Michael Doan

Chitika, an online advertising network, predicts that iPad will generate 2% of North America web traffic in 2011 according to All Things Digital.

As a CPA firm, why should you care? Have you looked at your firm’s website on an iPad lately? How does it look? Can your clients or prospective clients find the information they need when browsing from an iPad?

According to a Wall Street Journal article, the medical sector is adopting iPads as part of their sales toolkit.

The tablet computers offer new ways to display product information or surgical-implant techniques, and help eliminate time wasted on issues that don’t drive sales, according to companies. Their quick start-up times mean the salesmen can jump into their presentations before doctors lose interest.

So far the following companies are buying iPads by the boat-load:

• Medtronic – 4,500
• Boston Scientific – 2,000
• Zimmer Holdings Inc – 1,000 (3G version)
• Abbott Labs – 1,000 (3G version)

Are CPA firms starting to use iPads during the sales process?

Google is getting into the eBook game. You can access ebooks from the web, iOS, and, of course, an Android device.

According to this TiPB article, iOS 4.2 and Exchange 2003 (the server that powers your Outlook email) may not be playing nicely together.

Both problems are serious for enterprise users. In the first you create or accept and Exchange event invitation, it gets added to your Calendar, and then — poof! — it’s gone. But only from ActiveSync. If you look in Outlook or OWA (web interface) it’s still there. If you’re relying on ActiveSync on your iPhone or iPad, you could miss your meeting, call, conference sessions, etc.

The second involves receiving an Exchange invitation and trying to accept or decline it and being told your message can’t be sent.

Gartner estimates that PC sales will grow by 15.9% in 2011 from 2010, but this is estimate was revised down from 18.1%. According to Gartner, the growing interest in tablets is contributing to weaker demand of PCs.

These results reflect marked reductions in expected near-term unit growth based on expectations of weaker consumer demand, due in no small part to growing user interest in media tablets such as the iPad,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. “Over the longer term, media tablets are expected to displace around 10 percent of PC units by 2014.

I previously blogged about subscribing to Hulu Plus to keep up with some of your T.V. shows during busy season (I’m not all about work!).

Nextflix just announced a new stream-only plan to their service that allows you to stream unlimited T.V. episodes and movies to your computer, TV, and, of course, iPad. The new plan costs $7.99 per month. Its a great option for auditors on the road and want a little entertainment.

If you use iPhone for work, you probably have sensitive data on your phone. Most people know that you can set a four digit passcode to lockdown the phone. For a stronger passcode, iOS 4.1 allows you to set up an alphanumeric passcode. To do this, do the following:

1. Tap on Settings
2. Tap on General
3. Scroll down to Passcode Lock and tap on it
4. Turn the Simple Passcode option off.
5. You’ll be prompted to enter your alphanumeric passcode.

Screenshots are below:

Finding the right case for your iPad is hard. I’ve been through 3 of them and I’m still unhappy.

Do you know what would make me even more unhappy? Spending $900 for an iPad case from Dior Homme and then listing it on Craiglsist trying convince some sucker that it’s still worth $850.

Well, it is the busiest shopping day of the year and I’m sure this thing will make the managing partner who has everything on your gift list very happy.