What's On Tech?

A feature that a lot of ex-Blackberry users fell in love with is now back on Android. Introducing "Holster Buddy". Holster Buddy is an app that allows your notifications to be customized while in a holster. The holster doesn't have to be Blackberry branded or any specific holster at all. The app doesn't work through the use of magnets like in the Blackberry legacy devices. Instead, it uses the light sensor to black the screen and set phone to either silent or vibrate while in the holster. Holster Buddy can be downloaded on the Google Play Store

I have to admit Blackberry has come up with some great ideas in the last few months. First the jump to cross platform BBM, which has been nothing but a great success. Now with the release of BBM 2.0 for Android and iPhone just weeks away, they have shown off what the new update will entail and what will set their chat app from the other hard hitters. BBM Voice and Video Now you can make crystal clear voice calls over Wifi or cellular with the use of BBM Voice. This makes an internet based call, not touching your airtime minutes. This is a great feature for going away on vacation to save from expensive roaming rates. With BBM Video you can make a Video Call through WIFI or a cellular connection much like Skype or FaceTime. This feature has been built in to all Blackberry devices, but has not been available for the Android and iPhone version. Emoticons Now the user can add up to 100 new emoticons to their chat. There are 25 emoticons that were spe...

Mobile Device Management or MDM is a solution that more and more business clients are taking advantage of. MDM uses over the air distribution to push applications, data and user settings to smartphones and tablets. This solution reduces support costs and high risks by making your managed devices safe and secure. MDM uses mobile monitoring to track usage, locate devices and grant permissions to all devices in the fleet. Most management solutions include some type of server component which sends these policies and commands to all devices. There are two types of deployment for MDM, Cloud-based and On-premise deployment. Cloud-based solutions although less costly and easier to manage, gives little control to the client. The MDM software is managed by the IT administrator, but updated and controlled by the MDM provider. On-premise solutions requires you to have your own hardware and to maintain regular software updating. This solution gives you a lot more control, but is more time consu...

A few months back Telus announced that NFC or Near Field Communication SIM cards would be available for purchase. At the time you wouldn't get a whole lot of use out the SIM, but now you can. With NFC mobile payments you can authorize purchase via the NFC chip in your smartphone. This is fast, safe and convenient way to make transactions by just tapping your phone to a NFC registered payment terminal. The NFC SIM by Telus has a secure tamper proof module called "Secure Element" and associated functionality that allows the user to download virtual credit card credentials to a NFC SIM card over the air. Every transaction is secure, data encrypted and just as safe as the chip in your debit or credit card. Mobile payments are accepted via MasterCard PayPass or Visa PayWave terminals. Currently the NFC SIM will only work with an eligible CIBC credit card and the downloaded CIBC mobile payment app which can be downloaded on the Google Play Store. More institutions wil...

With Android's latest software version being available on more devices I thought I would post something to highlight what is new and great about it. First off, Kit Kat uses up to 16% less memory than Jelly Bean. This gives the user faster load times, smoother graphics and uninterrupted multitasking. This will clear up some of the issues S4 users were having with slow or laggy devices. The phone dialer and contacts app look a bit different too. Your contacts will be displayed in order of who you talk to the most, to make it easier to find frequent callers. Voice control has some added features as well. When you're on the home screen, simply say "Okay Google". The voice control will activate to let you perform voice searches or dictate a text message or e-mail. With Kitkat you can now use Emoji icons (smiley faces and other pictures) to express yourself in text messages and e-mails. No additional downloads will be required for this. Just simply add them in your ...