Apple Briefs

Our firm has used Billings for invoicing for a couple of years. It’s got a nice interface and produces great-looking invoices. The one thing that’s been holding it back is that it’s a solo app, not a small firm app. iBiz has a pretty good multi-user version called iBiz Professional. But Billings has been decidedly single user.

All that’s about to change, though. The Marketcircle website is now offering up a teaser for Billings Pro, a multi-user version of Billings. There’s not much to see so far. But they’re holding a closed beta in a “month or two” so hopefully more details aren’t too far off.

I was very excited in the days leading up to Apple’s event last week. But I didn’t get to follow a “live blog” of the event, and I haven’t had a chance to watch the presentation since. So I have been coming up to speed slowly. Looking at Apple.com. Reading news sites and blogs.

The experience has been quite a surprise for me. I expected some poor reviews and an unenthusiastic segment. But I never would have predicted the reception that the iPad received.

One group seems enthralled with the iPad. Count me in that corner (unashamed Apple fanboy here). But others think its an absolute dud, destined to live out its life in obscurity like the Apple TV.

The most common objections seem to be:

• It’s just a bigger iPod Touch!
• Netbooks are the same price, the same size, and so much better.
• There’s no camera (I won’t touch on this one, but I do find it interesting that so many people want to do video chats with a camera that sees up your nose and show mostly the ceiling).

The one comment that seems to appear more often than others is, “why would I need an iPad if I have an iPhone and a MacBook?” Of course, you can replace “iPhone” with any top end smartphone and “MacBook” with netbook.

But couldn’t we just as easily ask, why do I need a MacBook if I have an iPhone and an iPad?

Let’s set aside two types of users for the moment. First are the large firm business users. The road warrior who needs to use Exchange and Microsoft Word while flying from one city to another (because work never stops and IT said those are the applications we have to use). The iPad won’t replace the road warrior’s laptop. It almost certainly could — someday. But not today. Windows is too entrenched in the corporate culture for most businesses.

Second are the pro design users. The woman you see editing a video in Final Cut Pro at the local Caribou Coffee. Or the man you see designing a brochure in Adobe InDesign at Panera Bread. They won’t be selling their MacBook Pros anytime soon.

Now that we have those two groups out of the way, what about everyone else? Me, for example. I am occasionally in the second group, but most of that work is done in the office.

A MacBook, iPad, and iPhone all offer the same set of fundamental tools. Email. Web browsing. Chat and social media. Address book. Calendars and task management. Games. Movies.

The iPhone really runs into a wall in two places: (1) entering and manipulating data; and (2) reviewing large amounts of data. Add those two capabilities, and a device would meet the needs of most people.

I haven’t used an iPad yet, so this prediction is based entirely on Apple’s advertising and a few reviews from people who used one at the launch event. But it appears that the iPad takes a big step in the direction of satisfying those two capabilities.

When I first read about the iPad and watched the videos, I said to myself, “that looks great – wouldn’t be be amazing if it had iWork?” I look forward to seeing how well iWork really performs on an iPad. I do a lot of work in page layout mode. Will the iPad support that? Only time will tell. But the ability to do lightweight document drafting on the iPad will really cut down on the need for a laptop on many day trips or short overnight trips.

The iPad also has a screen large enough to comfortably review much more data than on the iPhone. Large webpages can be read on the iPhone by holding it 6 inches from my face. But almost every other app uses larger fonts and larger controls, limiting the amount that can be displayed.

But there’s an even more compelling thing about the iPad. It’s simplicity! Imagine device where you can do everything you’re used to doing on your computer…without any of the hassle of owning a computer.

Many people see this as a drawback. But it’s seen by some as a tremendous advantage.

The iPad is great for people who just want to do cool, useful things on a mobile device and don’t care about the underlying technology. Many of the criticisms seem based on the notion that the desktop metaphor we have been using the past 20 years is always superior. But maybe it’s time for something else.

And maybe – just maybe – that something else is the iPad.

This year’s MacUpdate Promo Winter Bundle is here. I highly recommend this bundle to anyone who is a new Mac user. I regularly use Path Finder, Speed Download, DragThing, iRip, and GarageSale. The latter being much better than the very similar iSale. I also occasionally use Yep. I actually bought this bundle for the Socialite license and…because…well, you can never have too many Speed Download licenses.

The aforementioned five apps (plus Socialite) are really top notch applications. Most Mac users are going to find at least three of them very useful.

Disclaimer: I get absolutely no money if you click on the above link and buy the bundle. But I probably should, now that I think about it. Maybe next year.

Today the Scan Snap stopped working. The computer just wouldn’t recognize when the lid was open. So, like I do every few weeks, I went to Google and searched on “scan snap snow leopard”. And what did I find? Fujitsu released an update on Friday for Snow Leopard. Scan to folder works again. That means no more messing around in Adobe Acrobat.

Within a couple of minutes I had shut down Scan Snap Manager and run the updater. And no dice. The scanner still wouldn’t work. It turns out that the Scan Snap (I tried both the S510M and S300M) just wasn’t comfortable working through our USB hub anymore. It had been fine for months, but decided to stop just in time for me to go find the Snow Leopard update. Thanks USB hub! And thanks Fujitsu!

Apple released new Macs today, and these new models offer more than just a trifling speed bump. The new 27″ iMacs are shrinking the previously large gap between the iMac and Mac Pro lines. It won’t come cheap, but a 27″ iMac can sport 16GB of RAM and a quad-core Intel processor, along with a 2TB hard drive.

But probably the biggest news of the day (apart from a multi-touch mouse – which I’ll really have to stop into the Apple Store and play with to get some impressions on it) is the server Mac Mini. For $999, you can get a Mac Mini loaded with Leopard Server. It also has a second hard drive in place of the optical disk player for a total storage of 1TB. If we ever decide to move away from Dropbox for more control over our file storage, it will definitely be worth a look.