Cropmark Blue-tooth KeypadFrom Other World Computing,

the Cropmark Bluetooth Keypad

is for Apple wireless keyboard

users who prefer using a numeric

keypad rather than the number

keys across the keyboard. The

layout features a design similar

to a calculator, and the one-hand

operation will increase your

speed and accuracy. Bluetooth

Mac keyboards can be coupled

with this 28-key numeric keypad,

which can be clipped to the main

keyboard or used as a separate

input for working with figures,

tax returns, or spreadsheets. It’s

Bluetooth, so it’s plug-and-

play—there are no cables or dri-

vers. The keypad is powered by

two AA batteries. The brushed

aluminum finish and cylindrical

base match the design of the

Apple keyboard, and the linkage

bar lets you snap the two

together. Keys include numerals

0-9, operation keys, hot-keys,

page-up/down, delete forward,

and enter. There’s a power on/off,

a pairing button for use when

attaching to the keyboard, a

power on bar for activating Blue-

tooth, and an LED status signal.

Scissor-type membrane keys

work effortlessly, reducing

fatigue, and the keyboard can be

used attached or as a stand-

alone wireless keyboard with

MacBook, MacBook Pro, and

other Bluetooth-enabled Macs.

Search Bluetooth keypad at

http://eshop.macsales.com.

IRS2GoThe Internal Revenue Service

has produced a smartphone

application that offers helpful

tax information and lets you

check on the status of your tax

refund. IRS2Go works

on both iPhone and

Android systems and

can be downloaded

at no cost from

Apple’s App Store or

the Android Market-

place. To get daily tax

tips, you need only

provide your e-mail

address. The tips will

help with tax plan-

ning and preparation and are

issued daily during the tax filing

season and periodically

throughout the year. Typical

updates include topics such as

free tax help, child tax credits,

the Earned Income Tax Credit,

education credits, and others.

You can also check the status of

your federal refund by supplying

three pieces of information.

First, you enter your Social Secu-

rity number. This is masked and

then encrypted for security. Then

you provide the filing status you

used on your tax return, and,

finally, you enter the amount of

the refund you expect from your

2010 tax return. If you e-file,

the refund information will be

available about 72 hours after

you receive an e-mail acknowl-

edgment notifying you that the

IRS has received your return. If

you file a paper

return, you can

expect three to four weeks to

be added to the wait. There’s

also an IRS Twitter news feed,

@IRSnews, which provides news

and information about numer-

ous topics, including tax law

changes and IRS programs.

Samsung ML-2855NDThe Samsung ML-2855ND is a

single-function monochrome

laser printer that features one of

the lowest costs per page in its

class. Samsung describes it as

the world’s smallest laser printer

with built-in duplexing (two-

sided printing)—its compact

profile of 15.4 ✕ 14.5 ✕ 8.5

inches will fit where many oth-

ers won’t, and it weighs only

19.2 pounds. This is a basic

small or medium-size business

workgroup printer that has

speeds up to 30 pages per

minute and a monthly duty cycle

up to 50,000 pages. Other fea-

tures include print resolution of

up to 1,200 ✕ 1,200 dpi, paper

capacities of 250-sheet cassette

and 50-sheet multipurpose tray,

a 400 MHz processor with

64MB memory, and connection

via USB 2.0 and Ethernet, and

the unit is ENERGY STAR com-

pliant. The minimum media size

TECHNOLOGY

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TOOLSof theTRADE

it will accept is 3 ✕ 5 inches

and the maximum is 8.5 ✕ 14

inches. Samsung toner car-

tridges for the printer will pro-

vide up to 2,000 pages. The

ML-2855ND is a solid, basic,

black-and-white laser with a

price that’s one of its strongest

points. www.samsung.com

TurboTax DeluxeWith Intuit’s TurboTax Deluxe

personal tax preparation soft-

ware, you have the choice of

using the product online, buying

the program on CD, or down-

loading it to your computer. The

CD/Download version includes

five federal e-files, state returns,

and unlimited federal returns.

Input of your current information

begins with a transfer of your

TurboTax information from last

year. You can even import data

from other software, including

TaxACT and H&R Block’s TaxCut.

If you use Quicken, QuickBooks

2007 and higher, or Microsoft

Money, you can directly import

from those programs also. An

interview process guides you

through the entry stage, step by

step. The program doesn’t

bother with the questions that

don’t apply to your situation,

and your W-2 and 1099 infor-

mation can be imported directly

from more than 100,000 partici-

pating employers and financial

institutions. A summary will let

you review and edit downloaded

information. Smart Check™

scans for and corrects mistakes

on your return, and the final

calculations are guaranteed.

Any IRS or state penalty caused

by a TurboTax calculation error

will be paid back to you by

Intuit. Automatic updates to

include any changes in tax law

are accomplished with a single

mouse click. Standard deduc-

tions are accounted for in the

basic interview, and then the

program searches for more

than 350 other possible deduc-

tions and credits for which you

might qualify. The Audit Risk

Meter™ checks your return for

audit triggers, and free federal

e-file is included.

http://turbotax.intuit.com

If you bought the hype, you were primed for the next

evolution of the newspaper, which would be launched on

February 2, 2011. AppAdvice, a website that covers

iPhone and iPad applications, claimed it was going to be

“the day print journalism died.”

Then on February 2, News Corp Chairman and CEO

Rupert Murdoch walked on stage at New York’s Guggen-

heim Museum carrying an iPad, its screen lit with the

logo of his latest publication—The Daily, an exclusively

iPad newspaper.

Murdoch called the new publication “the first all

media product.” Without mentioning the recent decline

in the world of newsprint, the owner of the New York

Post and The Wall Street Journal offered, “New times

demand new journalism.” It was sleeting in New York

that day, dampening any bonfires that might have been

ignited by the 12 o’clock launch of News Corp’s killer

app.

Actually, Murdoch’s new webpaper is just a remix of

older media in a new digital wrapper. The Daily resem-

bles e-mags like Newsweek with a lot of photos and occa-

sional high-def video clips. The home navigation for The

Daily features a page carousel that rolls horizontally

instead of flipping from page to page. News Corp claims

it was “built from scratch for the iPad,” but there isn’t

much that distinguishes it from many of the other news

apps already online. Today, there are 1,939 apps for sale

or free at the iTunes App Store in the News category—

tomorrow there will be more—so it isn’t as if Rupert is

setting up on the ground floor. The competition, packed

elbow to elbow, is stacked many stories high.

The response from critics and readers has been luke-

warm. Two weeks after the launch, there were many who

had downloaded the free trial version of the paper. Of

those, 1,377 took the time to rate it, giving it two-and-a-

half out of a possible five stars. Initially, there were

New NewspapersOnline

By Michael Castelluccio, Editor

continued on next page

TECH FORUM

M a rc h 2 0 1 1 I S T R AT E G IC F I N A N C E 59

usability issues that required a second version,

but after the glitches were cleaned up, it all

came down to content.

Lonnie Lazar, writing for Cultofmac.com,

began his review with, “The Daily’s tech bells

and whistles can’t save it from empty-calorie

content.” As to the editorial choices, Lazar

explains, “The Daily’s main sections tell us

something about what the editors think of their

mission—News, Gossip, Opinion, Arts & Life,

Apps & Games, Sports. In that order.”

Murdoch claims the publication cost

$30 million to develop and will cost no more

than $2 million a month to produce. The sub-

scription is 99¢ a week or $39.99 a year. Probably, Murdoch

would rather that The Daily not be the beginning of the

end of his newsprint empire. But as a hedge, it will be inter-

esting to see how it survives or even overcomes the current

competition.

HUFFINGTON POST

The other big story about online news publications was the

announcement on February 7 of the sale of The Huffington

Post to AOL for $315 million—$300 million in cash and

the rest in stock. Tim Armstrong, AOL’s chief executive,

told The New York Times that the deal will benefit his com-

pany with greatly expanded news gathering and original

content creation.

You can start an endless argument about what kind of

publication it really is, but the editors of The Huffington Post

list the following right below the title on the home page:

“The Internet Newspaper: News Blogs Video Community.”

And then there’s the ribbon of tabs listing the 27 depart-

ments, including the links to the regional versions of the

publication in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Denver.

Technically, The Huffington Post is a blog and news aggre-

gator as well as an Internet newspaper. The home page is

three-columns with a very long and crowded scrolling list of

stories, columns, video, and featured blog posts. At the bot-

tom of the page is a directory of sources and links. Not a

bad little directory to bookmark, there are direct links to the

websites for 70 news sources, 53 national blogs, 28 colum-

nists, and five Arianna links.

As an example of Web design, HuffPost is anything but

elegant. The design is sprawling, and the elements are per-

haps best described as burgeoning. Practically every bit of

space has been latched onto and utilized. It shouldn’t come

as a surprise, then, that the New Year’s resolution of Editor-

in-Chief Arianna Huffington was “To take HuffPost to the

next level—not just incrementally, but exponentially.”

In her official comment about the AOL purchase, “A

Merger of Visions,” Huffington gave a brief progress report

on the 2011 plan. “Let’s go down the checklist: Local? AOL’s

Patch.com covers 800 towns across America, providing an

incredible infrastructure for citizen journalism in time for

the 2012 election, and a focus on community and local solu-

tions that have been an integral part of the HuffPost’s DNA.

Check. Original video? AOL’s just finished building a pair of

state-of-the-art video studios in New York and LA. Check.

More sections? AutoBlog, Music, AOL Latino, Black Voices,

etc., etc., etc., etc. fill gaps in HuffPost’s coverage. As Tim

(Armstrong) and I have been saying over the last couple of

weeks: 1 + 1 = 11.”

So these two Internet “newspapers” headed off in com-

pletely opposite directions—The Daily with its small, neatly

designed two-page stories, and The Huffington Post jumping

onto the wide exponential slide into increasing complexity.

And we’re still left with the question: What will Internet

newspapers ultimately look like? SF

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TECHNOLOGYTECH FORUM