GigaOM » Collaboration

Gigwalk talks mobile as future of staffing, launches Android beta

Darrell Etherington — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:25:34 +0000

Smartphones are the key to making intelligent connections between tomorrow’s workforce and employers, says Ariel Seidman, co-founder and CEO of Gigwalk. At Net:Work 2011, he spoke about how the smartphone will increasingly become the connection point that connects jobs and workers, and how it’s uniquely well-positioned to do that.

Seidman talked about how Gigwalk is based on the idea of using a mobile device to match jobs that need doing with people who are well-equipped to do them. The idea is that the apps can be moneymakers for users, instead of just cash draws. He discussed the fact that mobile is also a key inflection point, which will fundamentally change how we work.

Work, at least the kind people seek through mobile means, can be one of two types, says Seidman. It can be casual and meant to cover small gaps or financial needs in a user’s life says Seidman, like helping them pay a specific bill. Or it can be more substantial, looking for a way to fill out the remainder of a part-time schedule, for instance. The spectrum includes jobs that take a few minutes to complete or longer-term contracts that can span days. Mobile can cater to both ends of this spectrum.

Mobile tech also allows companies to fill positions incredibly quickly: Seidman said that Microsoft had a 24-hour turnaround when it used Gigwalk for a recent engagement.

In the interest of opening up opportunities to even more workers, Gigwalk is launching an Android client in private beta on Thursday, which will be available on its site.

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Photo by Pinar Ozger.

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Go ahead, bring those holiday gadgets to work

Terri Griffith — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:43:05 +0000

Darrell Etherington’s predication is coming true, “Bring Your Own Device Will Usher in Bring Your Own Apps, Too.” On Wednesday, IBM announced several new social networking and collaboration mobile apps –all specifically designed to support enterprise needs around consumer mobile devices. The new software is available from most popular app stores. IBM’s goal is to bring social networking, real-time collaboration, and online meeting capabilities from behind the company firewall and into the hands of tablet users.

This is a response to demands to better manage the growing number of personally-owned gadgets being used for enterprise work.

In the press release, IBM describes how employees at the global medical device manufacturer ConMed Linvatec used the IBM Lotus Notes Traveler app on iPad devices at a recent medical tradeshow: “The app allowed ConMed employees to demonstrate its medical devices, collect sales leads, and send product information to prospective customers right on the spot….” Dale Westrate, messaging systems architect for ConMed Linvatec’s Largo division is quoted in the release: “As a result of using IBM collaboration software on iPad devices, we generated more leads, and acted on them sooner, than ever before.”

IBM is offering a variety of new tablet capabilities (availability across platforms varies):

They are also helping developers create mobile applications faster and improving the experience for the user:

Tools to build mobile apps faster and better: IBM is introducing its Mobile Technology Preview on the developerWorks website.
Tools to improve the Web experience for the user: The new software, IBM WebSphere Portal Mobile Experience, helps companies easily control the content, look and feel, and page navigation on mobile devices.

It’s exciting to see the software giant helping smooth the way for how people behave at work. Rather than putting information technology departments in conflict with their users, who are just trying to get their jobs done in times of tight resources, IBM’s approach enables natural behaviors to proceed with an enterprise-appropriate (e.g., greater security) infrastructure.

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Facebook just a healthier smoke break, says iPass

Jessica Stillman — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:00:45 +0000

Just how ubiquitous have smartphones become among mobile workers? According to the latest quarterly Mobile Workforce Report from iPass, 95 percent of mobile workers have one.

That will come as no surprise to plugged-in professionals who have taken a look around at their colleagues lately (though the finding that, for the first time, iPhones have unseated BlackBerry devices as the top choice for respondents may come as happy news to Apple fans), but what impact is this near-universal adoption of smartphones having on knowledge workers’ lives?

In one sense, the impact is grim. The survey of 2,300 mobile employees worldwide found that many are giving up exercising and sleep in favor of a constant connection to work.

One in three respondents told iPass they sleep less due to work, with one in four mobile workers reporting less than six hours of shut eye a night
More than half exercise erratically or not all, and 60 percent of the loafers blamed work for their sedentary lifestyle

We’re also emotionally dependent on our gadgets; 59 percent of plugged in workers said they’d be disoriented, lonely or even distraught without their smarthphone.

But one thing smartphones aren’t guilty of, surprisingly, is being a major time suck. We waste only about as much time checking emailing and Facebook and handling technical hiccups than we used to spend on cigarette breaks when that was the most common office addiction: a measly 28 minutes a day.

So in the one column, we’re filling our lungs with fewer toxic chemicals and getting massive amounts of stuff done. But in the other, the new way of working means little sleep and next to no exercise.

Are we better off?

Image courtesy of Flickr user shnnn.

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The apps that feed our mobile communication addiction

Andy McLoughlin — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 16:00:35 +0000

When I originally thought about writing this post a few weeks ago, Steve Jobs had yet to resign from Apple. However, his resignation and my original idea for a post, focusing on our addiction to information on the move, actually complement each other rather nicely.

Jobs has succeeded in transforming the way we consume information in both our personal and work lives. With their intuitive interfaces, sleek lines and quality craftsmanship, it’s easy to see why so many of us now carry an iPhone, iPad, or both with us wherever we go. Raise your hand if you have an iPhone or iPad? If you haven’t got your hand up, chances are the person next to you does.

The iPhone wasn’t the first smartphone, nor was it the first with a touch interface, but it revolutionized the way that we browse the internet on our cells and consume data. Even if you don’t have an iPhone, your Android, BlackBerry or Windows Phone handset have all been influenced by this device.

And this brings me to our obsession with smartphones.

We’ve all been there, checking our emails on our smartphones at midnight, 1 a.m., 2 a.m., 6 a.m. We now shut the office doors and immediately start working again on the train, the bus and in taxis. We are permanently connected. According to a national survey by Telenav, a third of Americans would rather give up sex than their smartphone. They’d also be willing to wave goodbye to chocolate, caffeine and exercise before they parted with their beloved device.

UK adults and children are just as bad. UK communications industry regulator Ofcom has discovered that 60 per cent of teenagers describe themselves as “highly addicted to their smartphone.” Almost half (47 percent) of teenagers and 22 percent of adults also admit to using their device on the toilet.

Our cell phones have now transformed from a device for contacting and playing Snake to becoming a central part of our personal and working lives. The mobile workforce can now check emails on the move, hold video conferences, proof documents and log in to check their bank balance when sitting on the train or working from a cafe. Our obsession has been fueled by just the right apps to help us accomplish these tasks.

With more than 400,000 iPhone apps and more than 300,000 Android apps now available, what are the apps that today’s web workers should look at using to aid productivity and increase efficiency? Below are just some of the apps that I find indispensable:

CamCard: This great app takes a picture of a business card and automatically adds the information to your contact list. No more rummaging through pockets trying to locate the contact details of the people you met at various meetings and events.

Evernote: A popular tool with remote workers, Evernote enables you to quickly capture anything. Whether it’s a photo, a screenshot or a web site, whatever you capture is stored, processed and made searchable.

Huddle: With Huddle’s iPhone, iPad and BlackBerry apps you can access my company’s cloud-based collaboration platform and manage your projects, files and people from any location, at any time of day.

Twitter: Yes, it can be dangerously addictive, but having Twitter on your mobile ensures that you are constantly connected to the latest updates from your community and you can track what is being said about your company.

1Password: How many times have you sat on your iPhone/iPad trying to remember one of the numerous passwords you have for a wealth of websites and apps? 1Password securely stores the information required and logs you into websites immediately.

Skype: If you’re on Verizon Wireless’ network, Skype mobile gives you free Skype-to-Skype calls and IM.

QuickOffice: Access, create, edit, and share Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations.

Expensify: This fantastic app allows you to capture your expenses and receipts from any location. You can track everything and build your expenses reports on the move.

Bloomberg Mobile: Keep up to date on the latest international business news, stock quotes and company descriptions, etc.

Instapaper: Ever found a great article that you just don’t have time to read? Instapaper ensures that you can come back to it later.

What other mobile productivity apps do you use and love? Let me know in the comments below.

Hear VMware’s CTO Stephen Herrod talk about the three key pillars of enterprise mobility — apps, data and people — at Mobilize, September 26 and 27.

Andy McLoughlin, Co-founder and EVP Strategy at Huddle, can be reached on Twitter @Bandrew.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Symic.

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8 iOS apps that make it easier to go paperless

Amber Singleton Riviere — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 18:25:16 +0000

Several factors are making us shift more toward going paperless: the need to be mobile and location-independent, greater speed and convenience, an increased awareness for going green, not to mention our need for pinching pennies in today’s economic climate.

Now, with the advent of things like smartphones, tablets, and the iPad, new applications designed for those devices are making it easier and more practical to go paperless.

Penultimate: Your iPad notepad

Penultimate by Cocoa Box turns your iPad into a notebook, allowing you to jot notes and create sketches in multiple colors, separate them into notebooks by topic or project, and then email all or part of your notes in PDF format. It even includes three built-in “papers” (graph paper, unlined and ruled), but you can import images of different backgrounds or papers — or download paper packs — to create your own texture or style. Price: $1.99.

SignMyPad: Simple contract sign-offs

The Android- and iPad-compatible PDF reader SignMyPad has built-in annotation functionality, allowing you to sign and date PDF documents right from your iPad and then email it to another party. You can also save documents into versions for gaining multiple signatures, and the app can import documents from and save them to Dropbox. Price: $3.99 for the basic version, $19.99 for SignMyPad Pro, which adds geolocation tagging.

MyFax: Fax without a fax

If you work with clients or colleagues who still use fax machines, MyFax’s mobile faxing app, available for iOS and Blackberry, lets you send and receive faxes from your smartphone and via your email account. Just snap a photo of the document you want to send (the app is optimized for sending photos of text), choose the recipient from your Address Book and send. To fax by email, attach the document to an email message, address it to the fax number plus an @myfax.com and send. To receive a fax, simply give out your MyFax number, and your received documents will be available as an email attachment. Price: Free app, service costs $10/month after a free trial.

JotNot: Turn your iPhone into a handheld scanner

JotNot lets you scan from your iPhone, email the scan as a PDF or image, and fax the scan to U.S. numbers. You can add pages to documents, creating a multi-page scan, as well as delete and reorder pages and send documents to EverNote, DropBox, or Google Docs. JotNot can scan and save a variety of documents, including receipts, business cards, and notes. Price: Free.

DocScanner: Simple scanning

DocScanner is a scanner app for the iPhone, Mac, Android, Qt, and the Symbian S60 that allows you to scan documents simply by taking a picture. It then automatically crops everything other than the document out of the picture and even detects your document’s paper size. Other helpful features include the ability to search multiple-page documents, as well as words within documents. Price: $4.99.

Business Card Reader: Quickly add new contacts

The multi-platform Business Card Reader from SHAPE Services lets you take a photo of a business card, and then it “reads” the picture, extracts the contact data, and enters it into your smartphone’s address book. The built-in browser even lets you check out a new contact’s LinkedIn page right from the app. Price: $4.99 for multi-language support, $3.99 for Asian languages only.

OfficeDrop: Scan to the cloud

OfficeDrop‘s app scans documents directly to the cloud for storage and sharing. The ScanDrop desktop app is available for both PC and Mac, but the iPhone and Android Scanner apps allow you to scan and upload documents using your smartphone. Once uploaded, the document’s text is searchable, thanks to OCR, and sharable with colleagues. Price: Free

Square: Easy payments and receipts

Square, available for Android and most iOS devices, lets you accept credit card payments directly from your smartphone and uses “smart receipts” to send to customers via email or text message. You can create a display with photos and prices so that customers can view your products directly from your iPad, for example, and then keep track of the number of sales you’ve made in a given day. Price: Free app and reader.

Image courtesy of Flickr user mattjiggins

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Secure documents on BlackBerry with WatchDox

Aliza Sherman — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 07:34:01 +0000

As mobile devices become more prevalent at work, the need for security continues to rise. WatchDox provides document control, tracking and security features through a web app, apps for iPad and iPhone (we covered it late last year) and now for BlackBerry. WatchDox aims to ease concerns about mobile devices being a risky way to transmit and view sensitive documents by adding a layer of security and control to documents sent through its system.

On the BlackBerry, WatchDox users can render PDF and Microsoft Office. It offers features allowing users to:

Share and view documents securely on BlackBerry devices.
Restrict shared documents from being copied, printed or forwarded.
Eliminate documents remotely, if needed.

The company also announced updates to its Apple iOS app, including:

Document sync. Users can securely sync their online documents or their virtual data room folders through the secure app versus less secure consumer-grade syncing methods.
Passcode protection. In case of device loss or theft, a passcode provides an additional layer of security against information leaks.
Performance enhancements. Access to documents should be speedier.

While there are several subscription levels for WatchDox including Personal, Team and Virtual Data Room, pricing is customized so you’ll need to contact the company for a quote, although general plans typically start at $49.99 per month per user. The company does offer a 14-day free trial.

How are you securing your documents on your mobile devices?

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What mobile apps are essential for collaboration on the go?

Simon Mackie — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:50:10 +0000

With a growing proportion of the workforce already being highly mobile, coupled with an increasing number of workers are expecting to bring their own devices to work, it’s clear that picking the right collaboration apps to keep workers productive while on the go is vital to business success. But what apps do mobile workers need to get their jobs done? A new Forrester report, Mobilize Your Collaboration Strategy, has identified eight “must have” categories of mobile collaboration apps. Here’s a run-down of all the categories outlined, together with some of GigaOM’s recommendations for apps to use in each category:

Email and calendars. Email is, unsurprisingly, still the most important mobile app. According to Forrester, 87 percent of smartphone workers use email on their devices (which leaves me wondering what other 13 percent use their smartphones for), and collectively, they do 32 percent of their email on a smartphone. While most smartphones come with their own email and calendaring tools most users will use, there are some third-party options worth considering:

Gmail and Google Calendar. If you use Gmail, it’s worth noting that the mobile-optimized versions of the Gmail and Google Calendar sites are pretty good. They are fast and have a great UI, and one of the advantages of using them is that you can seamlessly switch from device to device without having to set up IMAP details in your various devices’ email clients.
Touchdown. Brings superb Microsoft Exchange support to Android devices.

Document-based collaboration. Mobile workers need to be able to access their documents while out of the office on any of their devices. Cloud-based document collaboration tools need to include mobile access to be truly effective.

Documents to Go. Dataviz’s Documents to Go is a popular mobile document editing app. It’s available for a variety of platforms, including iOS, BlackBerry, Android and Palm. When combined with a cloud file sync service like Dropbox or box.net, it enables users to access and edit their documents no matter where they are.
Soonr. Soonr is a cloud-based document sync service. However, it also offers integrated MS Office document editing capabilities , which means users don’t need to use a separate app like Documents to Go.

Web conferencing. According to Forrester, 18 percent of information workers and 34 percent of senior staff use web conferencing at least weekly. Mobile access means being able to attend meetings even while away from the laptop.

Fuze Meeting. Fuze Meeting’s impressive service is accessible with mobile devices. Its new Telepresence Connect service can extend traditional room-based telepresence to iPads and Android tablets.
Join.me. LogMeIn’s simple and easy-to-use web conferencing app is accessible through iOS and Android apps.

Activity streams. Forrester thinks activity streams are becoming a critical resource for organizations that work collectively: sales teams, project teams, and executive staff, for example. Mobile support is crucial as it enables workers to stay updated no matter where they are.

Yammer. Yammer is a popular enterprise social networking tool very much like a private Facebook for the enterprise. It offers mobile support though mobile apps available for a variety of platforms.
Socialtext. Socialtext is another enterprise social networking and collaboration app that offers activity streams. It offers mobile support via an optimized version of the website.

Presence and chat. Knowing whether a colleague is available or not is a killer feature when out of the office. While this category of app lags today, Forrester expects adoption to accelerate. These types of features are often also often included in other mobile collaboration tools.

eBuddy. A multi-protocol mobile chat app that supports AIM , ICQ, Google Talk, Yahoo! and MSN Windows Live Messenger within a single interface. It’s available via a native client for Android and iPhone and there’s also a mobile-optimized website.
IM+. Another popular “all-on one” IM app that supports a variety of protocols, including AIM, iChat, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo, ICQ, Jabber, Google Talk, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and Skype Chat, and works on a number of different mobile platforms.

Social collaboration. In this category, Forrester includes access to internal blogs, wikis, community sites, and social networks from a tablet or smartphone. Mobile access allows every professional will remain connected and part of the collaborative process.

IBM Lotus Connections. IBM’s social suite is supported on a range of mobile platforms, including Android, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry and Nokia.
Jive Software. Jive Software’s enterprise social suite provides mobile access though apps for iPhone and BlackBerry.

Expertise location. Forrester says this type of application is on the rise as firms look for ways to make mobile employees productive by helping them identify experts from anywhere. This type of app brings together presence, notifications, social profiles and data from HR. Many social business tools provide this kind of functionality, including:

Video conferencing. Skype has some 170 million active monthly users, and 39 percent of those people use Skype for work. Web conferencing vendors are also adding video to their products. Due to heavy resource requirements, there are few multi-party mobile video conferencing apps, though.

Skype. Skype provides video calling for mobile platforms including iPhone and Android.
Fring. One of the first apps to bring four-way video calls to the iPad, Fring provides native mobile apps for a variety of platforms, and also has mobile browser access.

Personally, I’m not convinced expertise location is really a “must-have” category of mobile collaboration app just yet. Do you agree with Forrester’s categories of “must-have” apps, and which apps do you recommend for each category?

Photo courtesy Flickr user Yagan Kiely

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4 tips (and a hack) to make your iPad work-worthy

Aliza Sherman — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:02:59 +0000

Reading Darrell’s recent post 7 iPad Habits of Highly Effective Remote Workers prompted me to look more closely at how I can really do work on my iPad.

I have to admit, I’m still not convinced that the iPad will be my laptop replacement. However, with the help of the Apple wireless keyboard and some other peripherals and apps, it can come close. Here are some tips to make your iPad work-worthy.

1. Make audio calls via VoiP. Audio calls via Skype on the iPad work like a dream. Just plug in the earbuds that you usually use for your iPhone, fire up the Skype app and make your audio calls. There are other VoiP apps that will work on the iPad without charging fees, such as Viber, but they require that the other person also has the same software on her device. You can even use Google Voice on the iPad, albeit with a little extra elbow grease.

2. Editing images and video. You can get digital photos and videos directly from your cameras using the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit, which comes with a USB adapter and SD Card Reader. I was a little skeptical about using the iPad touchscreen for editing images, but after downloading and trying the free PhotoPad by ZAGG, I’ve found it makes it fairly easy to manipulate images, including color and contrast adjustments, rotating and sizing, adding color fills, and even treating images with filters. You can also get Adobe Photoshop Express for free if you’re already familiar with Photoshop.

For video, an app like Splice can help you do some basic video editing (including combining photos and video) for free, or there’s Splice Pro for $1.99. For more editing oomph, you can go for iMovie for $4.99, although it requires a front-facing camera on your device (so iPad 2, iPhone 4 or 4th-generation iPod touch only).

3. Recording voice memos and podcasts. There are a variety of voice memo–recording solutions you can use on your iPad using its built-in microphone, including Voice Memos for iPad by KendiTech, which is similar to the Voice Memos app on the iPhone. For 99 cents, you get the basic version; for an additional 99 cents via an in-app purchase, you get the ability to trim your memos, email memos and download to your computer via USB. The export button makes your memos available via iTunes File Sharing. QuickVoice is another iPad option to record and email audio clips up to 5 MB in size for free. The $2.99 to upgrade to QuickVoice Pro can handle up to 20 MB clips. You can record and export audio clips via iTunes for free using iRecorder voice memos.

If you want more editing features, try GarageBand ($4.99). Although it features instruments, you can use it for podcasting as well.

Here’s a little voice recording hack I learned from a fellow podcaster: You can use the Camera Connection Kit and USB adapter to plug in a lightweight USB microphone to your iPad to increase the quality of your voice recordings. Using a USB mic also helps to cut down on background noise that the built-in iPad mic might pick up.

When I tried to use my high-end Rode Podcaster microphone, my iPad told me it required too much power, so it did not work. But when I plugged in the Konami microphone from my Wii Glee Karaoke game, it worked pretty well. A quick search online reveals that some podcasters use the Blue Microphone Yeti with their iPads.

3. Powering slide presentations. If you’re looking to connect your iPad (or iPhone or iPod) to a standard LCD projector or other VGA-compatible display, you can purchase the Apple VGA adaptor for $29. You can also opt to invest in a handy, super-portable projector, such as the MicroVision ShowWX Laser Pico Projector, starting around $199, or the Mili Pro 2.0 Projector, for around $369.95. To make sure that your PowerPoint presentations are easily accessible on your iPad, check out MightyMeeting, an app that I wrote about recently. Thanks to a recent update, you can also now control your Keynote slideshow presentations on the iPad using an iPhone or iPod touch.

4. Editing Microsoft Office docs. For an app that provides combined file storage with Microsoft Office document editing, check out Soonr, which I wrote about recently. Alternatively, you can also use other file storage/sync solutions, such as Dropbox and SugarSync, and combine them with editing apps like QuickOffice and Documents To Go to provide similar functionality.

What apps, peripherals and hacks have you tried to make your iPad work-worthy?

Image courtesy of stock.xchng user KillR-B

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Apple will shake up web work once again with iOS 5

Darrell Etherington — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:05:00 +0000

Apple seems to have a significant impact on the future of work without directly intending to. The iPhone has made steady inroads into the enterprise since its introduction, and the iPad is making big waves as well. These devices are especially useful for remote workers, for whom computing tech is the very lifeblood of their daily grind. Apple’s next-generation mobile operating system brings big improvements for consumers, but they’ll be no less beneficial to mobile workers.

Notifications

It’s hard to understand just how much better it is to be able to see your work-related emails lined up at a glance on your lock screen as they come in, without having to even unlock your device, until you’ve tried it for yourself. Plus, you can jump to any email in the list automatically with one swipe, instead of having to unlock, open the mail application, scroll and find the right email, then tap on the email. The new iOS notifications can also do the same thing for text messages, voicemail or even with alerts from third-party apps. This makes everything you do on your phone or iPad much, much easier; a boon for busy remote workers who are inundated daily with demands for their attention.

iMessage

While the value of iMessage, Apple’s new text and MMS replacement, may be reduced by being limited to a single platform (iOS only), that limitation didn’t stop BlackBerry Messenger from being a huge hit with the enterprise crowd. iMessage will even work on iPads and iPod touches, devices which don’t normally support text messaging. It’s also smart enough to detect when your recipient can receive iMessages, so iOS-based web workers will be using it whether or not they realize it.

AirPlay mirroring

An iPad 2, coupled with an Apple TV, can function as a mobile workstation, and a presentation tool you can use anywhere there’s a television or video output device. AirPlay mirroring of apps makes it easier to work on presentations and longer documents, especially when you pair your iPad with a Bluetooth keyboard for easier typing. Plus, developers should be able to leverage the new feature to come up with some really innovative two-screen interfaces that could significantly change the way we use mobile devices to get work done.

Documents in the cloud

As part of iOS 5 and iCloud, developers will be able to add simple cross-device syncing of document changes. This will be an incredible boon for remote workers, and especially for distributed teams, who should be able to take advantage of this in apps that let members work collaboratively on a single document. We could see solutions that allow a distributed team to work together on projects as if they were working on a corporate server, instead, using Apple’s free iCloud product, which should be handy for small companies and freelancers.

PC-free

There are mobile workers who can do everything they need to get done on an iPad and an iPhone, especially with the right software support from an in-house IT development team. For those workers, the most important thing about iOS 5 is that it finally severs the essential connection between iOS devices and a home PC. A workstation with an all-day battery and an always-on connection is now within reach, especially for remote workers with relatively light computing demands.

Apple gave mobile workers a lot to be thankful for with OS X Lion, too, including auto save, resume and version tracking for documents built into the OS, but I think the changes made in iOS 5 will have the biggest impact for remote teams. Apple also made a couple changes directly aimed at enterprise customers, like encryption for iMessage and S/MIME support in iOS Mail. If you’ve been waiting for a good time to introduce Apple devices to your mobile workflow, there’s never been a better time than this fall, when iOS 5 is released.

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Collaborate on tasks on the go with Cohuman’s iPhone app

Simon Mackie — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:04:06 +0000

Collaborative team task management app Cohuman, which won the “People’s Choice” award in the Launch Pad competition at last year’s Net:Work conference, now has a companion iPhone app that helps keep users updated on project status, communication and tasks even when they’re out of the office.

Rather than trying to cram in all of the functionality that’s present in the web app, the iPhone app concentrates on the tasks that a user is likely to need when out of the office. Matthew Work, Cohuman co-founder and CEO, notes that the app was developed for “those times when we’re getting ready to go to work or have just left the office — usually the times when we’re the least connected.” The app concentrates on providing access to tasks, co-workers and activity; the home screen offers users five options: Add Task, My Tasks, Cohumans, Projects and Activity, but there’s no access to calendars or search functionality, as there is in the web app.

I tried the app on my iPhone, and it works well, enabling fast and easy access to team members, upcoming tasks and updates to projects — all of the data I’m likely to need while away from my laptop. Tasks added using the app can be delegated to other users, commented on, added to projects and have due dates set, just as with the web app. Files attached to tasks can be viewed in the app, but there’s no facility for uploading files. I can imagine the lack of a search feature being an issue for users with lengthy task lists or large numbers of co-workers; those users will probably need to use the web app to access the search feature to find particular tasks or co-workers. The app should also theoretically work on the iPad, although I haven’t tried it. It would probably look odd, as the app is designed for use on a smaller screen and it cannot be used in portrait mode. I’d recommend sticking with the web app for iPad users.

The Cohuman iPhone app is free and can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store. An Android app is also in the works and should follow in a few months. To use it you’ll need a Cohuman account. A Cohuman Basic plan offers 1 GB of storage and is free. A Cohuman Pro plan provides greater control over permissions, HTTPS connections and offers 10GB of storage at a cost of $19.95 per month.

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