Let us take a look at her daily activities:
call someone
check and/or send or forward email
send short instructions
take photos, record videos
set tasks, to-dos and reminders
download a document, or correct and re-send
prepare a report
organize an event
a calendar of events
prepare for a meeting
take notes during a meeting
browse the web
bookmark interesting stuff
write a speech
keep notes about staff
Share stuff
keep a diary maybe
Some of these activities are also done at home as part of her personal needs. In addition, she is most likely to socialize online through social media like Facebook.
Let's group the tasks according to their nature, like so:
The first five tasks can be easily accomplished by most mobile phones today.
call someone
check email
messaging
take photos, record videos
set tasks, to-dos and reminders
The remaining items on the task list are better performed on a desktop computer or a tablet PC.
First, we will look at the tools she uses to perform her tasks.
Next, we will look at the ways in which the content on one device can be made available in the other - let's call it "content portability".
There is one other thing - what is the use of the content, your data, when it is not available when you need it? Though everyone likes to stay always connected online, this may not happen for various reasons. The cost may be prohibitive, the location may be out of the coverage area or the network is down. But we need to have access to our content whether we are online or offline - let's call it "content availability".
We will now provide a 'recipe' of tools that help her to be productive with the least effort possible.
1. Calling someone is the easiest part. But what if you want to call someone for an online chat? you may want to text, talk or walk the person through a PowerPoint presentation. Or, closer home, you might want to show your latest purchases and how to use them? if for some reason you cannot get the other person to chat, you might want to call their landline number from your messenger. This is a cheaper alternative to international calls.
Use Skype. To install the program, go to the web address http://www.skype.com. You will need a Skype account to use it. Register for an account; it is free. Skype is available for most mobile phones, the desktops or laptops and tablet PCs.
Some benefits
* Skype allows you to record messages for offline use.
* Call landline numbers
* Conference with multiple Skype users for chat, audio or video or in any combination.
2. Email is the next best thing to happen after the phone. Every device worth its name has this facility built right into it. You can go to your email account from a browser, but for offline access it is best if you use an email client.
You need to configure your email client program in your device to the email account you have registered with.
3. Messaging
Skype does the job well.
4. Taking photos and record videos on a mobile device needs no explanation. The devices are made just for that.
5. Getting things done is perhaps the most important activity of our life. Keeping oneself organized needs no emphasis. Scheduling and keeping track of our tasks definitely increases our productivity. So, for the tools now.
* Every device has a calendaring and scheduling tool. It helps you to perform the following things:
set to-do
set a reminder for a task or a meeting
set a wake-up call
mark events like birthdays and anniversaries
Now, the calendaring apps differ from device to device. There is currently no easy way to transfer your schedules from one device to another. Nor is there a clean and simple way to store it on the cloud. (To know what cloud means, read on).
The simple way to set your appointments and schedule your events is to use the feature in your mobile phone. Set alarms to remind you. Use the help feature that comes with your phone on how to use it. Keeping your schedules is entirely up to you. No reminder call can wake a person who is pretending to be sleeping.
6. Working with documents is not so easy on a mobile device. Though there are a number of freebies to help you out, it is very difficult to type out a decent document entirely from your handheld, be it a touch type or a touch and type variety. A tablet is more suited for this purpose and a plethora of apps are available for a price to cover a broad range of features.
On a mobile device, install QuickOffice which opens almost all MS Office files and PDF. For picture and video files, all devices will have the required tools. There are more tools out there for pics and videos than for other productive work. A plain text file that even a browser can open is no problem at all.
An email attachment usually one of the following document types.
* Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint
* Open Office Document
* Adobe's PDF
* A picture file such as a JPEG, GIF or a PNG
* A video file
* A plain text file TXT
QuickOffice supports Microsoft Office documents and allows you to create, edit and store documents on your device. MS Word is usually an overkill for the kind of tasks most people do. The office applications available out there for a small price fit the bill perfectly. And their ability to open and work with MS Office documents is definitely an advantage. You begin working on your document on a desktop or a laptop and end up editing and emailing it from your mobile device. It is that simple. But the trick is in getting access to the same document in both the devices. To see how read on.
7. Prepare a report on your desktop at home. You know you need to modify it as it is still a draft now. You got the facts, figures and pictures in place and you need to arrange them as you go. There are several ways to do it. But which is the best way?
Carry it on a thumb drive (a.k.a. Flash drive or a USB stick) and transfer it to your office computer. But, a mobile device cannot access it; it is only good for another laptop or a desktop. So, tether a Bluetooth device to your laptop and transfer it. Or, use a WiFi connection to transfer it. Or, directly hook your mobile device to the laptop through a connector chord and transfer it.
Alternatively, send yourself an email with this document as an attachment. Then when you go to the office, you download the document and work on it. Or, access it through your mobile from your email client.
All this is passé.
Use a CLOUD service.
Someone with prescience very aptly put it: network is your computer. Cloud based services are everywhere. Access to cloud services is free. Almost everyone today has something up in the cloud. A cloud is your personalized storage space, the size of which depends on whether you are a freeloader or a premium user.
Dropbox is the most widely used cloud service today. It works on almost all devices. All you will ever need is a Dropbox client program (available from http://www.dropbox.com) and install it on your device.
So the lady types out her document on her laptop and drops it in a folder that she has set up to be used by the Dropbox client. When you are connected to the Internet, the client faithfully and immediately transfers her document to the cloud and voila! It is now ready for download on her device anytime and anywhere she has access to the Internet.
Pssst. I am now going to take a break. So, I am going to sync this composition on my iPad to my Dropbox account. Just so that I don't lose it even if this device (god forbid!) crashes or worse is broken.
Done. Took me about a couple of seconds, no more. Now it is available on my mobile phone, my laptop, my desktop or any fancy gadget I may purchase in the future.
To be continued...
