As an Apple iPad owner from the day the first units were delivered to customers, I’ve spent a lot of time finding out how to get the most out of its functionality. I’ve assembled this simple guide, which will serve as an updated work in progress, for those of you who may be new to the iPad and iOS platform and are looking for interoperability solutions.

Calender, Contact and Email Integration

The iPad includes support for a number of different types of calenders and email accounts.

The iPad can support Microsoft Exchange, POP3/IMAP4, GMail, Yahoo, AOL and MobileMe email accounts.

Most business users will want to use Exchange ActiveSync connectivity to synchronise Calender, Mail and Contacts on the iPad.

The Microsoft Exchange (ActiveSync) configuration screen

When using Exchange accounts on the iPad, your company systems administrator will provide you with the login information which includes your domain and hostname of the Exchange server, your email address, your username and password.

Once configured, your Apple iPad will be automatically set up to synchronise your email as well as contacts from your company directory services and your personal address book and also permit synchronisation between your company calendar in Outlook and the iPad’s Calendar application.

The Apple iPad also supports standard POP3 and IMAP4 email accounts through its “Other” account setup wizard option and also supports LDAP-based directory services if your organisation uses them for the Contacts synchronisation.

Professionals who use Web-based services for Calender and Mail such as GMail/Google will need to do some further customisation for iPad integration.

In the case of GMail, you’ll want to forgo the built-in iPad GMail wizard for mail setup and use GMail Exchange Emulation (Google Sync) instead, which provides for synchronization of Calendaring and Contacts in addition to just plain email.

As with GMail accounts, Microsoft Live Hotmail users can now add email, calendaring and contacts support via Exchange emulation (Exchange Activesync). To set up Activesync on your iPad.

Alternatively, Windows Live users might wish to consider mBoxMail, a 3rd-party application for iPad and iPhone which has full support for Windows Live Hotmail folders as well as contacts.

Adding Frequently Used Websites and Bookmark Sync

A nice feature of the iPad is the ability to bookmark frequently used websites directly to the Home Screen. LinedIn, Facebook and the mobile versions of Windows Live, Yahoo and the various Google sites are all useful to have as instant access shortcuts.

To add a home screen shortcut, just click on the “Plus” icon in Safari when viewing any website.

If you have many websites bookmarked in your PC or Mac browser, you can migrate them over to your iPad by using XMarks, a free service which syncs your favorite bookmarks from Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari to the Cloud.

While XMarks bookmarks cannot be synced into the iPad’s Safari directly, you can view them using the Mobile XMarks Website and bookmark it to your Home Screen as shown above. Further to this, XMarks has created a native iOS application which essentially performs the same functions as the mobile XMarks website, but does a synchronisation.

Document Viewing and Data Exchange

One of the most difficult adjustments business users may find when getting accustomed to iOS devices such as the Apple iPad is the closed nature of the device and how to get their documents and data transferred to it.

Unlike a laptop, you just can’t connect a USB stick or a storage card into it and copy files to a directory on the device that any number of applications can directly access. On the Apple iPad, each application maintains its own distinct database and is for the most part isolated from one another. Additionally, the iPad has no native facility for networking with corporate or cloud-based file servers.

Instead, there are a number of programs which can allow you to add this capability in.

The most important of which is a 59p application and should be considered a mandatory download, GoodReader.

Goodreader for iPad supports the viewing of many document formats including PDF and Microsoft Office files, permits direct Wi-Fi transfer of data directly to the iPad, and can connect to a variety of cloud-based storage services.

GoodReader will be the best 59p you’ve ever invested in your iPad. With this seemingly magical application, you can view PDF and a myriad of other data formats including Microsoft Office, HTML, image files as well as audio and video formats. Additionally, you can connect to several popular cloud-based storage services including DropBox (which has its own viewer app but is inferior to GoodReader) WebDAV servers and directly access files stored on Google Docs and within GMail itself.

As if this wasn’t impressive enough, you can also directly transfer files to GoodReader wirelessly using a simple Web-based GUI from your PC or Mac, or via WebDAV-based drag and drop network share.

QuickOffice Connect

Similar to GoodReader is QuickOffice Connect which in addition to viewing a variety of formats including PDF, is capable of actually editing Microsoft Office files and could be considered an office suite for iPad similar to Apple’s own Pages, Keynote and Numbers apps. Like GoodReader, QuickOffice Connect can also act as a WebDAV server and files can be transferred directly to it wirelessly.

A competitor to QuickOffice Connect is Dataviz’s Documents to Go Premium, which advertises similar functionality but also integrates email attachments from the iPad’s Mail app. Documents to Go also includes a wireless sync desktop application that permits PCs and Macs to synchronize with files on the iPad.

Another popular and free application, Memeo Connect, is specifically optimized for reading data stored in Google Docs. While less functional than QuickOffice Connect, Documents to Go and GoodReader, it has an extremely aesthetically pleasing GUI which simulates a desktop folder paradigm and automatically organizes your documents by file type. While not able to edit documents by itself, it is able to import data into QuickOffice, GoodReader as well as Apple’s Pages, Keynote and Numbers apps.

In addition to the above general-purpose reader/viewer apps above, another must-download for the iPad is Stanza, which is technically an E-Book reader but is capable of viewing EPUB files which can be generated by using the Open Source Calibre program for Windows, Mac and Linux. Calibre can read and convert many formats to EPUB which can be uploaded to Stanza.

Additionally, Calibre can act as an OPDS content server to host an entire EPUB library on your PC or Mac, which can be remotely connected to by Stanza. This means you can have tens of thousands of documents stored and indexed on your PC (or your web server/cloud storage service) which you don’t need to upload directly to your iPad, which could potentially cause backup problems.

In addition to OPDS feeds as well as iTunes USB sync, Stanza can also import EPUB files directly from email attachments.

Do you have any more essential iPad advice and software for business users? Reply below and let us know.

Connected business are currently offering all Northern Ireland businesses FREE iPads if they take an appointment with one of our account managers to see if we can offer their company a better deal on their business mobiles.

Get a FREE iPad

Driver education and training have a key role to play here. Teaching drivers the basics of economical driving not only saves money but can save lives by reducing stress and cutting accident risk. One of our clients, through the use of TomTom Technology, has reduced costs throughout their fleet by identifying staff who display poor driving styles and in need of re-training. Efficient drivers, who stay within the Fleet KPi’s which the company has set, are appropriately rewarded. Since the introduction of TomTom Technology this company has seen a marked decrease in accidents, speeding, vehicles off the road for un-scheduled servicing and most of all in fuel savings.

Good planning of vehicle use and deployment of your staff are also paramount when it comes to saving fuel. This is due to the fact that most transport and movement by road involves a large amount of wasted mileage. Drivers do not travel from A to B by the shortest route and empty running has been endemic in the road haulage industry ever since the truck took over from the horse. Moreover, do you know if your staff driving for the sake of driving?

If this is the case, planning based on connected navigation technology from TomTom can really make a difference. It can show you where your vehicles and people are all times and provide historical information that allows you to plan collection or delivery rounds more effectively. It can also enable you to send the nearest person or vehicle to perform a task or pick up a consignment, cutting the amount of fuel used, increasing productivity and leading to happy customers! Having all vehicles in the fleet equipped with a navigation device can have an impact on your net profit and reduce driver stress. A survey commissioned by TomTom has shown that the use of a navigation device while driving in an unknown area can result in savings in mileage up to 16%. Naturally this has a positive effect on a company’s fuel costs as well as increasing the productivity of your mobile workforce.

Local Company McGimpsey Removals has invested in TomTom technology that now allows them to have more control over their vehicles and activities on the road, enabling their office staff to work at optimum efficiency. In turn they have seen a significant reduction in their annual insurance, fuel and servicing costs across their fleet.

Drive sensibly: Driving aggressively, accelerating or breaking not only makes you look like a bit of a fool, but it wastes fuel too – up to 60% more in fact! When pulling away from the lights, try to accelerate gently.

Read the road ahead: By anticipating what is coming up, you will not only be a safer driver, but you will save fuel by starting to slow down early and avoid sudden stops.

Do not over rev the engine: Revving the engine, whilst stationary, does nothing except waste fuel!

Get in gear: Correct use of gears can create huge savings on your fuel bill – up to 15%! Make sure you change up into a higher gear as soon as its possible and safe to do so

Stick to the limit: Doing 80mph on the motorway will use between 10% and 20% more fuel than doing 70mph, not to mention the fact that it is illegal! For a 20 mile motorway journey, driving at 80mph will only save you about 2 minutes compared to driving at 70mph anyway!

Check your Tyres: Make sure you check your tyre pressures regularly (at least once every 2 weeks). An under-inflated tyre can increase fuel consumption by 3% and it will wear the tyre out quicker too.

Service your Vehicles: Try to keep your car well maintained by making sure the recommended service schedule is followed, either by taking it to a reputable garage or servicing it yourself. A well-tuned engine with fresh, clean oil and new air filters will run more efficiently than an engine that has been neglected.

As companies get more sensitive about costs in the current commercial environment they value ongoing face to face reviews of their accounts. Many of our competitors have moved away from this and handle all queries over the telephone. This has given Connected a unique proposition – even customers with 5 phones can benefit from a dedicated face to face account manager. As well as advising on keeping costs down, we are in a great position to assist businesses in many other ways

The world of telecommunications is constantly changing. Only a few years ago smart phones were the preserve of only a relatively small number of business users, but now the world of apps, email on the move and mobile computing is familiar to all. Assisting businesses in keeping track of all these developments and in ensuring they integrate these solutions efficiently into their business is key to the service supplied by Connected.

While there are many changes some problems have been affecting businesses for many years. Business customers in Northern Ireland have long complained about the additional costs of doing business in Ireland due to the issue of roaming – being charged extra for receiving and making calls while on the ROI mobile networks.

This has major cost implications in border areas, but in reality affects businesses throughout Northern Ireland.

In line with their track record of innovation on behalf of customers, Connected have been able to address this problem, with a unique All Ireland Tariff. This tariff allows calls received while roaming in ROI, calls made to ROI numbers, calls made to ROI numbers while in ROI and calls back to the UK ALL to be included as bundled minutes. This tariff allows, for the first time, customers to get a definite ‘fix’ on their costs when using their mobiles to do business with ROI.

Connected have always been asked by businesses for ways to address this problem. Until now, most of the solutions have been less than suitable. The costs that businesses have to absorb can be dramatic. With one company operating in and around the border with only 15 handsets we were able to reduce roaming costs by £30,000 per annum. That represents real bottom line savings for our customers, yet makes no impact on their ability to do business efficiently.

Given their dedication to customer care and desire to innovate, it is little wonder that Connected continues to strengthen and grow. While it was only established a little over three years ago, the fresh approach has led to consistent growth, despite operating in this current recessionary environment.

Connected benefits from having both an experienced board, with over thirty years broad telecoms experience combined with a commitment to customer care and a fresh approach. They look forward to consistent growth over the next 36 months, providing new and existing customers with superior customer service.

Get a Quote!

The communications regulator deregulated the retail telecoms market, in effect loosening ties on BT.

The FTSE 100 group can now offer discounts on its bundle of services (such as broadband and digital television) including, for the first time, fixed-line calls.

Ofcom said it had removed one of the last pieces of regulation in the retail fixed-line telephone market 25 years after BT’s privatisation as it no longer held “significant market power” in most UK markets. Ofcom’s chief executive, Ed Richards, said it was “an important step in deregulating telecoms where competition can be relied upon to serve the consumer”.

More than 12 million UK households and small businesses use a telecoms provider other than BT. Rivals including Virgin Media, BSkyB and TalkTalk “provide effective competition to BT,” the regulator added. BT has 14 million fixed-line customers.

Gavin Patterson, the chief executive of BT’s retail division, welcomed the move saying: “It means BT will be competing on a more level playing field than previously. Britons are increasingly taking bundled packages. In 2008, 46 per cent of UK consumers bought two or more communications services from one provider, up from 29 per cent in 2005, according to Ofcom’s latest figures.

Ofcom said the rise in competition was spurred by the creation of Openreach by BT in 2005, a division that installs and maintains the “first mile” network of fibres and cables from homes and businesses to local telephone exchanges. Openreach provides services to BT’s rivals on equal terms.