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How to get the most from your smartphone
Add-ons and accessories make a smart phone even smarter |
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| By now, many of you will have upgraded your PDAs and cell phones into a single unit—the almost ubiquitous "smartphone." A smartphone, like the HP iPAQ hw6940 Mobile Messenger, has lots of built-in utility. That's a major selling point, and the reason most accountants make the switch from separate units. |
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| But, as smart as your phone may be, it's easy to make it smarter, faster and more powerful. |
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| Before you attempt any of the upgrades mentioned here (or elsewhere), it's a good idea to back up the content in your phone. In fact, it's a good idea to do this on a regular basis in any case. Many of us have learned this lesson the hard way, having lost a phone, or having had it depart for phone heaven, along with our only copy of an extensive contact list. |
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| Most smartphones come with a utility for a PC that lets you back up the phone's memory, including your phone book and contact list, on to your desktop or Notebook PC. At worst, you can remove the phone's memory card, and use a card reader to transfer files from the card to a folder on your PC. |
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| The HP iPAQ hw6940 Mobile Messenger provides a good baseline to see what can be done with upgrading, simply because it comes with so many applications to start with. Here are a few ways to boost its brainpower: |
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More Memory: The iPAQ has 64MB of RAM for applications available on a Micro SD card. HP offers a 1GB Micro SD Card to replace this, and other vendors have Micro SD Cards with capacities as high as 16GB! That will certainly give you plenty of room for applications, photos, and even video. |
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GPS: Some smartphones have GPS built in, like the HP iPAQ hw6940. But for those that don't, you can often add GPS and navigation capability with a Bluetooth GPS receiver and software like the Pharos GPS Bluetooth Navigator and Ostia Software or ALK's CoPilot Live 7 North American Bluetooth Edition. |
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Time Tracking: If your firm or company uses one of the popular time and billing or practice management applications, there's a good chance that there will be a PDA add-on that will work with your smartphone. This makes it easy to capture this valuable data as it occurs, not when you have a few spare minutes. |
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Zagat-To-Go: If you've ever been puzzled on where to take a client for lunch or dinner, or are a frequent traveler, you'll appreciate the mobile edition of the Zagat Guide. At less than $30 a year, it's very affordable, and it's beamed straight to your smartphone, so you always have the latest restaurant, night spot, hotel, and golf course data and reviews. |
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| Of course, this list barely scratches the surface. The list of applications that you can add to your smartphone is truly staggering, and is growing longer as you read this column. |
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| With all of these brain boosters available, it's easy to give your smartphone a leg up, and make the device even more useful to you than it is already. |
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| More at HP.com |
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| Rick Telberg is the most widely-followed commentator in the finance and accounting profession. He has helped launch and develop several industry-leading businesses, including the magazines Accounting Today, Accounting Technology and Practical Accountant magazines, and the websites WebCPA, SmartPros, and CPA2Biz. He serves as Editor At Large for the AICPA Insider family of e-newsletters and blogs at www.cpatrendlines.com. |
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| Any views or comments expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and not necessarily those of any other organization. No person quoted or cited has any known connection to or interest in Hewlett Packard, and their appearance here should not be construed as an endorsement. |
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| Copyright 2008 CPA Trendlines/BSG LLC. All rights reserved. Used by permission. |
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