TECH PAGE
Gadgets
Business isn’t all work and no play. Your business tools
shouldn’t be, either. By Charles Boffard.
ASUS EEE PAD
TRANSFORMER PRIME
FROM R5 800
za.asus.com
Tablets are best for consuming media, while laptops are best for producing documents. Then
there’s the Transformer Prime, an Android
touchscreen laptop that becomes a
tablet when its keyboard is detached.
The Transformer is a hybrid, but not a
compromise: it’s a light-weight (1.1kg in total),
well-built machine that succeeds in both roles,
with an outstanding 10.1inch/25.7cm screen,
a fast 1.3GHz quad-core processor, and a second battery in the keyboard which extends its
endurance to 18 hours.
DRAGON NATURALLY
SPEAKING 11.5 PREMIUM
Charles Boffard is Deputy Editor of Stuff magazine.
R1 700
nuance.com
More bad news for keyboard manufacturers:
voice recognition has come of age. Market leader
Dragon Naturally Speaking’s latest version (11.5)
is a dramatic improvement on the technology of
just two years ago.
You can dictate to your computer, iPhone or
digital voice recorder and Dragon can transcribe
the audio files into most standard Windows or
Mac applications faster than you can type. It
does this with up to 99% recognition accuracy.
You can also perform some computer tasks by
voice command. Medical and legal versions offer
specialist vocabularies, but we think the Premium Edition’s business vocabulary should suffice
for bankers.
SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE
FROM R8 000
samsung.co.za
At 147x83mm, this gorgeous Android smartphone is not for everybody – and you can forget
about fitting it into trouser pocket.
The Note is halfway between phone and tablet,
with a very hi-res, 5.3inch/13.5cm touchscreen
and a fast 1.4GHz dual-core processor. It offers a
fast, slick experience and houses its own stylus,
with decent handwriting recognition.
Is it a good business tool? Yes. But for most
business users a tablet offers more capability. If
you’ve a need for handwritten notes, fine. Otherwise, the Note’s appeal – and it has plenty – isn’t
primarily as a business tool.
MUST-HAVE
PRODUCTIVITY APPS
IF YOU DON’T WORK WITH THESE
APPS, IT’S TIME YOU DID
DROPBOX
FREE
dropbox.com
Dropbox is a cloud-based file hosting
service that allows you to store, sync
and share files and folders via the
internet. It’s very simple to use – all
you have to do is drag and drop the
files into a desktop folder.
Premium versions offer more storage space and sophisticated options
such as Dropbox for Teams, with
administrative control and ‘bankgrade’ encryption.
READ IT LATER
FREE
readitlaterlist.com
Mac OS, Windows, Android, iPhone/
iPad, Win Phone 7, BlackBerry, WebOS,
eBook Reader, Twitter
The New York Times calls it ‘PVR
for the web’. Read It Later lets you
bookmark pages, with one click,
to read later, downloading offline
copies of your pages, including their
text, images and video, so you can
read them whenever and wherever
it suits you, even when offline, on
any of your internet devices.
EXPENSIFY
FREE
expensify.com
iPhone/iPad, Android, WebOS, and
BlackBerry
Keeping track of expenses should be
a less taxing experience. With Expensify, you can log, categorise and upload expenses on your mobile as you
incur them, adding notes and linked
photos of receipts if you wish.
Emailed receipts can be linked
subsequently, and you can also import credit card records, producing a
complete expense report.
Edition 1
SA BANKER
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