Lifehacker has a nice post that shows you how to add some Windows 7 features to your Mac OS X computer. One of the nicest hacks is the ability to show a preview of an app when it’s in the dock just like Windows 7 does with its Aero interface. There’s also a way to remap your keyboard to use Windows-Style keyboard shortcuts. Most of the features are added via applications that cost less than US$20 each. Point your browser to the article for the rest of the tips. Enjoy!
Small and medium-sized businesses rely heavily on mobile technologies. In fact, our smartphones and other mobile devices have become so critical to day-to-day operations that a majority of small companies around the U.S. say they couldn’t run their companies without mobile technologies.
These businesses are using mobile apps like Square and Foursquare for a wide range of specific tasks, from processing payments to conducting marketing campaigns.
In more general terms, SMBs say that using mobile technologies helps them gain a competitive advantage, increase productivity and efficiency, and allow their employees to work remotely — something that might lead to 50% of the SMB workforce working from home or remotely by next year.
Dutch tech site All About Phones claims that Google Maps Navigation will get a true offline mode later this summer. In December the Android app received an update that cached routes and the surrounding areas, but without a data connection you still couldn’t enter a new destination. A source inside the Dutch telco industry said that Goog would removing the requirement for coverage — an obvious next step for the nav tool, especially with Ovi Maps bringing its turn-by-turn prowess to WP7. The move is also bound to be another thorn in the side of standalone GPS makers like Garmin and TomTom. After all, it’s tough to compete with free.
If there’s one thing I don’t do enough of it’s walking, so when this little app popped into my inbox earlier today with the subject “Turns Walking into a Game”, you can appreciate why it caught my attention.
Arookoo (itunes link) is a free app developed by Reader’s Digest Association and Vivity Labs. It encourages you to get walking by turning the normally rather monotonous action into a series of challenges.
The app aims to keep its users motivated and fit by sending them on challenges and exploration tours of their local city. Expectedly, in return, the user gains rewards for their activity.
To use the app, it does advise you to keep it running in the foreground and provides a neat little screenlock function to do so. What impact this will have on battery life remains to be seen.
The app has a couple of online components. Firstly, at Aroookoo.com, there are a variety of fitness tracking tools plus an Arookoo Community for added motivation – note that you do need to sign up on the iPhone app itself. Additionally, for you Facebook addicts, The Arookoo Social Game on Facebook turns your friends into world explorers as players walking around a virtual world collecting stars and discovering tools and treasures hidden within the game – not particularly “healthy” but fun nevertheless.
The most exciting element of Arookoo, at least for myself, is the interaction via the iPhone app. The app has clearly been given some serious love and has more than enough features to keep you entertained: a scavenger hunt, challenges, levels to unlock, daily rewards, ability to compete with friends, team mode and more. The app also offers a built in health tracking tool that not only lets you track your calories burned but also makes it possible to insert details of food you’ve eaten to learn how long you need to walk for to burn the calories off! Unfortunately, the latter requires you to purchase an in-app upgrade for $2. Hey, it had to make money somehow right?
If this all sounds very cool, it’s because it is and I for one am planning on giving it the best part of a month to test out. Will it stick? Time will tell but if you spot me walking with intent, I advise you stay out of my way. 🙂
