Intuit Accountants News Central
The CES 2012 Gadget Report: Part 1
The 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, was held in Las Vegas on January 10-13, 2012, and attracted over 153,000 attendees from around the world. The show itself is too large to fit in a single facility, and encompasses over 1.8 million square feet of exhibition space, including the entire Las Vegas Convention Center, as well as a significant portion of the meeting space attached to the Venetian Hotel and Casino. While CES is known as the place where the newest gadgets and home entertainment gear are displayed for buyers and the press, a surprising number of innovations were on display which could help you save time and money in 2012.
The products and service of most interest to accounting professionals are grouped into a number of categories, including Security and Authentication, Personal Computers, Staying Connected, Scanners and Imaging, and Mobile Devices and Applications. In part 1, we’ll cover Security and Authentication, and Personal Computers.
Security and Authentication
Security is one of the most significant areas of concern for accounting professionals, and there were a number of items on display that make it easier to share data with teams while keeping your confidential data private. As accounting professionals learn more about privacy and data security laws, they realize that data security breaches represent a significant risk to their business and reputation. Many firms are formalizing their procedures to prohibit the use of unencrypted e-mail to transmit data, and implementing full disk encryption on laptops, flash drives and smart phones that contain confidential information.
The iTwin and iTwin Multi devices allow users to securely share information using encryption across a high-speed Internet connection with a single person. The iTwin device, which looks like a detachable two-sided USB flash drive, serves as a “cableless connection” to a remote personal computer located anywhere in the world. One of the two flash drives is plugged into each computer, and files can be shared by installing a simple program and granting the remote party access to selected files or folders. Each half of the iTwin serves as the endpoint for a 256-bit hardware-enabled encrypted connection between Windows and MacOS personal computers. The device can be configured to create a workgroup for a team by linking multiple iTwin devices (for a workgroup) to each other, and can be remotely disabled if the device is lost.
Many firms are considering electronic signatures. DocuSign was showing off their digital signature solution, DocuSign Ink. This solution allows 10 million existing users to execute a binding electronic signature on documents using their computer, tablet or other mobile device. This solution is used widely in the real estate industry, and offers a wide range of plans and features to meet the needs of any type of business.
Most of the data storage devices on display had some kind of built-in security to protect the data from unauthorized access. Drive maker Imation had a wide range of hard disks and flash drives on display, including their newly acquired line of IronKey flash drives. While most of existing models on the market use traditional password-based methods to control access to stored data, some newer devices supplemented passwords with built-in fingerprint scanners for biometric authentication. A few prototypes displayed used wireless authentication to a user’s cell phone (either Bluetooth or near field communication), although those devices are not expected to be available until 2013 at the earliest.
Personal Computers
Ultrabooks, also known as super-thin (less than 0.8”) or super light (under 3.1 lbs) laptops with long battery lives (5-8+ hours), similar to a Windows version of an Apple MacBook Air, were on parade around the showroom floor. The gains in boot speed and battery life on these new devices were very stark when compared to my traditional Windows laptop’s slow boot performance.
Some of the most interesting devices:
- Samsung showcased its new 9-Series Ultrabook, which is shown below, and was impossibly thin and light compared to traditional laptops.
- Lenovo’s IdeaPad Yoga Ultrabook, which folds over to form a slate PC, won the 2012 Best of CES Ultrabook award (and was a finalist for the CES Best of Show award).
- The Asus ZENBook UX31, which has a form similar to the current MacBook Air models, is a very impressive device.
While the early UltraBooks have had some bugs to work out (as you would expect with any new product line), they represent a good compromise between a full-sized desktop or laptop and a tablet. It remains to be seen whether these new form factors can bring better margins back to the Windows PC business. Since the Ultrabook spec and name is controlled by Intel, there are multiple manufacturers who are offering these devices, and it seems likely that there will be a price war in this segment over the next year.
Some Windows 7 slate PCs were present, including the Samsung 7-Series. The speed of this device was very impressive, performing a full cold boot of Windows 7 in about 13 seconds and resuming in under 5 seconds. The device starts at $1,299, and includes base specs such as a 128GB SSD, 4 GB of RAM, a Core i7 processor, WiDi wireless display technology and a micro-HDMI jack.
Lenovo IdeaCenter Q180
There were some other interesting personal computers on display, including the Lenovo IdeaCenter Q180, which billed itself as the “World’s Smallest Desktop PC.” The unit is approximately 1” thick and doubles to 2” thick with the add-on optical drive. This device could easily be used as a home theater PC or as a thin client for connecting to hosted desktops, and also uses a fraction of the electricity required by previous generations of hardware.
Toshiba announced a new USB 3.0 15.6” Mobile Monitor for laptops. While this device was interesting, its case is flimsy and most users will want to use the optional AC adapter for a brighter screen than is possible over USB power alone. My pick for most mobile accountants is still the Field Monitor Pro by Mobile Monitor Technologies, who was showing off a prototype unit which could serve as both an external monitor for a PC, as well as a second display for an iPad. The new models from both Toshiba and Mobile Monitor Technologies are expected to be available in the late first quarter or early second quarter of 2012.
Larry Pensack, president of Mobile Monitor Technologies
Part 2 of this article will cover products and services that help businesses increase productivity, including connections, scanners and imaging, and mobile devices and applications.
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