iParadise Lost

So can your high tech hardware save a small business in these bleak times ? The short answer is always no as only cash flow can do that and I don't see any government bail outs for small businesses and interest free loans at this crunch time. But looking at the the way tech stuff is now so portable and the need for office space or other sundry products (fax stationary postage etc) is reduced it would make good sense to do a real tech audit to see what you need for your business and more importantly look at the way you use that tech too.

For those bold enterpreneurs that are just starting out take a visit and have a scheduled one to one enterprise meeting at any Apple store for example, give your budget and needs to these consultants you might get a good up to date package that will best meet what you want to spend and they will train you to use it for free afterwards.

At the end of day with most portable or even desktop solutions most of us surf,email and write documents so a state of the art pro system will hardly be taxed by that so always see what consumer models are on offer.

It's always possible to save on buying the last but one software/hardware upgrade but really check first as those ever so high discounts may just mean really outdated stock and a year or so down the line you might find yourself in need of another upgrade.

On the mobile office front be very aware that the latest and greatest may give you the ultimate flexible lifestyle and all you can eat anywhere data option but this will be tied into the very expensive contracts that basically become a new 2 years overhead cost before you've even thought about writing an invoice and god forbid if you use these smart phones abroad as i did recently - one data download session of less than five minutes cost me almost 20 quid for a bunch of messages and a load of spam that the wonderous iPhone has no way of sorting so you end up paying for the whole lot.

So what would you buy as a package if you had £1000 to spend today on a tech system for a start up ?

More tomorrow...

Watching the release of the new iPods an all the features and menus it got me think that ing compared to the good old days of 2001 the interface is now looking a little bloated. I know that we seems to need it to do so many things and not just play our music. But funny thing is with Apple the dominant market leader Microsoft has been trying to outgun them for the last few years with Zune. And you know looking at the software functions and the interface GUI I really have to say the Zune wins its so charming and simple and very Apple !! So Saying that doesn't anyone think that perhaps the whole OS X on its next update called Snow Leopard need to go a a diet too ?

And this means

fast syncing and back up
better battery (wish they would say how much better)
No security flaw with access via emergency calls
Better email and SMS receiving and sending
Itunes genius feature (yawn)
Oh and get this the 3G sign has changed up top I have seen some insane ravings about this alone

But still no

Cut and paste
Better data usage record
Flash for safari
Delete all email feature

Perhaps we have stepped out of the beta with this update, was anyone hoping for something else out there...

If youre not one of the 160,000,000 current owners here are some of the new crop details

Classic
It just got bigger to 120GB from 80GB (had to catch up with the new Zune this time) Thin model only.

Nano
Redesign - back to old tall thin ratio, curved glass and thinnest ipod ever. Shakes to shuffle tilt to landscape aspect screen. 24 hours of play and 4 hours of video. Voice recording when it detects a microphone, new colours and very green materials. 8 and 16 GB. also spoke menus of all on the screen.

Touch
Button for volume and speaker, thinner and sleaker, built in Nike running app. 8 16 and 32 G.

On top of that itunes 8 is out with a genius feature that makes intelligent play lists, grid view to browse by cover and if your in the US HD TV shows.

Finally new earphones with built in control and microphone and new in ear earphones too. (NB wont work with new iphone for volume controls)

Another refine of the brand that still has 73% market share, 5000 add on products - hey ho if your a competitor you just had your Christmas holidays cancelled..

Ps iphone 2.1 out friday with dramatically improved battery life hmm gotta see that...

Only hours before the little Let's rock event and it seems the new Nano is likely to have the most radical changes, a new iPhone like interface, shake to shuffle and tilt to cover flow features among the top stuff....