Alfresco Mobile is a robust solution for BYOD shops

Takeaway:  Checks out Alfresco Mobile and tells us why it might be your next mobile collaboration platform for BYOD users.

Alfresco is best known for large-scale content management, document syncing, and collaboration inside the enterprise. While Alfresco offers Android and iPhone apps, I spent some time using Alfresco Mobile on an iPad with Alfresco in the cloud.

Unlike many platform providers these days, Alfresco prefers to call themselves a “BYOD enabler” rather than a platform play. This plays well to the company’s open source and workflow roots. They have customers who use their product right out the box and others that spend a great deal of time customizing a solution to meet their requirements.

Alfresco in the cloud offers 10GB of storage space for free, so it’s easy to test their solution right out of the gate. They also offer an on-premise solution of Alfresco. If you don’t have a solution in place for securing corporate documents and collaboration for BYOD users, sometimes an out-of-the-box solution is the way to go in terms of how you invest your time and resources (at least in the initial stages of a BYOD initiative).

The intriguing point about the Alfresco cloud and on-premise solution is that you can use a hybrid-syncing model, where your documents and data residing in your on-premise Alfresco can sync to Alfresco in the cloud. Your BYOD users could have full access to Alfresco in the cloud without ever having to enter your firewall.

Using Alfresco Mobile

After writing about Harmon.ie for BYOD and top SharePoint apps for the iPad, I like what I saw in the Alfresco app in terms of usability. In fact, the more I tested Alfresco Mobile, the more I saw it as a robust competitor. Accessing Alfresco in the cloud felt speedy over Wi-Fi and LTE. If your organization is cursed with a poor SharePoint implementation, then that makes Alfresco an even more appealing cloud choice. Figure A shows Alfresco Mobile open to an Alfresco site:

Figure A

A site open in Alfresco Mobile.

Viewing and editing documents with Alfresco Mobile

Alfresco permits the syncing of your favorite documents for offline viewing and editing. This is a necessary feature for mobile workers and even commuters on public transit these days. Alfresco has a clean and uncomplicated implementation of syncing. Tap on the Star at the top right corner of the app, and you’re prompted almost immediately if you want to sync the open document to your iPad.

When your documents are offline, you can view and edit them with apps like Quickoffice HD. In fact, Alfresco supports the excellent Quickoffice Save Back function, which is a quick way to open, edit, and save documents back to Alfresco Mobile.

The Alfresco app supports the full range of Microsoft Office file types, PDFs, videos, and images (Figure B shows a document open natively in Alfresco Mobile). Unless you have CAD drawings or something in an obscure format, you’ll be fine.

Figure B

A document open in Alfresco Mobile.

Depending on security privileges, your BYOD users could have access to multiple sites and Alfresco repositories. This type of control works well if you want to segregate BYOD users out of a particular Alfresco site.

With Alfresco Mobile, you also have tools for viewing document metadata. You can view dates, authors, and even map locations of geotagged photos (Figure C). While metadata may not be important to every organization, if you support BYOD users who need this feature, then Alfresco is a strong contender in this area.

Figure C

Metadata in Alfresco Mobile.

Collaboration and mobile community

The security and design of Alfresco Mobile makes for easy-to-use document workflow. There’s an activity feed from collaborators with links to updated documents that should be easy enough for even novice users to follow and interact with each other. This can help lay the foundation of a mobile community for your BYOD users. I’m personally intrigued about the potential of Alfresco and Alfresco Mobile as tools for feedback about BYOD policies and procedures.

With Alfresco Mobile, you can also create a task or send documents to another Alfresco user for review and approval (Figure D).

Figure D

Review documents using Alfresco Mobile.

Alfresco and security

Since Alfresco Mobile and Alfresco in the cloud can be out-of-the-box solutions, it helps that the app is easy yet secure for end users. If you’re already an Alfresco shop, your users can use their existing Alfresco credentials to login from their iPads. Optionally, the app can be setup to save your password or to authenticate the users for each session they initiate.

BYOD users can exchange data with Alfresco in the cloud over HTTPS. Depending on the version of Alfresco, data protection uses AES-256 encryption.

Alfresco for BYOD

When I was first approached by Alfresco for a briefing, I was a bit skeptical, because my previous experience with them was as a large-scale enterprise content management system during a contract earlier in my technical writing career. However, Alfresco takes the best of their enterprise knowledge into a mobile solution that’s surprisingly secure and robust for managing corporate content access by BYOD users.

Does your organization use Alfresco Mobile? Share your experience in the discussion thread below.

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Secure your personal cloud information with BoxCryptor

Takeaway:  Takes a look at BoxCryptor for BYOD tablets. This encryption software is optimized for securely connecting to cloud services, including Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, and Dropbox.

BYOD is all the rage. Users are bringing their tablets, smartphones, and laptops to use at work. This new approach has a few issues to surmount, and one of the biggest is security. Yes, it is crucial for the company to ensure that their data is secure, but it’s equally crucial for the user to be able to secure their personal data away from prying eyes of the company and fellow employees.

Personal data includes cloud drives like Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, and Dropbox. If you connect your tablet to those services, your cloud data is ready for prying eyes — unless you make use of a handy tool like BoxCryptor for Android or iOS.

BoxCryptor is free encryption software that’s optimized for these cloud services and features the following:

• Access to all encrypted files, photos, and music in your Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft SkyDrive
• Encryption and decryption takes place directly on device (password is never transmitted)
• Secure storage uses AES-256 standard
• App unlock PIN for additional security
• Limited EncFS compatibility
• Filename Encryption (in desktop client only)

Let’s walk through the process of installing and connecting BoxCryptor with Google Drive on an Android tablet.

Installation

As you might expect, BoxCryptor is easy to install. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Open the Google Play Store (or the App Store for iOS devices)
2. Search for “boxcryptor” and tap on the entry for the app
3. Tap Download
4. Tap Accept & install

When the installation is complete, you should find an icon in the app drawer and/or on the home screen. Tap that icon to begin the process of connecting BoxCryptor.

Connecting to your account

When you first launch BoxCryptor, you’ll be presented with a screen that asks you which service you want to connect to (Figure A).

Figure A

BoxCryptor on a Verizon-branded Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Since we’re connecting to Google Drive, tap the listing for this service. When you do this, a new window will appear, asking you to allow or deny access. Tap Allow Access, and BoxCryptor will begin the handshake process of connecting with your Google Drive account. At this point, you should see a listing of your folders (Figure B). You can now navigate into those folders safely.

Figure B

Here’s what your folder listing will look like within BoxCryptor.

This, of course, isn’t terribly safe, as anyone can open BoxCryptor and see your files and folders. To prevent this from happening, set up PIN access to the BoxCryptor application by following these steps:

1. Open BoxCryptor
2. Tap the menu button (three vertical dots) in the upper right corner
3. Tap Preferences
4. Tap App Unlock (Figure C)
5. Enter a PIN
6. Re-enter the PIN (for confirmation)

Figure C

You can also define the cache size for BoxCryptor in the Preferences settings.

That’s it! Now, anytime BoxCryptor is launched, it will require that PIN before the app will open.

The one caveat to BoxCryptor is that you can only link the app to one service at a time. If you use multiple services on your tablet, you’ll have to unlink one to link another.

You can create new, encrypted folders within BoxCryptor as well. You’ll notice the Advance tab with Filename Encryption. This feature is actually not available for the mobile application (only the desktop version). To create the new folder, follow these steps:

1. Open BoxCryptor
2. Make your connection, and then tap the folder icon in the upper left corner
3. In the New Encrypted Folder window (Figure D), give the folder a name and a password
4. Uncheck the Save password checkbox (for added security)
5. Tap the checkmark in the upper right corner

Figure D

The password is not optional — it must be created in order for the new folder to be encrypted.

In order to view the contents of the newly created folder, you’ll have to enter the password. You won’t have to enter the password, however, if you’re viewing your account online (for example, viewing Google Drive from within a desktop web browser).

One strange behavior of BoxCryptor is that there isn’t a Back button. Once you’re inside a sub-folder, in order to get back to the parent folder, you have to do to the following:

1. Tap the menu button
2. Tap Preferences
3. Tap Change source folder

Once you’ve done that, you’ll be in the parent folder.

BoxCryptor is a great way to help secure your Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, or DropBox content on your tablet. This can help make the transition to BYOD much more secure. Give it a try and see if it doesn’t help make your IT department breathe a sigh of relief as BYOD takes over your organization.

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Prepare for BYOD in your organization

By Jacob Bradshaw

Takeaway: Jacob Bradshaw discusses a few ideas and considerations that you should chew on while building your battle plan to handle the BYOD invasion.

There are several different gift-giving occasions throughout the year, and a popular gift to give is a brand spankin’ new mobile device. Whether it’s a tablet, smartphone, or something in between, the receiver typically reacts with some amount of excitement and eventually brings it to work. Of course, that device poses some serious security threats that you’ll need to deal with, no matter what. The absolute best thing you can do is be prepared. With that in mind, here are a few steps, ideas, and considerations that you can chew on for a bit while you build your battle plan to handle the BYOD invasion.

Begin with the end in mind

You should start at the very beginning, but far too often, we begin without actually considering what the overall picture and projection path is going to be. If we knew the destination of the desired mobile device management rollout, along with any projected stops or bumps along the way, think about how much sweeter that journey would be.
Sit down by yourself, at first, and envision what you hope the mobile device management service will allow people to do, what allowances will be made, and how quickly it needs to get there. Imagine what you need, as if you were the employee that just received the new device, as well as what you need to be able to do and what you hope to do with it. Also consider what the ideal outcome would be to keep home and work separate, if you believe that could actually happen. After you have that vision and have it recorded somewhere, start bringing this brainstorm to others within your group so that the idea and end vision can grow.
Here are a few questions to consider:

• Will there any chance that the employee can use or attempt to use your organization’s intellectual property on their device?
• Is that type of access going to be allowed? If not, how will it be blocked?
• As an employee with a new device, how much control do you want to let your organization have over it?
• As an IT admin, how much control do you need to have over that mobile device?
• How big of a security threat is that mobile device to your network, and can your current infrastructure handle that much bandwidth and overhead?
• How much security is enough from an IT standpoint, and how much is too much from a user’s standpoint?
• Once the company is managing that device, how much end-user support is going to be rendered to the user?

Planning is key to preparation

Once you have an idea of where you’re going, start diving into things that need to be done. Be sure to address some common concepts, including hardware, security tools, privacy concerns, and application support.
When it comes to iOS devices, you know what you’re getting. Thanks to Apple’s standardization and rigid rules for manufacturers, every Apple device is just like the other Apple device. As an IT Admin, this will help you a great deal. Android, unfortunately, is not so clean. The open platform of Android has attracted several companies and hardware manufacturers alike to start creating their own tablets, nearly all with the intent to compete with the iPad in some way.
Competition aside, if the hardware differs enough, you may decide to support some models and not others. Sadly, no two Android devices are ever created equally. So, with these things in mind, here are additional considerations that you should contemplate as you build your BYOD plan:

• What  devices will you allow on your network?
• Can you manage these devices using your chosen MDM solution?
• Are you going offer basic troubleshooting and support for the devices that your users bring in?
• How many people do you want working on this project with you? What’s the bare minimum number of people that you need for this project?
• How are you going to track the users that have devices?
• How many devices are you going to allow each person to use? Remember, that person could have a tablet, a smartphone, a laptop, a desktop, and another device that hasn’t been discussed before, such as a smart watch. Don’t laugh, they do exist.
• How are you going to handle rooted devices?

Naturally, these are only some questions to help you get started on your way to building your own MDM solution and contingency plans within your organization. There will be many more questions that you’ll have to answer along the way, but hopefully this guide will get you started on the mindset that you need to begin. Please share your experiences and other situations that have arisen in the comments below.

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Let WiFi Finder help you locate wireless connections

By Jack Wallen

Takeaway: If you depend upon your tablet for mobile work, and Wi-Fi hotspots are a necessity, Jack Wallen says that WiFi Finder is a must-have app.

Tablets have enabled business users to get serious about being mobile. They are ultra portable, user-friendly, and get more feature-rich and powerful with each iteration. Many tablets (such as the Verizon-branded Samsung Galaxy Tab) are happily using 4G networking, which is — in comparison to other mobile networks — quite speedy. Of course, there are times when you either have no 4G signal or the 4G speed simply isn’t fast enough. Fortunately, you can utilize your tablet’s Wi-Fi connection.

But what if you’re traveling and you don’t know where to find wireless access points or free wireless spots? Before you travel, download the WiFi Finder application by JiWire Inc. to make sure that you have a map of exactly where the free and paid wireless connections are located. Here are some things you can do with this free app:

• Scan for Wi-Fi hotspots near you
• Search for public Wi-Fi anywhere in the world
• View Wi-Fi hotspot details, call hotspot, location, get directions, share the hotspot, report the hotspot as dead
• Filter results by location or provider type
• Work both online and offline

The one caveat to using WiFi Finder is that you must first be online. If you own a tablet with Wi-Fi only, you must use this tool with a bit of planning, and you must make sure you download the offline database (which, as I will explain later, is not terribly obvious). Once you have that offline database installed, you’re golden and can locate the necessary hotspots, even if you don’t have a connection.

Let’s take a look at how to install and use this application.

Installation

Like any Android application, the installation of WiFi Finder is easy (there’s also a Wi-Fi Finderapp in the App Store for the iPhone and iPad). Follow these steps:

1. Open up the Google Play Store
2. Search for “wifi finder” (no quotes)
3. Tap Download
4. Review the Permissions
5. Tap Accept & download
6. After the installation is completed, you’ll find WiFi Finder in the App Drawer (or as an icon on your homescreen), and simply tap the icon to open the app

Usage

First, be sure to download the offline database. With this database installed, you can then locate Wi-Fi hotspots without a network connection. To install this database, open  WiFi Finder, and from the main screen (Figure A), tap the Install offline database link.

Figure A

Here you see WiFi Finder on a Verizon-branded Samsung Galaxy Tab.

After the offline database is installed, you’re ready to start using the tool (online or offline). You can now search a specific location location for access points — the more specific the location, the easier to read the results. Searching by zip code has always given me the best results with WiFi Finder.

To run a search, do the following:

1. Open WiFi Finder
2. Enter your search term (such as zip code) in the search bar
3. Tap the Search button
4. Wait for the results to appear
5. Once the Search button is tapped, the Location Window will open (Figure B) where you can then select any one of the “pinned” access points to get more information

Figure B

Either tap on the pin for the location or the listing in the right navigation to view the hotspot information.

Once you select a hotspot, more information will appear about that location (Figure C). From that slide-out information tab, you can do the following:

• Get the address of the hotspot
• Get directions to the hotspot
• Add the location to your favorites
• Share the hotspot
• Report the hotspot as closed

Figure C

You can narrow your search results by Venue Type, Paid, Free, and Provider by tapping the associated button or tab at the top of the right pane.

Hotspots nearby

If you just want to know what hotspots are nearby, tap the Near Me button at the top of the screen. This will list all hotspots based on your GPS location. You can also use WiFi Finder as a hotspot scanner (in case a hotspot isn’t listed). When you run the scan, WiFi Finder will display all hotspots in the immediate vicinity (Figure D).

Figure D

Any hotspot in green has open security. Red means the hotspot is password protected.

WiFi Finder is one of the handiest apps for anyone using a tablet on the go. If you depend upon your tablet for mobile work, and Wi-Fi hotspots are a necessity, WiFi Finder is a must-have app

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Better manage and control tethering on your Android tablet

By Jack Wallen

Takeaway: Jack Wallen offers some tethering tips for your Android tablet, including some helpful apps and additional security, even if your provider doesn’t allow tethering.

I use my Samsung Galaxy Tab as a hotspot on a daily basis. The Verizon 4G is sometimes better than whatever wireless service I’m offered, and it allows me to do what I need to do (and doesn’t control my traffic). Since I’ve become so familiar with this process and how to control it, I thought I’d share my experiences.

Now, obviously I’m dealing with a provider that allows tethering. Every company is different — some don’t allow tethering, some allow it with a fee, and some allow it with no fee. Before you attempt to set up a tether, find out if your service offers tether and, if it does, if there’s a data charge involved.
With that said, let’s get to work on better managing the tether on your Android tablet.
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Enabling the tether

The traditional method of enabling tether is to go to Settings | Wireless and networks | Mobile Hotspot. From that window (Figure A), tap the checkbox for Mobile Hotspot, and the service will be enabled. You can, of course, enable a tether if you’re using your 3G/4G or a wireless network. Of course, tethering on a wireless network is somewhat redundant. Most likely, you’ll only be tethering when using your provider’s service.
Figure A

Be careful leaving this page open, as it will display your tether password in clear text.

For users who do a lot of tethering, there’s a much easier method of enabling/disabling the tether, but it requires the installation of a third-party app. The simplest app for this is Tether Share Switcher, which places a simple widget on your home screen and, with a single tap, will turn on or off your tether. No bells and whistles, just on and off. To add this widget to your home screen, do the following:

1. Install Tether Share Switch from the Google Play Store
2. Once it’s installed, long-press your home screen and tap the Widgets tab (Figure B)
3. Find and then tap the Share Switcher widget
4. Tap the home screen the widget was placed on to see it in action

Figure B

This screen should be familiar if you’d added widgets and launchers to the home screen.

The widget itself is a simple solution with two buttons (Figure C). The left button enables USB tethering and the right button enables Wi-Fi tethering.
Figure C

My Verizon-branded Galaxy Tab now has fast access to enabling tethering.

Add an extra layer of security

When you set up your tether, you should always create a strong password. If you don’t, you risk someone hopping onto your hotspot and using your data. You can add an extra layer of security by only allowing specific machines to join your hotspot. The trick is, you have to know these machines’ MAC address. Getting MAC addresses depends on the platform being used. Some desktops, such as Ubuntu Unity and GNOME 2/3, allow you to get easy access to the network connection information, which includes the MAC (hardware) address.
Once you have the MAC address of all machines you want to allow onto your tether, do the following to add them:

1. Open up the Settings window
2. Tap Wireless and networks | Mobile Hotspots
3. Tap Network Settings
4. In the overlay, tap the Manage devices button
5. In the new overly, tap Manage Allowed Devices
6. If Allow all devices to connect is checked, uncheck it
7. Tap Add device
8. Enter the MAC address for the device you want to add, and tap Done
9. If you need to add more devices, tap Add device again and repeat until you have all necessary devices added

Now that you have this set up, only those devices with the allowed MAC addresses can connect to your tether.

Other options

If you happen to have a plan with a provider that doesn’t support tethering, you’re not without options. Which route you take will depend upon if your tablet is rooted or not. If your device isn’t rooted, your best bet is Easy Tether. The Easy Tether app cost $9.99 (USD) — there’s also a free lite version — that can enable tethering on your tablet or smartphone, even if your plan doesn’t allow it. However, even with this app, some providers (such as T-Mobile) can still block traffic. They do this by inspecting the user agent string. Here’s how you get around it:

1. Visit UserAgentString on your tablet and copy the user agent string into a text file on your computer
2. Change the default user agent string in the web browser on your computer to the string from your tablet. If your web browser itself doesn’t allow for the changing of the user agent string (to that which you copied from your Android tablet browser), you’ll need to install a user agent add on (such as User Agent Switcher for Firefox) to the PC web browser.

Easy Tether has a very simple walk-through of how to get it working. Once you install the app, just fire it up and the wizard will help you do the rest.
If you have a rooted tablet, your best bet is Barnacle Wifi Tether. This free app is compatible with Windows (XP/Vista/7), Mac, Linux, iPod/iPhone/iPad, and even Xbox! The steps for using Barnacle are simple (if you consider rooting a tablet simple):

1. Root your tablet
2. Install Barnacle Wifi Tether from the Google Play Store
3. Run Barnacle Wifi Tether
4. Connect your PC (or other device) to the ad-hoc network

Unless you configure Barnacle, the default SSID is barnacle.
That’s it! You now have better tethering with the help of Android and a few simple tricks and/or apps. Tethering has helped me out of tricky situations on a number of occasions. I highly recommend you give the feature a try and, if your tablet/provider doesn’t offer the solution, give one of the tools I mentioned above a try, and see if you can enable tethering on your non-tetherable tablet.

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Put mobile BI on your corporate tablets

By Will Kelly

Takeaway: Mobile Business Intelligence (BI) apps are still maturing, but after you cut through the hype, you can find business value in them. Will Kelly explains.

Business Intelligence (BI) is becoming a strategic tool for businesses as they try to navigate through the current economic shoals by staying up to date on critical business data. Now, tablets can take the advancements of the dashboard to a mobile form factor.

In fact, mobile BI apps can help democratize business intelligence and put instant access about sales, logistics, product, and customer data into the hands of mobile workers, like sales people and field engineers. In addition, you don’t need to be a report writer to pull data out of a mobile BI app, which makes it an ideal tool for an executive team who might lack the technology skills but still need access to corporate data.
Mobile BI is typically sold as an add-on module to an existing BI platform. This can be a costly add-on that often takes an outside professional services engagement to get online and running for your company.
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Promise vs. limitations

Be prepared to cut through the hype surrounding mobile BI right now. I recommend starting with your current BI vendor for acquiring a solution. You should also take a walk through the App Store and Google Play market to see what major BI vendors are already at work on mobile BI apps.
While the promise of instantaneous access to corporate data is opening many corporate eyes to mobile BI, it is not without its limitations, including:

• Many mobile BI apps allow users to only view data, not manipulate it
• Mobile BI apps are tools of consumption, not analytics
• Lack of interactivity in mobile BI apps in general restricts users from drilling down into data, such as sales figures by product or region
• Companies often have more than one BI platform in house, requiring mobile users to have multiple apps — and mobile access is sometimes a fee-based add-on to an existing BI platform

With the latest release of the iPad and next-generation Android tablets, mobile BI vendors have the opportunity to take advantage of robust screens and hardware specifications.

Different mobile BI approaches

Tablet-specific client apps have been the traditional path for existing enterprise applications to make the leap to tablets, but that’s not always the case with mobile BI. There are two approaches to extending BI out to tablets:

• Native tablet clients like SAP Business Objects Experience, Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile, or Birt Mobile Viewer. These apps are available as free downloads from the App Store and/or Google Play.
• Tablet-optimized application interfaces (fortified by HTML 5) are becoming a popular option. They enable tablet users to access BI data directly from their tablets without the need for a client app.

A sign of hope for mobile BI is Roambi (see Figure A), a developer of mobile data visualization tools, that can tap into multiple BI platforms — including SAS, Microsoft, IBM, Sybase, and SAP — and present the data in one interface on a tablet. Hopefully, more vendors will follow suit.
Figure A

The Roambi iPad app takes advantage of the new iPad’s Retina display.

Choosing a mobile BI solution

Here are some requirements to consider when choosing a mobile BI solution to extend your enterprise BI platform to your tablet users:
Ubiquitous dashboard: Look for a mobile BI solution that has a dashboard that performs the same way on tablets as it does on PCs.
Flexible reporting: Look for a mobile BI solution that lets your tablet users build new reports or dashboards on an ad-hoc basis to meet spontaneous customer meeting requirements or other on-the-spot reporting scenarios.
Adaptability to a range of devices: If your company is going Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), make it a requirement that the BI data can render on multiple device types. Look for a solution with iOS and Android clients or that uses HTML 5 for its web interface.
Tablet-level security: Consider a mobile BI solution that doesn’t store corporate data on the device. Back that up with a mobile device management (MDM) tool that lets your IT staff wipe any corporate tablets that access corporate BI platforms in the advent the tablet is lost or stolen. Additional security factors to consider include device encryption, pin codes, and email encryption.
Secure communications: The transmission of corporate BI data requires data transmission security like a VPN connection or Secure Socket Layers (SSL) security with another layer of security like AES or DES with an encrypted SSL tunnel over Wi-Fi or 3G/4G.
Network security: Another level of security that needs to be present is network security to control access rights to BI data. Extending an enterprise BI platform to tablets requires security like LDAP or Active Directory to ensure the proper authentication of tablet users seeking to access the enterprise BI platform.

Corporate tablets as a BI tool

While mobile BI is still at the early stages, cutting through the hype and embracing it now puts a competitive advantage into the hands of your enterprise tablet users. The immediate access to corporate data mobile BI brings to tablet users can help them be more responsive to prospective and current customers.

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Learn how to create ebooks for the iPad

By Paul Strobeck

May 3, 2012, 6:56 AM PDT

Takeaway: Paul Strobeck walks you through the steps so that you can create an ebook for your Apple iPad.

It seems just like yesterday that we were trying to get our employees to embrace laptops, projectors, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint (okay, we’re still working on true acceptance of these technology tools, but that’s another story). The iPad is growing in popularity, as Apple and other app developers are continually pushing the device in new and different ways. For example, you can now view ebooks in the iBook’s app and use a Mac application, iBooks Author, to create them.
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This past January, Apple introduced the iBooks Author application. The application allows authors to create interactive digital books in the ePub format that can be copied to the iBooks app on the iPad. The introduction of the application was originally geared toward the education and book publishing market. While reading about how the application worked, it dawned on me hat the capabilities were well matched for the enterprise as well. As I began to learn more about the application, I became intrigued with the idea about how this application could be used by our our staff to create rich electronic documents.
The employees in our office are already fairly comfortable using Microsoft PowerPoint to integrate text, photos, audio and video into their presentations. Creating these same presentations in the PDF format does have some limitations, and it can be challenging to embed audio and video to get them to play correctly. Using iBooks Author and the iBooks app on the iPad makes this process easy.
The primary requirement for iBooks Author is that you need a Macintosh computer, and then you can install iBooks Author for free from the App Store. (I wonder if Apple will see the light and release a Windows version of iBooks Author in the near future.)
To create an ebook, I recommend using the iBooks Author built-in Template Chooser (see Figure A) from the file menu.
Figure A

Using the Basic template, you can then begin creating your ebook in the ePub format by adding text, shapes, tables, and charts (Figure B).
Figure B

From the widgets menu (see Figure C), you can select different media types, keynote slide shows, interactive images, web pages, and HTML code. You can even bring in 3D images that can be manipulated spatially within the ebook.
Figure C

Media file options include audio from your iTunes library (see Figure D), photos from your iPhoto library, and iMovie projects. You have the ability to preview these before you insert them into the ebook.
Figure D

Once you’ve added all of the elements, save the book to a folder (see Figure E) or publish it directly to the iTunes Store as a package.
Figure E

Getting the ebook (.ePub file) onto the iPad is easy. From the iBooks Author application, export the file to a folder on your Mac. Connect your iPad to your Mac through iTunes and drag the file into the iBooks app and then synchronize your iPad in iTunes — or you can upload the file and use a file synchronization cloud storage service like Dropbox, Box, SugarSync, or a LAN and WebDAV. After you download the .ePub file from one of these services onto your iPad, just select the option to open it in iBooks. The file will be downloaded into the iBooks app, ready to open and view as an ebook (see Figure F).
Figure F

In Figure G, you can see some examples of various features that have been added to the book: text, photos, movie, and 3D object.
Figure G

Will the iPad, the iBooks app, and iBooks Author revolutionize how we create and author ebooks, user manuals, reference guides, and other electronic documents in our enterprises? Only time will tell. In the interim, the iPad is fast becoming an essential tool in our daily enterprise work environment, and these new tools are helping us to visually present information in diverse and rich ways. This combination of software and hardware is one more excellent example for the enterprise on how to move away from paper and embrace e-documents by using a tablet as an information tool.

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Connect Android to Windows and Samba shared directories

By Jack Wallen

 

 

Takeaway: Jack Wallen walks you through the process of connecting your Android tablet to your Windows and Samba shared folders with the help of ES File Explorer.

If you need to share files between your Android device and a PC, what do you do? You could slap on Dropbox, but that limits you to a single folder. When you want a bit more control over what can be shared to the Android device, you might want to go the route of Samba or Windows shared folders. On the PC end, you have to share the folders out, but what about on the Android side of things?
The solution is simple. You install ES File Explorer and enjoy a trouble-free connection between your Android device and your shared folders.

Features

ES File Explorer touts a huge feature list, including:

• File manager
• Multi-select files
• Application manager (install, uninstall, backup, shortcuts, category)
• Compress and decompress ZIP files
• View different file formats, photos, docs, videos anywhere
• Thumbnails with built-in image browser
• Text viewers and editors
• Search files
• Access PC, via Wi-Fi with SMB
• FTP
• Dropbox, Box.net, SugarSync support
• Bluetooth file transfer
• Kill tasks
• Shortcuts, bookmark manager (this feature needs ES Bookmark Manager module installed)
• Root explorer feature

The feature we want to focus on is SMB and how to connect ES File Explorer to your SMB-enabled machine. Naturally, you’ll need to have a PC with shared folders. I’ve tried this with Windows 7 shared folders and a Linux-based Samba-enabled desktop machine, and both worked seamlessly.
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Installation

The installation of ES File Explorer is simple. Just follow these steps:

1. Open up Google Play on your tablet
2. Search for “es file explorer” (no quotes)
3. Tap the ES File Explorer entry (not the entry for Cupcake)
4. Tap Download
5. Tap Accept & download

That’s it! You’re ready to begin.

Usage

First and foremost, your Android tablet must be on the same network as your shared resources. Most likely, this will mean connecting to the Wi-Fi on your network (as you cannot make this connection using your 3G or 4G network). Once you’ve made the connection to your wireless network, fire up the ES File Explorer app from within the App Drawer. When this application opens, you’ll be greeted with the local file system on the tablet (Figure A).
Figure A

Here you see the listing on the SD card of a Verizon-branded Galaxy 7.7 Tab.

Tap the Change View drop-down in the upper left corner. By default it will say “Local.” When you tap this, a new window will appear (Figure B) with a listing of possible connections.
Figure B

In order to successfully connect to the LAN, you must be connected to the wireless network.

Now that you’re in the LAN view (Figure C), it’s time to set up a connection to your SMB-enabled machine.
Figure C

As you can see, I’ve already added a Linux Mint PC.

Tap the New button to bring up the setup window (Figure D). In this dialog, you’ll need the following information:

• Domain (optional)
• Server (IP Address)
• Username (must be a valid user able to access the shared directories)
• Password (for the above username)
• Display as (name you want this connection to be listed as)

Figure D

If you have guest connections enabled, you can check the box for Anonymous to bypass the username/password.

Complete filling out this information, and then click the OK button. This will place an icon for that connection in the LAN screen of ES File Explorer. Tap the icon to open the connection. Once the connection is open, you’ll see a listing of the shared files/folders on that machine (Figure E).
Figure E

Here you see a listing of all folders available for the connected user, including shared printers.

Dropbox, SugarSync, Box connect

It’s also possible to include cloud-based syncing accounts. Here’s how:

1. Tap the View Change drop-down (top left corner)
2. Select Net from the list
3. Tap the New button
4. Select the service (Box, Dropbox, SugarSync) you want to connect to
5. Enter your credentials for the account
6. Give the account a name
7. Tap OK

Once you’ve successfully authenticated to your account, an icon for that account will appear in the Net section of ES File Explorer. Tap on that icon to reveal all of your sync’d files and folders within that account.
ES File Explorer might well be the easiest way to get your Android tablet access to shared files and folders on both a network and your cloud-based accounts. Give this app a try — you probably won’t ever touch another file manager on the Android tablet.
Have you used a file manager on your Android tablet that you’d recommend to the TechRepublic community? Share your experience(s) in the discussion thread below.

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