technology tools trade of the€¦ · ml-2855nd is a solid, basic, black-and-white laser with a...
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Cropmark Blue-tooth KeypadFrom Other World Computing,
the Cropmark Bluetooth Keypad
is for Apple wireless keyboard
users who prefer using a numeric
keypad rather than the number
keys across the keyboard. The
layout features a design similar
to a calculator, and the one-hand
operation will increase your
speed and accuracy. Bluetooth
Mac keyboards can be coupled
with this 28-key numeric keypad,
which can be clipped to the main
keyboard or used as a separate
input for working with figures,
tax returns, or spreadsheets. It’s
Bluetooth, so it’s plug-and-
play—there are no cables or dri-
vers. The keypad is powered by
two AA batteries. The brushed
aluminum finish and cylindrical
base match the design of the
Apple keyboard, and the linkage
bar lets you snap the two
together. Keys include numerals
0-9, operation keys, hot-keys,
page-up/down, delete forward,
and enter. There’s a power on/off,
a pairing button for use when
attaching to the keyboard, a
power on bar for activating Blue-
tooth, and an LED status signal.
Scissor-type membrane keys
work effortlessly, reducing
fatigue, and the keyboard can be
used attached or as a stand-
alone wireless keyboard with
MacBook, MacBook Pro, and
other Bluetooth-enabled Macs.
Search Bluetooth keypad at
http://eshop.macsales.com.
IRS2GoThe Internal Revenue Service
has produced a smartphone
application that offers helpful
tax information and lets you
check on the status of your tax
refund. IRS2Go works
on both iPhone and
Android systems and
can be downloaded
at no cost from
Apple’s App Store or
the Android Market-
place. To get daily tax
tips, you need only
provide your e-mail
address. The tips will
help with tax plan-
ning and preparation and are
issued daily during the tax filing
season and periodically
throughout the year. Typical
updates include topics such as
free tax help, child tax credits,
the Earned Income Tax Credit,
education credits, and others.
You can also check the status of
your federal refund by supplying
three pieces of information.
First, you enter your Social Secu-
rity number. This is masked and
then encrypted for security. Then
you provide the filing status you
used on your tax return, and,
finally, you enter the amount of
the refund you expect from your
2010 tax return. If you e-file,
the refund information will be
available about 72 hours after
you receive an e-mail acknowl-
edgment notifying you that the
IRS has received your return. If
you file a paper
return, you can
expect three to four weeks to
be added to the wait. There’s
also an IRS Twitter news feed,
@IRSnews, which provides news
and information about numer-
ous topics, including tax law
changes and IRS programs.
Samsung ML-2855NDThe Samsung ML-2855ND is a
single-function monochrome
laser printer that features one of
the lowest costs per page in its
class. Samsung describes it as
the world’s smallest laser printer
with built-in duplexing (two-
sided printing)—its compact
profile of 15.4 ✕ 14.5 ✕ 8.5
inches will fit where many oth-
ers won’t, and it weighs only
19.2 pounds. This is a basic
small or medium-size business
workgroup printer that has
speeds up to 30 pages per
minute and a monthly duty cycle
up to 50,000 pages. Other fea-
tures include print resolution of
up to 1,200 ✕ 1,200 dpi, paper
capacities of 250-sheet cassette
and 50-sheet multipurpose tray,
a 400 MHz processor with
64MB memory, and connection
via USB 2.0 and Ethernet, and
the unit is ENERGY STAR com-
pliant. The minimum media size
TECHNOLOGY
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TOOLSof theTRADE
it will accept is 3 ✕ 5 inches
and the maximum is 8.5 ✕ 14
inches. Samsung toner car-
tridges for the printer will pro-
vide up to 2,000 pages. The
ML-2855ND is a solid, basic,
black-and-white laser with a
price that’s one of its strongest
points. www.samsung.com
TurboTax DeluxeWith Intuit’s TurboTax Deluxe
personal tax preparation soft-
ware, you have the choice of
using the product online, buying
the program on CD, or down-
loading it to your computer. The
CD/Download version includes
five federal e-files, state returns,
and unlimited federal returns.
Input of your current information
begins with a transfer of your
TurboTax information from last
year. You can even import data
from other software, including
TaxACT and H&R Block’s TaxCut.
If you use Quicken, QuickBooks
2007 and higher, or Microsoft
Money, you can directly import
from those programs also. An
interview process guides you
through the entry stage, step by
step. The program doesn’t
bother with the questions that
don’t apply to your situation,
and your W-2 and 1099 infor-
mation can be imported directly
from more than 100,000 partici-
pating employers and financial
institutions. A summary will let
you review and edit downloaded
information. Smart Check™
scans for and corrects mistakes
on your return, and the final
calculations are guaranteed.
Any IRS or state penalty caused
by a TurboTax calculation error
will be paid back to you by
Intuit. Automatic updates to
include any changes in tax law
are accomplished with a single
mouse click. Standard deduc-
tions are accounted for in the
basic interview, and then the
program searches for more
than 350 other possible deduc-
tions and credits for which you
might qualify. The Audit Risk
Meter™ checks your return for
audit triggers, and free federal
e-file is included.
http://turbotax.intuit.com
If you bought the hype, you were primed for the next
evolution of the newspaper, which would be launched on
February 2, 2011. AppAdvice, a website that covers
iPhone and iPad applications, claimed it was going to be
“the day print journalism died.”
Then on February 2, News Corp Chairman and CEO
Rupert Murdoch walked on stage at New York’s Guggen-
heim Museum carrying an iPad, its screen lit with the
logo of his latest publication—The Daily, an exclusively
iPad newspaper.
Murdoch called the new publication “the first all
media product.” Without mentioning the recent decline
in the world of newsprint, the owner of the New York
Post and The Wall Street Journal offered, “New times
demand new journalism.” It was sleeting in New York
that day, dampening any bonfires that might have been
ignited by the 12 o’clock launch of News Corp’s killer
app.
Actually, Murdoch’s new webpaper is just a remix of
older media in a new digital wrapper. The Daily resem-
bles e-mags like Newsweek with a lot of photos and occa-
sional high-def video clips. The home navigation for The
Daily features a page carousel that rolls horizontally
instead of flipping from page to page. News Corp claims
it was “built from scratch for the iPad,” but there isn’t
much that distinguishes it from many of the other news
apps already online. Today, there are 1,939 apps for sale
or free at the iTunes App Store in the News category—
tomorrow there will be more—so it isn’t as if Rupert is
setting up on the ground floor. The competition, packed
elbow to elbow, is stacked many stories high.
The response from critics and readers has been luke-
warm. Two weeks after the launch, there were many who
had downloaded the free trial version of the paper. Of
those, 1,377 took the time to rate it, giving it two-and-a-
half out of a possible five stars. Initially, there were
New NewspapersOnline
By Michael Castelluccio, Editor
continued on next page
TECH FORUM
M a rc h 2 0 1 1 I S T R AT E G IC F I N A N C E 59
usability issues that required a second version,
but after the glitches were cleaned up, it all
came down to content.
Lonnie Lazar, writing for Cultofmac.com,
began his review with, “The Daily’s tech bells
and whistles can’t save it from empty-calorie
content.” As to the editorial choices, Lazar
explains, “The Daily’s main sections tell us
something about what the editors think of their
mission—News, Gossip, Opinion, Arts & Life,
Apps & Games, Sports. In that order.”
Murdoch claims the publication cost
$30 million to develop and will cost no more
than $2 million a month to produce. The sub-
scription is 99¢ a week or $39.99 a year. Probably, Murdoch
would rather that The Daily not be the beginning of the
end of his newsprint empire. But as a hedge, it will be inter-
esting to see how it survives or even overcomes the current
competition.
HUFFINGTON POST
The other big story about online news publications was the
announcement on February 7 of the sale of The Huffington
Post to AOL for $315 million—$300 million in cash and
the rest in stock. Tim Armstrong, AOL’s chief executive,
told The New York Times that the deal will benefit his com-
pany with greatly expanded news gathering and original
content creation.
You can start an endless argument about what kind of
publication it really is, but the editors of The Huffington Post
list the following right below the title on the home page:
“The Internet Newspaper: News Blogs Video Community.”
And then there’s the ribbon of tabs listing the 27 depart-
ments, including the links to the regional versions of the
publication in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Denver.
Technically, The Huffington Post is a blog and news aggre-
gator as well as an Internet newspaper. The home page is
three-columns with a very long and crowded scrolling list of
stories, columns, video, and featured blog posts. At the bot-
tom of the page is a directory of sources and links. Not a
bad little directory to bookmark, there are direct links to the
websites for 70 news sources, 53 national blogs, 28 colum-
nists, and five Arianna links.
As an example of Web design, HuffPost is anything but
elegant. The design is sprawling, and the elements are per-
haps best described as burgeoning. Practically every bit of
space has been latched onto and utilized. It shouldn’t come
as a surprise, then, that the New Year’s resolution of Editor-
in-Chief Arianna Huffington was “To take HuffPost to the
next level—not just incrementally, but exponentially.”
In her official comment about the AOL purchase, “A
Merger of Visions,” Huffington gave a brief progress report
on the 2011 plan. “Let’s go down the checklist: Local? AOL’s
Patch.com covers 800 towns across America, providing an
incredible infrastructure for citizen journalism in time for
the 2012 election, and a focus on community and local solu-
tions that have been an integral part of the HuffPost’s DNA.
Check. Original video? AOL’s just finished building a pair of
state-of-the-art video studios in New York and LA. Check.
More sections? AutoBlog, Music, AOL Latino, Black Voices,
etc., etc., etc., etc. fill gaps in HuffPost’s coverage. As Tim
(Armstrong) and I have been saying over the last couple of
weeks: 1 + 1 = 11.”
So these two Internet “newspapers” headed off in com-
pletely opposite directions—The Daily with its small, neatly
designed two-page stories, and The Huffington Post jumping
onto the wide exponential slide into increasing complexity.
And we’re still left with the question: What will Internet
newspapers ultimately look like? SF
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TECHNOLOGYTECH FORUM