Monday, July 5, 2010

Our thoughts on the iPad for business published in The Age

The iPad is not just a development device to us here at jTribe. We use it in all aspects of our business as well. Recently we were interviewed for an article on how the iPad is being used for business. This has recently be published in The Age Small Business Section here - iPad for small business: hot or not?

"... Daniel Bradby, director of jTribe, which creates applications for iPads and iPhones, relies on it as an essential business tool. “We make presentations to clients on an iPad; it's great for showing our multimedia capabilities and screen shots of applications we've developed. It's a relaxed and informal way of presenting. It's a really collaborative device and clients can also use the screen.”

Bradby says the collaborative nature of the iPad also means it's useful when his team develops presentations. “It's great because two people can touch the screen at the same time. It really is a shared control device, and it doesn't have the formality of the mouse and keyboard.”

Bradby and his team use the iPad to undertake research when developing client presentations and also during client meetings. “You can Google something then and there and move on, rather than having to wait until after the meeting to find out a piece of information.”

The key application Bradby uses is Apple's iWorks suite, which includes the Pages word processing program, the Numbers spreadsheet tool and Keynote presentation software. He also consumes content such as newspapers on the iPad.

Although he's an advocate for the iPad Bradby recognises it has potential for improvement. “You can view your calendar but you can't create a meeting invitation from the iPad,” he says."

Just to clarify the last piece about calendars on the iPad. Yes you can create invites on the iPad, but you cannot currently open calendar invites from emails, or add invitees for events created on shared calendars. However I know Apple is listening and will have it fixed shortly ... please?

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