TaskRabbit

This handy app is used by those who don’t have enough time to do chores and tasks themselves. Using this app you can hire someone to pick up your washing, do your shopping or deliver keys to a friend. Your own personal delivery service as well as a helping hand, TaskRabbit means there’s not even a need to get cash out. You pay for each task through the app and have direct contact with your tasker. Every task you set is insured to ensure maximum peace of mind whilst also making your life in the city that little bit easier. The TaskRabbit app is available all over the world, people using and working for them New York City, Los Angeles & Orange County, London and many more.

My Montcalm

This one’s especially useful for London due to the abundance of Montcalm hotels in the city of London. For the best in hotel comfort and luxury, the Montcalm group are the go to in the London area. With a great app which makes it super easy to book hotels from the comfort of your home and with no annoying waits, with the My Montcalm app you have a stress free way to book great hotels. What’s more, you’ll find useful information on what the hotel can offer you through one of the best London Hotel Booking Apps out there.

Hello Alfred

From hotel concierges to home helpers, the Hello Alfred app lets you book a helper to do those necessary tasks at home that you don’t have time for. Whether it’s your plants screaming out for a much needed watering or delivery of groceries to your home whilst you’re busy on a conference call, Hello Alfred is here to sort out your needs. Hello Alfred is currently only in available in America but will no doubt expand onto our side of the Atlantic.

Foursquare

If you’re new to town or visiting for a few days then foursquare is the app for you. Although it may ask you to check into the new places you’re visiting so as to unlock rewards, the app is more like a real world search engine. Due to the fact that it tracks your location, the app can give you recommendations of great places to go in that part of town. For instance, if you’re staying at the Montcalm Hotel Brewery and you’re looking for somewhere to eat out in the Old Street area, Foursquare will give you some recommendations based on positive reviews in the area.

London’s Best Coffee

Created by online helping hands Blue Crow Media, the London’s Best Coffee app is just one of several niche apps for foodies, lager lovers and coffee connoisseurs. The coffee app gives you a great way to find the best independent coffee shops in your part of the city as well as cafes that could be hidden gems. Find your new local for a pick me up and download this app. What’s more, you can find great deals, coffee reviews and the app even makes note of the most recent coffee making methods so you can keep up with trends and new great tastes.

The post Best New Apps For City Life appeared first on The Montcalm.

City Mapper

City Mapper is not only a way to show routes through cities, but also has built in train and bus times to get you where you need to go, giving you the exact location of the places you’re trying to get to. City Mapper was created by an ex-google employee and is also known to be used in over 29 major cities worldwide. The app is free and enables users to find the best routes to where they need to go as well as how long it will take. It is a lot like google maps except that the information is more succinct and compacted within easy to use tabs as well as giving users notifications for turnings on roads and stops to get off at.

Uber

Ever been stuck on the opposite side of London when the tubes have closed? Instead of braving the late night bus service which can take hours to navigate, why not get a quick and easy Uber service which can speed you across the city in no time at all. The prices are very reasonable, especially with the Uber Share service which lets users share an Uber taxi with other users, creating a kind of bus service which massively discounts your rate but ups the time it takes.

Dice

Dice is a free downloadable app which lets you keep a tab on the best events in town. From music to art, Dice will keep you updated about what’s going on near you, giving you information on artists as well as upcoming festivals and events. The service often has discounted tickets as well as completely free offers. If an event has sold out you can also put your name on a waiting list, meaning you can get in to the event if people do not turn up to it. Not only does the app act as an easy way to buy and get hold of tickets but it’s also a great calendar updater.

The National Trust App

If it’s not the indoors you’re looking for, but the outdoors, then why not download the National Trust App? With this handy app users can find the best London based National Trust areas, including historic Tudor houses and expanses of wildlife reserves. The app will also give you the opening times and best routes to find the sites, as well as user reviews and the facilities on site including National Trust Cafes and gift shops.

YPlan

YPlan was developed in 2012 in London by two business and computer experts, educated at Harvard and Jacobs University as well as having a background in working for Goldman Sachs. I mention this as you know you’re in good technological hands when one of the founder’s first businesses was a computer repair workshop at the age of 14! The App was created with the intention of helping people to discover the best in night time events in their city as well as last minute events with tickets available, allowing you to book through the app itself. This one is perfect for a last minute slice of nocturnal entertainment.

The post Making Your Trip to London Simple – The Apps You’ll Need appeared first on The Montcalm.

Mobile commerce has boomed and has become a substantial market for businesses all over the world. The term mobile commerce was created in 1997 to mean being able to buy and sell on wireless technology; the first service to use mobile commerce was Coca Cola who installed vending machines in Helsinki and customers could pay via text message. It is worth just under $700 billion and it has been said it will hit this astonishing figure by 2017, making it one of the biggest market growths. In 2016-2017, figures show that sales from mobile phones will be worth over $200 billion, so, if your business isn’t mobile friendly, now is the time to ensure that it is.

Money is the driving force behind everything and is possibly the biggest reason to be part of this mobile commerce boom, but there are other advantages too, such as reducing business costs as there is no need for separate outgoings, extra workers or office space and if you are a small business, your entire business can be run through mobile commerce alone. There are other big advantages such as that it is incredibly convenient for your business as sales can be done faster; the entire transaction from start to finish can be done in minimal time and payment is received pretty much instantaneously. It is guaranteed to broaden your business range as mobile commerce allows your business to prompt a greater traffic flow which, in turn, promotes more sales; this assures a larger profit for your company.

Of course, as with anything, there are disadvantages to mobile commerce with security being a main concern; mobile phones are the easiest and most frequent item to be stolen so if personal information is stored on the device, such as credit card details, the thief will have access to it. Also, your site will depend on data to get to the consumer so, if the customer only has 3G or 4G, using additions such as plug-ins and flash may prohibit your website’s use due to slow speeds.

Where it all began

Mobile Commerce is huge and has gone from strength to strength with applications, such as games, different retailers and London hotel booking apps, however, none of that would exist without the browser. The internet browser was a major stepping stone in mobile technology and without it, the progress to mobile applications and mobile commerce wouldn’t have happened.  The internet has changed everyone’s lives in in a multitude of ways in such a short space of time, starting from the original ARPANET and progressing swiftly to the smartphones that we use today. Web design has become a necessity rather than a luxury in regards to the web; can you imagine an internet browser without animation, a wide range of texts and background to choose from? It is important to know where it all began, so we can appreciate how far mobile technology has come and how essential the internet, browsers and mobile commerce are to us today.

Believe it or not, it began all the way back in the 1960’s where the internet was used only to transfer information and documents from one computer to another; this computer was named the ARPANET and was used by scientists, doctors, the military and the governement. It wasn’t until nearly 20 years later that the World Wide Web was born and another 10 years on from that, the first browser program called Mosaic, was introduced to the world. The update of 1994 was very significant as it was designed to suit all opertaing systems such as MAC and Windows; this allowed more people to access the web for the first time.

After Mosaic came the Netscape browser which quickly became very popular very quickly, earning it the place of the leading browser on the internet. This was classed as the first generation and was prompt succession followed of second and third generations. Each one saw a significant growth in technology and it was in the third technology that we saw the introduction of a browser we know, love and have mastered today – Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. It was also during this generation that web designers had more freedom to create sites that were more pleasing to the eye than ever before due to the introduction of .gif. Flash which allowed animation to be used on websites.

In 2016, we are in the fourth generation which is the most technological, up to date system. This has seen the arrival of JavaScript, XML and many more which allows website design businesses to adapt codes, to create bigger and better sites and evolve graphics. The current edition of HTML is the best as, not only does it configure videos and other multimedia tools, but it is also the most compatiable with many of the current browsers such as Apple Safari, Google Chrome and Mozilla FireFox.

The change in technology has been astounding and all of this only began in the 1960’s. From there, the internet has taken on new forms and businesses are able to run their entire operations from a single app or website. What else can technology give us in a few more decades? Who knows.

The post The World at Our Fingertips appeared first on The Montcalm.