CPA Practice Advisor

FEB 2012

Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.

Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/53322

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 26 of 30

THE BLEEDING EDGE Reality Check A compendium of ideas, products, rants and raves from the viewpoint of the author. Not that the author has no financial interests in any of the products mentioned. Feel free to disagree, or to share your ideas by sending them to davemcclure@ cpapracticeadvisor.com. Internet Site of the Month: Microsoſt Windows Speech Recognition. (ht p://windows.microsoſt . com/en-US/windows7/What-can-I-do-with- Speech-Recognition). T is site outlines the free voice command and speech recognition included in Windows 7 (other sites cover the program under Vista and Windows XP). Useful primarily because the program is free and is garnering great reviews. But you'll need this site to fi gure out what com- mands will work and where. Tablets and eReaders. If there ever was a year of the tablet, it was 2011. The trend of electronic book readers started by the Kindle has blossomed into a rich and robust marketplace for eReaders of every stripe. Meanwhile, Apple's iPad had touched off a tablet revolution that now has low-cost devices of every kind fl owing to the marketplace. T e only hitch? Many of these devices have been crippled to appease the cell phone com- panies. Look for this tyranny of the cellular companies to begin to unravel as the market grows and no longer needs Verizon and AT&T; as a marketing channel. Forum Stuffing. In times past, you could look to online forums for technical information, advice and even honest reviews of products. T ose days are over. Today's tech forums are largely clogged with paid endorsers, posters who can't diff erentiate between knowledge and opinions, and psychotic fl ame throwers who simply enjoy controversy. If you have a favorite – free – technology forum that has avoided this infection, we'd love to hear about it. Blackberry. Considering its nearly unbreakable hold on the enterprise market with its Blackberry products, Canadian firm Research In Motion hasn't done itself any favors in the past year. Its stock is down some 80 percent, the Blackberry Playbook tablet has been a marketing and technical disaster, and the company has announced that its new lines of phones based on the Blackberry 10 operating system won't be seen until at least near the end of 2012. T is is a cat that has used up all of its lives, and those who are inclined to invest in Blackberry technologies for their fi rms should be very, very careful. Lack of Accessories. No mat er what tech gadget you purchase, one thing will be true. T e device will lack decent accessories. Chargers will be slow, bat eries weak, charging stands non-existent and mounting hardware left to the whims of third-party companies halfway around the globe. Because of the sheer number of devices thrown into the marketplace each year, there simply isn't a good market for accessories tailored to the size, shape and inputs of every device. Sigh! At some point, the marketplace will set le down. Until then, keep put ing your device in the coff ee cup holder and hope it charges by the time you get to your next destination. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for Printers. Last year, we helped to expose the shady dealings of printer manufac- turers, who virtually give away their hardware in order to reap excessive profi ts on printer cartridge refi lls. Using hardware as a loss leader wasn't the shady part…it was the refusal of these companies to provide information about what it actually cost to print a page, and their use of the courts to suppress competition. Fortunately, a few companies have rallied to the cause of end users, providing this information and /or lower the cost of supplies. Kudos to Kodak and Kyocera for leading this pro-consumer movement. Did your tax software 2012 CHOICE AWARDS READERS' www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com/RCA get voted the best? How about your write-up system or your engagement software? Check out how the technologies you use ranked in our 2012 Readers Choice Awards.

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of CPA Practice Advisor - FEB 2012