Smartlife

If you ask any book publisher, library or archivist, they will tell you decisively: Paper is out.

Documents of all kinds are going digital. In fact, digitizing paper documents is already a multi-million dollar industry. Large, small, public, and private companies are all trading in their archaic paper-based filing systems for database-driven digital equivalents.

But, there didn’t seem to be a personal solution for digitizing documents. There are plenty of “syncing” services and “cloud based” accounts that can help an individual organize files that are already digital, but has anyone…

Everyone wants an iPad; anyone who says otherwise is a liar. Even those who deny the potential of an iPad due to its “mainstream” status are secretly jealous or just permanently grumpy people. The only reason anyone wouldn’t buy a new iPad or other tablet is money. It may be a very fun toy, but playing iPad games isn’t exactly worth the expense.

Which is why we’re here to tell you how to use an iPad for business.

We’ve looked at incredible upgrades for your iPad before, but…

After initial mockery, the iPad is enormously successful and it’s definitely here to stay. By Apple standards, as you know, this means that while there will always be an “iPad,” it will always be a full-price new one which is obsolete six months later.

It absolutely dominates the tablet computer market — mainly because it made people notice that there was such a thing — with a 95% market share and over 4 million iPads sold. This success has created a new problem for owners: it’s no longer impressive simply…

Managing your contacts isn’t as simple as it used to be: you need to know your contacts’ office phone numbers, cell phone numbers, email addresses, websites, and even Twitter profiles to have a good chance of being able to get in touch with them. An old-fashioned address book just can’t keep up. On the other hand, many customer-relationship management (CRM) tools are a little bit overkill for someone who just would have relied on a Rolodex back in the day. These tools provide a happy medium.

1. Google Contacts: Gmail

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Even though we are moving toward an increasingly paperless society, the single best way to exchange contact information in person is still to swap business cards. This is particularly true of larger events where you will meet and greet with a great number of people in a short span of time. The trouble, then, is trying to organize all this information after the fact.

It is far too time-consuming to open up your preferred contact management software to enter each contact’s information individually. There has to be a better way.…

Two years ago, we took a look at Shoeboxed.com. In short, you’re able to outsource your receipt management to this company — it scans, categorizes, and organizes your receipts for your online management. The receipts are then be securely shredded and discarded.

From your end, all you had to do was stuff all of your business receipts (and personal receipts, for that matter) into a prepaid envelope and Shoeboxed.com would take care of the rest. In addition to paper receipts, you can also send receipts via…