Mark P. McDonaldIn the six months that I have had my iPad it has enhanced my life more than changing or revolutionizing it. The device has extended the reach of technology from simply capturing and manipulating information to making it part of the way I work and working in new ways. Sure the more I work with the iPad the more I see some technical and functional limitations, but that is comes more from pushing the iPad into new business activities rather than the machine’s limitations in performing the tasks outlined below
Productivity tools are ones that most frequently complement/compete with my personal computer. Here the iWork applications have had the greatest impact. iPad versions of Pages, Keynote and to a lesser extent Numbers have extended what I can do not eh computer directly into the iPad. While each of these applications has been thinned to first on the iPad, they provide core functionality for most of the low intensity activities I can do on a personal computer. These tools are good for writing short documents, this blog post and sharing them with others has increased rather than restricted my productivity.
A special hats off to Keynote as it has transformed the 1:1 meeting experience. I can share a presentation with a colleague in a while new way via the iPad that is impossible on a personal computer. Sure Keynote needs to gain more features, but this capability is one thing that has changed the way I work.
Email and email integration is another boon from using the iPad. I am fortunate that Gartner allows me to connect the iPad to corporate email and that has changed my email experience. When I start out the morning its by browsing all of my email on the iPad for the simple reason that I can skim the mail within the time it takes my personal computer to boot up!
Media based tools have augmented my travel experience using the iPad. Watching videos, reading books, listening to music, etc are welcome extensions to my daily life. When I first got the iPad I wrote a post that the iPad is a media syringe, injecting media deeper into the daily experience. It is all that and more. I realized that one day when I was walking on a treadmill, listening to music not the iPad while I was reading a book. If you want media in your life this is one heck of a device for presenting it.
Hats off the the newspapers that have adopted the iPad. The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA today are to be commended for extending the reach to this platform. Hats off to Guardian Media for the Eyewitness app that provides a daily picture that reminds me that the world we live in is much larger than just me.
Particular recognition for a cool move goes to Amazon for making the Kindle App available on just about every platform you can imagine. There is wisdom in selling the razor (Kindle) and razor blades (content) there is even more wisdom in making your razor blades available for any razor.
These are a few of the applications I have found particularly useful in working with the iPad. The device has changed the way I work and more importantly the way I work with clients and others. As one CIO told me, these devices are better at consuming information than they are creating it, and I agree. I have always thought of the iPad as an extension of my work tools — something that makes other things that much better, and it is.
So what business applications have you found helpful on a tablet device? Suggestions and recommendations welcome.
Category: Technology Tools Tags: product innovation, Technology, Tools
6 responses so far ↓
1 Cindy keely November 29, 2010 at 8:03 pm
I couldn’t agree more, Mark. I love the way I am able to consume information also.
My favorite apps are drop box, pulse newsreader, and note shelf. I love how I can synchronize files with my pc with drop box. I use pulse to manage over 100 news feeds from gartner.com. NICE!
2 Alan Hesketh November 29, 2010 at 10:22 pm
Most useful app for me at the moment is Pocket Informant HD – I’m not the most organised person in the world but this app definitely helps. However, it does highlight the drawback of Apple’s handling of files and synchronisation (not to mention the software vendors lack of focus on this issue) as it needs to sync with Outlook either over wifi or through Google Calendar. It does not work over the USB cable or over 3G.
Others in regular usage iAnnotate PDF, Dropbox, Hootsuite, and the magazine apps for Fortune, The Economist and Zinio. As well as Kindle.
TOO much media too accessible now.
3 Carlos Martin November 30, 2010 at 4:54 pm
hi Mark, I think that the solución for newspapers can be the killer application for IPad. i am a newspaper suscriber. I also use applications for fingerwriting. Goodreader is a good one. of course Mail and also I hace a thin client to acces my Windows applications
4 Tsukasa Makino December 2, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Hi, Mark-san
I use Google voice search, Google Earth, picture album, maps. I think iPad is an ultimate face to face communication tool.
We are living in the age of information technology. We have access to Exabytes of data, communicating in megabits per second. But once we log off and go for a drink, we go back to the Stone Age. When we communicate in words, the transmission rate goes down to several tens bytes per second. Conversations are often based on uncertain or incomplete human memory, represented by the phrase “***…something”, “somewhere around….”, “I can’t remember the name but…”.Also it’s difficult to picture something you haven’t seen or locate somewhere you aren’t familiar with.
In those cases, I pull out my laptop and show pictures, maps, You Tube, search information with Google. Sometimes it’s very effective, but often too late because the conversation moves to next topic when my laptop boots up. And it’s awkward to show my laptop around on the restaurant’s table.
iPad is ideal for that purpose. Pictures, maps videos, Google Earth, PowerPoint Slides make our conversation more fun, exciting and informative. I can even recall what we talked last night by reviewing Google’s search history.
5 Dan January 15, 2011 at 11:55 am
So where is the app to access Gartner easily and sync articles for off-line reading? That would be mighty welcome, oh and be sure to create one for the Android platform as well. It’s just as good as (and in some ways better) than iOS platform. Which brings up a good point. Remember the good old days when you could just develop for the browser and not worry about the end user’s device? Sigh.
6 Mark Diner November 6, 2011 at 6:39 pm
Best iPad app for sorting and reading news and information, and then connecting it to social channels is Flipboard. Will Change the way you surf for information.
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