new capabilities of cloud computing.

Once upon a time, employees could count mostly on synching their mobile devices with the company’s email, calendar, and contacts. But with the collision of mobile and cloud computing, your end users can take advantage of all the applications you run from the cloud — your sales, timekeeping, accounting, HR, CRM and any of your custom-built business applications.

It’s the ultimate BYOD (bring your own device), and it’s responsive to the growing desire of the workforce to be able to fully function in a location-independent manner on the devices where users keep the rest of their “lives.”

Mobile cloud is essentially the next chapter in the cloud computing and mobile revolutions. Value will come from many fronts. Besides making apps and data accessible on any device, we believe the mobile–cloud union will soon intersect with near-field communications (NFC). This allows your business to conduct commerce with buyers passing their smartphone near an RFID receptor, which coincidentally can be another smartphone. And the whole transaction can be managed by your e-commerce solution — hosted in the cloud. You’re officially untethered from your server room, endless upgrades and costly maintenance.

According to Juniper Research, the mobile cloud market is poised for explosive growth, more than 88 percent each year between now and 2014. It estimates that by then, the total cloud-based mobile application market will be grossing $9.5 billion, up substantially from its respectable $400 million in 2009.

ABI Research adds that by 2014, there will be close to 1 billion mobile cloud users, noting that mobile cloud computing stands to become the leading mobile application development and deployment strategy. In other words, traditional native download-and-install mobile applications — could soon be on the verge of extinction. Vensi has stayed ahead of curve by identifying these trends early and developing business and consumer apps/solutions that sit in the cloud and make use of NFC.  Our mission is torovide leadership and assist businesses make the transition and to fully realize the potential these seismic changes represent.

Business decision makers and developers must decide  when it is the best time to use a QR code over Near Field Communications or vice versa.Taking time to make a well-informed decision and to do solid planning is critical for a successful implementation. While it must decided on a case-by-case basis, there are a few scenarios in which the QR code is the better choice. Creating paperless coupons is one of those situations. Why QR codes and coupons work together so well is worth exploring in greater detail…

Greater Accessibility

Using QR codes is a fairly standard option on most phones.  As long as a Smartphone has a camera, you’re in business. Since QR reader apps are common for all of the major mobile operating systems, users will have no problem getting what they need to scan your code.  On the other hand, the use of Near Field Communications technology means having a piece of hardware, most commonly, a Near Field Communication RFID chip. The challenge being that an RFID would have to be in (or on) the phone in order for the system to work. This means either getting the chip built-in at the factory or convincing the end user to add an aftermarket attachment for  their device.

Greater Flexibility

Projects change over time. That is an inevitable part of the business and development worlds. There is an important difference between the two options when it comes to making changes: the amount of work involved in changing a QR code is significantly lower than with an RFID chip. Since the QR code stays at the site and the RFID chips stay with the end user, you will need to change a larger number of units in order to correct a Near Field Communications problem. Using QR codes for something with the limited timeline of a coupon simply makes better sense.

Limitations

All technology has its limitations. In the case of QR code, the most important limitation is the small data capacity. Admittedly, it is not a large difference, but one that you should be aware of before making a recommendation to a superior, a colleague or a client.  Another limitation is the ability to capture a good scan of a QR code in low light. NFC is the better choice in low lighting conditions.

Security is also a concern, as QR Codes can be easily copied. NFC is much more difficult to copy or duplicate, so it’s the better choice for secure applications like Google Wallet and credit card related apps.

The final  consideration is the end user. In order for tracking with a QR code to be effective, users have to scan the code. An RFID uses a passive system that is always transmitting. So, if you need to track locations, or you want a presence vs. usage headcount, then you may want to break the rule, incur the extra expense and use the RFIDs.

That’s one of the most exciting developments coming in the iPhone 4S. All those functions for which you had to physically connect your phone to your computer have been completely revamped. You’ll be able to simply speak your command, and the phone gets to work.

So, for example, previously when you wanted to update the phone software, you had to connect. With this new version, you don’t have to worry about it. You get on the phone and just put in the menu and say “Update software.” Even iTunes synchronization previously required you to connect to your USB cable.  But with the 4S, it simply happens — with the use of your wifi capabilities.

Apple is taking away the dependency on computers. The company is making it so your phone communicates automatically with Apple’s servers. You don’t even need to connect your phone to activate it anymore. This capability is one of the core selling points of the new iOS 5. The new operating system further enables Apple to become more pervasive and entrenched in countries where people may not have easy access to computers and to the internet. It also firmly anchors Apple’s commitment to making its products simpler for everyone to use.

The news that Apple wasn’t releasing the much-anticipated iPhone 5 may have come as a shocker and a disappointment, but the refinements made with this release make this machine faster, more useful and more powerful than it’s ever been.

First there’s the speed. The A5 dual-core processor and dual-core GPU has Apple claiming the new iPhone 4S’s processing speed is twice as fast as the iPhone 4 and graphics performance peaks at seven times faster. A movie-watcher and gamer’s delight, no doubt. The camera now comes in at 8 megapixels, autofocus, flash, an f/2.4 aperture lens, CMOS sensor that allows 73 percent more light and an infrared filter that produces better color accuracy. And, you can record video in 1080p HD. Apple says talk time will be up to 8 hours on 3G and up to 14 hours on 2G (GSM).

Exclusive to the iPhone 4S is Siri, a native app that acts as something of a voice-activated virtual assistant. Siri will remind you about your appointments, voice-dial and text your contacts and answer your questions like “What’s the weather like this weekend” or “Where can I get some sushi right now?”

Despite all the under-the-hood upgrades, conflicting reports say the phone continues with 512 MB of RAM. Industry watchers were expecting at least 1 GB. This has implications for the developer community and all the apps that are in the pipeline. On the other hand, the company is adding an option for 64 GB storage capacity at long last. This upgrade will also more than double your downloading capacity. Max download is 14.4 Mbps, compared to iPhone 4’s 7.2. In addition, the phone operates on both CDMA and GSM in 200 countries.

And years in the making, the iPhone 4S will make its debut on the Sprint network. No need to wonder whether these changes are impressive enough to charm the masses. The company has already exceeded 1 million in pre-orders. The challenge is now on for the developer world to take advantage of the new features. With the phenomenal growth of the iPhone developer ecosystem, that should not be a problem. Good bye old tether…hello truly wireless world.

The answer? Virtually everything.

Cell phones have been embraced by individual consumers as well as companies of every size. They have become essential tools that allow us to do an ever-growing list of things like optimizing our personal and professional lives. We use them for texting, accessing information, managing schedules, entertainment, sending and receiving email, commerce, socializing, and more, all with the help of creatively designed and affordable applications. It’s the well-developed applications and built-in features that have transformed cell phones into powerful tools capable of turning us into masters of our universe – almost.

Two of the most important new capabilities are the camera and GPS. Vensi believes that these two tools, integrated into the device and leveraged by customized apps built by companies like Vensi, have the ability to revolutionize the way businesses operate.

Businesses are already saving time when providing services to customers in the field; scheduling applications using GPS technology make it more likely that crews will reach their destination on time, improving service levels and efficiency; cameras are being used for documenting deliveries and capturing signatures for work authorizations…and that’s just for starters.

One tool on the horizon that Vensi predicts will become a significant cost-saving tool for many companies with mobile employees is GeoFencing. With map capabilities and GPS functionality, GeoFencing applications will allow companies to more effectively manage their mobile workforce by keeping track of where they are on a map in real-time. This ensures that employees are in their assigned locations, offering companies a way to monitor employees during work hours.

Increasing functionality within the phone and the networks it is connected to will continue to change the way businesses interact with their customers and their employees. In fact, the camera and the GPS are becoming the most common features we are using in new application development today.

Vensi is committed to developing applications that maximize functionality, improve efficiency, and offer cost savings. Thanks to tools like cameras and GPS, phones have become more than just communication devices; they are like mainframe computers in pocket-sized packages. In an age where virtually everything is interconnected, these smart phones have become indispensable.