Confessions of a Recovering Landlord

My lovely wife bought me an iPad 2 for my birthday at the end of February. I was so excited and spent the rest of that day playing with it, downloading apps and generally being anti-social notwithstanding the fact that we had a housefull of guests. 

After my wife complained that she had only seen the top of my head since lunch, one of our friends reminded her that it was she who had "invited Hagar into the camp." Nothing like an Old Testament reference to add hilarity to 21st century gagetry.

Was I happy with the gift? Extremely....that is until Apple scheduled a March 7 huge announcement that all watchers were sure was the next generation of iPad. I could keep the 2 or I could take it back and upgrade to the 3 or at least get another 2 at a discount.

I took it back and then spent the next 2 weeks like the un-gadgeted loser that I had previously been. How did I function back then?

I pre-ordered the iPad 3 and eagerly picked it up on March 16 - last Friday. But I was good and put priorities where priorities belong. I hardly used it the rest of that day or evening.

Now the dilemma for which I need your input - What is the Best Business App for the iPad? 

So far I have downloaded the following:

All my email accounts, Apple Store, Overdrive, Evernote, CNN, Pandora, Dropbox, the Bible (YouVersion), LoopNet, PluggedIn, Skype, Kindle, LinkedIn, Facebook, Fandango, Redbox, DocScan HD, Shazam, Dallas Business Journal, CNN, Calculator Pro, Google Earth, OpenTable, NBC, Dictionary, NPR and Angry Birds.

Okay, so some of those stretch the definition of Business Apps just a little. But I'm sure they will all be useful in some way soon.

So what is your advice? The best app to increase business sales or productivity? Especially for a commercial tenant rep. I await your sage advice.

Ever lose a file that you hadn't backed up? That can ruin your day.  I had been using an external hard drive to back up my computers, but it was manual and I would often go for weeks without doing it.

Then my friend, Jeff Rudluff with Online Performance Marketing, clued me into Syncplicity.  I checked it out and signed up immediately.  It is one of the best things I have ever done.

Syncplicity is effortless synchronization, backup, and sharing. Install it on one computer and all your important documents, photos, and music are backed up online, complete with web access from any computer connected to the internet. Install it on additional computers and Syncplicity will synchronize your files -- your important files will be wherever you are.

I have it on my home computer, my business laptop and my wife's business laptop.  Now we have all our files on all our computers all the time.  In addition, it keeps all prior versions of any files I have revised.  And it all runs in the background without me having to think about it. 

And it's cheap.  I get 50 GB of storage for only $9.99 a month.  If you want to try it for free, they'll give you up to 2 GB on 2 computers for free.

I don't get a commission or anything, but you have to get this.  It has given me huge peace of mind.