Introducing the Apple iPad
Now you can literally hold the Internet in your hands and navigate naturally with your fingers like you would a newspaper or magazine. Introducing the iPad, what Apple is describing as a whole new kind of device that turns advanced technology into a hand-held experience with instinctive finger-touch navigation, along with an impressive viewing experience.
At just 1.5 lbs, 0.5 inches thick and about 10 inches long, the iPad connects to the fastest Wi-Fi networks to give you access to everything from email, videos and photos, to music, web pages and more at just the touch of a finger. The iPad runs almost 140,000 apps from the App Store (and any you’ve downloaded to your iPhone) and also features iBooks and iTunes stores as well.
The iPad utilizes multi-touch technology similar to that of the iPhone, but on a much larger scale, with over 1000 sensors in the design. The iPad rotates the screen to whatever orientation you are holding it in so basically there’s no up or down and its IPS technology allows for a wide viewing angle so you can hold it any way you want and still enjoy a brilliant display.
The iPad comes with up to 10 hours of battery life and its wireless technology allows you to connect devices such as wireless headphones or the Apple Wireless Keyboard, although the iPad also comes equipped with a touch-screen keyboard and built-in speakers and microphone.
The Wi-Fi iPad is scheduled to hit the market in March, starting at $499, and a 3G model with data speeds up to 7.2 Mbps should hit in April.
Click here to learn more.
What is knowledge and what it means to a CPA firm
In 1910 you were considered educated if you possessed the total knowledge found in that day’s paper.
Today, 2010 – what’s the apples to apples comparison?
An example.
If I asked you if you knew what Sarcomatoid Mesothelioma is – would you know?
Most likely not.
But if I asked you to find me the answer would you know where to go?
Yes. Google. (they have 70% or so world market share)
So does that mean you actually did know what Sarcomatoid Mesothelioma was the first time I asked, since you could pull up the answer in just a matter of seconds?
Hmmmm.
If you live in a ‘connected culture’ your definition of knowledge (or Epistemology) has radically changed over the last 100 years. If you live in a hut in the Amazon (therefore not reading this post) then your epistemology has changed very little if at all.
So what does this mean?
Niche knowledge industries are becoming a commodity in the ‘connect world’. You see this with how audits and how they are being shopped in the market place right now. Price wins….unless…..you focus beyond ‘knowledge’ on thinks like relationships, trust, and the ability to communicate.
In today’s world, ‘knowing’ tax law has been reduced to the power of search and tax applications. However, if your practice’s success is built on such ‘knowledge’, then you are headed for destruction. On the other hand, if your practice has the ability to communicate, thus transforming knowledge into wisdom (actionable knowledge) then you will become an invaluable partner to your clients.
Below is Google’s Super Bowl ad – also their first ever commercial. An example of what I mean by the example mentioned above.
Tax Season Goals
A friend of mine says that most people aim at nothing and hit it with amazing accuracy. I tend to agree. One exercise to go through with your team is to ask them what their tax season goals are (they don’t need to be professional).
Here is what I have heard:
*Don’t gain weight.
*Go to all my daughter’s basketball games.
*Take Sundays off.
*95% of my jobs on budget.
*Get every return done where we have all the information.
Happy Tax Season. Seems to be ramping up.
How my root canal relates to your technology
I bit into a Mounds bar and half my tooth fell out. Clearly, I had a problem. I was 18 years old at the time, and it had been about 10 years since my last dentist visit (no insurance and no $). Not to mention, 8-18 were my worst diet years, filled with jolly ranchers, laffy taffy, and Mounds bars and, as I said, no dentist. Not a good scenario.
A day later I found myself in ‘the chair’ with that haunting light over me, hearing deep sighs from the dentist. “Son, we have a problem. You not only need one root canal, you need THREE.” Horrible news, especially for an 18-year old. But at least I’d found someone who could fix it; someone experienced with helping people get their mouth back in good form, right?
Fast forward 10 years later to a few weeks ago. There I sat in the dentist chair once again, only to hear another deep sigh from the dentist, “Son, you need a root canal.”
What? How on earth? I brush regularly, now with a Sonicare toothbrush nonetheless (Link to my Sonicare post), and haven’t had a single cavity in 10 years. How could this happen?
Turns out the last dentist hadn’t cleaned out the infection properly during the root canal. I won’t go into specifics, but basically tooth #14 has 4 canals, of which the 4th is hard to find. My previous dentist didn’t find it, which means it didn’t get cleaned out. Thus I have had an infection for possibly 10+ years in tooth #14.
Why hadn’t the dentist gotten to the root of the issue (in every senses of the word)? In short, he wasn’t a specialist. He was a generalist. He was actually a great dentist, but he wasn’t a skilled Endodontic Specialist. In certain cases a specialist is needed and, in this case, the dentist didn’t possess the lens needed to find the 4th canal in tooth #14. Luckily my current dentist knew he wasn’t a specialist in this matter so he referred me to an Endodontic Specialist. He was the expert and, for him, finding the 4th canal was routine.
In summary:
I had an issue.
I found help.
It wasn’t the right help.
I had another issue.
I found the right help.
How does this relate to your technology?
Glad you asked. As a CPA firm your technology needs are more complex than SMBs, ie. your clients. Most technology companies are generalists and have 90% of the tools (staff and/or technology) for 90% of the businesses out there. But what happens when your audit application won’t sync? What happens when an update blows up? Most likely a generalist technology company won’t find that 4th canal and may even have no clue how to help you…unless they spend multiple hours looking for a needle in a haystack, which they may or may not find, but will most certainly bill you for.
Why won’t they find it? Like the generalist dentist, they don’t have the right lens. They don’t possess that skill. They are generalists and they may be a great generalist at that…but that’s not what you need. You need a specialist.
*Article was written approx 30 minutes after completing the root canal, I blame typos and non-sense on the drugs!
An amazing look at new technology | The new building blocks?
Xcentric Growth
Xcentric grew 50 percent in our 2009 Gray Matter user count despite the economic challenges of the past year. This growth not only reflects Xcentric’s continued success, but also the accounting industry’s shift toward the Cloud. More and more firms are leveraging the Cloud so they can enjoy the benefits of secure and reliable technology, without needing to have their hands in it.
Xcentric was one of the first to offer a totally outsourced solution to the accounting industry back in 2004, with the introduction of Xcentric Gray Matter. Since then Xcentric has released several new versions of Xcentric Gray Matter and also offers managed services and online backup in the Cloud.
Xcentric has also recently been ranked as the top outsourced technology provider by both the CPA Technology Advisor magazine Readers’ Choice Awards and the Association for Accounting Administration 2010 SaaS Survey.
Xcentric
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