Tech Bits appears on the web and in IN Daily every Friday. Comments are welcome at IN Editor@InvestmentNews.
E*Trade close to rolling out mobile platform
Most major consumer banks have already introduced mobile connectivity to their customers and are marketing it heavily. (Has anyone been able to miss the commercial featuring a flat-screen-coveting male checking his bank account balance via his smart phone from a recliner at a big-box electronics store?)
Discount brokerages, on the other hand, have been slow to follow.
Until now.
New York-based discount brokerage E*Trade Financial Corp. is wrapping up beta testing of its own mobile platform, called E*Trade Mobile Pro, for use on BlackBerry smart phones (from Research In Motion, headquartered in Waterloo, Canada).
The new service should be available to its users free of charge beginning July 1.
With it, E*Trade account holders will have full access to their accounts via their BlackBerry devices (several models will be supported).
Users will have the ability to get real-time streaming stock and options quotes, make trades and transfers, and view stock watch lists and their portfolios, among other features.
Oh, and rumor has it that the "talk-baby" pitch man will indeed be back to show off the new service in commercials.
For more information and to see an online demo, visit
E*Trade mobile .
Resolver One version 1.1 now available
We first reported two months ago on Resolver One, an application that combines the technology of a spreadsheet program with the power and flexibility of programming.
This week, Resolver Systems Ltd., the London-based technology company behind the software, rolled out a new version with many noteworthy improvements.
Among them are better performance and memory usage. Also, cutting and pasting has been modified to make it more intuitive and "spreadsheet-like." And there have been enhancements to Bloomberg access and Thomson Dataworks Enterprise connectivity within the financial edition.
The folks at Resolver are also big proponents of using screencasts as training and educational tools, so you'll find not only a three-minute video outlining and demonstrating all the new additions and changes to the software but a repository of video tutorials.
A noncommercial version of the Resolver One software can be downloaded for free.
For more information, visit
Resolver Systems.
New version of Market-Q, a realtime market data application, now available
There's a new version available of Market-Q, the browser-based, real-time market data application. Interactive Data Corp., headquartered in Bedford, Mass., made it available this week. Aimed at advisers, wealth managers, financial planners and retail brokers, the interactive application provides financial market data, analytics and related services.
It also provides custom workspaces, interactive charts, an embedded browser for research, option chains, a market depth feature, searchable news alerts and data export capabilities in a single interface, along with the ability to drag and drop data and modules, thanks to its use of Java.
Among the data export capabilities are moving data from Market-Q to Microsoft Excel along with an active data link that continuously updates from the Market-Q feed.
For more information, check out
Market-Q.
Davis D. Janowski is the technology reporter for InvestmentNews.
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