Search

A friend of mine recently bought an iPhone. She's a small business owner, and one of the first apps she has looked into buying is one that lets her take credit card payments through her phone. Previously, she could only accept cash or check payments, so this app will help make her business more customer friendly. There are several apps to choose from, two of which I've featured below.

As the iPhone continues to increase in fame and popularity, the applications to fill up the device are growing in number and diversity. Whether people are looking for utility or nonsense, the options are almost endless. Featured here are some offbeat iPhone applications and their Web sites as well as sites to learn more about available offerings and what people are using. And just in case the applications seem overwhelming, one Web site offers an organization solution.

I can't believe that it's December already and-judging by the parking lot at the shopping center across the street-that the holiday shopping season is in full swing. Ready or not, the holidays are here, and along with them is a fun holiday tradition: the NORAD Tracks Santa program.

It's the holidays-time to build up that stash of generic gifts for parties, both business and personal. A bottle of wine is always a nice gesture, unless-like me-you know nothing about wine. The following applications can help make navigating the world of wine a bit easier.

Does the term "social media" turn people off from the power of these collaborative tools? Christopher Dorobek suggests so in this month's Incoming column, "The War on Social Media."

A small unmanned aerial vehicle powered by a fuel cell soon may be soaring over distant battlefields. Lightweight tactical robot aircraft are vital for supplying ground forces with immediate reconnaissance information, but their battery-powered engines limit their operational time. New advances in fuel cell technology will allow smaller, lighter robotic aircraft to stay aloft for 24 hours or more to supply commanders with continuous data.

Who doesn't enjoy watching movies from the comfort of their own home? Thanks to the "Redbox Free Rental Promo Codes" iPhone app, cinephiles can enjoy movies at home at a discount--just in time for the holiday weekend.

This application is near and dear to all of us in the SIGNAL newsroom. We follow AP Style, and with the AP Stylebook app, journalists like us can have error-free writing even when they're away from their desks-and their editors.

SIGNAL Scape isn't the only blog at AFCEA. The intelligence department has two great blogs as well: MAZZ-INT and a new intelligence small business blog.

The intelligence community has been leading the government pack in its collaboration efforts. Christopher Dorobek points to 9/11 and other examples to show how government realized it needed a better way to collect, process and share intelligence data in this month's Incoming column, "The Intelligence Community Writes the Book on Collaboration."