Two decades ago, a woman having a difficult birth in a Ugandan village would have had few options to get life-saving treatment if there was not a nearby health clinic. But today, mobile technology can help her get advice from a doctor in Kampala over the telephone, alert a community health worker about her situation, or even get her to a hospital.

Mobile technology is changing the landscape of health care delivery across the developing world by giving people who live in rural villages the ability to connect with doctors, nurses and other health care workers in major cities.

“Now, a phone call can compress the time that it would have taken before to come to that decision point and get the woman care more often and quickly,” said Dr. Alain Labrique, a professor of International Health and Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore.

More than 60 faculty members and 120 students are part of the Johns Hopkins Global mHealth Initiative, which has 51 projects exploring the use of mobile technology in health.

Its work received such a positive response that in March 2013, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health will begin two courses on incorporating mobile technologies into global health fieldwork.

“The students coming into global health today are challenged with the need to think of the potential appropriate use of these technologies in the resource-limited areas where we work,” said Dr. Labrique. “There’s a lot of excitement among faculty, but there’s 10 times as much excitement coming from students.”

“What mobile technologies are doing is changing the way that we see global health in terms of our ability to impact populations, to collect data in real time, to develop real strategies to impact public health that we hadn’t thought of before,” he added. Click here to read more.

Having been in the business of caring for people for decades, Dr. Andrew Barbash says he’s just about seen it all. And, throughout his experience, he said there is one simple step essential to providing quality care to patients – communication.

“Whether caring for an elderly parent who lives hundreds of miles away or reaching a leading expert quickly, today’s technology can ensure a patient gets the answers and assistance needed quickly through virtual care,” said Barbash, medical director of Neurosciences and Virtual Care Services, Holy Cross Hospital, Silver Spring, MD and co-founder of NowDox.

Virtual care brings together patients, doctors, experts, caregivers and family members by using simple and easy-to-use chat and video applications, operating on a super-fast 4G LTE network.

It’s as easy as turning on your tablet or smartphone and pushing a couple buttons to connect online.

But it’s more than just video and chat between two people, it’s all about bringing the right people together to easily share data-rich sonograms, CT scans, MRIs, collaborate in real-time and improve patient care, said Barbash.

Technologies like 4G LTE give us the speed and bandwidth to complete tasks previously unimaginable on a wireless device, he added.

Barbash recalled a recent example where a woman was trying to manage her father’s sudden illness from hundreds of miles away. Unable to travel with her young children, she “visited” her mom and dad virtually, connected with caregivers and determined the best care plan for her father. She did not need to leave home but could, and did, follow-up online each day.

Barbash said the ease of using the technology and its convenience makes it a must have in his office. “Listen, I’m not a gadget guy. Really. And if I can do this, anyone can.”

Drop by any Mybullfrog store and check out the range of tablets available so you can experience this same flexibility in communication. If you would like to look at tablets and wireless connectivity for your business just call our Small Business Advisors on 855.743.1154. The best devices on the nation’s fastest 4G LTE network, backed up by Mybullfrog’s five-star customer service experience – that’s the Mybullfrog difference.

Placecast is announcing results of a survey which reveals that Americans are eagerly adopting the mobile phone for all aspects of shopping, from product research to purchase via the device. The poll revealed that 20 percent of all adult mobile phone users (who own smartphones or standard cell phones) – representing about 39 million* Americans – said they’d made an online purchase using their phones in the past year. The results come from the third wave of a poll commissioned by Placecast and conducted online by Harris Interactive in February.

Purchase rates among smartphone owners was significantly higher than purchase rates among those who own a standard cell phone: 34 percent of smartphone owners have made an online purchase on their device in the past year, versus 20 percent of standard phone owners. Overall interest in using phones for purchases has grown by 8 percentage points in the past two years, with 38% of all mobile phone owners saying it is at least somewhat important. Here again, smartphone owners feel even more strongly: 59 percent say it is at least somewhat important to be able to make a purchase on their device.

U.S. adults also displayed greater receptivity to text message marketing, with more than three out of ten mobile phone owners who do not already receive text alerts from companies saying they’d be interested in receiving messages from brands, provided they’d opted-into the service. This indicates that 64 million adults* in the U.S. are open to this type of mobile marketing. This is an increase of 5 percentage points from when this question was asked in December, 2010.

This research marks the third survey conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of Placecast – similar studies were conducted in summer of 2009 and winter of 2010. The results collectively make up a series called ‘The Alert Shopper’, a tracking study conducted to understand shifting consumer behavior around mobile shopping. Click here to read more.

Productivity on business trips can drop for many business travelers. Between airport delays, hotel technology quirks and other unforeseen events, finding efficient solutions and making use of traveling down time may mean the difference between a successful trip and an exhausting one. Someone running a small business is more than likely to feel more impact. Here are five traditionally unproductive time periods you can turn around with a mobile hotspot.

The Car Ride
No, not your own car, but the taxi or car service from the airport. Chances are you were able to knock out a few documents on the flight and now with a Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Jetpack you can power up your laptop or turn on your tablet during the ride home and send those documents to your colleagues. Spend the time saved with your family when you get home.

The Layover
You’ve traveled thousands of miles and participated in endless meetings. Now you’re sitting at the airport waiting for your connecting flight home. Sure, you can people watch, but try using this time to de-stress by catching up on the latest episode of your favorite shows or sending photos to your family from your successful trip.

The Other Office
You are visiting a client’s office and ready to start working. You’ve set up the bridge for a teleconference and you need to log in. Accessing 4G LTE via your mobile hotspot ensures a smooth transition without having to ask your hosts for Internet passwords or involve the IT department. All of those minutes add up.

The Aftermath
So you get back to your familiar surroundings and then it hits you – expenses. We all have to do them and account for all our receipts. The mobile hotspot immediately cuts down on the paperwork. It’s one bill. You don’t have to worry about tracking down a receipt for Wi-Fi at the airport or a hotel Internet charge. One bill at the end of the month covers every expense.

The end result is you can make downtime your friend. 4G LTE can be a great friend to the traveler and eliminate the need to wait to get back to the office to accomplish tasks. Being untethered has never felt this good. Call into any Mybullfrog location today (click here for all locations) and see how we can help you increase productivity and enjoy smarter business trips.

May, nationally recognized as National Small Business Month, celebrates the innovation and spirit that small and medium-sized companies bring to their local neighborhoods and to the broader U.S. economy. It also highlights various opportunities for entrepreneurs to discover new technologies and best practices which support and promote efficiency within their companies.

Verizon Wireless is the leading go-to network that small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) turn to for their mobile technology solutions and learn about the best practices to bring them to life. To kick off National Small Business Month, here’s a few tips for SMB owners and entrepreneurs on the best ways to use wireless technology.

How Mobile Technology Can Be a Small Business’ Best Friend:

Join the tablet movement – Designed to be ultra-slim and lightweight, a powerful tablet is just as practical and cost-effective a tool as any laptop. Fast and supported by a variety of apps, tablets, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, allow small business owners and entrepreneurs to quickly access data, share reports and presentations, or create exciting videos to showcase their expertise and successes. Whether in or out of the office, users have peace of mind, knowing they are always connected and up to date on the company’s operations.

Get more business with mobile payments – it’s easier than you think – No cash? No problem. Big companies are not the only ones who can take credit card payments now. With a mobile payment system like the Intuit GoPayment app, coupled with a smartphone or tablet, a small business can make a significant impact in their sales by accepting plastic, no matter where they conduct business.

App-ccessorize! – Apps have become a way of mobile life. For an entrepreneur, they are the lifeblood of their workflow. With literally thousands of apps for all types of business operations, SMB owners no longer have to sift through them endlessly. Tools like the easy-to-use Small Business Advisor from Verizon Wireless make identifying top-rated apps for any industry, device operating system or task effortless by winnowing down the clutter and finding the right ones for the user.

…Or make your own – Many businesses are creating their own apps to better interact with employees and customers alike while streamlining everyday tasks. Creating and deploying an app of your own can help create a stronger brand image for your company.

Hit the road with confidence – For entrepreneurs trying to grow their companies, travel is a necessity and being able to take a high-speed Internet connection wherever they go is invaluable. With mobile hotspots, such as the Novatel or ZTE Jetpacks, in their pocket, business owners can easily get work done and stay in touch with employees and clients while on the road.

Get expert advice without paying a penny – By the end of this year, more than half of U.S. cellphones will be smartphones, according to a report from Nielsen. SMB owners shouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of the free resources in their communities, such as Mybullfrog Business Solutions specialists or Verizon Wireless’ Wireless Workshops, which will help them get the most out of their smartphones, tablets and other wireless technology.

Mybullfrog and Verizon Wireless take great pride in helping small businesses grow and thrive by providing them with the guidance and resources they need to be successful. With our expertise in mobile technology for small businesses, our customers have the confidence to integrate some of these tools into their operations and reap the rewards of a streamlined workflow.

Small and medium-sized businesses with a My Business account from Verizon Wireless can also receive exclusive discounts from trusted industry leaders using the Verizon Discount Program. At no additional cost, participating customers are entitled to exclusive discounts and savings on key business services.

Entrepreneurs and SMB owners can contact Mybullfrog Business Solutions on 1-855-743-1154 to speak with a business specialist, click here for relevant information on our blog, or click here to visit the Verizon Wireless SMB site for more information.

Are business cards dead? Smartphones, social networks, and internet-driven telephone systems are driving more people to manage their professional and personal contacts digitally. In fact, market research firm IBISWorld recently reported that orders for business cards in 2011 were off 13 percent from five years earlier.

The likelihood is most small-business owners are caught between these two worlds.

The good news is there are many mobile applications emerging to help manage business card information – regardless of whether you are trying to convert a stack of paper cards or consolidate digital contacts spread across multiple databases and social networks. Here are six popular tools you should consider.

Bump (iOS, Android; Free) – You can share contact information using the Bump mobile app by tapping your smartphone against another Bump-enabled mobile device. The app works cross-platform (from iPhone to Android devices, for example) and it connects contacts with relevant Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts.

CamCard (iOS, Android; $6.99) – At 15 million downloads and counting, the highlight of this app from IntSig Information is the way it handles batch scanning of business cards. You can photograph a whole series of cards with your smartphone and then finalize them later. Other apps require you to recognize each image immediately. CamCard can also convert your contact information into a QR code.

CardCloud (iOS, Android; Free) – A mobile app for sharing “an infinite stack” of digital business cards wirelessly between iPhones and Android smartphones. You can share card information with people who use other smartphones by emailing it via the CardCloud service.

CardMunch (iOS; Free) – Offered by LinkedIn, CardMunch pulls info from physical business cards into your LinkedIn social network and contact database. The cards that you scan are transcribed manually by humans for improved accuracy. Android and BlackBerry editions are in the works, according to the company’s Web site.

ScanBizCards (iOS, Android, Windows Phone; $4.99 to $6.99, depending on OS) – Two highlights of this business card scanning application include its ability to export contacts into Salesforce.com accounts and support for side-by-side editing with the imported data on one side and the image on the other. You can also export the data to Excel and integrate it with Skype.

WorldCard Mobile (iOS, Android, Windows Mobile; $5.99 to $9.95, depending on OS) – This application uses optical recognition on your smartphone to scan cards into your contact database quickly. Various reviews say it has one of the most accurate recognition engines available. WorldCard integrates with iCloud and Dropbox for storage and supports 16 languages. Another highlight: Built-in QR code recognition.

It wasn’t all that long ago businessmen and women everywhere were carrying laptop cases to and from work so large they could have been mistaken for travelers. If you had any kind of business to conduct throughout your day, you wouldn’t be caught dead without your laptop. It also gave you an opportunity to be productive during downtime. That is of course after the ten minutes it took to fire up and connect to whatever WiFi source you had access to.

The invention of the tablet simplified so many facets of our lives. First and foremost, it’s far less cumbersome to tote around (probably resulting in far less trips to the chiropractor). The average start-up time is about 1 minute and 8 seconds (Motorola Xoom – others may vary). Probably the best improvement is that like the smartphone, there is an app for everything.

Benefits of a tablet

• Weighs less
• Smaller (always have it on-hand)
• Less obtrusive in a group meeting
• Faster set-up time (easier and faster to on-line)
• Longer battery life
• More functionality in one device
• Better quality cameras and camcorders
• Thousands of apps available on demand

Tablets are for Business

Regardless of the type of business you are in, chances are there are a tablet will make your job easier. The combination of the above benefits and the multitude of apps available can enhance your efficiency, productivity and performance. Lets take a look into some businesses and what they are using tablets for.

REAL ESTATE – Real Estate is a great example of how a tablet can make an agent more productive and potentially make a sale because he/she has all the information needed at their fingertips. Maps. MLS Listings and County Records are a few important things that can be easily accessed on a tablet while still large enough to see details. Often an agent doesn’t have a ton of room to set up a laptop, their car is often their remote office. Once a buyer wants to make an offer, this can be done right on the tablet. The agent can keep forms on their tablet or have them emailed from the office and it can even be signed right on the tablet. This saves the time of going back to the office to complete paperwork and could make all the difference of whether a sale is made or not. When it comes to sales of any kind, particularly a large purchase like a house, the key is overcoming objections and the quicker you can get a bid written up and signed the less time you give the buyer to over think the sale. The tablet also acts as a camera and video camera to document listings and have those images readily on hand.

INSURANCE – Insurance is another field where tablets can really streamline efforts. Whether giving quotes or inspecting claims, agents and adjusters are almost always mobile. The camera is a major plus for inspectors as generally photos have to be submitted with a claim and tablets make it fool-proof to share, send or store photos. Agents also need the ability to access a number of different types of forms. In the event of an emergency, agents and adjusters may be required to set up a temporary claims office. A tablet would be a great asset as it can be set up and broken down in a matter of seconds.

RESTAURANTS – Restaurants are thinking outside the box and using tablets in place of menus. Beside the tablet menu making them look cutting-edge, there are some very practical upsides. There is an initial cost for the tablets but there is no longer a need for printing new menus, which can happen every season. Wine lists, deserts menus, aperitifs and daily specials can be added cutting out the need for printing daily. When an item hits the’86′ list, it can be instantly removed from the menu until available again. One of the greatest benefits of the tablet format is the ability to add photos of the samplings. Many surveys show that a restaurant can sell more items when consumers can see what the item is going to look like. Lastly, specials can change as needed-even in the course of the day. Perhaps the chef finds an item there is an abundance of that needs to be used up. It can instantly be made into a special and made available on the tablet menu for the day.

MEDICAL – Medical offices are realizing the upside of using tablets. They can check in a patient, record their vital signs and input the information The doctor can be much more efficient referencing the vitals from check-in, along with a more thorough patient record. He can also access medication databases to aid in writing prescriptions. At this point he can send prescriptions and lab requests electronically using a more secure, less error prone method of transmission.

Productivity Enhancing Apps

As you can see above many industries can benefit from tablets. Regardless of the type of business you are in, chances are you can benefit from owning tablet.There are many apps available that will make your job easier. The following are a few popular apps that can help in productivity:

Square – Accept credit cards and cash on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with the free Square Card Reader. It’s only 2.75% per swipe for Visa, American Express, MasterCard and Discover. No contracts, monthly fees or merchant accounts. Funds are deposited into your bank account the next day. Square makes it easy for anyone to accept payments, anywhere.With the touchscreen the client can sign their name and elect to get a text message receipt or an email for their records.

Adobe Photoshop Express – Edit and share photos virtually anywhere. Touch to crop, rotate, adjust color, and add artistic effects. Access all your photos and videos directly from your free Photoshop.com account. Quickly share with family and friends. Requires SD card.

SignMyPad – This is a signature capture tool for mobile devices. Its the new standard for paperless document transfer in the form of a simple PDF.

Dropbox – Save files to the cloud that you need to share or be able to access from any device. Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. After you install Dropbox on your computer, any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, your iPhone and iPad and even the Dropbox website! With the Dropbox app, you can take everything that matters to you on the go.

Evernote – Similar to Dropbox but includes a word processing app so you can start a blog article or presentation on one device and it can be accessed on any other device that has access to the internet. This enables sharing the document with others who need to view or perhaps edit the document. Photos, audio and video can be added as well.

Cam Scanner – Convert your iPhone into a mobile scanner. Scan Pages organizes and cleans your mobile images using our advance image processing technology, and allows you to combine them in a PDF file and store in GoogleDocs, Evernote, Dropbox or share via E-mail. NO REGISTRATION is required.

PDF Reader – Fast Reader is basically a player for Office files. Read PDFs correctly formatted for your screen with the ability to zoom. Suitable for reading PDF maps and drawings, the Fast Reader also supports DOC, XLS, TXT and PPT formats.

PrinterShare – Print directly from your tablet to a WiFi direct printer without the need for a WiFi connection.

ScanCard – This app turns your device’s camera into a business card reader including synchronization to the cloud.

Package Tracker – Enter your tracking numbers to store and track your FedEx, UPS, DHL and USPS shipments.

Invoice2go – Invoice2go is the fast and easy way to invoice, estimate, bill, collect and report. With over 20 built-in invoice styles to choose from, templates can be customized with logos and fields to create your own business forms. No other solution available gives you this flexibility.

The above is just a sampling of what is available for tablets. The benefits of tablets are endless and adaptable for each business. Whether your industry is construction, project management, people management, sales, or other – a tablet can help streamline your efforts and workflow on a daily basis.

Mobile in enterprise is transforming how we interact with information, connect with our office networks, and organize our working lives. We have become so reliant on mobile devices to drive our entertainment, social, and knowledge networks that they naturally begin to intertwine with our work lives, but at what cost?

In a recent survey from Symantec, 72 percent of firms believe that employees’ behavior on social networking sites could endanger their business’s security. And 91 percent of respondents to a survey said their company allows employees to use their work-related smartphones for personal use as well.

While this demonstrates the utility, practicality, and flexibility of using mobile devices to conduct business (often on demand and on the move), it is also an indication of both the immediate and impending challenges for organizations to ensure they have an adequate infrastructure in place to deal effectively with new security threats as they occur across several platforms.

So what does this mean for organizations? Half of all organizations are not prepared for the influx of personal mobile devices leading to serious headaches for IT departments struggling to devise an appropriate security policy. Click here to read more.

In today’s nonstop work world, faster is almost always better. Smart phones, particularly the ubiquitous iPhone and BlackBerry, are making daily tasks more efficient for small business owners.

Indeed, new business-focused apps seem to pop up daily. With a slew of options out there, it’s hard to sift through the fray.

To make things easier for you, the folks at the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) sifted through the huge range of business apps and came up with their picks for best small business apps for the iPhone and Blackberry platforms. Click here to read more.

The practice of law is increasingly being conducted wirelessly, over smartphones, laptops, and tablet computers. But as lawyers place more documents, messages, filings, and calendars on their wireless devices, they are increasingly experiencing two critical shortages: a shortage of storage capacity, and a shortage of power.

Wireless technology does a lot of things well, but one conspicuous shortcoming is storage. Most smartphones and tablets don’t have a lot of onboard storage because manufacturers want to keep the devices compact, lightweight, and competitively priced. But that’s a problem for attorneys who use their smartphones or mobile computers as their primary electronic tool: Where can they store all of their data?

There never seems to be enough battery life to finish the task at hand. Until technology advances to the point where wireless devices can run for days on a single charge, the best you can do is conserve as much power as you can. Click here to read the full article and helpful tips.