I must admit, the “New iPad” features are really impressive. The 2048 x 1536 resolution alone is enough to have most people justifying the purchase. Add that with a quad-core processor and 4G/LTE connectivity, and the New iPad will practically sell itself.
There are a ton of features that make the New iPad a no doubt “buy” if you’re a small business owner who hasn’t quite bought into the whole tablet craze. But the “Resolutionary” features alone won’t make you a on-the-go productive whiz on the device. You still need a solid suite of business apps to uncover just how productive you can be on the New iPad.
Now, if you’ve been following Small Biz Go Mobile, all we do is identify resources, services…and apps that can help you stay at work, even when you’re not at work (did I just blow your mind?). Now, we don’t want you to just go out there and download tons of apps without knowing how you can use them for your business, so here are just a few ways you can close those deals on your New iPad…cause we all know you’re getting one.
Document Management
If you’re not in the cloud, or don’t have a way to retrieve important documents from your office computer, you might as well stop reading now. There is nothing like leaving an important document on the printer because you rushed out the door to a meeting with a client, or to catch your flight. That’s one of the reasons why I suggest any small biz invest in the cloud to at the very least, make sure you have access to all your documents on any device, whenever you need them. A good document creator/editor is needed as well. If a client or team member wants to adjust some numbers in a spreadsheet and you’re not nowhere near a computer, you still need to capability to open and edit that document from your email, then send it back to them lickity-split. Read More
Tim Cook just left the stage from Apple’s iPad event in California, where he and his team brought us the latest Apple announcement, presumably including “the new iPad” (yes, that’s it’s full name!). It hits stores next week, on Friday March 16th and this page has all of the news you need to know about today’s announcement.
A Post-PC World
It’s no surprise that Tim Cook is leading off this event with a discussion involving one of Apple’s favorite terms, “post PC.” We’re all doing more on our iPads and iPhone, so it’s no surprise that these post PC devices (plus the iPod) make up 76% of Apple’s revenue.
iOS is the Key
The reason for Apple’s success with post-PC devices? iOS. Right now there are 315 million iOS devices in the world, 62 million of those sold in the last quarter of 2011 alone. At the forefront of this innovation in the mobile OS, is Siri, Apple’s “intelligent personal assistant” that comes with every iPhone 4S. Today, Cook is announcing that Siri now speaks Japanese and she’s coming to Japan today along with iOS 5.1. Amongst other fixes, iOS 5.1 brings fixes to battery life on iPhone and iPad and is available over-the-air for download right now.
A New Apple TV
Turns out the rumors were true! Apple is announcing a new Apple TV that supports 1080p HD video. As a result, they’re re-releasing all of their movies in this higher-def format (and it’s a free download for anything you’ve already purchased!). A new Apple Genius will work just like on your iTunes and suggest movies and television shows based on your interests. You can even store them in the cloud—iCloud is being expanded to cover music AND movies now. Your photo stream syncs effortlessly to your Apple TV now too – take a picture on your iPhone 4S, and instantly show it off to your friends on your big-screen TV in HD! It still costs just $99, a great price for what you get! Combine that with the amazing AirPlay mirroring features that the Apple TV provides, and this looks to be an exciting update to the device. Pre-orders start today and the new Apple TV is available March 16th.
iPad outselling the competition
If you need proof that post-PC devices like the iPad are taking over computing, check out this fact: Apple sold more iPad’s last quarter than HP sold PCs.
There’s no doubt as to the direction of the computing industry right now, and Apple is unquestionably at the forefront in terms of sales.
What you’ve been waiting for: introducing the new iPad
Here are the features Apple is including in the new iPad:
Retina Display. Much as everyone predicted, the new iPad will have quadruple the resolution of the original, with a retina display screen at 2048×1536. That’s 3.1 million pixels on the screen, or 1 million more pixels than 1920×1080, the resolution of even a 60″ HD TV. It translates to 264 pixels per inch, an amazing pixel density. All this means is that the screen is going to look amazing on the new iPad, and this is going to be a huge boon to any apps that work with photos and video as well as text. If you used an iPhone before they went retina with the iPhone 4, you know that this isn’t just a new feature on a list but a HUGE CHANGE that will really impact how you’re able to work on the device.
It’s not just the density of the display though. The new iPad also offers a much better screen, with 44% greater color saturation. Not only will you never have to see a dreaded pixel again, but colors in images will “pop” in a way never before seen on a tablet device.
iPad 2 (left) vs. the new iPad (right) – 44% greater color saturation
A5X Processor with Quad-Core Graphics. Designed for the retina display, the new iPad is “four times as fast” as nVidia’s Tegra 3. A dual-core processor with quad-core graphics, the chip has to be way more powerful than what’s in the iPad 2 since it’s pushing 4x the number of pixels!
While not some massive upgrade to quad-core as some were hoping for, if the A5X can provide an experience as snappy as the current A5 can in the iPad 2 while simultaneously pushing 3.1 million Retina-enhanced pixels, you shouldn’t hear a single complain that the new iPad is in any way under-powered.
Massively improved iSight cameras. The cameras on the iPad 2 worked, but they were kinda a joke for any real photo or video applications. The back side camera took images you’d expect from a mid 90’s digicam, and the front-facing camera was even worse. The new iPad is packing in an iSight-branded camera, meaning that this 5-megapixel rear-facing camera boasts illumiation, a 5-element lens, an IR filter, and 1080P video recording—in other words, it’s high enough quality that you’ll actually feel comfortable using it. No word yet on whether or not you’ll still feel awkward holding up your iPad, though. Overall, it seems like everything on the new iPad is going HD in a big way.
Voice dictation. The new iPad will let you dictate in US English, British, Australian, French, German and Japanese. A new button on the software keyboard will let you talk to your iPad and have your text automatically inserted into your email or Evernote documents.
For the mobile professional who can’t always stop and type (and even then, typing on the iPad without a physical keyboard isn’t the easiest thing to do) this will make a huge difference in terms of how you use your new iPad.
4G LTE and Hotspot. Aside from the Retina display, this is the feature that got the most applause from the audience and for good reason. If you read my recent article about how fast 4G LTE is on AT&T, you’ll know why it’s exciting that the new iPad is an LTE device. 4G LTE isn’t just fast for mobile, it compares well and is often faster than your Internet at home!
The iPad will have 4G LTE on both AT&T and Verizon for a theoretical maximum of 73 megabits per second—huge news for these carriers. Unfortunately, these will be separate devices thanks to the different bands these carriers use. You’ll have to choose either the Verizon or the AT&T iPad 4G LTE. However, they will both work anywhere in the world with 3G as they carry the most wireless antennas ever put in a mobile device.
One cool new feature they’re adding is that the iPad can now serve as a mobile hotspot, allowing you to share it’s internet access with a number of devices. Since the iPad doesn’t come with any kind of contract, this could be a huge new feature for the mobile professional. Imagine having the power of the new iPad by your side at all times, but also the ability to pass along a 4G LTE signal to your laptop no matter where you are. All that on a month-to-month plan from your carrier of choice.
Same battery life and price. Thankfully, no surprises here. The 10 hour battery life and $499 introductory price will be staying the same. Since 4G LTE is a huge battery hog, that’ll knock you down to 9 hours, which really isn’t too bad.
Since a few reports have mentioned that the new iPad is a little bit thicker (9.4mm) and a little bit heavier (1.4lbs) than the iPad 2, this makes a lot of sense. Clearly, Apple had to expand the battery capacity a bit to accomodate the faster processor and the LTE chipsets inside the new iPad.
Apps
What would an Apple iPad announcement be without some new apps? The iWork suite is getting a full upgrade to take advantage of the faster processor and retina graphics, with Keynote, Pages and Numbers all updated in the app store today. With features like stunning new 3D charts, and new builds and transitions, the new versions of Apple’s suite will really show off the retina display on the new iPad. All three apps still sell for the low cost of just $9.99, and if you already own them you’ll be getting these updates for free from the app store today.
Garageband is getting iCloud support, easy sharing, a note editor and smart strings, to add a whole orchestra to your performance and then later edit individual notes.But Jam Session is the most exciting feature that lets 4 users on iPads play together at the same time and create original compositions over Wi-Fi on the iPad. Again, Garageband still costs just 4.99 and these updates are free for everyone who already owns it.
iMovie is getting a huge boost and a free update for the $4.99 app. Now there are some new features, including advanced editing tools, storyboards, and beautiful transitions. Combined with that 1080p camera, the new iPad should prove to be a great platform for making AND editing videos!
A huge new app release too – iPhoto for iPad. New gestures, new effects, multi-touch editing, and with iCloud you can effortlessly beam photos from iPhone to iPad to desktop and back. With editing support for images up to 19 megapixels, ways to automatically find images similar to the one you’re looking at, views that only show you flagged photos that you like, and easy share support to Flickr, Twitter and more, this looks to be a hot new app.
The biggest new feature is probably that all of these new editing features are non-destructive. Meaning, no matter how many times you crop or add filters, your original image is always there and can be recovered easily. This is just like ProTools for audio or Final Cut for video on the Mac. A huge feature for pro users looking to edit photos on the go.
Full Pricing and the iPad 2
As a final note, Apple’s going to keep selling the iPad 2 but at a $100 discount. The 16GB iPad 2 with Wi-Fi now costs $399, and the 3G-enabled version is going for $529. An amazing deal on some great tech, and if you don’t need the absolute latest it’s even cheaper to take your business mobile (and still take advantage of all these amazing new apps) at a lower cost. The iPad 2 is a great tablet, and this price cut should help get it into a lot more hands.
There are tons of great new devices out there, and there are even more rumors of greater devices to come. Despite the revolutionary form and function of the iPad 2 and the siren-like draw of Siri’s voice, something about the “all in the palm of my hand” functionality of my iPhone 4 and the dreams of greater things to come has kept me using the same device for over a year and kept my upgrade money, so far, in my wallet.
Although I think that it is totally fun to tell Siri that you love her, or to ask her silly questions and laugh at the answers, I don’t actually see a lot of utility in talking to my phone as an interface, especially since I don’t do much driving. Outside of Siri, I feel like my iPhone 4 can do everything that the 4S can do, and for that matter everything that I need a mobile device to do. I get my business and personal email all in one place, while the handy grouping of apps puts all of my social media into one small corner of my screen. I can read all types of documents, handle all my faxing business, and can even hop on the command line of a web server. And if you don’t have one yet, I believe you can get one for a lot less cash then the S model. Read More
As Small business owners, we wear many hats in our personal and professional lives. So much so that there are some things that just don’t get done on our “to-do” lists. Doesn’t mean those task aren’t important, or that they will magically get done if we keep pushing them to the bottom of the list either. Exec is a new service originating in San Francisco that provides professional assistants to do a multitude of tasks for a flat-fee of $25/hour.
While that may seem like a lot of dough to a small business owner who is strapped for cash operates on the “lean” philosophy, Exec wants you to trust that a professional assistant (who has been interviewed and back-ground checked, versus somebody just trolling a virtual job board) will handle your requests. “Execs” as they’re called are ready to assist you within 10 minutes of receiving your request. Once an Exec is on the job, you can track their progress in real-time and they only get paid (plus a tip, similar to how Uber, the professional taxi service does) when the job has been completed to you liking. Read More
I’m still riding the Dropbox train, but all the waves that the folks over at Box are making in the cloud storage space is making it real hard to argue the pros of my little 8 gigs of free space with DropBox when Box is “closing deals” like partnerships with the new HTC devices being announced as I type this at Mobile World Congress, and dishing out 50GB of free space for all Android users.
Instead of trying to create its own cloud storage service like other competitors (namely Apple’s iCloud), HTC has announced that it has teamed up with Box to offer users of its new HTC One flagship smartphone 25GB of free storage free for 2 years. This also helps out Box gain momentum to go head-to-head with the likes of Dropbox, its widely popular competitor. If Box can successfully align itself with partners like HTC (like it’s done int the past with LG and iOS) by offering “can’t beat it with a stick” storage deals, Box might just stand a chance against the Dropbox Juggernaut. Read More
Apple’s emails for their invitation-only events don’t come with press releases, PR contact info, or any of the things you come to expect in this industry from most other tech companies. No, they come with a teaser image designed to give you just a taste of what’s to come.
I don’t know about you, but that sure looks like a retina display to me (I can see pixels at that distance on my ipad 2 no problem). What other features will the iPad 3 include? 4G LTE? Siri? Who knows, but the speculation game is sure to heat up over these next few days!
As a developer, I always have a few web start-up ideas incubating. And as the technology arm of a new venture, it’s up to me to get something put together quickly so that we can start building an audience and a name for ourselves. At the same time, I have to balance that with quality and stability. If you throw something up too fast, the technology (and sometimes the entire concept) may not be fully fleshed out, with embarrassing results.
Thankfully, I’ve found launchrock, a great new site that lets you toss up clean-looking ‘launching soon’ pages really quickly. Read More
If you work in a dirty job where you’re constantly exposed to dirt and grime, or are a road warrior constantly traveling around, then you probably know that phones don’t like being dropped, they don’t like puddles, and they definitely don’t like dust.
But small business owners and employees who need a tough phone are often stuck with broken screens or phones that last months, not years. With two-year contracts, that means expensive phone re-buys at full price that can kill your bottom line.
Enter the Samsung Rugby Smart. Designed to military specifications, this thing is tough and works anywhere from puddles or to being buried underground. Don’t believe me? Check out this video below and see for yourself:
“Rugged” all too often is a term thrown around for products that are decidedly last-year’s tech. Not here. This is a 4G smartphone that shoots 720p HD video, has a front-facing camera, and sports a Super AMOLED touchscreen.
The Samsung Rugby Smart launches on AT&T March 4th for $99 with a 2-year commitment. Is this your next Android-powered Smartphone? Let me know—in the meantime we’ll try and get hands-on with this smartphone before it launches to give you the full scoop.
For all the BlackBerry folks who waited (and waited, and waited…) RIM has announced the official OS 2.0 update for the PlayBook that finally brings native email to the tablet. As long as you have a access to the Internet, you can now you can perform triage on your inbox, sans a BlackBerry smartphone.
In addition to native email, OS 2.0 for the BlackBerry PlayBook also brings native calendar and contacts, as well as the Android App Player that gives you more app choices, something that BlackBerry is lacking big time.
Last Monday was my birthday, and I took a personal day to go downtown and enjoy my favorite NYC cheesesteak. While relishing my sandwich, I couldn’t help but overhear a group of guys talking at the next table.
“I mean, who sends a fax anymore?” one of the young men asked his group.
As they went on talking, I was able to figure out that they were a film crew. Apparently, in the course of their current shoot one of them needed to send a fax on the fly. They met with some difficulty, since they couldn’t find a Kinko’s or other available fax machine that they could use.
Being nosy and alone, I helpfully chimed in with some information about the eFax site, which I’ve used to send digital faxes. However, I wish that at the time I’d known about the eFax iPhone app, because I would definitely have recommended it to them. It’s great – a straightforward business proposition that takes faxing into the mobile productivity era.
This simple app would have probably been perfect for our friends in the sandwich shop. Some sophisticated business users may have found it too simplistic, but luckily eFax has responded by announcing today that users can now integrate digitized signatures into documents for fax and email. The free app can now e-sign, authorize and approve documents right from your iPhone.
As if it’s not enough that you can now receive, endorse, and return documents when you’re miles away from your desk, they’ve also added some nifty sorting and searching features for folks with lots of documents to fax. I also like the smart integration with the phone’s contact list that allows you to easily populate a cover page with your intended recipient’s information.
Although an app like this is not as entertaining as playing Temple Run, the value of managing your faxes from your handheld likely sounds very sexy to some business folks.
