The Tech Gap

Not an Everyday Tool --- But When You Need it, it's Great

I recently ran across a nifty little <$30 utility that, in the right situation, you just might find invaluable. Professional Renamer, from Miklsoft, helps catalog images, music and other content of your hard drive via more meaningful file names. The program offers templates and filtering to save time and maintain consistency of name patterns.

The template system allows application of different name patterns to every file type. A name pattern can include up several (up to nine) fields with user-set separators in between. Each field in turn carries a variety of attributes --- such as source name, date, time, counter, user string etc. The attributes are set through dialogs. For instance, time can form a part of a name string.    

The program's interface includes a three-panel window which allows movement through system folders,  editing templates, and changes to file names at the same time.

Certainly not something you'll use every day --- but if your stash of digital photos is out of control this might be a good starting point for a "do-over". One CPA told me he intended to use Professional Renamer to re-organize his PDF files.

No endorsement here as the company is Russian. Consider this just information.

gll

Bluetooth Fabric Keyboard

This caught my eye at CES --- a rollable fabric keyboard! It's called the ElekTex and it's from Eleksen. It's fairly lightweight and very flexible --- clearly designed for portable computing. And, it uses Bluetooth for connectivity. It's100 % fabric and claims to be water-repellent. It appears to be quite durable too. The 68 key standard keyboard ships with a PDA stand, runs on AAA-cells, and when rolled up it will fit nicely in your pocket. It has a standard QWERTY keyboard design, is charcoal gray and sports embedded LEDs indicating keyboard Bluetooth connectivity status.

I'm not ready to go but one just yet but someday --- soon --- maybe when Sprint gets the Treo 700w --- and I start to travel WITHOUT my trusty Tablet-PC.

gll

Better Connections

Courtesy of accountant / technologist extraordinaire RICH OPPENHEIM

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The mobile professional needs all the help they can get. They have a need to stay in touch with support facilities, colleagues near and far, clients/customers near and far, news and events of all sizes. Devices, such as Blackberry and Windows mobile PDAs, have provided a start in this direction. Today everyone is mobile and can be easily disconnected from their sources of information. 

One company, eAgency, has spent a lot of years developing a very usable application that integrates  web sites, broadband, wireless connectivity, hand-held devices, and people. The application is called NiceOffice. It enables the SMB, SOHO based enterprise to play like the big companies. On the surface, NiceOffice is a customer relationship management (CRM) system on steroids. In addition to providing contact information, the system provides direct links from the company web site pages with the user’s hand-held device. So, let’s say a client checks a box on a web page requesting help with a tax question. The request, complete with the client’s contact information is delivered in a usable form the hand-held device.

NiceOffice has lots of other features, such as importing from Outlook and other contact management programs. Users can access the website from their laptop so they can make entries, create reports, and do editing with a full sized keyboard and screen. Pricing has 3 tiers:

1 -NiceOffice Personal - only the website application on a computer – FREE

2 -NiceOffice Wireless – connecting through mobile wireless device - $19.95/mo/person

3 -NiceOffice Small Business – more features for increased connectivity - $29.95/mo/person

Large companies are deploying this feature rich capability using expensive custom developed applications. With NiceOffice small firms can participate in this technology for not a lot of money. The initial investment is for the Blackberry or PDA devices. After that, the cost is a monthly fee and the time it takes to learn how to use the new features. NiceOffice is targeted at the SMB world. CPAs who are constantly moving now have a connecting product that enables heavyweight applications for a lightweight price.

Hand-held devices are getting better with vastly improved functionality. When the road warrior is mobile, one full featured hand-held could replace the combination of laptop, cell phone, pager, and PDA in the device bag. Trading one lightweight device for four different units is OK with me.

Rich Oppenheim

The Oppenheim Group

A Report From the Treo 700w Hands-on Lab

Well, I finally got my hands on a Treo 700w --- it took a 20 minute wait in line at CES. There were a half dozen units available and each attendee was allowed about 8 minutes. In 2 minutes I had already made my decision.

I WANT ONE!!!

In a column a few months ago I wrote about EVDO and now, after actually experiencing it, I can attest that it's simply awesome. The speed of the Treo 700w's web browser is very, very impressive. It is pretty much like working with traditional wireless 802.11 broadband. I'm not going to "review" the 700w but rather will point you here for a comprehensive video demonstration. If you're a Verizon customer the 700w is available today. Sprint customers will have to wait awhile yet. The rest of you are in limbo as Palm decides if they want to implement EVDO's under-performing little sister -- EDGE.

And speaking of Palm, they have an archieved webinar entitled "Delivering Critical Data to Your Enterprise" which details some of the roll-out options for the 700w. No endorsement here for the webinar, just information. Click here to connect.

gll

Babble will Boggle Your Mind and Bamboozle Eavesdroppers

More stuff from CES: I know it was over a month ago, but I keep digging through all the notes I collected and keep finding these neat things I want to share with you. Babble is a telephone "sound management system" that provides privacy for a person speaking on a telephone in a less-than-private setting. I must confess that when I saw the Sonare Technologies booth at CES I actually stopped  because I assumed it was something pretty cheesy that I could mock for a cheap laugh. Not so. In five short minutes I moved from skeptic to full believer, perhaps evangelist!

The system consists of a "processing module" and two unobtrusive, fist-sized speakers. Set-up is easy ---- a user plugs their phone into the unit and "records about 30 seconds of speech. WHAT you say matters not, just that you speak in a normal tone for at least 30 seconds. After that, and from then on, whenever you desire privacy for a conversation you simply press a button on the top of the processor module and the speakers begin broadcasting, at tone and volume level equal to yours, a mixture of current and past randomized words. The result is a low buzz of voices, sounding rather like 50 conversations all going on at the same time. A neighboring worker might easily hear you, but they'll be unable to focus on your words. As a demo I stood 2 feet from a Herman Miller executive and watched as he picked up a handset, looked at me, and began speaking. I could clearly hear and understand him. He then calmly pressed the "Babble Button" and suddenly, although he hadn't moved, I hadn't moved, and his volume hadn't changed ---- I could no longer understand a word he spoke! The combination of his recorded word, randomized with the current ones, rendered the entire conversation unintelligible to me while both he and the (imaginary, in this case) other party spoke in confidence. Magic! No more overheard comments, no more office eavesdroppers. [Note that Babble does NOT protect against wiretap-style eavesdropping --- for that, you're on your own!]

As alluded to above, Babble is a child of the Herman Miller office furniture empire. Unfortunately, it inherited the "high price gene" from its father and is priced at nearly $400. When it drops to about 20% of that (and it will, it's technology!) I'll be a buyer.

Very interesting for the small firm where space, and therefore occasionally privacy, is at a premium.

gll