When You Need an App

An app is a program downloaded to a smart phone or tablet computer. There are zillions of apps.  Most people's mobile devices are cluttered with them.

Because of that, apps produce a lot of noise: that is to say that the clutter from all of those apps makes it more difficult to use the device.

Over time, people instinctively try to cut down on the noise and manage the number of apps they own. They prune, categorize, and delete the apps they don't need.

If you create an app, you're competing against a ton of other apps for a very small space on the smartphone.

Many small businesses that I meet are all over this craze and want to create an app. Ooo we've got to have an app, they say! So when I ask what it'll do and what value it'd bring to the user experience, they look at me puzzled. "It will tell them about our services and give them a fast way to contact us," they say, and I shoot back, "Oh ... like your website?"

Then I try to get them to think about how quickly such an app would be deleted because it's noisy. It doesn't add any real value or differentiation, so why would anyone keep it?

And that's the trick with apps. Good apps should enable the user to do something:

• it should be a tool;
• it should be a way to collect and review information;
• it should extend your customer service to the palm of their hand;
• it should be a way to reduce friction (calling or emailing your offices to get something done);
• it should be a way to share experiences with your products to potential customers in their social community.

Apps should empower a user. If an app doesn't do this, it's valueless, and will likely be perceived as clutter and deleted from the mobile device.

Meanwhile, companies should make their websites mobile-aware so that they change perspective to fit a smaller screen with less resolution. If a website isn't mobile-aware, it'll present itself as a site better viewed on a desktop machine, making it very difficult to read and access information. Companies should make their website mobile-aware so that they're easier to read, consume, and use, thus making it easier to work with the company.

But a website isn't an app. And even more horrendously, an app's purpose shouldn't be to just drag the user to a website. If you want to get into the app business, think about how the app extends the consumer experience and empowers their relationship with you. Otherwise, stick to the website, and make that as easy as possible to use on mobile devices.

R

10-Tips for Conserving Battery Life

I'm recycling this content from my Technology Reflections newsletter issue thirteen. I'm asked this one a lot and it came up again today, and I wasn't sure why this wasn't already in my blog. So, here we go: ten things you can do to conserve battery life on mobile devices.

1. Brightness Control. Dim the brightness of the display. The display, along with the CD ROM and WiFi adapter, are the most power-draining devices on your laptop. The more you can do to keep brightness down, the better it is for battery longevity.

2. Detach Peripherals. Devices connected to the laptop draw off battery power. Disconnect as many devices as possible, and only use devices when you have to - disconnect them after their use.

3. Watch Demand. Watching a two-hour movie on a laptop is high-demand; intense graphics of any kind push processor needs, graphic displays, and input/output reads (from the hard disk or CD ROM). This creates more draw from the battery. Plug the unit in to an outlet if your demand needs are high.

4. Sleep (Hibernate). Set the system to hibernate and not suspend. Suspend keeps portions of the system online and drawing from the battery for a faster response from down-time. Instead, tell the system to hibernate which caches all of memory to the hard disk and shuts the system off. This will prevent excess draw against the battery.

5. Avoid Extremes. Extreme cold and heat will affect the chemistry of the batteries and make them less efficient. Try to keep your laptop in dry conditions, somewhere between 68 and 88 degrees.

6. Get a Second Battery. Why not? They're relatively inexpensive and could double your battery life, as well as allow you to load-balance between multiple batteries.

7. Defragment Often. Frequent defragging optimizes drive i/o and reduces the amount of time that it takes to access the hard disk. This minimizes the draw on the battery and optimizes performance.

8. Minimize. We wouldn't expect to see all of the applications on a desktop machine running on a laptop. This is because the laptop has to conserve more power, and shouldn't be running silly little weather applets (for example). Non-essential services and applications should be shut off or uninstalled while using the laptop unplugged.

9. Turn off auto-save features. Word and Excel like to do auto-saves on documents every 3 minutes which creates demand for the hard drive and consumes battery power. If you were to disable this feature in the Office suite, it would put less demand on the life of your battery.

10. Turn Off the WiFi. Your wireless adapter is a radio that constantly transmitting. That takes a lot of juice! You can power the adapter off by using a button usually found on the side or front of your laptop; it shuts down the adapter when not in use. It's a good security precaution, but it's also a great idea for conserving the battery.

And a bonus-tip: don't leave your battery/laptop plugged in indefinitely. Lithium-ion batteries can "burn" if they're always plugged in which damages the battery and prevents it from holding a charge. If you've ever noticed that, over time, your laptop's battery life is progressively smaller, it's usually due to the batteries "burning" in this fashion. Instead, allow the unit to recharge (perhaps 2-3 hours) then unplug the unit from the wall outlet.

R

5 Rules of Thumb for Windows 7

Microsoft will release its latest version of Windows this week. If you're a small to mid-range business, here are five rules of thumb if you're considering an upgrade. 1. Don't.

Well, don't "upgrade". If you're technically capable, install the operating system clean instead of upgrading and restore your data from a backup. This may help avoid a lengthy upgrade process; some instances of upgrades from Vista to Windows 7 are reported to take upwards of six hours to complete. You can install the o/s cleanly and avoid many migration hassles. In fact, you may wish to just purchase a machine with Windows 7 already loaded on it and forget about the upgrade - especially if you're running Windows XP. There's no upgrade path from XP so you're going to have to install clean anyway.

2. Backups.

"Don't get cocky, kid." It was good advice from Han, and you can use it, too. You need to realize that an operating system upgrade isn't the same risk as installing a hotfix or a service pack. This is a major upgrade that may prevent your system from restarting correctly, and may even contribute to data loss. Don't be a fool: back up your critical files prior to the upgrade. In fact, now would be a great time to review why anything "critical" is on a PC anyway and try to relocate that data to your network. Start to consider your PC as a disposable asset whereas the real treasure of information is available on network resources. Even better, start thinking about what you can do to get rid of that server... but that's a topic for another day.

3. Compatibility.

Windows 7 is perfectly compatible with your existing Microsoft networking solutions. What you may run into are problems with legacy software applications and hardware drivers. You may want to make a list of critical applications that you just can't live without, and check with the vendor on whether or not they've been tested on Windows 7, and can run on that platform. Believe you me: you don't want to be in a situation where you've gone through the trouble of upgrading and suddenly can't run your mission-critical apps. As for hardware requirements, the kernel is the same as Vista, so if your machine ran Vista fine, you can expect the same performance and response from Windows 7, so let's dispell any idea that you'll get some performance of this.

4. What are your Reasons?

I think you need to be very clear - with yourself and your stakeholders - why an upgrade to Windows 7 is necessary. What's the strategic, compelling reason for an upgrade "right now". Is it timing? Is it compatibility with upcoming vendor solutions? Is now a better time than, say, 2nd QTR 2010? What motivates you for introducing the new window dressing now? Certainly, for the small to mid-range business, it's hard to see a strategic reason to upgrade to the next release of Windows very rapidly. Windows 7 will not change the way that you get your work done. It won't change the way you see the Internet. It won't change the way you collaborate and use data. It will change the way you view files on your hard disk, how your applications perform, and how you access the settings on your computer. Think very carefully about your reasons for introducing Windows 7 to you and your team right now.

5. Consider a Test.

When you buy a car, you want to test it. You want to drive it around the block a few times and make sure that it meets your needs. The same is true with 7. Don't take the hype for granted: install the upgrade on a separate, non-production workstation and see how you like the look and feel. Give it a whirl. Get some feedback from others in your workplace. They can sit behind the wheel and give it a shot, too. You can decide then if you really want to deal with the learning curve now, or, put it off until a later date.

Just a couple of practical pieces of advice before you take the plunge. Listen, be practical: think about a strategy. Who will you upgrade? When? Why? What's the purpose? When could you upgrade all of your machines, not just one, as to reduce the complexity of your technology environment? When is the best time to facilitate training with your staff? Which members of your staff would be good candidates for beta testing the product on a spare machine? What's your company going to do if the PC's don't start back up the way they should? How about a means to recover lost data? Don't look at this as something your company is doing for kicks and giggles: take it seriously, and have a plan.

R