The eKEY Basic iPhone app from Supra was approved yesterday and is available for free in the iTunes app store.  The iPhone app does not allow users to open real estate keyboxes but does have a demo mode so users can view all of the functionality of the application without having to sign up for the eKEY service.

eKEY Basic provides the following features:
- Wireless Updates and Alerts
- Obtain Listing Keys
- Keep track of all your key boxes right from your phone!
- Manage and Program your keyboxes
- Easily place and remove keyboxes from listings using your phone. You can also change your own shackle codes.

To open keyboxes, users will need a Supra eKEY iPhone adapter.  The adapter is a small device that plugs into the bottom of the iPhone and allows the iPhone to communicate with the keybox with a low powered infrared light.  The adapter does not need batteries.

According to the iPhone app, the adapters will begin shipping the third week in August.

You can not activate the eKEY app until the adapters are available but can enter the demo mode to view how the app will work.

The app will allow users to open keyboxes, open the keybox shackle, and view inventory.

The demo mode does send sample notifications of showings so you can get a good idea of how the apps functions.

The iPhone app looks good.  It will be interesting to see how well the app works once the adapters start to ship.

The app already has several 5 star reviews in iTunes including this one that made me laugh:

It looks really slick!

by SL Xpress

According to the demo, you can even give feedback directly after the showing. I’m so excited about this, I may pee.

How much does the Supra iPhone Adapter cost?
The iPhone adapter costs a one time fee of $55.  There will be a monthly fee to use the eKEY software and this fee varies by each Board or MLS.

You can download the iPhone right now for free in the iTunes app store.  The eKEY for iPhone requires iPhone OS 3.1.3 or above and will work with all of the iPhone models, 2G, 3G, 3GS, and 4.

To learn more about the Supra eKEY adapter, visit Supra.com.

Will you order the eKEY adapter for the iPhone?

1) LoopNet Launches New Property Database

LoopNet has recently launched a property database comprising 5 million commercial properties across all major property types including retail, office, industrial and multifamily. The database allows investors to search property records in detail.

The LoopNet Property database is available at no extra cost to LoopNet Premium members and all new LoopNet Premium members that enroll during the database’s beta launch period.

Be sure and check out REbliss’s review of the LoopNet iPhone app.

2) Google Voice Free For Everyone in the US

As of 06/22/2010 Google Voice opens to the public, no invitation required.  Google Voice is a fantastic service and REbliss thinks it could be every independent contractor’s BFF.

3) Print from Anywhere: Pogoplug Gets Cloud Printing Feature

The service, which will be free of charge, will support all HP and Epson printers released since 2005. Pogoplug owners will receive a software update later this summer and compatible printers will work without the need for additional drivers. The Pogoplug, which currently retails for $129, features four USB ports.

If you are unsure what Pogoplug is, read how the Pogoplug allows you to create your own cloud storage.

4) Is Geofencing the Next Evolution for Location Apps?

Location Labs, providers of location services for mobile developers, announced earlier this week the release of its library that will allow iPhone developers to build geofencing apps thanks in no small part to new features included in the new iOS 4.0.

Two days before this article was published, REbliss published an article about what the iPhone’s new operating system will mean to the real estate industry.  The first thing mentioned was multitasking and geofencing.  Geofencing could bring exciting new things to the real estate industry.

5) Bird’s Eye View with Google Maps

Today, we’re excited to announce the release of 45° imagery for of select cities in the U.S. and worldwide to all users of Google Maps. As you may have guessed from the name, 45° imagery is imagery depicting a location from a 45° angle rather than from the top. This type of imagery allows you to explore the sides of buildings and other locations — you can even rotate around a particular point of interest using the compass ring to view it from four different perspectives. To see the new imagery, simply zoom into an area while in Satellite mode.

The 45° imagery is only available in select cities but could be very useful to anyone in the real estate industry.

Magellan has launched the ToughCase, a rugged protective iPhone case that is shockproof and waterproof.

Enjoy your iPhone or iPod touch on all your outdoor adventures without worrying about damage from environmental elements. Keep your device safe while hiking, camping, sailing, cycling or working outdoors. ToughCase is waterproof to IPX-7 standards allowing your device to be submersed in water (up to one meter for thirty minutes) and shock resistant.

While the ToughCase is geared towards outdoorsmen, it would be a great iPhone case for real estate agents, appraisers, and home inspectors.

The ToughCase has has built-in GPS that enhances the accuracy of location-based and GPS apps on the iPhone and iPod Touch.  REbliss has written about the use of GPS and Google Maps to help you find your property lines.  While this technology is in its infancy, a stronger GPS signal would mean your location would be more accurate on the map, thus giving you a better indication of where the property line is.

a la mode, inc has a iPhone app that allows real estate appraisers to sketch a house on their iPhone.  In theory this sounds great but what about when it is raining or snowing?  The TouchCase would let appraisers use their iPhone to sketch a house no matter what the weather conditions are.

The ToughCase gives you total control of your device even though it covers the screen.  You can even place calls when your device is under water, not that I can image any real estate professional needing to do this!

The case offers great protection for your iPhone but comes with a hefty price tag of $199.99.  The TouchCase is compatible with the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and 2nd and 3rd generation iPod Touch.  You can get all of the details at magellangps.com

If you don’t need to all of the features of the ToughCase, OtterBox has a less expensive solution to ruggedize your iPhone.

OtterBox makes ruggedized cases for iPhones, Android phones, Blacberry smartphones, and numerous others.

Words like rugged and extreme came to mind when we designed the 2600 Series PDA case. Water-resistant and airtight, this uniquely patented case will fit 99% of all PDA units on the market, including the Apple® iPhone®. If hardcore PDA protection is what you desire, your search is over.

NOTE: This case is NOT submergible and requires a Bluetooth® headset when using the phone features of the iPhone.

While this case is not water proof, it is water resistant and crushproof.  The case fits 99% of all PDA units on the market including the iPhone 3G and 3GS and retails for $65.75.  You can get more information at OtterBox.

You can make your iPhone virtually indestructible but still can’t ruggedize your iPad.  You can, however, protect your iPad from the occasional drop.  OtterBox is releasing two cases for the Apple iPad: iPad Defender Series Case priced at $89.95 and iPad Commuter Series Case priced at$64.95.

The iPad is a fantastic devise but fitting it into the appraiser’s tool belt is difficult until it is ruggedized.  Using a la mode’s appraisal software would be a great solution if the iPad was ruggedized and had a camera.

Hopefully one day soon you will be able to buy a ruggedized iPad and a solar strap to keep it charged.

Would you use an iPhone or iPad out in the field if it were ruggedized?

Posterous is one the easiest ways to blog.  It is free to use and you don’t even have to sign up to use the service.

Over the past few weeks Posterous has been busy rolling out new features such as comment moderation, pages, and sidebar links.

Along with all of the new features, they have introduced new tools to help bloggers switch from what they call dying platforms.  Posterous has been wooing bloggers from services such as Tumblr and Ning and are now gunning for ActiveRain users.

If you are a real estate professional, you need a blog to demonstrate your expertise about your local market, promote your listings and network with other agents.

According to ActiveRain, the site has 185,560 professionals.

How many of these users will switch to Posterous?  It will be interesting to see if this puts any pressure on ActiveRain.

Here is what is good about ActiveRain:

1) It is a community of Real Estate Professionals, a large communtiy.  When you blog on ActiveRain, your blog is not only read by other real estate professionals, but by those seeking real estate advise. There are great conversations about current real estate issues and trends.

2) You can search ActiveRain for a local real estate professional. Homebuyers and sellers can easily search the site for a real estate professional in their city or county.

3) ActiveRain has numerous tools specifically designed for real estate professionals and consumers like home buying and selling guides, real estate training, networking, and marketing.

Here is what is bad about ActiveRain:

1) While it is free to sign up, you have to pay a membership fee if you want your blog post to be seen by more than just the ActiveRain Members.

2) When you blog on ActiveRain, you blog on ActiveRain.  In other words, you can not take your blog posts from ActiveRain to Wordpress and vise versa.

So which one is the better blogging platform?

For many bloggers, the openness of Posterous makes it a better platform.  Not only is it dead simple to blog on Posterous, you can easily share it with other sites.  Posterous also boasts many features like being able to register your own domain, automatically update Facebook and Twitter, easily post video, it has a bookmarklet for easy posting, and allows you to use Google Analytics to see who is viewing your Posterous site.

While ActiveRain might not be as open or have as many features, it is a large community of real estate professionals and a great place for real estate conversation and advise.

How do you switch from ActiveRain to Posterous?

Moving your ActiveRain blog to Posterous is simple.  Just go toposterous.com/switch/activerain/ and enter in your ActiveRain user name and email address.

We’ll take it from there. You don’t even need to set up an account.  We’ll send you an email when we’re done copying over your blog.  And don’t worry, your ActiveRain blog will still be intact.  Not convinced?   Get the straight scoop atswitchto.posterous.com from real estate professionals like Sandy.

Still not sure what Posterous is?

Posterous is a reverse lifestreaming service.  Lifestreaming services like Friendfeed pull all of your content  from all over the web into one place.  So all of your tweets, YouTube videos, blog posts, etc. will show up as one stream of information.  Posterous on the other hand takes the content you post to their site and posts it to other services like Flickr, Facebook, Wordpress, and many others:

Be sure to check out the FAQ section on the Posterous website to learn more.

Do you blog on ActiveRain?  Would you consider switching to Posterous?

**Updated in response to the comments**

I do have a free ActiveRain account.  As it was mentioned above, for my blog posts on ActiveRain to be public I would have to upgrade to a Rain Maker account:

This upgrade costs $29.00 per month:

There are members of ActiveRain that have a free RainMaker accounts and their posts do get indexed by Google and are visible to the public.  These free accounts unfortunately no longer exist.

Starbucks announced that starting July 1 it will begin offering unlimited free Wi-Fi.  The best part is that no registration is required.

At Starbucks, we love to give you more of what you’ve asked for. So soon you’ll be able to enjoy Wi-Fi at Starbucks in a way that goes beyond what we currently offer.  Starting July 1, you’ll be able to enjoy free, one-click, unlimited Wi-Fi at all company-operated Starbucks stores in the United States.

Currently if you want access to the free Wi-Fi at Starbucks, you have to have a Starbucks card.  Even with a card you only get up to two continuous hours of free Wi-Fi.  You don’t have to keep a balance on the Starbucks Card, but do have to log in with your username and password to use the internet.  Starbuck’s new free one click Wi-FI access will be easier to use.

Not only will you be able to access the internet at Starbucks, you will have access to some paid sites.

In addition to the new free Wi-Fi program, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz told Wired’s Chris Anderson that the company is also planning on rolling out a new Starbucks Digital Network in partnership with Yahoo later this fall. This network, which will only be accessible in U.S. company-operated stores, will offers customers free and unrestricted access to paid sites and services like WSJ.com and other content providers on their phones, tablets or laptops.  via Mashable

Being able to access the internet when out of the office is becoming a requirement of real estate professionals.  Almost all of the real estate agents and appraisers I know have smartphones and access email while out of the office.  But sometimes you need to access the internet for more than email.

How do you find free Wi-Fi hotspots?

Besides Starbucks, both McDonald’s and Panera Bread offer free Wi-Fi access.

There are several websites that list free hotspots if there isn’t a McDonald’s or Starbucks close.

There are also numerous iPhone apps to help you find free and paid Wi-Fi hotspots.  JiWire’s free Wi-Fi finder has a mobile version that can find free hotspots by zip codes.  Access the mobile site @ iphone.jiwire.com

Do you use Wi-Fi hotspots when you are out of the office?

Apple released an update to its iPhone software today.

With over 100 new features, the free iOS 4 Software Update lets you do some amazing things.

What does this mean for the real estate industry?

1.  Multitasking

Now you can run your favorite third-party apps — and switch between them instantly — without slowing down the performance of the foreground app or draining the battery unnecessarily.

While multitasking is not new to smartphones, it is new for the iPhone and is the most exciting feature.

Multitasking means that you will be able to run a location-updating app in the background.  Let’s say you are shopping for a house and have filled out a real estate website questionnaire about what kind of house you are looking for (price, square feet, bedroom / bathroom count, etc).  Now, while you are driving around looking at houses you might receive a notification that a house in the area is listed for sale and meets your criteria!

This type of technology is called a geofence and exists today.  REbliss has written about it before and the iOS 4 brings us one step closer to this type of technolgoy being adopted in the Real Estate industry.

Multitasking will also help real estate professionals be more productive.  Your to-do list can now be location based!  You might need to pick up a contract from a real estate office.  If your todo list app is running in the background and tracking your location, it can send you an alert reminding you of the task.

Multitasking means you might be able to use less of your cell phone minutes.  Skype announced that you can now make skype calls over a 3G signal (before now you had to be connected to WiFi).  Now with iOS 4, Skype can run in the background and alert you of incoming calls and texts.

Multitasking will allow you to run your GPS app in the background while driving.  Turn-by-turn GPS direction apps will be permitted to generate audio and small text alerts.

2. Tap to focus video and 5x digital zoom

While shooting video, tap the display to choose where to focus.  Get closer to your subjects by zooming in up to 5x.

The camera and video technology in smartphones is amazing and getting better each year.  You can take pretty good photos with the iPhone and one day you might not need to buy special equipment to take great photos or videos of your real estate listings.  REbliss has asked if your iPhone can replace your real estate camera.  While your iPhone might not replace your real estate camera today, it might one day.

3. Better Email

See messages from all your accounts in a unified inbox, organize messages by threads, open attachments in third-party apps, and more.

The new operating system provides a single inbox that displays emails from all of your accounts.  iOS 4 also supports multiple Microsoft Exchange-hosted accounts.

Who gets the new operating system?

Original iPhone owners cannot run iOS 4. iPhone 3G owners can run iOS 4 but multitasking will not work.  iPhone 3GS and the upcoming iPhone 4 are fully compatible with iOS 4.

Original iPod Touch owners cannot run iOS 4 at all.  Second-generation iPod Touch devices can run iOS 4 but multitasking will not work.  Third-generation iPod Touch (32GB and 64GB) devices fully supports iOS4.

iPad owners won’t get iOS 4 until the fall.

How do you upgrade to the new operating system?

1. Upgrade your iTunes version to 9.2.  You probably want to back up your data before installing iOS 4.  Plug in your iPhone via USB and hit Sync.

2. When the Sync is compelte, click Check for Update.

3. Download iOS 4, then follow the on-screen instructions to install.   That is it!

Want to know more aoubt iOS 4?  Gizmodo has a rundown of the best features of the new operating system.

Multitasking on the iPhone could mean exciting new developments for the Real Estate industry.  You can also expect most of the social networking sites (Facebook, foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite, Loopt, etc) to update their apps to take advantage of multitasking.

Do you have an iPhone?  Are you excited about the new operating system?

Google has unveiled their Google Cloud Print that will enable you to print to ANY printer that is connected to the internet from ANY computer.

Our goal is to build a printing experience that enables any app (web, desktop, or mobile) on any device to print to any printer anywhere in the world.

According to Google, the cloud print will work with all printers, including those that are not themselves connected to the internet (referred to as “legacy printers”).  You will no longer need a local computer and printer drivers to print!

The Google Cloud Print is exciting news for the mobile real estate professional.

Click HERE if you can not see the embedded video above.

There are obvious security concerns with the Print Cloud.  Google already controls vast amounts of data through Gmail, Google Voice, and their search engine.  Their cloud print would mean they would control even more data as all of the printed documents pass through their cloud.  There would also have to be some control over user permissions.  You would not want anyone to to be able to print to your printer.

Let’s forget the security concerns for a minute.  The Google Cloud Print means that you could pick up your smartphone, laptop, or iPad, or any computer and print a document no matter where you were.  Not to mention printer drivers are a pain, especially when you upgrade your computer or operating system.  You might not have to every worry about printer drivers again.

There are numerous real world scenarios where the Cloud Print is useful: A real estate appraiser needing to print a document for a homeowner could use his/her smartphone and print the document while they were at the homeowner’s house.  Maybe you are sitting in Starbucks checking your email and realize you need to print something.  You can see there is an available printer at Kinko’s next door, print the document, walk next door and pick it up.

The possibilities go far beyond just printing from your smartphone.  With Google Cloud Print (or something similar) you might be able to print from any device. You might want to print a coupon that is on your TV, you could print the diagnostics test results from your car to your home printer, or even print photos directly from your digital camera without the need to hook it up to a computer.

While you might be moving towards a paperless office, there will always to be need to print and the Google Print Cloud appears to be a good solution, especially for mobile devices.

Bottom line: enabling any app to print to any printer is very exciting.

AT&T has announced a new pricing plan for the iPhone that includes the ability to tether. Above photo by BryanMcDee.

What does this mean for the mobile real estate professional?  It means you might not ever be without an internet connection.

There are two pricing plans, a DataPro plan that gives you 2GB of data and a DataPlus plan that gives you 200 MB of data.  It will cost an additional $20 to have the ability to tether your iPhone.  Tethering for iPhones will be available when Apple releases its new operating system this summer.

How much internet surfing can you do with the new data plans?

AT&T provides a data calculator to help you figure out how much data you will consume.  For example, 200 MB of data will be enough to send/receive 1,000 emails with no attachments, plus send/receive 150 emails with attachments, plus view 400 Web pages, plus post 50 photos on social media sites, plus watch 20 minutes of streaming video.

How much data will a mobile real estate professional use searching a MLS or tax assessor website?

Click HERE if you can not see the embedded video above.

I was curious to know how much data I would use searching my local MLS or tax assessor website.  There are numerous programs that help track bandwidth usage.

FreeMeter is a free program that tracks how much bandwidth you use.  You do not need to install the program, just download and run the progam to track your data usage in real time.

To determine my bandwidth usage, I opened Google Chrome, logged into my MLS, and searched for sales in a subdivision.  The search resulted in 7 sales in the past 6 months.  This search used a total of 397 KB.  I also searched the local tax assessor website for a property.  The search used 87 KB of data and looking at the electronic plat map for the property used an additional 80 KB of data.

So what does this mean?  Well, if you have the 200 MB data plan, you can search MLS 500 times a month or search the tax assessor website over 2,000 times.

Note: Be sure to turn off any additional programs running like ZumoDrive.  Searching MLS with ZumoDrive running in the background took an additional 20 MB to complete.

Check out the FAQ at MacWorld if you have some questions about the new AT&T plans and tethering.

I am a heavy smartphone user.  I constantly stream Pandora, use GPS, and browse the internet and am hard pressed to use more than 500 MB of data on my iPhone.  This is because I am usually connected to a WiFi network either at home or in the office.  For me, the change is welcome, at least for now.

But what about the future?  What about GoogleTV and Hulu?  Putting a cap on smartphone internet use could severely limit what people will do with their smartphones.

What do you think?  Do you have the need to tether your smartphone to your laptop when you are out of the office?  Will limiting the data slow down what developers will make for your smartphone?

Do you have a bunch of devices that charge via USB: an iPhone, iPod, Blackberry, Bluetooth headset, or a digital camera?  All of these will charge while hooked up to your desktop or laptop, but if you have a limited number of USB ports you need to use an adaptor in order to charge them from a regular electrical outlet.

FastMac has introduced the U-Socket, an electrical outlet with two built-in USB ports that can power any device that is capable of being charged via a 5V power adapter.  There is no need for a power adapter!  According to Engadget, they are capable of 10W, enough to charge an iPad.

The U-Socket can be installed on any existing wall outlet and are energy star rated.  The USB outlets will only draw power when something is plugged into them.

Please also note that the USB ports only draw power when something is physically connected to the port. We didn’t want a vampire port that continually sucks and wastes power when not in use so this was one of the features on the top of our priority list during the design phase.

It might not be long before you see a U-Socket in a hotel or airport.

The company is in talks with hotel chains, conference centers, airports, and more to begin rolling out the U-Socket so that travelers, businesspeople, and conference-goers have a way to charge their USB devices just by carrying around a cable. Via Arstechnica.com

The U-Socket costs $19.95 and is available for pre-order from FastMac and should ship around October.

I don’t know about you, but I have several devices that charge via USB.  Imagine being on vacation and needing to charge your Flip Camera.  You wouldn’t need to find the power cord or boot your laptop to charge the camera.  Or maybe you are sitting in a real estate continuing education class and forgot your USB adaptor.  No problem, just plug your device into the U-Socket.

The U-Socket looks like a great home improvement project that is inexpensive and easy enough for anyone to install. I can’t wait for builders to start installing them (at least in a few rooms) in new construction homes in my area.

Imagine driving through a neighborhood looking at houses for sale.  You drive by a house and are immediately alerted via a text message that the house in front of you meets your requirements; square feet, bedroom count, etc.  What if you drive into a subdivision and are sent a text messages that tells you there are three houses listed for sale that are within your budget?  This could easily be accomplished with geofences.  Geofences are used today, just not by the real estate industry.

There is an interesting discussion at SoftwareAdvice.com about Geofences.

What is a Geofence?  According to Wikipedia:

A Geofence is a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area. When the location-aware device of a location-based service (LBS) user enters or exits a geofence, the device receives a generated notification. This notification might contain information about the location of the device. The geofence notice might be sent to a mobile telephone or an email account.

Geofences are currently used in several industries.  Companies use geofences to make sure mobile employees (service technicians, delivery drivers, etc) stay in a specific geographic region.  Some companies use geofences to help track their expensive equipment.  The real estate industry seems like a logical extension for the technology.

It sounds pretty simple.  When a house is listed for sale, the person listing the house would setup a geofence.  (Hopefully, no one would abuse the system and enter a geofence too large.)  Once a geofence is setup for every house you have listed for sale, alerts could be sent to anyone that opts in to receiving them.

Geofences could help real estate agents collect the needs of buyers online.

For example, a user could create an alert based on square footage, number of bedrooms, pet friendliness, special amenities, and zip code, to name just a few of the myriad of options available. Once they’ve entered their cell phone number and submitted those housing preferences, all they have to do is carry their phone with them to receive notifications. via Software Advise.

Geofences could allow a real estate agent to know how many interested buyers crossed into their geofence.  Most homes for sale in my market have flyers available for potential buyers to take.  Once the flyers are gone, they have to be replenished.  Does the real estate agent know how many of those flyers were taken by serious buyers?  No.  Maybe noisy neighbors took some and maybe some got lost.  With geofences, the real estate agent would know exactly how many alerts were sent to potential buyers.

I like the idea of information being pushed to potential buyers (if they opt in) vs. having to go out and get the information.  How many times do buyers stop at homes listed for sale, pull the flyer or call the agent, only to find out the house is not what they are looking for.  Geofences could help streamline the home buying / renting process by only sending them information that meets their needs.

I would image it would not be long until someone starts working on an application for real estate, if they haven’t already.

What do you think?  Would you opt in to receiving alerts like this?