Phase 2 would like to wish you App-y Holidays with a special video series from our staff wearing their ugly Christmas sweaters and sharing their favorite apps. As you know, Phase 2 develops mobile apps and one way of thanking you for a great year is by hosting a contest and giveaway. Winners will get a “full frontal nerdity” T-shirt and one lucky winner will get an iPod Touch 4.

Rules:

To enter, like our Facebook page and comment on our wall about your favorite app. For an extra entry, tweet a link to our video, http://bit.ly/vFe3sr, and be sure and mention @p2interactive with the hash tag #p2apps so we can count your entry.Please enter no more than once a day on Twitter, spammers will be disqualified. Must be an active account. Winner selected at random from all entries on Dec. 21st.

1. NCGA(National Corn Growers Association)

The NCGA mobile website provides a quick, simple way for corn growers to stay abreast on the issues that impact their industry. Take a look at there mobile website to get an idea.

Ref – http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-news/NCGA-mobile-website-launches–129667328.html?ref=328

2. Georgia Tourism

Want to explore Georgia? You can now plan your trip using the new Georgia Tourism mobile site. The site is interactive and provides real-time trip planning information. The Georgia Tourism mobile site assists travelers in finding destinations, places to stay, events, special offers, local services, maps and navigation tools from their mobile device.

Ref - http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/15558572/states-official-tourism-website-goes-mobile

3. Sanibel & Captiva Islands Chamber of Commerce

This mobile site makes it easy for the thousands of visitors who arrive on the island and want speedy access on where to eat, stay and go. Visitors can find out about hotels, restaurants, stores and activities on the islands during their stay.

Ref – http://sanibel-captiva-islander.com/page/content.detail/id/517854/Sanibel—Captiva-Chamber-of-Commerce-creates-mobile-site.html?nav=5047

4. National Bank Direct Brokerage

National Bank Direct Brokerage mobile trading website enables users to quickly and securely access their brokerage accounts from a smartphone.

The mobile trading site allows National Bank Direct Brokerage clients to carry out trades, obtain details on their accounts and assets, modify orders that haven’t been executed or only partially executed, and obtain detailed market information, including stock quotes.

Ref - http://www.marketwatch.com/story/national-bank-direct-brokerage-launches-its-mobile-trading-site-2011-09-30-1030340

A mobile website can be a great first step in your mobile journey. Next step? Mobile apps. At Phase 2, it’s our passion to help our clients with smart mobile strategy and mobile web development.

1. Building EKG™ Energy and Water Saving Application

The Company’s Building EKG™ application delivers mobile management tools to drive cost savings for all forms of energy, water and solar PV systems. The Building EKG™ application is designed to help businesses access information anywhere and at any time, enabling key decision makers to make on-demand changes across multiple platforms and at multiple facilities, irrespective of location. This helps customers to take immediate action to reduce their energy and water consumption and maximize renewable energy production.

Source
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/noveda-launches-its-first-ipad-app-to-help-industry-monitor-energy–water-usage-131059743.html

2. Nevada DMV Application By Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles

With Nevada DMV Mobile, you are just one touch away from key DMV tasks on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPAD. “Stay in touch with the Nevada DMV with DMV Mobile.” Remember, customers would much rather get things done on their own time than stand in line for it.

Nevada DMV app features:
· WAIT TIMES: Have to visit an office? Check the wait times at six metropolitan offices and plan your trip.
· LOCATIONS: Find information and driving instructions to all 18 DMV offices and self-service KIOSK locations
· LK4PLTS: Want to know if a personalized plate is available. Check it out.
· DRIVE TEST: View the first available Drive Test date.
· LINKS and INFORMATION: Email the department, get answers to questions, and update your insurance information and more.
Source: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nevada-dmv/id468213826?mt=8

Now all the driving schools in that area can use self-service and bring their students accordingly to the DMV. The instructors can carry iPads in their cars – and manage student training and test scheduling. This results in great cost saving in terms of customer support and increased efficiency.

3. iGrowIt Application By Appgrading.com

“iGrowIt app is listed in The Sunday Times Best 500 Apps in the world (2011).
Quickly find out what vegetables you can plant right now, at the tap of a button! Designed for USA and UK beginners, access all the essential information you need on how and when to grow your own delicious vegetables, from start to end. Experienced gardeners can also use iGrowIt as a useful reference point for planting schedules and instructions, and may also discover new information!”

Source: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/igrowit/id364233815?mt=8

Individuals and small businesses (like restaurants, garden retailers, plant growers, etc) will find this app very useful. Small businesses can use the information in their profession – answer customer queries on the go and figure out other ideas for business growth.

4. Trulia Real Estate – Homes for Sale, Apartments for Rent Application

Designed specifically for the iPad, Trulia HD makes finding your next home easy and fun. Search homes for sale and for rent with full-screen interactive maps, neighborhood-specific details, high-resolution photos, and more.

Trulia Real Estate app features:

· Search homes for sale, apartments for rent, and recently sold homes by GPS or location
· Find available homes on large, interactive maps with zip code or county boundaries
· Understand the difference between neighborhoods, cities, and other areas by: listings/sold price and ratings
· Big and beautiful pictures.
· Neighborhoods information and amenities, such as restaurants, grocery stores, etc.
This app saves tremendous time for both the buyer and the realtor, enabling them to narrow the search and define wants and needs. For the seller, it’s easy to keep up with how the market is doing in your area. You’ll know if you’re priced right and how your competition is doing.

Source: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/trulia-real-estate-homes-for/id425585109?mt=8

5. 1-800-flowers.com Application

Part of what makes a great gift is timing. Now when you’re on the go, you can order from the all-new 1-800-FLOWERS Mobile Gift Center!

1-800-flowers.com app features:

· Special selection of best-selling items from flowers to gourmet foods
· Streamlined browsing and checkout process
· Integration with your existing Contacts
· Exclusive offers for our mobile users
· Secure local wallet

Source: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/1-800-flowers.com/id297151652?mt=8

Event planners can use this app while talking to their clients on the go to manage events.

Bottom line: mobile apps can be great for your business. Contact Phase 2 to discuss your mobile strategy.

1. Touch Screen
The first time you pick up an iPhone, you know how to use it. The Multi-Touch interface in was designed for the most natural pointing device ever: your finger. You control everything with a tap, drag, swipe, pinch, flick, or twist of your fingers.

2. Multitasking
You can run apps in the background — and switch between them instantly — without slowing down the performance of the foreground app or draining the battery unnecessarily.

3. HD Video Recording
Shoot your own movies in high definition. Capture impressive video even in low-light settings, thanks to the advanced backside illumination sensor and built-in LED light.

4. 5-Megapixel Camera With LED Flash
Take beautiful, detailed photos using the 5-megapixel camera with built-in LED flash. The advanced backside illumination sensor captures great pictures even in low light. And the front-facing camera makes it easy to take self-portraits.

5. Retina Display
The Retina display on iPhone 4 is the sharpest, most vibrant, highest-resolution phone screen ever, with four times the pixel count of previous iPhone models. In fact, the pixel density is so high that the human eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels. Which makes text amazingly crisp and images stunningly sharp.

6. Accelerometer
A 3-axis accelerometer senses the orientation of the phone and changes the screen accordingly, allowing the user to easily switch between portrait and landscape mode. The accelerometer can be used to control third-party apps, notably games.

7. Gyroscopic Sensor
Gyroscopic Sensor is one of the only completely new features on the iPhone 4. It’s recent. With it, developers will be able to build all new kinds of games that take your body’s movement into account.

8. GPS
iPhone 4 finds your location quickly and accurately using a combination of GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular towers. As you move, iPhone updates your location automatically.

9. Internet Enabled
Always connected via Wi-Fi or 3GS internet connections.

Here are some interesting business apps that could be consumer facing or employee facing.

1. Dropbox
The Dropbox cloud storage app runs in the background and was one of the first apps to support multitasking. It allows you to keep your files online and access them anytime. With the Dropbox app, you can take everything that matters to you on the go. Get the app.

2. Nike+ GPS
Map your runs, track your progress and get the motivation you need to go even further. Record your pace, distance and run route using the iPhone’s GPS and accelerometer technology so you can see your progress over time and push yourself to go even further. Get voice feedback during your run on how you’re doing, or tap the map to see where you are. Get the app.

3. Gyro technology
Check out the all-new Nissan Versa ad built for iPhone/iPod. Using the iPhones amazing gyro technology for a 360 experience, it’s as if you’re there in the Versa, where shoes change, hats swap and phone messages play at your command. Watch it on YouTube.

4. JotNot Scanner Pro
JotNot is the original and premier multi-page document scanner for the iPhone. The application works perfectly for casually taking photographs of your documents to ensure that you don’t lose them.

Here are some interesting features of it.

• JotNot can save anything
• Enterprise level document scanning
• Faxing to US numbers
• Adjust file size and resolution
• Save and share with JotNot
• Tag, search, and sort documents
• PDF preview
• Standard and custom page sizes
• Proprietary image processing

All the processing happens on your iPhone so confidential data remains under your control. JotNot works forever, there’s no subscription fee, and you don’t need Internet access to scan documents. Get the app.

5. Localscope
Localscope is your social data powered GPS app. Always know where you are and what’s around you with Localscope! Search & discover places around you with information from multiple geo search engines & social networks: Google, Bing, Foursquare, Twitter, Wikimapia, all from one app. Get the app.

Our team of iPhone application development can help your firm – create business apps for the Apple ecosystem. Apps could be used to increase productivity, generate awareness, shopping, marketing, etc.

1. Crescent Construction Services (Construction)

Crescent Construction Services, LLC is a minority (female) owned firm specializing in commercial/industrial commissioning and project management. CCS employees are using the iPADs as a business tool to do – instant real time video collaboration, on the spot documentation of inspection, real time QA, etc.

When Julian Clayton of Crescent Construction Services (CCS) needs to check a blueprint or consult an electrical diagram, he doesn’t unroll a sheaf of dusty papers, flip through a notebook, or even wait for his laptop to boot up. He reaches for his iPad.

iPad and iPhone give the company’s perpetually mobile workers instant access to schedules, contacts, email, and other business resources via its Microsoft Exchange-compatible Kerio Connect server. And with FaceTime, and the built-in front and rear cameras on iPhone 4 and iPad 2, workers can deliver video feedback to clients and coworkers in real time. “If the customer says, ‘Walk around here and show me what that looks like,’ we can do that,” Clayton says. “That really makes a customer’s eyes pop.”

To document issues they find on site, workers take high-resolution photos and videos with the iPad or iPhone camera, then add the images into reports alongside their written findings. With these devices, Clayton says, “The guys can get out of the truck and start working as they walk across the parking lot. It’s a benefit to the customer as well, because we can get more things done in the time we have.”

Read the complete story here
http://www.apple.com/ipad/business/profiles/crescent-construction/

2. Mercedes-Benz Financial (Financial Services)

Mercedes-Benz Financial Services is one of the leading captive financial services providers in the world. It has equipped all dealers with iPads enabling quick credit approval process and allowing sales personnel to check available promotions without leaving the showroom floor.

The sales person can show the customer all the promotions, vehicle details and get customer information standing next to the vehicle in the showroom floor.

Reference

http://www.insideline.com/mercedes-benz/mercedes-benz-dealers-use-apple-ipad-to-sell-cars.html
http://www.tipb.com/2010/05/26/mercedesbenz-financial-adapts-ipad-business/
http://www.ipadnewstracker.com/2010/10/mercedes-benz-financial-will-equip-all-u-s-mercedes-benz-dealers-with-apple-ipad/

3. Boston Scientific (Healthcare)

Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) is a worldwide developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices with approximately 25,000 employees and revenue of $8.1 billion in 2009.

On 10-Aug-2011 – Boston Scientific introduced its NLI iPhone®/iPad® app, an industry-first educational resource for healthcare providers using SCS to manage patients with chronic pain. It features surgical technique videos and access to a comprehensive SCS textbook.

“We’re beginning the process for our sales force of downloading more than 20 specific product apps and opportunity to get into pricing, time efficiency, expense reports, filling out requests and all the other things that we manage to do to take time away from the sales force.” — Ray Elliott, the CEO of Boston Scientific

Learn more here –

http://bostonscientific.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1036

4. SAP AG – (Technology)

SAP is the market and technology leader in business management software, solutions, services for improving your business process.

With the SAP Sales OnDemand iPad application, you can have all the information you need about your business – anytime, anywhere. This application allows sales people to collaborate with their team and communicate better with their business network. They can quickly gain real time relevant insights into their company’s ever-changing customer information and make informed decisions.

Use this application to:


• View Feed updates of the people and records you follow
• Create Feed post and add comments
• Find and follow or un-follow people in your sales organization
• Find and update Account, Contact, Lead, Opportunity, Appointment and Task information
• Create new Appointment, Task, Opportunity and Contact

Learn more here
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/200636/ipad_invades_corporate_america.html

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sap-sales-ondemand-for-ipad/id447587409?mt=8