Top 5 iPhone apps for traders and investors

One of the most popular articles I’ve ever written on Marketwatch.com was called “Best iPhone and Android Apps for Investors” from back in 2010, when the word “apps” was still new lexicon for anybody who wasn’t a computer nerd. And I remain an app addict, telling myself and my wife that I’m doing research when I’m on an app. And truly I am.

I  remain so bullish about the app world that I recently acquired Scutify.com that had my favorite iPhone app – Scutify iPhone app athttps://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scutify/id673974489 (currently at #9 in the finance app category at the Apple App Store).

Back in 2010, there had been several hundred million smartphones out there that people wanted apps for. Fast forward to today, and there will be more than one billion smartphones sold this year alone, and units sold in the last quarter of this year will likely top the total number of smartphones in the market back in 2010.

I was adamant back in 2010 that this smartphone/app explosion was going to lead us into an “App Revolution Stock Bubble,” and, boy, are we in one now. I don’t know when the app bubble will pop or how big it will be by the time it’s over, but the fact is that it certainly isn’t over yet. Meanwhile, no matter what happens to the valuations and business models of the smartphone and app world in the next few years, there will still be billions of people downloading hundreds of billions of apps and opening those apps trillions upon trillions of times every year.

Full disclosure ahead of time, I would have put the Scutify iPhone App at #1 as well as the Marketwatch iPhone app in my top five.

Read on and download these apps to help you become more informed by (and more addicted to) your iPhone than you ever thought possible. And tell your spouse that you, too, are doing research for work when you’re on one of them. It’ll be true.

Scutify - Real-time tweet feeds for each symbol, quotes, newsfeeds, and my personal favorite part of the app — the “Latest Scuttles” which longer and better versions of market- and stock-related tweets.

And then -

Bloomberg — Bloomberg has built its brand on technology, and the Bloomberg app is reliable, though not as deep and easy to surf as I might like. Regardless, it’s one of the main apps I open to read as I sip coffee in the morning.

TD Ameritrade Mobile – I use several different trading platforms, and this is my favorite broker app to trade on. It’s quick, intuitive and unlike some of the other broker apps, doesn’t try to be a Bloomberg Terminal in a box, when it never will be.

Yahoo! Finance — I stopped using this app as much after I downloaded the aforementioned Scutify app, but Yahoo! Finance remains a must-visit resource, and the app is pretty darn functional too. They need an update though.

StockTouch — Beautiful visuals of charts and stock quotes, but a bit lacking in depth of information under those visuals. I find I use the app mainly on extreme up or an extreme down day in the stock market to see if there are any major stocks out there going against the trend.

CNBC — I  sure feel like a sell-out citing the CNBC app, given that I was a mortal enemy of theirs while I was an anchor at Fox Business, but it’s a good app and I take pride in trying to be objective, so what the heck.

Using Your Smartphone to Get Things Done and Remember Everything

Mobile Smartphone

• Receipts– If I make any significant purchase, I will take a snap shot of the receipt in case I need to return it and need proof of purchase.

• Ideas– If I see an item I’d like to purchase or would make a great gift, I also snap a photo and tag it under gift or shopping. Browsing the web (on my computer or phone), I will clip anything interesting or of use to Evernote for further reference.

• People– I also use Evernote to record business cards of people I meet. Sometimes I’ll upload a portrait of them if there is ever a non-socially-awkward way I can snap their photo.

• Mind Dump– Say, it’s not that I’ve seen something that’s given me an idea, but an idea just comes to me. While typing in a smartphone, for me at least, isn’t the most ideal way of recording my thought, talking to my phone would be. Especially if I’m driving and there’s no way of using my hands. Later I can transcribe the idea or process it into a task.

It seems earlier this year I, along everyone was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the iPhone 4to theVerizon Wirelessnetwork. Many folks who work at home were debating about which is the best smartphone to use – theMotorola Droidor Apple iPhone. I finally upgraded to the iPhone 4in order to get more done.

Last July I had purchased the Android smart phone but only kept it for one week before I turned it back in for a LG Fathom. Although the Fathom served me well for awhile, I couldn’t really keep in constant contact with the social networks and groups I belong to on Facebook and Twitter.  Using the iPhone smart phone also helps me to keep my email in-box up-to-date by responding promptly to the PR requests I get for product reviews and brand ambassador campaigns.

Not working mom, not only do I have to keep track of my household schedule and social engagements, as a grandmother I also have to keep track and stay on top of the dates when I’m called upon to babysit!

After doing my research, I purchased a new iPhone 4 online, and couldn’t be happier. This mid-life baby boomer likes to consider herself a techie geek grandmom!

The following guest post provides some information that will clue you in on how to get things done and remember everything by using a smart phone:

Simply being a good parent can be extremely difficult and stressful at times. It’s like a second job but even more important and challenging. Particularly once your children are old enough to visit places and go to school but too young to drive, the amount of things, errands, and appoints you’ll have to remember could fill a book. It’s just about impossible to remember it all.

Productivity Apps to the Rescue

Luckily we live in the age of technological innovation and cloud computing. Yet still, many people who even have their hands on the right technology aren’t fully aware what their capabilities are. Let me tell you that if you own a smartphone – which includes an iPhone, Android, or Windows Phone 7 – you have no excuse to ever forget anything. With the plethora of productivity apps out there across all phone platforms, there is something for everyone.

Filing and Reference

For anything that you ever observe and think, “Hey, I might want to remember this later,” there is Evernote. I use it as a complete reference file system for anything worth remembering.

Evernote is available for all smartphones, android or iPhone, and is an extremely versatile, productivity powerhouse. Everything you record, you can find online. Finally, you can have a small, portable system that has everything you would ever need, down to the last receipt.

Getting Things Done, Project Management

For those of you not familiar with the getting things done(GTD) system, I suggest you check it out and maybe even give the book a read. Essentially, it simplifies project management by turning projects into a series of actionable items rather than an arbitrary list of “stuff.” For instance, say you have a long list of “stuff” you need to have solved, and one is “get a job.” That is kind of a moot list item; wouldn’t it be better to put “edit and update resume,” “search on craigslist and monster,” and other things like that?

Well once, you have all these actionable items defined, you can them categorize them into respective categories, and some of them to your todo list today. A great tool for managing all this actionable items is Nirvana. It’s simple but still allows you to organize actions and projects, as well as actions with waiting periods or scheduled actions. I use this as a project overview app once I’ve processed reference material in Evernote into actions. Like Evernote, Nirvana is available for Androids and iPhones. For Windows Phone 7 users, I recommend the Microsoft native One Note app.

Remember Your Appointments and Errands

While Nirvana and Evernote can be enough to suffice for a complete productivity system on your smartphone, there are easier and more convenient ways to schedule appointments and make quick or “rough” todo lists. For this purpose, I recommend ReQall, which allows you to make appointments which send alerts and reminders straight to your phone, all by voice. Simply tell the phone what you want to remember, and when you want to remember it. That’s it! Yes, there are plenty of other features that you can have with this app as well, but I mainly use it for the convenience of quick, on-the-fly scheduling and reminders. For more important or long-term projects, I’ll schedule them in Nirvana as well. ReQall works for the iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and pretty much any phone that can receive texts, so you don’t even need a smartphone for this one (thought the app is nice).

10 best iPhone apps that do Photoshop tricks

Too bad there's no such thing as Photoshop for the iPhone. Short of that, there are dozens of apps specifically designed to enhance (or in some cases, devolve) photos. Out of all the best, we've narrowed them down to ten. We downloaded, installed and tested them all, and here's our assessment, along with links to each one in iTunes, prices, screen shots and commentary.

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1. Color Splash ($1.99)

Its palette: Select your pic, and the app will turn it all gray. Then you paint over the areas with any color you'd like just by tracing your finger over them.

Our color commentary: Color Splash is easy to use and works extremely well, resulting in arty-looking photo effects.

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2. Camera Bag ($2.99)
Its bag o' tricks: Choose a photo on your iPhone (or take a new one), and then run it through filters that simulate pictures from 1962, 1974, a fisheye lens, the Helga camera, a Polaroid SX-70, and five others.

Why it's our bag: We enjoyed putting shots through the aging process, doubling up some of the filters for extra-cool effects, and revisiting the unique imaging characteristics of some old favorite cameras.

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3. TiltShift ($2.99)
Its angle: Simulates a tilt-shift lens to create a scene where everything has that illusion of being teeny tiny.

Our angle: Using multitouch to shape the focus oval to just the right spot in the pic makes this app seem like it's performing magic, turning a plain wide shot into a bird's-eye view inside a tiny toybox.

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4. Oil Canvas (Free)
Abstract: Turns ordinary pics into arty oil paintings.

Our impressionism: Start with broad brush, and as you fingerpaint with progressively smaller brushes, more detail emerges until you've turned a commonplace photo into a faux Van Gogh.

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5. Photo fx ($2.99)
Filtered: Simulates physical lens filters with software.

Unfiltered: Tiffen, the filter company, knows a thing or two about lens filters, and its Photo fx software gets such realistic-looking results, we wish they were available for Photoshop, too. Sure, you could create vignettes, ultra contrast, glows and halos on any pro-level desktop software, but it would never be this easy while still giving you adjustability.

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6. Magic Touch ($0.99)
Toolkit: Performs a variety of Photoshop-style image edits, such as cloning, brightness, and color dodge and burn.

Our Hammer: This is the closest app to Photoshop in our group here, giving you crude yet effective control over color, contrast, and saturation, as well as letting you create some impressive cloned effects. Notice how we turned a perfectly sunny scene into a cloudy day with just a few strokes of a finger.

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7. 'stachetastic ($0.99)
Hair goals: Puts photorealistic mustaches on pics.

Our close shave: Unusually effective, with realistic results. Yes, that's me in the pic above, and no, I don't have anywhere near that much hair. Now all we need is the ability to blacken a tooth (you can even place horns on heads), and our facial graffiti machine will be complete.

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8. FAIL Maker (free)
Attempt: Adds FAIL, PWNED, WRONG, or your own custom taunt to any pic, and then uploads it to the FAIL website for all to see.

Pwned: Easy to use app that we're so glad nobody had at that party last night. This one gets mild scorn, though, for the ads at the bottom, but it's hard to complain much when it's free.

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9. Pano ($2.99)
Overview: Stitches together up to six pics for a 3,600 x 600-pixel panorama

We stitch it together: Leads you through the taking of each shot, and then quickly does an admirable and accurate job of stitching them together, depositing the results in your iPhone's photo album.

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10. PhotoKeys Photoshop Remote ($3.99)
The remote possibilities: Turns the iPhone into a tool palette for Photoshop.

Our key: If none of the above apps on this list does the trick, why not just use Photoshop itself? After a quick install of its server software on your Mac or PC, this app turns your iPhone into a remarkably responsive, lag-free touchscreen (via Wi-Fi) for changing tools in the Photoshop palette — handy especially if you keep your iPhone in its dock next to you.

New iPhone Provides Launchpad for Biometric Apps

MADRID—Biometric apps may be the next to catch fire following the launch of the new iPhone 5S.

Fingerprint recognition is the main new feature in Apple’s latest smartphone, the first digital device with a simple, reliable fingerprint reader. This is used not only to unlock the phone, but also to authorize purchases from Apple’s App, iTunes and e-book stores.

Electronic handwritten signature apps work a lot like that. You write your signature on the touchscreen, using your finger or a pointer, and the app authenticates it. This technology, already used by some corporations to cut down on paperwork, is now making strides in the health care and financial services.

Now, the No. 1 issue in everybody’s mind when such technologies are discussed is security. This is especially the case after a group of hackers earlier this week showed how to unlock an iPhone using an image of a fingerprint instead of the real thing.

That isn’t great news for the industry, but not so bad as it appears either, says Antonio Vila, formerly with Microsoft and one of the founders of Smartaccess, a Spanish start-up that is looking to make a splash in the e-signature business.

“Fingerprint technology has been around longer and there are many levels of quality in sensors, it makes sense that it’s easier to crack for hackers if they are not using a expensive technology,” Mr. Vila says.

E-signature apps typically use various ways to ensure proper recognition, Mr. Vila adds. After all, the point isn’t that two signatures are exactly the same—no mere human can perform that feat—but that the app recognizes the way the user writes it, which would make the iPhone fingerprint hack harder to replicate.

Even Smartaccess, a small company that is only looking to hit €1 million ($1.3 million) worth of annual sales by 2014, has an expert calligraphist in staff. As a way to show how seriously it takes the security angle, the start-up uses an app at public events, which allows the public to try and fool the software by forging the signatures of famous people, such as Marilyn Monroe. There are prizes for the best forgers.

Smartaccess plans to make this app available at the Google Play online store soon, Mr. Vila says.

Jon Perera, vice president of EchoSign—a bigger company that was acquired by Adobe in 2011—calls security worries by potential users of e-signatures “misguided” and notes that such apps provide security safeguards that surpass ”anything possible with physical copies or fax transmissions.”

Generally speaking, the industry is succeeding in dispelling concerns. Smartaccess estimates the global growth in the wider e-signature market in 2011—the last year for which full data is available—was 48%.

The multifactor authentication market, where biometric methods like fingerprinting and e-signatures compete or combine with older ones such as passwords and PINs, is expected to grown well over 10% in coming years. In the U.S., the country where biometric systems are most commonly used, some 10% of businesses already use electronic signatures, and EchoSign says this may rise to 40% within two years.

Savings are the main reason for this. Softpro, a German firm, sees savings of up to $15 a document processed, and others say the cost of internal contract processing may be reduced by 50% to 75%, in part by dramatically reducing the need for couriers.

Best iPhone apps for homework management

Whether they're juggling multiplication tables or calculus differentials, students of all ages can always use a little help when it comes to homework management. With multiple assignments in a variety of classes, kids are required to stay on top of worksheets, quizzes and tests.

But they aren't the only ones who could use some organizational assistance in the homework department. Teachers with due dates for multiple classes and parents who want to check on their children's progress could also use a little smartphone support, too.

Try these five iPhone apps created to help keep track of homework. Check to see which work best for students, teachers, parents or all three.

1. iStudiez Pro

Ideal for: Students, teachers, parents

Download: iStudiez Pro

Sporting a colorful and user-friendly design, iStudiez Pro allows you to organize complicated schedules, prioritize homework, receive push notifications before assignments are due and even track your grade point average. Helpful features allow students to input rotating or block schedules and even account for holiday weeks. You can also add your instructor's e-mail, phone number and office hours. Homework can be prioritized based on due date or even class. Perhaps the best part is that you can send all of your data to your e-mail address by pushing a single button.

Educators will find this app handy for organizing classes and assignments. With the ability to input grades, you can keep track of how well students are doing in class.

Parents can keep track of kids' assignments with this well-organized app. Since assignments are broken down by classes, parents can check in to see if homework is done or if the kids need additional guidance.

2. myHomework

Ideal for: Students

Download: myHomework

Great for college as well as high schoolers and younger students, myHomework allows you to prioritize homework assignments as well as track them on a user-friendly calendar. The simple interface lets you differentiate whether an assignment is a paper, test or just regular homework and color-code assignments as into upcoming or even late categories. And because each school operates on a different schedule, myHomework allows you to set up block scheduling for your classes. While the app itself is free, the ability to sync between your iPhone and the website on any computer as well as to receive assignment reminders costs $1.99 per year.

3. Evernote

Ideal for: Students, teachers, parents

Download: Evernote

Whether you're taking notes in history or English, you can keep everything in one place with Evernote. This free app lets students of all ages access clippings, URLs, and notes from an Evernote hub, which is accessible via iPhone or from a laptop or desktop computer. You can also collaborate with fellow students by sharing notes via the app. And instead of your jumbled mess of notes, Evernote allows you to organize via a clear notebook sorting system.

Teachers can access lesson plans and class notes through Evernote. They, too, can collaborate with other teachers by sharing documents for class. Parents are able to look over their children's homework on the go. Kids can share papers or other work with Mom or Dad, and they can read it over an iPhone or computer.

Evernote also offers a premium service for $5 a month or $45 a year that allows you to upload more data, collaborate with others, and work offline. But don't be scared off by the subscription fee — you can get a lot done using the standard service.

4. School & Stuff, Grades and Timetables

Ideal for: Parents, teachers

Download: School & Stuff, Grades and Timetables

Tracking children's performance in school just got easier. With the School & Stuff, Grades and Timetables iPhone app, parents can enter information about each child's classes, grades, extracurricular activities, and school contact information, creating a visually appealing family directory. Teachers can input each student's assignment and grades based on letters or percentages. At a glance, both parents and teachers can see how a student is learning.

5. TeacherPal

Ideal for: Teachers

Download: TeacherPal

Teachers of all grades are serious multitaskers, and it helps to keep everything from assignments to grades to attendance in one spot. TeacherPal allows educators to organize students and their work by photo. Simply click on a picture to see a child's grades, how many times they've missed class, and which assignments they struggled with. The app also lets you add extra info, such as parents' email addresses and phone numbers.

Mailbox iPhone app suffers from serious Javascript flaw, researcher discovers

A serious vulnerability has been revealed in the popular Mailbox iPhone app, used by many hipsters as a replacement for the traditional Apple or Gmail apps on their iPhones and iPads.

Italian security researcher Michele Spagnuolo – who has previously found security flaws in 

Google, eBay, MailChimp and Yahoo – discovered that the Mailbox app will execute *any* Javascript which is present in the body of HTML emails.

The makers of the Mailbox app have been aware of the security vulnerability since the end of May 2013, but the vulnerability is still there.

Now Spagnuolo has published a video on his blog, demonstrating how the flaw can be exploited in various ways.

The examples demonstrated are fairly innocuous – largely showing how apps can be automatically opened by just viewing an email in Mailbox, or sending messages via Twitter or SMS (with user confirmation required).

However, it’s easy to imagine how the security hole might be abused to track when users open emails, or exploited in more malicious ways for the purposes of spreading malware or phishing attacks.

The apps automatically opening when the user simply views an email inside the MailBox app. Spagnuolo says that he didn’t have access to a tripod and so couldn’t use a proper camera.Mailbox, of course, was acquired by Dropbox in March of this year.

Although it may not be a surprise for a small firm of app developers not to have spotted this security hole, you would certainly hope that Dropbox – which should be used to protecting the privacy of millions of users with its cloud storage software – would take the issue more seriously.

If you are a Mailbox user who is concerned that pranksters or online criminals might exploit the flaw, then the best advice – until the software is patched – is probably to switch to a different client.

The Mail app which ships with iOS, for instance, does not allow Javascript to execute.

Facebook for iOS gets an iOS 7-style redesign

Following the public release of iOS 7, which features a completely overhauled user interface and new design elements, we're gradually seeing updated third-party apps that sport a new look in line with the new operating system.

One of the major app redesigns has been done by Facebook for its iPhone app. The social networking service has completely revamped its iOS app not just for iOS 7 but also for other versions of iOS including iOS 5 and iOS 6.

Facebook has always used a more custom design instead of going with iOS style navigation elements. However, the updated app in a way switches to more iOS-like navigation with a new bar at the bottom of the app, that features buttons for News feed, Friend Requests, messages, notifications, and a More button that offers a menu which was previously included in a sliding pane at the left hand, a feature that some people also call the Hamburger menu.

The bar is white in colour with grey text and icons for passive tabs and blue text and icon for the active one in iOS 7. The same bar is black and follows the old iOS design scheme on iOS 5 and iOS 6. The top header is also translucent on iOS 7.

The More menu features the user profile, Nearby Places to check-in, other Pages that you're moderating, Groups, Events, Friends lists, Photos and other options.

The app header features a Search button and a button for bringing the Chat sliding pane at the right hand.

The News Feed tab also offers three buttons at the top for posting a status message, uploading a Photo and Checking in at a place.

The Facebook app for iOS is a universal app, which means the same app also runs on the iPad. However, the iPad counterpart still retains the original UI elements including the sliding pane at the left hand and three small icons for Friend requests, Messages, and Notifications at the top header. However, the header now sports blue colour.

The new app is now live on the iTunes App Store. However, it could take some time till you see an update option, while it rolls out to all regions.