Roambi

What makers of business apps can learn from Angry Birds

Editor's note: This is a guest post by Quinton Alsbury, president of MeLLmo, which makes of mobile applications for businesses.

We've all been there--squinting at a spreadsheet on a mobile device, zooming in and out in attempt to make sense of the information. Each swipe of the finger triggers a blank screen as the data renders and slowly reappears and our frustration builds.

It shouldn't be that way.

Think about it. We've all also been on the opposite end of the spectrum, launching a game or social networking app so beautiful, fast, and interactive it's … Read more

How we like our iPhones: Supersized

Strap an Apple iPhone to Dr. Frankenstein's slab and you might wind up with something like this larger-than-life "iPhone" we spotted Thursday at a tech event in Silicon Valley.

Mellmo, the company behind the Roambi (review) spreadsheet visualizer app for iPhone, commissioned an undisclosed designer to give life to this giant faux-iPhone. Although we're not sure who the mastermind is, we do know a bit about the construction. The mammoth touch-screen device is made of a large touch-sensitive computer encased with plastic that's been cast in the shape of the iPhone's rounded-rectangular body. Mellmo … Read more

Data never looked so good

RoamBi is no ordinary data reader. Instead of shrinking charts and graphs into tiny versions of themselves that you have to pinch and scroll to read, it re-envisions mobile viewing, meaningfully distributing a breadth of information into its gorgeous charts and graphs. On the iPhone or iPod Touch, report-seekers can search and sort reports. There are features that let you drill down deep into each report's components on successive screens, and visual trills to customize color, hide columns, and drag and drop elements to rearrange them. There's bookmarking information to keep a data point handy, graphs you can … Read more

RoamBi iPhone app makes data uberpretty

A data report reader may not seem like the most exciting candidate for an iPhone app, but if you're working in the field--or are even just a numbers nut--the new RoamBi app will catch your eye.

RoamBi (short for 'roaming business intelligence') is good-looking, all right, and it manages to cram a breadth of information into its gorgeous charts and graphs. Unlike many mobile versions of spreadsheet readers, you'll almost never need to scroll through a tiny spreadsheet to analyze your data.

The service also includes a Web publisher where individual operators or corporate employees can import reports … Read more