Spotlight: Piero DePaoli, senior director of global product marketing for iPass

The number of Wi-Fi locations and Wi-Fi on the iPhone and iPod touch made the creation of iPass Global Wi-Fi  service a no-brainer, says Piero DePaoli, senior director of global product marketing for iPass.

1. What is it that you think differentiates your company from other App Store developers?

While our software is free, there is also a service behind the app which can help users and ultimately the enterprise be more productive and save money.  Individuals can download the app and buy a monthly subscription for the Wi-Fiservice.  Corporate customers can download the app and enter a corporate configuration code to use their enterprise user credentials, which means the service is customized for the enterprise and billed directly to the enterprise..

2. What do you think of the new 3.0 SDK? Got any ideas who you might change your app to take advantage of all the new features?

Our app is all about making easy connections to Wi-Fi networks. Although the 3.0 SDK has some neat features, we’re not anticipating changes to our app at this point.

3. What’s your take on the idea of a premium app section in the App Store for apps selling for $19.99? Think it’s a good idea and if so, how do you think buyers benefit?

It depends on what constitutes a premium app. For example, I just paid $29.99 for an app because it was really compelling to me but I also admit that I spend a lot of time trying out free apps and then simply deleting them if I don’t find them useful. I’d see a premium section being good for buyers because it will allow for some companies to build some amazing tools knowing that there is marketplace for richer apps.

4. The research analysts are all declaring the iPhone fit for the enterprise. You probably agree. Why the change now?

Regardless of what the research analysts say, the iPhone is in the enterprise and the smart IT departments have figured out a way to embrace it, control overall costs and make their employees more productive than their competitors. The moment Apple introduced Microsoft Exchange integration for the iPhone and iPod touch, it became fit for the enterprise.

5. Do you see gaps between the iPhone and enterprise that you think app devs should address?

I think the apps on the App Store are already providing amazing tools for the enterprise and don’t see a big gap there.  The gap I see is a lack of tools that can be used by the enterprise to manage the corporate data on these devices.  The basics exist, but the iPhone and iPod touch are more like a small PC or Internet device than a phone.

6. Increasingly, bigger companies are entering the app biz with bigger budgets, larger dev teams and marketing. Whenever that happens in the software business, it’s almost always followed by a shakeout of the smaller players. Do you think that’s what will happen in the App Store?

I think the App Store is different than what we’ve previously seen in the software business. It provides a platform that can put a small company and big company on a more level playing field because the user has to go to App Store to get either company’s app.

7. Dev cycles will get longer as buyers expect more from apps. What does that mean to your company and other companies? Do you foresee pricing climbing over the next year?

I think the buyer’s expectation of an app is directly correlated to the price of the app –- or in iPass’ case –- the price of the service behind the app. In the case of totally free apps, buyers are hopeful that it will be provide what they are looking for but if it doesn’t, buyers aren’t surprised. If the app or underlying service has fees associated with it, buyers expectations will be that they are getting sufficient value out of the app for the price paid.

8. Many devs have concerns about the App Store pricing model. Has it been a problem for you and if so, what do you think is the problem and if so, what’s your solution?  Would trial apps be an option for you?

The App Store pricing model has not been a concern for us at all because our app is free to download. In fact, if we were required to charge for our app, it would create more friction for an enterprise user to get the app.

9. Do you plan to release your apps in Nokia, Blackberry and other app stores?

Nokia was released in conjunction with the iPhone, and we have plans for Blackberry later this year.

WeatherBug Elite is Well Worth the Extra Dollar

WeatherBug Elite – A great many iPhone and Touch users I know have the free version of WeatherBug installed on their device. I did too, for a long time and then a few weeks ago I upgraded to WeatherBug Elite, which eliminates ads and provides additional features. I have a slight history with WeatherBug, well, not with it, but concerning it, so before I explain, I’ll just tell you that the upgrade to WeatherBug Elite was worth it.

WeatherBug is a program developed by AWS Convergence Technologies, Inc. and it displays live, streaming weather information. In order to provide local weather, WeatherBug and television stations partner together and also involve local schools, which house cameras for WeatherBug. My first introduction to WeatherBug came when a science teacher at my son’s elementary school asked for a WeatherBug station, which apparently could also be used as an educational tool (I love those). I clearly remember the powers-that-be said “no,” but it made me investigate a little further and prompted me to download the WeatherBug app on my Touch.

Having had both, I can say that WeatherBug Elite is worth the price. You still have access to the same features as WeatherBug, including the seven-day forecast, up to five area camera views, weather alerts, and the radar, but with WeatherBug Elite you can do more. You can put the radar into motion and you can also change layers to observe temperature, pressure, humidity, and wind speed. You can change the radar and satellite options and the map has incorporated touch technology to allow you drop a pin anywhere and view the current weather in that location. You can also zoom in and out on the radar before setting into time-lapsed motion.

I use WeatherBug Elite quite frequently to check for weather alerts, check the radar and forecast, and in the winter when we get a lot of snow it’s great for checking road conditions around town with the views from the local cameras. All in all, the enhancements that come with WeatherBug Elite are worth a dollar – easy. If you have frequent outdoor activities, work outdoors, or just want instant access to updated weather conditions and forecasts, then I can think of no better app to have.

• app_name: WeatherBug Elite
• price: $0.99
• rating: 9/10

MLB.com At Bat 2009 Drives In The Winning Run

MLB.com At Bat 2009 iPhone app by MLB.com is the perfect app for any baseball fan. If you need an up to the minute score, want to listen to a game, or see the highlights, you can do so right from your iPhone. Whether you are the casual observer or the full time fanatic MLB.com At Bat 2009 makes it easy for you to satisfy any, possibly all, of your major league baseball needs for the entire season until the last out of the world series.

MLB.com At Bat 2009 has a host of features to make your experience a pleasant one. When you first open MLB.com At Bat 2009 you see the days schedule. Including scores of any games in progress and start times of those yet to throw out the first pitch. On the bottom of that screen you will see the box score of one of the games currently in progress.

If you wish to listen live to a game in progress, simply highlight the game you want and select the Audio option. You will then have a choice of two different locations, (each teams radio feed), of which to obtain your stream from. Select one and MLB.com At Bat 2009 will stream the play-by-play right through your iPhone. It should be noted that some stations go quiet during commercials or a breaks in the action. I found that annoying but it was easily remedied by switching to another station’s feed.

You’ll notice an Extras tab at the top of the page. Tap on it and you’ll find seven other options to enhance your experience. Choose the MLB.com Video option and view one of the 16 highlight videos via YouTube. The videos are remarkably crisp and clear, load fairly quickly and stream very well.

Other choices include Standings, MLB.com At Bat 2009 in Safari, Tips/Support, MLB Mobile Jobs, Terms & Conditions and Settings.

MLB.com At Bat 2009 iPhone app is very user friendly and simple to use. Even those that seem to have difficulty navigating through some apps and programs can quickly locate want they are looking for. Yes, your grandpa can find his team and listen to the game just like he used to on his transistor radio.

• app_name: MLB.com At Bat 2009
• price: $9.99
• rating: 9/10

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How to publish a PowerPoint presentation to the Web

Putting a presentation on your Web site isn’t terribly complicated — but browser differences can pose a big gotcha. Here’s a look at the publication process and the hurdles you may encounter.

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PowerPoint can create an impressive Web site, if all conditions are just right. First, you create the presentation in PowerPoint on a local system. Then, you save the presentation to HTML format. Finally, you upload the HTML files to a Web server. But even though it seems easy, the road to Web success is riddled with potholes. That’s because a PowerPoint Web presentation works best in Internet Explorer (IE). If you can guarantee viewers will be using a recent version of IE, you’re in luck.

Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.

The basics of publishing to the Web

Publishing a presentation to the Web begins with converting the presentation to HTML as follows:

1. With the presentation open in PowerPoint, choose Save As Web Page from the File menu.
2. Using the Save In control in the resulting Save As dialog box, browse to the folder where you want to save your presentation. (If you can connect directly to the server, you can save the files to the server, which is considerably easier. But for most of us, that’s seldom an option.)
3. Change the filename, if you want.
4. From the Save As Type drop-down list, choose Single File Web Page or Standard Web Page. If you save your presentation as a standard Web page, PowerPoint will generate an HTML file and a folder that contains a number of additional files that the presentation needs. Saving your file as a single file Web page creates one file that contains everything. Don’t choose Single File Web Page unless you know what you’re doing.
5. If you want to change the page title, click the Change Title button and update the text accordingly. This is what will appear in the browser’s title bar.
6. Click Save.

The above process is easy, but often you’ll require a bit more flexibility to customize the resulting Web page(s). When this is the case, click the Publish button (in the Save As dialog box from step 1 above). The resulting Publish As Web Page, shown in Figure A, offers a number of options:

• Publish What?: Use these settings to specify exactly what goes to the Web. You can include all or a subset of slides. In addition, you can include your speaker notes. See Table A to view the many options available by clicking the Web Options button.
• Browser Support: Supporting older versions of Internet Explorer (IE) requires a larger file. There’s nothing wrong with forcing users to upgrade to see your presentation. The All Browsers Listed Above option will create a large file that’s slower to download. However, this option lets viewers see the presentation regardless of their IE version.
• Before publishing, you can also change the page title and the filename.

Figure A

Use the Publish As Web Page options to customize your Web files.

Table A

Tab	Option	Explanation	Recommended
General	Add Slide Navigation Controls	The default is to add a navigational frame to the left of the Web page.	Use only if needed.
	Show Slide Show While Browsing	The default disables browsing while running the slide show.	Use only if needed.
	Resize Graphics To Fit Browser Window	Automatically adjusts graphics.	Use if you can’t control viewer resolution.
Browsers	People Who View This Web Page Will be Using	Identify the capability browser and version.	Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or later
	Allow PNG As A Graphics Format	Portable Network Graphics (PNG) requires less disk space than more common formats. Older browsers don’t support PNG.	Use only if needed.
	Rely On VML For Displaying Graphics In Browsers	Vector Markup Language (VML) describes 2D graphics in text format. Older browsers don’t support VML.	Use only if needed.
	Save An Additional Version Of The Presentation For Older Browsers	Most viewers will be able to see your presentation. This option increases the disk space required by your presentation.	Use only if needed.
	Save New Web Pages As Single File Web Pages	PowerPoint saves everything you need to run the presentation with the file, so you don’t need a support folder. Use this option when you have to distribute a presentation to others.	Only IE recognizes this format. If you know users will be using IE, you can use it. If the page is open to the public, don’t use it.
Files	Organize Supporting Files In A Folder	This default setting saves all supporting files in a single folder.	Use.
	Use Long File Names Whenever Possible	This default maintains the literal filenames.	Use.
	Update Links On Save	This default will update your links when you save changes to your presentation (if possible).	Use as required.
	Check If Office Is The Default Editor For Web Pages Created In Office	This default reviews the viewer’s default editor.	No reason to use.
Pictures	Screen Size	800 X 600 is the default setting.	This default means most page layouts will work with the lowest resolution.
Encoding	Ignore this tab unless you know what you’re doing; it allows you to modify output for browsers that support other languages.
Fonts	Ignore this tab unless you know what you’re doing; it allows you to modify output for browsers that support other languages.

Transferring your Web page to a Web server

If you have access to a Web server, you can save the presentation directly to it. However, most of us have to save the files to a local system and then move those files to a Web server. This process will be unique and specific to your ISP or your company’s intranet. Either way, you must contact the ISP or your network administrator for specific instructions. If you didn’t save the presentation as a single file, be sure you transfer all of the supporting files during this process.

You must create the same folder structure on the Web server and transfer the files exactly as they are on your local system. If you don’t, the slide show won’t work properly. This problem accounts for almost all missing graphics and broken links. All files must be in the same folder or subfolder and all files must retain the same names. Change nothing about the structure when transferring these files.

Testing

You can test the new Web page at just about any time. You don’t even have to save your presentation to view it as a Web page. For a quick preview, select Web Page Preview from PowerPoint’s File menu. PowerPoint will open the presentation, slide by slide, in your default browser. When you’re done, simply close your browser. After you publish the Web page, test the results thoroughly:

• Check for missing pages and graphics. If anything’s missing, you probably didn’t transfer all the supporting files properly.
• Test all links using a computer other than the one you used to save the presentation to a Web page. That way, if something’s linking to your computer, you’ll find the mistake. In addition, remember that links break quickly and often. Check them frequently.
• View your Web site in as many different browsers as you can.
• View your Web site using every possible resolution setting.
• View your Web site using both a Windows PC and a Mac, if possible.
• View your Web site using an operating system other than Windows, if possible.
• Test your Web site using different connections. You might want to change or even eliminate elements that slow things down.

If you’re publishing your presentation to a controlled environment where you know the operating system, browser, and resolution, you don’t have to be as thorough.

The devil’s in the details

Publishing a PowerPoint presentation to the Web seems easy enough, but you’ll seldom get what you expect. There are a number of limitations:

• Use the most recent version of IE possible. If you must support older versions of IE, consider creating additional versions of your presentation for older browsers. It’s difficult to get anything but the most basic presentation to run well on all versions of IE.
• Only IE supports the single file format. Don’t use it unless you know viewers will always be using IE.

• Don’t expect to get it right the first time. Start with the default settings, unless you know up front that a default isn’t adequate. Then, rework the presentation as needed.

PowerPoint to the Web

Although PowerPoint can transfer a presentation to the Web, the results can be disappointing. The biggest issue is the viewer’s environment. When you are sure viewers will use IE, PowerPoint Web pages are stable and effective. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to support a PowerPoint Web presentation in any browser other than IE. Public viewers may be very dissatisfied with what they see, regardless of how you hard you try to accommodate other browsers.

Break down points into individual slides

If you create presentations, you already know that simplicity and succinct language is key to an effective presentation. One way to drive this home is to reduce bulleted list to a series of slides — one slide per bullet. Then, summarize the points after reviewing all the points by including a list or chart that includes all the points. (This technique works with most any kind of list, not just bulleted lists.)

Why would you bother with several slides when one slide would do? When faced with a slide with many points, an audience tends to tune out or even read ahead — guessing what’s coming next. If you present one point per slide, your audience will grasp and retain each point better and they’ll pay closer attention.

Be sure to integrate your points into a summarizing list or graphic, after you’ve reviewed each point separately.

Office challenge: How can you fill a Word document with random text?

Formatting an empty Word template can be a challenge — you need text to see the full picture. You could copy text from another document but it might be easier to fill the document with some random text. How would you accomplish this bit of magic in Word?

Last week we asked…

“After deleting a message, how can you force Outlook to open the next message automatically?” The answer’s simple, as some of you said, if you know where to find the right setting. Sometimes — Okay, quite often — finding the right setting in Outlook is a challenge. rajan.sowri@… was the first to respond with the right setting; spin2nz responded first with all the steps to find the setting:

1. From the Tools menu, select Options.
2. Click the Preferences tab.
3. Click the E-mail Options button in the E-mail section.
4. In the Message Handling section, choose Open The Next Item from the After Moving or Deleting an Open Item option’s dropdown list.
5. Click OK twice.  

 

mhbaum@… also had the correct answer. Unfortunately, I believe Willie11 is correct about Outlook Express. If you know how to do this in Outlook Express, please share the setting. I don’t use Windows Mail, but I am looking for an answer to Willie11’s question.

GradePad (education)

GradePad 1.0

Category:
Education
Price: $1.99 (iTunes)

Description:

GradePad: Mobile Performance Assessment
Manage groups. Create assessments. Track performance.

GradePad is a performance assessment tool for teachers, trainers, and coaches.

Assess a variety of behaviors and performances with GradePad rubrics that have criteria and scales. Manage groups of individuals and track their performance over time. Send the data to your email account for further analysis.


GradePad

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