The free Android app can be downloaded through the Android Market, and will soon also be offered through the Amazon App Store. It provides more functionally than the current iPad app as it allows you to take a photo with your phone’s camera in lieu of using a scanner, giving you more flexibility while you’re on the go. The text contained on the documents you photograph becomes searchable, in the same way that text in documents scanned in through the OfficeDrop desktop app do.

Using OfficeDrop, you can connect a scanner directly to many cloud storage apps, including Evernote, Dropbox, Google Docs and OfficeDrop’s own digital filing cabinet, which allows users to organize, search, share and access documents from anywhere. If you’re concerned about security, the Android app and the other OfficeDrop apps and services use a fully encrypted system to protect your files and data.

OfficeDrop also offers mail-in scanning services, similar to Shoeboxed, where you can mail documents to the company and have them scanned and added to your account. Its online Digital Filing System starts at $9.95 per month for 10 GB storage ($44.95 per month for teams). Mail-in scanning services start at $19.95 per month for home office use and up to 50 scanned pages per month, going up to $99.95 per month for the Paperless Team account.

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• A Media Tablet Forecast, 2011 – 2015
• The Future of Workplaces
• Mobile Q1: All Eyes on Tablets, T-Mobile and AT&T

Twitter for BlackBerry

Since I had been away from my home office for a few hours, I decided to check in with Twitter using the beta of RIM’s new Twitter for BlackBerry app. Unfortunately, the experience wasn’t as good as I would have hoped for.

The application works and feels like the similar Facebook for BlackBerry app; not necessarily a good thing, as working with it takes too much effort. Most BlackBerry Twitter applications require patience, but Twitter for BlackBerry is the worst. Much of the time, the screen remains blank while the data loads.

Like its Facebook equivalent, Twitter for BlackBerry comes with a menu of icons at the top of the screen. These include Home, @ Mentions, My Profile, DM, Find People, Search and Popular Topics (note that Twitter for BlackBerry has no Lists capabilities). But reaching these icons takes time, and then it takes even more time for the screens to load.

The application offers few options. It lets you include Twitter Messages in the BlackBerry Messages Applications, but who uses that? Other options include refresh rate, distance measurement and spell check. It has no options for changing the interface to make it faster and optimize the small screen; no ability  to turn off notifications; and no option to exit the application without logging out. UberTwitter (my BlackBerry Twitter application of choice) has more than double the number of options available and still works faster.

To ensure that Twitter for BlackBerry’s poor performance wasn’t a network issue, I used UberTwitter at the same time. UberTwitter still called for a little patience, typical of BlackBerry Twitter applications (I have yet to find a truly great BlackBerry Twitter app), but I accomplished tasks noticeably faster than I could using Twitter for BlackBerry.

Additionally, if you don’t want Twitter for BlackBerry using up your BlackBerry’s juice, you must log out of Twitter from within the application — not just close it. Closing the application still leaves the door open for it to notify you when you have new messages.

Twitter for BlackBerry isn’t yet available as a public download and is still in beta; I would hope that prior to being launched it receives some serious performance upgrades.

What mobile application do you use for your Twitter needs?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub req’d.): Metered Mobile Data Is Coming and Here’s How

I compiled a list of the current free BlackBerry Twitter apps and tested them out to find the strengths and weaknesses of each. All of the apps have the basic features (timelines, replies and direct messages), with some standing out more than others due to speed, ease of use, or additional functionality.

All of these apps underwent an obstacle course on my BlackBerry Curve 8310 to test their strength, agility and durability in order to find the better-performing apps.

Blackbird: Easy to use text-based interface that works with older BlackBerrys

What Blackbird lacks in looks and features, it makes up for in speed and usability: BlackBird performs fastest out of all the apps tested here. It only includes the basic features: timelines, replies and direct messages.

Pros: Fast. Easy to use.

Cons: Fewer features. Unclear error messages.

TinyTwitter: Works with any device that can run Java apps

TinyTwitter has a smooth timeline that scrolls fast, even with avatars. It can pull latest trends, do searches, copy/ paste tweets for easy retweeting in one move, as well as handling the basic Twitter functions. However, even with shortcuts, some of the actions take two clicks when one would do, a problem with many BlackBerry Twitter apps.

Pros: Efficient timeline. Runs on any Java-compatible device. Shortcuts. More than the basic features.

Cons: Too many steps to get where you want to go.

Twibble: Tweet photos from your BlackBerry camera

My first impression of Twibble was soured by the troublesome login screen. The app kept capitalizing the first letter of my username and password, causing the login to fail. Once past that, though, the rest of the experience wass Tribble-free. You can save time with shortcuts and by entering and saving often-used words as text templates to use in search or tweets. Screen shots are available from the Twibble site.

Pros: Runs on any Java-compatible device. Text templates. Share photos.

Cons: Not user-friendly. Location tool doesn’t work well. Sluggish.

TwitterBerry: Attractive interface with average features

4 

TwitterBerry looks easy on the eyes, but sacrifices load time for looks. Features include the basics that you find in most Twitter mobile applications, without any extras. If you go to Pictures, you can select a picture to send to TwitterBerry, but this option may not appear if you have other Twitter apps loaded on your BlackBerry. With few extras, you’d think the application would run faster than it does.

Pros: Sharp look-and-feel. Easy to use.

Cons: Slow. Lacks search and unique features.

Ubertwitter: Wealth of features

If you have multiple IDs, you’ll have to go through the wizard to change the login credentials, something that should take fewer steps (Tip: after you change the ID, hit the BlackBerry button to the left of the scroll wheel to save changes and exit rather than finishing the wizard). Despite this, most features take fewer steps to access compared to other apps and you can use shortcuts. You can take a picture from within UberTwitter. A map of your location appears with the photo. You can find people near you and view them on a roadmap, satellite map or hybrid map.

Pros: Take pictures within update. Control location options. Feature rich.

Cons: Time-consuming to change IDs and options. Sometimes dawdles.

Viigo: Add a new channel for every Twitter ID and search word

You can use Viigo to get news, local information and other customizable content. The Twitter app lives in the Social Networks tab, where you can create a channel for each of your Twitter IDs and frequently-used search terms. For example, if you participate in a weekly chat, you can create a search for the chat hashtag. Its performance is notably slower than its competition. Viigo has neat features, but the sluggishness tested my patience.

Pros: Set up multiple Twitter IDs and search words. All-in-one app.

Cons: Slow. More steps to reach Twitter channel.

The Verdict

UberTwitter offers the most features, while BlackBird has the best performance. But none of the free tools tested here really stand out; I’d still rather use a Twitter client on my PC or laptop.

What is your favorite BlackBerry Twitter app and why?

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• Transient Apps: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 2

I can work on practically any computer and of course, I prefer some browsers, operating environments and applications over others. However the ability to work nearly anywhere thanks to today’s 3G wireless broadband is as much of an enabler today as it was for me in 2004. Along the way these past five years, I’ve learned a few things that might be useful to you.

1.  Location, location, location! Before you decide to take the 3G plunge, do your homework with the carrier’s coverage maps. AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile are the big four players, although I’d call them the big three-and-a-half since T-Mobile only just began their 3G roll-out. You’ll want to check the coverage maps for your home office area as well nearby work locations, not to mention places in between.

I failed to do this once before when I switched from Verizon Wireless to AT&T and I paid the price. A $175 Early Termination Fee, to be exact, and that was only three months into finding out that AT&T didn’t have nearly the coverage I needed at the time.

2. Once you sign up, give the service a good test. Had I followed my own advice here, I would have saved the $175 ETF, but I didn’t. Most carriers have a return period between 14 and 30 days for your service. Once you get service, use the heck out of it in various locations and make sure it’s going to work for you where you need it most.

You may have to pay a small restocking fee for any hardware plus a month’s service, but that’s far less than $175 out of pocket and possibly useless hardware. You’ll also want to bookmark a site that can help you test your uploads, downloads and network latency; there are several out there, but I recommend SpeedTest.net.

3. Consider the form factor of the hardware. Back in the day, PC Cards were the standard adapter of choice for 3G modems. Today, you can find them in ExpressCards, USB and integrated right into a laptop. Since I work with multiple devices, I opted for USB and I’ve never regretted that decision. Just about any computer I use or borrow to review can take advantage of my 3G USB adapter. If you’re set on using one device and it has an ExpressCard slot, maybe that’s the best for you. I still lean towards USB because I not only consider the devices I use today, but the ones I might use tomorrow. They don’t all come with ExpressCard slots, but you can bank on USB for a few years to come. Integrated 3G is very nice to have since there’s nothing sticking out from your computer, but it’s limited to the one device due to the integration.

Some adapters even have useful secondary features: my USB727 on Verizon’s network offers a miniSD slot, making for a card reader. And the AT&T Quicksilver card I’m testing right now includes the drivers and software on-board, negating the need for any downloads or optical drive to get going.

4. Can your phone be a modem too? For a good year back in 2005, I opted to use my handset as a 3G modem. I had an XV6700 handset on the Verizon Wireless network for which I was already paying $30 monthly for 3G service. At that point, paying $60 for another 3G adapter of some type wasn’t appealing. Most carriers offer a low-cost add-on option so that you can “tether” your 3G handset for modem use. You can physically connect the handset to your computer through USB or if both support Bluetooth, you can use a wireless connection to get broadband to your computer.

Some third party companies offer software to get around the carrier charge of tethering, so dig around if that option sounds appealing. I used to use an application called PDANet for this purpose and it worked great, but supports Windows only. Some phones have Internet Sharing software built in and it’s actually pretty easy to make the connection. To get a feel for how simple the concept is over Bluetooth, check our video tutorials for using a Windows Mobile device for either a Mac or a PC. Yes… you can actually use a Windows Mobile phone as a modem for a Mac!

5. Share that connection with a small team. If you’re a team of two or three web workers, you don’t all need to shell out $60 a month or more for 3G service. Both Windows and Mac OS X allow for sharing an Internet connection. Most people think that means a network or WiFi connection, but it applies to 3G as well.

You can also go with a hardware solution to share the connection. Cradlepoint makes a number of 3G routers that take the signal from a 3G adapter and share them over a WiFi connection. Dave Winer is the most recent Cradlepoint convert I know of, so you can follow along with impressions as he puts it through the grind. Likewise, Novatel Wireless offers an all-in-one solution called the MiFi that provides both the 3G signal and WiFi hotspot for sharing; no adapter is needed.

6. Optimize your network settings. A few months ago, I noticed that the same 3G card was offering different speeds on different devices, even though my location was constant. A little research indicated that one device was better optimized for broadband than the other, but that was easily resolved on the slower device. A small Windows utility called TCP Optimizer gave the slower device a boost, making the two on par with each other. In fact, I saw a 15% increase in download speeds and double that improvement in uploads using this utility.

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• Mobile Wrap-up: Q1 2009
• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era

Indeed, last week ReadWriteWeb and the BBC’s celebrated Ian Forrester noted that the iPhone is Apple’s Netbook, representing almost half of all traffic through wifi networks.

Regardless of hyperbole, there’s mounting evidence that cellphones are indeed displacing laptops. Back in October, the Wall Street Journal published a piece on whether it was Time To Leave The Laptop Behind, analyzing the impact of smartphones on laptop usage.

Some of the more interesting findings from Nick Wingfield’s article included…

• Mobile workers rely on their laptops to create PowerPoint presentations and do other heavy-duty computing. But then they leave the laptops in their offices, homes or hotel rooms and take their smart phones out into the world — to client meetings, say, or factory visits.
• ‘road warriors’ are going even further, ditching their laptops entirely and doing all their mobile work from smart phones.
• in a survey of 1,402 technology users, only 3% of smart-phone users said they rely exclusively on a smart phone when they’re on the road. 52% said they could envision using a smart phone in the future as their sole computing device.
• 12,000 of Verizon’s field technicians have moved over to BlackBerrys….replacing 1’500 laptops and eliminating the need to buy 5-7’000 more in the future.

Though the laptop sales remain undiminished, usage patterns are certainly fragmenting and will only deepen as performance increases and prices decrease. Already, I’m finding myself using Mail, Twitterific and Google as much on my iPhone as my MacBook Pro.

I wonder how many other web workers are seeing their attention dividing increasingly between their smartphone and laptop.

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• Virtual Worlds: Trends and Opportunities
• Mobile Q4: All Eyes Were on Android, 4G and the Rising Tablet Tide
• Report: A Mobile Video Market Overview