Need better Exchange support for your Android phone?  Most of us probably don't.  Those who do, however, will find plenty to love in Nitrodesk's Exchange by TouchDown.

Android's integrated mail and calendar apps are already pretty nifty.  Hardcore suits used to working on their Windows Mobile devices, though, will probably find them lacking in some ways.  This app fills the gap, providing a fuller range of Exchange services for users that require it.

TouchDown capably plugs in some of the obvious vacancies left open by Android, such as task syncing and downloading of email attachments, among others.  Installation is quick using the Wizard, provided you have access to your Exchange server (a lot of organizations I know still reserve access strictly to WinMo phones, so take note).   Once done, it performs all the syncing for emails, calendars, contacts and tasks.   You just sit back and relax.

It comes with a good range of support, allowing you to sync via Exchange 2003, Exchange 2007, ActiveSync and USB to Outlook.   There are four widgets on board too, namely Universal, email, calendar and tasks.  Would probably prefer a few more, especially since it's a paid app (that's not too cheap, I might add).

Like we said, Exchange By Touchdown will probably be overkill for most users.  I'm willing to bet there's a good market for it, though, as the features it offers does make Android's Exchange support very well-rounded.  You can try it free for five days, but you'll need to fork up $19.99 to unlock the full version.

[Official Site: Nitrodesk]

Many apps have used the iPhone's camera as a scanner.  The Business Card Reader (BCR) does the same, using it to pick up image scans of physical business cards, which it then converts to actual Address Book entries.

Available strictly for iPhone 3GS devices, it uses the phone's autofocus to get ultra-sharp close-up shots of your business cards.    Once it finishes scanning, it passes the image to the integrated OCR function, which then does the job of identifying individual elements, such as names and contact details.

So, does it work?  Yes, but not without its problems.  For one, it's nearly impossible to get decent results under bad lighting conditions.  It's also not likely to be able to figure out complicated card designs, especially those with fancy graphics, unusual text and extra-glossy surfaces.

For regular-looking business cards, though, it gets most of the information right.  First names, business address, email and phone numbers are almost always a lock.  For the surname, it works when there's no middle initial in the card.  Otherwise, it grabs the initial as the surname.  It also encounters problems identifying the company name, so you'll likely end up entering it manually (like, all the time).

Despite the imperfections, BCR does a fantastic job.  Sure, you'll occasionally have to enter a few fields manually as well as correct OCR mistakes.  If you've got a stack of business cards you've been meaning to input into your address book, however, this thing will literally pay for itself in the amount of time you save.  The extra features, such as showing the scans in a "card holder" view, merging scanned details with existing contacts and looking up folks on LinkedIn are also highly appreciated.

At $5.99, Business Card Reader isn't too bad of a download, especially considering how much convenience it can end up affording you.  Able to understand English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish business cards, it's quite the versatile tool too.

[Developer Site]

With the iPhone finding increasing adoption among mobile business users, it's only natural to expect popular business titles on other platforms to make it to the App Store.  The QuickOffice Mobile Office Suite sure took its sweet time coming the iPhone.  Now that it's here, though, it's just as good as expected.

Rather than separate single-purpose apps (as with Quicksheet in the past), the new downloadable tool bundles all the functions in one offering.  Features largely overlap with Documents To Go for the iPhone, so you will likely have to choose between the two titles if you're looking for an MS Office alternative.

QuickOffice can read and edit Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, as well as view other file types (e.g. Powerpoint, text and more) via the QuickOffice Files feature.  Unlike Documents To Go, it can handle both 2003 and 2007 versions of Word and Excel, although editing is limited to the older format.

Both the document and spreadsheet editors are full-featured, offering a good amount of tools and functions.  Word editing, for instance, allows you to play with fonts, highlighting and bullets, among others.  On the spreadsheet editor, you can revise cells in-line, format the presentation, use formulas and more.

Compared to Documents To Go, its a bit of a hit-or-miss - better in some areas (more visual, intuitive UI), but less able in others (can't edit Office 2007 files).  One clear advantage is its integration with Mobile Me, as well as the availability of a catch-all email address that lets you send files to your phone from your PC.

Overall, the QuickOffice Mobile Office Suite is the best Word and Excel editor available on the iPhone today.  It doesn't come with all the features users can ask for, but those it does fit in make it the best  Office alternative around.

While Google has brought many of their end-user apps to Android, their webmaster tools have been largely left out from the mix.  As such, a good number of third-party developers have been making a small niche of the market segment.  DroidAnalytics is the latest one to pop up, providing a very useful port of the Google Analytics service for Android users.

Google Analytics has been one of the most popular website tracking systems for a bit of time now, seeing heavy use from numerous site owners and online marketers.  While the interface can be accessed from a full HTML browser on Android, most of the graphical information just doesn't display, making it difficult to work with your stats from your handset.

Built from open developer APIs, DroidAnalytics pulls real-time data from Google Analytics and presents it in a form that's very useful for smartphone users.  Directly from the interface, you can display numerous categories of information (e.g. top keywords, goal conversion, etc) and produce line graphs of various pertinent data (e.g. pageviews, bounce rates, etc), both  in multiple time periods and date ranges.

It also supports multiple sites, importing information from all of your Analytics profiles as soon as you log in with your Google account.   This makes it easy to manage numerous domains simultaneously, allowing you to jump from one to another, without much delay.

Since it's clear that webmaster tools aren't in the top of Google's priority, site owners who want to manage their online properties from their mobile phones should definitely look towards DroidAnalytics.  It's exceptionally robust and well-done, especially considering the very affordable $1.40 price tag.  There's virtually nothing available on the Android Market that even comes close to matching it.

Photo Credit: Nix

Designed for business users, QlikView for iPhone allows you to flip through records and information on your organization's QlikView server. It's free, so if you use QlikView for reporting and analysis across your company's data warehouse, it makes sense to get yourself a copy.

Directly from the app, you can view detailed reports lifted from your organization's remote QlikView server. It provides access to pretty much any report template available on the backend, although initial processing will vary on the amount of data that needs to handled. As such, it isn't unusual to find the app stalling at times (when it's transmitting a large data set).

Interface is one of the app's biggest strengths, offering a Cover Flow-style navigation of available templates, along with considerably speedy operations. It's a very nifty way of consuming corporate information, which normally comes in the form of boring lists and plain text menus. Features include a search facility (for filtering the data), rudimentary report editing (you can take out fields) and location-based searches (which can send you information depending on where you are, according to your GPS).

As a viewer, QlikView for iPhone is immensely useful for professionals who need business data on the go. It is rather limited, though, relegated to viewing functions instead of a full-fledged reporting or editing tool. Still, it's probably the best smartphone-based implementation of report viewing I've seen on the iPhone, much better than a similar previous effort from Oracle.

Via MacNN