The other day I received an email from Ryan Wade at Unique Apps regarding his Web site not being mobile friendly. What this means is that when someone visits a site that isn’t mobile friendly, the site can take up to 30 seconds or longer to load. When I am on the go, I visit my site through my iPhone and did notice the load time to be quite long but failed to act on it.

I also noticed through the Statpress plug-in that I was getting many views through the iPhone. Therefore, I went out searching for ways to make the site mobile friendly and came upon a WordPress plug-in that makes this as easy as 123. The plug-in is called MobilePress.

After installation of the plug-in, I went into the admin section of WordPress and customized how the site will render on a mobile device. MobilePress also gives the blogger the ability to change how the theme will look on a mobile device.  MobilePress currently has three different themes. The themes are iPhone 1.0 by TinyImpact, default theme, and a default iPhone theme.

I went with the iPhone 1.0 by TinyImpact because of the clean look. It is also possible to change the blog title and blog description. Once I installed MobilePress I went to see how fast the load speed would be on the iPhone. The load speed was less than five seconds. When viewing the mobile site on the iPhone, it displays the last three-blog posts, blog pages, and a search box. There is a next page section right underneath the latest blog posts so if someone wanted to scroll through older posts it would be a cinch.

If you want to view the full site, at the bottom contains a link to view full site. I think this is a must have plug-in for all serious bloggers. Smartphones are going to keep growing and users are going to want fast load times (me included). The MobilePress plug-in can be downloaded from HERE.

When it comes to the stock market, there are eight must have apps for the stock market junkie.  A few months ago, I was very obsessed with investing and following the market.  I stepped back in the market back when the Dow was at 6500 and got out when it hit 9500.  I am happy to announce that I am getting back in the market (slowly this time).  I have compiled a list of ten apps that will help make investing easier.  Here is the list.

1.  Seasonalysis

Seasonalysis is a great investing tool for the iPhone.  Enter in any ticker symbol and see how the stock performed by specific months and years.  When you use Seasonalysis, go back as far as 50 years, and see how the stock performed.  Seasonalysis also displays charts, tables, and grids of the stock.  The information is easy to read and you don’t have to be a stock market guru to understand and interpret the results.  This app does carry a hefty price tag of $39.99 but if you watch out, it could be cheaper.  When I bought this app, it was at around $5.  Cyrillian Inc. creates Seasonalysis.

2.  StockMark

Another great app created by Cyrillian.  StockMark is a stock benchmarking tool and I have found it to be very useful.  Enter in any ticker symbol and see how it performed versus the Dow Jones, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 over different periods.  StockMark allows you to compare both the total return and the average compound annual return (C.A.R.).  This app carries a price tag of $2.99.

3.  CNBC RT

CNBC RT (real-time) is an app that provides real-time stock quotes, live market data, breaking news, and news videos from CNBC.  Switch between energy stocks, tech stocks and your portfolio.  One of my favorite features of this app is the ability to receive breaking news alerts.  Whenever there is a breaking news alert, the app will alert you with a chime and the news.  This app is free to download through the iPhone app store.

4.  Daily Finance

Daily finance is a free app that can track multiple portfolios, provides real-time quotes, and news from over 3000 different sources.  Get free real-time quotes from BATS Exchange, 15 minute delayed quotes from NYSE, NASDAQ, and AMEX.  Daily finance allows the user to view interactive charts to track current and historical performance of investments and compare them against peers and market benchmarks.  Gain access to the markets biggest gainers and losers.  In order to track any portfolios you must create an account with AOL Money.

5.  Yahoo Finance

Yahoo Finance is another free app that provides the user with the latest market news, and stock quotes.  Import and track your Yahoo portfolio in a few simple steps.  Conduct your own research of the markets, industries, currencies, commodities, and treasury bonds.

6.  Bloomberg

Bloomberg is another free app to read the latest headlines, world market updates, stock quotes, and charts.  Rotate the iPhone sideways to view the stock charts in full view and touch the screen to view charts of historical stock prices.

7.   NY Times

Keep up to date with the latest news in around the globe.  Easily switch from business news to technology news.

8.  Thomson Reuters News Pro

This app provides extensive coverage the people and events that drive markets from deals and merger news to global indices data.  This app covers breaking news from around the globe, a customizable watch list for monitoring your stocks.  Thomson Reuters is free to download.

Conclusion

Investors like to have as much news as possible when it comes to the stock market.  These are the eight apps I use to keep up to date on the latest stock market news.  If there are any apps that you feel should be on this list, please feel free to leave a comment so I can go and get the app :-)

Is it just me or is the technology field been a bit stagnant for a decade or so?  Now, before you start going, “Dee, but you love your iPhone”, let me finish.  What was the last truly innovative advancement that had a dramatic impact on our lives and how we live?  I myself am not sure of that answer.

New advancements such as the invention of the car or the internet do not come along every day.  Yes, the iPhone is fabulous and the Wii is fun, but will they have a direct impact on people as a whole?  No.  Let us think about what cars allowed us to do.  Vehicles have allowed humans to broaden their horizons.  Before vehicles, where you were born is more than likely where you lived, worked, and died.

After the vehicle was invented people could look for better jobs that were farther away, date someone that lived farther away, affordably travel the country, and so much more.  The only other invention in history that has compared in usefulness with the vehicle is the internet.  The internet has allowed us to do the very same things the vehicle did, only with more possibilities and on a much larger scale.

Therefore, again, where do we go from here?  How do things get better than this?  What could possibly open up new doors and better peoples’ lives on such a significant level?  I obviously do not know the answer and maybe you don’t either, but isn’t it time we start wondering about it…how else will if happen if we don’t?

I was reading the news tonight and came across a story with bear and a woman. No, it is not Goldilocks and the Three Bears…it’s a tale of A Brave iPhone and a Bear. Here is the story…

“Bears have some awfully funny inclinations. Back in 2004 there were all those wackynews stories about the bear who’d downed three dozen cans of beer at a campground and proceeded to pass out.

But this one takes the cake: this summer, when Vermont hiker Kris Rowley was approached by a bear and it kept following her, it proved more interested in chowing down on her iPhone.

Rowley, who serves as Vermont’s chief information security officer, tells CIO.com: “In a semi-panic, I threw the iPhone at the bear.”

The bear proceeded to ignore Rowley and started clawing at the iPhone instead, CIO.com explains. Rowley used that as her chance to make a hasty exit. She returned two days later to get her iPhone back–bringing along a baseball bat for defense–and found it still there, but chewed and scratched up to the point where she couldn’t use it anymore.

Unfortunately, the Genius Bar support team at her local Apple Store wouldn’t take “a bear ate my iPhone” as a legitimate excuse to get a new one on the house: Rowley had to pay full price for a the replacement.

Maybe that would’ve been different if she’d brought the bear along with her. Just a thought.”

You can access this story yourself by clicking HERE.

After reading the story the only thing that came to mind was, “That damn bear could have had my arm…but there is no way in hell I would have let him have my iPhone.”

What do you think?

Recently, I have had a lot fun with iPhone applications Movie Costume. It has parts of movie characters that you can impose upon your own photos. It would be easier to show you than explain it to you. Once again, I tend to try everything out on DJ, but I did it to myself this time as well.

I know it sounds silly but I love applications like this. These are fun to turn into personalized birthday cards or simply send in an email to make someone laugh. If you know of any fun, programs like these let me know and I will try them out. I hope everyone got a good laugh!

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