In the day and age, owning multiple cards–credit, debit, loyalty, et al.–is just a given. What’s really inconvenient is having to bring them everywhere all the time and risk losing one or two of them. A team called iCache recognizes this problem, and here at CTIA 2012 presented an elegant solution: the iCache Geode. It’s essentially an iPhone case that digitizes and securely stores all the cards you own, so you can use them when you’re out while leaving the original cards stowed safely at home.
Here’s how it works: The iCache Geode case includes a fingerprint scanner, a physical stand-in card called the GeoCard, a magnetic stripe reader and an E Ink display. There’s an app and a scanner attachment that’s part of the system, too. You use the scanner to quickly digitize your cards and save them, while the dedicated app designates the method of payment and programs it into the GeoCard. Say you’re paying at CVS and you’d like to use your loyalty card on site as well. Within the companion app, you select the particular credit or debit card you’ve earlier stored, then pull the GeoCard out of the case and tap it hard against a solid surface. The card becomes active and is loaded up with the proper info, while the loyalty barcode is displayed on the E Ink screen on the back of the case. Use your GeoCard normally, and let the scanner read the E Ink display to apply your discount.
iCache has taken some extra measures to help you feel secure about its product as well. In case you ever lose your iPhone, you don’t need to worry (aside from fretting about procuring another phone, that is). Your card details are stored in the Geode housing itself, not on the app, so thieves can’t break in and squander your wealth. Also, when you fire up the app, it’ll prompt you for a fingerprint scan to make sure you are who you say you are. Finally, for good measure, the card programming lasts a finite period of time, which you yourself have to set.
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We started by adding our online services to our account. We tapped on the plus sign opposite the label, and chose from a list of services Connect supports. Among them were Google Docs (QuickOffice says that they’ll update this to Google Drive soon), Dropbox, SkyDrive, Evernote, SugarSync, Basecamp, Catch, Springpad, Box, Huddle, Egnyte and WebDAV.
Afterward, we set up Connect on our laptop. We tapped on the plus sign across Devices and selected Mac. The app then sent instructions to our email with the appropriate download link for our computer. We installed the app, and could log in from our computer as well.
Connect also has a Web portal so you can access your files from absolutely anywhere. After the program was installed onto our laptop, we launched the Web component of Connect by clicking on the icon on our Mac’s top right navigation bar and selecting “Open Connect by QuickOffice” from the drop down list.
Once we added in all the services we wanted, it turned into the matter of getting the files we wanted onto Connect. Luckily, this was pretty easy to figure out as well. Using the Web dashboard, we accessed our main folders on our computer, which Connect automatically detected. Then we clicked on the tiny sync button to the left of the label to add it to our Connect Folders.
Once synced, we could immediately access our files regardless of which device we were using. We didn’t have to look hard to figure out how to create a new document from our mobile device. Connect by QuickOffice puts these icons front and center in a permanent navigation bar across the bottom of the app. We could tap on any of these to create a Word, Excel or PowerPoint document, or a new folder.
You do have to select the folder you’d like to create the file in before Connect lets you do anything. We quickly created a simple text file and uploaded it into one of our active Connect Folders, then watched it magically appear on our desktop.
Connect by QuickOffice provides a range of options for sharing a document once you’ve finalized your edits. On our iPhone, we tapped on the arrow beside the file name, which took us into the next screen with a handy menu of functions: Publish File, Add Comments, File Versions, File Activity and File Settings. We tapped on Publish File to share it.
The app then let us choose whether we wanted to email it to a collaborator or upload the document onto various services like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Slideshare, etc.
One of the best features within Connect is the ability to search across all your cloud services and devices to locate the file you need (once your devices and services are all set up with the app, of course). We simply tapped on the upper left-hand button to access the main Connect icons, then tapped on Search. We typed out “test file,” the document we had created earlier on the app, and selected the device/cloud service where we wanted Connect to look. After a few seconds, the app pulled up the file we needed.
Connect by QuickOffice works as advertised, which was very impressive. The wealth of options within the app demonstrates the thought and care that went into developing it, and it worked well across all our devices. We can imagine working intensively on a laptop, hopping into the same document for quick edits on the go with our iPhone, then maybe lounging on our couch back home with our iPad to make some final tweaks.
Connect also earns plus points for putting setup and sharing options right at our fingertips. We were complete first-timers with the app, yet creating files and dipping into and out of them on our different devices was incredibly easy to get the hang of.
Our only quibbles with the app were some responsiveness issues and connectivity difficulties. There were times when we weren’t sure whether our taps registered on our touch screen, and another time, the Web dashboard would not load our folders from our laptop and prompted us to check whether our computer was online (it was). But these hiccups sorted themselves out after refreshing the app.
Connect by QuickOffice is an undeniably good package, and is an answer to a problem that not many people have thought about how to address yet. In that sense, the app is very forward-looking. We couldn’t help but be impressed by the range of functions included in the service, from accessing your files across all your cloud accounts and mobile devices, to editing, sharing, searching and syncing them.
On the other hand, we were fortunate enough to try the app for free, an opportunity not many others would be able to get. In fact, there are several tiers to the service. The Basic, free account lets you view documents, get cloud access and five sharable folders, sync up to two devices–but cuts you off after a 5,000 file sync capacity. Connect Premium, for $44.99 a year will let you view and edit documents, execute aggregated search, get unlimited folder sharing, use remote access and sync up to four devices with a 125,000 file sync capacity. And finally, Connect Professional–the tier we tested–is $69.99 a year and lets you view and edit documents, execute aggregated search, get unlimited folder sharing and sync up to six devices (with a 250,000 file sync capacity). It also gives you a bunch of extra features including file versioning and remote access.
If you’re the kind of person who uses a lot of mobile devices and cloud services and can’t be bothered to worry about whether your active file is the latest version, Connect by QuickOffice is worth a look. It’s a powerful tool that can simplify a complicated workflow, aggregating multiple services into one hub. The only problem is picking out the tier that will best for you.
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The Melody headphones attractive features is it's wireless capabilities. It can pair up with gadgets via Bluetooth, charge the 240 mAh battery which can last up to 7.5 hours of music. It retails at $99 (as of May 2012).
Compared to its predecessor, Disco 2 is packaged in a more compact body. Disco 2 comes in a variety of colors like canary yellow and cyan blue. It has two speakers and subwoofer. Like the Melody headphones, Disco 2 is priced at $99.
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