Is the iPad Useful For Businesses?

Some businesses have jumped on the iPad wagon and are finding creative ways to use the iPad. For example, the Global Mundo Tapas restaurant in Sydney, Australia uses the iPad as an interactive menu. There's a budget airline, Jetstar Airways, using the iPad for in-flight entertainment, rented for $10 a flight. A luxury sedan by Hyundai comes with an iPad instead of a user manual. Other than these extreme cases, how can an iPad be used to increase productivity or convenience by the average business owner?

Conventions and Workshops

Do you travel to conventions and workshops for your business? Many people bring their laptop to these events. While laptops are of course very convenient compared to a desktop pc for traveling, the iPad weighs less and could be even more convenient if you're traveling from room to room at a convention or workshop. These events are also often designed for networking – so you're not just sitting at the table all day, glued to your laptop. The smaller, 2 pound iPad could be slipped into your purse or a small bag while you walk around the room, or even carried in your hand for easy access as needed, but without being cumbersome.

Flights and Traveling

It's true a laptop can go on a flight with you, but even the smaller netbooks and laptops add to the weight of your carry on bags and can be frustrating when in the small seats of the plane. If you're sitting in coach, you know every time the person next to you has to get up to use the bathroom you're trying to balance the laptop and whatever else you happened to have out in your hands with turbulence knocking you around the aisle. The iPad could be slid into the pocket of the seat in front of you if you have to get out of the way for the passenger next to you – it's about the size of a magazine.

The same holds true on trains, in taxi cabs, or as a passenger in someone else's car. Just don't try to use your iPad while driving, yourself.

Presentations & Sales

Do you travel to client offices to give presentations? How sleek would it be to whip out your iPad and give a sales presentation or demonstration? Apple reports that iPads can connect to the majority of projectors, so you could even broadcast that presentation over a large screen for a larger audience if necessary.

Replace Your Briefcase

Sure, the iPad has a word processor and spreadsheet. Those are always useful for business people. It would be much more convenient to read and edit documents on an iPad over your iPhone while on the road.

But what about the stack of magazines and newspapers you lug around with you in your briefcase? You could have all of your reading materials ready for you on the iPad and skip the briefcase. Use it as an ebook reader, newspaper subscription, and file storage and you've literally got everything at your fingertips. With the use of third party Apps, there's little you won't be able to do with the iPad for your business.

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Microsoft has made business operations much simpler and more accessible through the new Windows Small Business Server 2011. Packed with enhanced features and improvements, it is a must for every small business.

Microsoft has released an upgrade to its Small Business Server Platform – Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard. Based on the Windows SBS 2008, it carries most of the easy-to-use features that have made it a standard in many businesses, plus several new features that make it a much more efficient and effective business tool.

Some key features of Windows SBS 2011 Standard include: the ability to recover files with automatic backup in case files and documents get compromised or lost; the ability to share documents and files from a central hub; access to information both in and outside the office; and new business software and application compatibilities.

Microsoft has also made the migration of data and other information from the old platform much easier, based on input from partners who tested the software during the beta phase of its development.

Other major changes that Windows SBS 2011 addresses are upgrades to both the Exchange Server and SharePoint foundation, as well as the SQL server. The upgrade also provides better remote access and better security, as well as an easier-to-use internal website that serves as a hub for users and clients to access information and data.

If your business is running Windows Small Business Server 2008, it might make sense to upgrade. If you would like to know more about how this upgraded platform can help your business, please contact us and we’ll be happy to provide a free assessment of your options

images/facebook-bug.jpg A new Facebook scam is making the rounds, and it’s taking advantage of a non-existent Facebook feature many users crave: the dislike button.

Security researchers are warning that Ping, the new music-focused social network in Apple (NSDQ:AAPL) iTunes, is already plagued by spam and other potential security issues just days after its launch.

Twitter has experienced a rocket-like boost to its 145 million users, up from 105 million in April, thanks in part to its bevy of mobile apps and growing ranks of mobile users, executives said.

Altogether, mobile usage on the micro-blogging site has increased 62 percent since mid-April, while 16 percent of all Twitter users say they started using the service on their mobile phone, up from 5 percent before the company launched its first mobile-branded client. In addition, 46 percent of active users make the mobile clients a regular part of their Twitter experience, said Twitter co-founder Evan Williams in a blog post Thursday.

Meanwhile, in recent months Twitter has actively beefed up its mobile apps, Williams said. In April, the service acquired iPhone client Tweetie from third-party developer Atebits, and turned it into an official Twitter app, dubbed Twitter for iPhone.

Twitter also released clients for other mobile platforms, Twitter for BlackBerry and Twitter for Android, which experienced refreshes. Most recently, Twitter launched a new Apple (NSDQ:AAPL) iPad app, Twitter for iPad, targeting tablet users.

"This strategy has been quite successful," Williams wrote. "As we had hoped in April, these clients are bringing more people into Twitter, and, even better, they are attracting and retaining active users."

According to a chart on the blog post, showing how users have logged onto Twitter in the last 30 days, the vast majority of Twitter users -- 78 percent -- log on to the site via Twitter.com, while another 14 percent have accessed the site via mobile Twitter.com. Another 8 percent access Twitter via text messages. Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for BlackBerry came in at 8 percent and 7 percent respectively.

"As this data shows, while smartphone clients are important, there are even more people who use the mobile Twitter web site and/or SMS. We've been seeing strong growth in both of these areas," Williams said.

Meanwhile, third-party apps continue to play an important role in Twitter's overall usage. Another 4 percent access the site via TwitPic, 3 percent through TweetDeck and Echofan, and around 2 percent sign onto Twitter via Google Friend Connect and UberTwitter.

Williams called out TweetDeck users as "some of the most active and frequent."

While the number of mobile users decreases sharply after the top 10, Williams noted that other applications were gaining traction, possibly as a secondary or tertiary means for users to access Twitter, he speculated. For example, the number of registered OAuth applications has nearly tripled in the last four months to around 300,000.

"And, while the percentage of overall users drops off pretty sharply after the few listed here, there are a tremendous number of other apps that people are using, not necessarily as their main Twitter client, but as an alternative way to create or view Tweets," he said.

"It’s great to see this kind of variety and growth in the ecosystem as it moves beyond basic Twitter clients," Williams said. "These new services help people get the most out of Twitter, contributing to user growth and new business opportunities -- both of which are critical to the long-term viability of the ecosystem."

Twitter fanatics will now be able to tweet about their latest haircut or their dog's trip to the vet from yet another mobile device after the micro-blogging site said Thursday that it launched a new app for the Apple (NSDQ:AAPL) iPad.

Twitter, a micro-blogging site that gained rapid momentum by limiting users' posts to 140 characters, already has a slew of its own mobile apps, including one for the Apple iPhone. And until Thursday, Twitter relied on third-party developers to create iPad apps.

The new Twitter iPad app, Twitter 3.1, which users can download for free, helps streamline and simplify Twitter's functionality with the introduction of "panes" -- fly-out panels that expand the viewing pane and offer the user a more spacious reading experience.

"Exploring Tweets is a great way to discover new and interesting information. And with devices of all shapes and sizes connecting to the Internet, we're constantly looking for new ways to make this easier," Twitter staff said in a company blog post Wednesday.

The Twitter for iPad app allows users to tap a tweet to open it in a pane to the right. Users can also tap a tweet that incorporates embedded Web links in order to see a full display of that Web page, image or video, in addition to friends' profiles and hashtag searches. If users tap a video link, the panes enable them to look through their timeline while the video is loading, and then swipe back to the video when it's ready to play. Users can jump between the opened links by tapping on the arrow buttons on the bottom of the screen.

Also, when users tap a tweet, another panel slides in from the right side of the screen, which automatically pulls up a user's comprehensive profile info, including bio, Web site link, number of followers, the number of people that a person follows, most recent status update and other relevant Twitter information, as well as a few suggestions for who the user could follow next.

Of course, as with other iPad apps, the Twitter app relies upon touchscreen gestures. Users can "pinch" the tweet to pull up related information on the author and actions, such as replying to a tweet. A "pinch" will also allow users to watch a video full screen.

Two fingers can drag a tweet down to view other responses in the conversation thread. Spreading apart two fingers on the screen opens a window that exhibits a shortened user profile.

iPad users are required to have iOS 3.1 or later in order to download the app. However, users don't even need to sign up to use the new Twitter for iPad app, the company said in a blog post.

The new Twitter app is immediately available from the Apple App Store.