This month Google unveiled the new tablet software crafted to dethrone the almighty Apple iPad - and industry experts weren't disappointed.  (For full details of the launch visit Tech Crunch for more details)

Android Honeycomb, a free, open-source operating system is expected to quickly be built into an array of tablets in a booming market currently dominated by the Apple iPad.

In a sign that Google is intent on wooing the developers behind the "apps" fuelling the popularity of smartphones and tablets, executives here stressed that Honeycomb is built as a platform for software innovation.

Google also announced the launch of an Android Market Web store where people can get fun, functional or hip applications for devices running on the mobile operating software.

Already receiving rave reviews (see Donald Bell's you tube clip below) the software has some unique benefits for first time users:

• Buttonless interface. This was expected, and appeared to perform quite well.
• A new UI button on the home screen specifically for multitasking. It provides visual previews of apps running in the background.
• Widgets have been enhanced with collections of data; for example, they showed a bookmarks widget.
• The notification system has been beefed up to be less intrusive and to provide more information. Contact notifications include photos.
• A new animation framework that is demonstrably fast and incredibly smooth, especially when zooming.
• Renderscript, a feature that allows for high performance interactive 3D graphics; they showed an impressive wall of YouTube videos.

With millions of loyal iPad users already in the market, the question remains; will you make the switch?

Gerrie Car MacFie- CEO of Sunshine Coast Enterprises and regular columnist for Business Matters Magazine

  

Those who know me recognise a personal penchant for champagne.

I love a New Year's celebration for that reason. Professional considerations also attach to a love of the season - it brings a chance to reflect, review and look to the year ahead. A new year generally heralds more than champagne to be savored.

With obligatory corks now popped and January 2011 displayed on the desk calendar, the promise of a new decade zings with the effervescence of making a fresh start. Our team at Sunshine Coast Enterprises is certainly gearing up for an exciting year delivering low cost and local government subsidised business support services, despite the unseasonably grey skies.

For some Queensland businesses located outside the Sunshine Coast a fresh start is not a matter of choice. It will be compulsory.

The catastrophic flooding has inundated hundreds of small business premises across Queensland. Immediate economic retraction will be followed by an unprecedented demand for goods and services to repair and rebuild. As is the case with most natural disasters, the economic law of supply and demand will ultimately prevail.

This should present out-of-region export opportunities for suppliers, tradespeople, and services located here on the Coast.

In the last edition of Business Matters Magazine, I wrote about businesses moving from survival to thrivival mode. Economic recovery post-the big wet will have some winners and some losers. There will be business survivors and the few that seize the opportunity to thrive. These survivors and thrivivors of the big wet will be the businesses that have prepared, planned and stayed informed.

Losers will be those unable to make a fresh start.

An estimated 50 percent of small businesses that suffer catastrophic natural disaster are unable to resume operations. Businesses that have not made allowance for adequate insurance cover will be most at risk. Insurance coverage is the bubble that can burst and destroy a business. Based on industry and Australian Government research into effects of natural disasters; no insurance, under and over-insurance, will be a reality that constrains the majority of small business owners from achieving a successful fresh start in the post-disaster period.

So, whilst businesses here on the Coast have a flood-free opportunity to not only plan, but implement a fresh start strategy for 2011, it may be time to also do what many counterparts across central and eastern Queensland have not done. Planning for hazard mitigation before disaster strikes, including a risk analysis and insurance review, will help ensure sunny days no matter what the weather brings.

And of course, when your business is reaping rewards from the fresh start initiatives implemented in 2011, the champagne corks can pop, bubbles can flow and celebrations can be initiated for reasons other than New Year's Eve.

For information sheets on Disaster Resistance for Business, and a list of business support services provided by Sunshine Coast Enterprises and subsidized by local government funding go to www.scenterprises.com.au

Photo: Reflecting on the year passed and celebrating the opportunities ahead.

Lorraine O'Neil - February contributor for Business Matters Magazine

  

www.ted.com
Want inspiration? This website is fabulous and is devoted to spreading ideas around the world. As a small not-for-profit organisation TED has been able to attract some of the world's most recognisable people to speak about some amazing topics. Tune in to hear Bill Gates, James Cameron, Anthony Robbins, Bono, Richard Branson, I could go on? There are over 200 people speaking about technology, entertainment, business, science, design and global issues. Have a cup of coffee and check TED out.

www.inc.com
No matter what country you are doing business in, what is happening around the world is invaluable to the business owner. This American website is full of current information on start-ups, finance, leadership, sales, marketing, technology and innovation - all relevant to the Australian business owner. The inc.com website has something for everyone, no matter what industry sector you are in.

www.smartcompany.com.au
Previously an editor and senior writer at BRW, Amanda Gome, founder of SmartCompany.com. au, has developed a site that provides you with Australian business information aimed at the entrepreneur and business owner. SmartCompany is sent on a daily basis to your email and is usually more up-to-date than other types of media. As an added bonus it also provides some useful free ebooks. 

www.xe.com
If you deal with importing and exporting products and services it is very useful to know how much our Aussie dollar is worth. Containing the top 85 currencies The Universal Currency Converter is easy to use and gives you live mid-market rates instantly. They also have applications for your iPhone, Blackberry or Android Smartphone so you can check rates anywhere, anytime.

To view more useful business articles visit Business Matters website.

To help businesses establish themselves on Twitter, the service has released a free guide to show companies how to use it, to help them build relationships, along with some of the best practice tips and case studies.

Twitter 101 opens with a basic description of the service and illustrates how Twitter can be used by businesses, most of which we've discussed previously. There are also a few cute stories, such as ice-cream-deprived workers in the empire State Building sending out tweets to a delivery service.

Having established what Twitter can do for your business, the next page goes through the set up process.

One important flag they raise is how they don't support name squatting and supply a contact link to report people who are trying to hog names, so if you find your business or trade name has been pinched by someone who doesn't have a valid claim to the name, you can take action.

Once online, Twitter 101 takes you to the basic terminology. If you wanted to know what a hashtag, trending topic or Tweetup is, this is the page to visit.

Probably the most valuable page is the Best Practices section, which details the good, the bad and the spammy. It also provides a link to report spammers and other dills who abuse the service.

If you are going to only read one section, Best Practices is the bit to read. You'll avoid many mistakes and get more from the service, both as an individual and a business.

Finally, the site finishes up with some case studies. Along with the well-known Dell and JetBlue stories, is the description of how Dave Brookes of Teusner Wines in the Barossa Valley started using Twitter after watching Lance Armstrong in the Tour Down Under.

Finally, there's some links to useful resources on using Twitter.

The guide continually emphasises how it is all about building relationships. Twitter may not be the right tool for you or your business, but the Twitter 101 guide will certainly help you decide one way or the other.

 

Paul Wallbank is a writer, speaker and broadcaster on technology issues. He founded national support organisation PC Rescue in 1995 and has spent over 14 years helping businesses get the most from their IT investment. His PC Rescue and IT Queries websites provide free advice to business computer users and his monthly newsletter has over 3000 subscribers.

Many businesses find that although their site is in the Google index, its pages do not show up in searches. There are a number of changes that can be made to improve a site’s rankings for specific searches and/or traffic from search engines to help fix this problem. This is a process known as search engine optimisation (SEO).

SEO involves changing a site’s content and code in order to make the site rank higher in results for relevant searches. The easiest and most effective ways to do this include:

1. Change site copy to include words users actually search for; a ranking for a term that nobody searches for is meaningless.
2. Removing jargon, many sites use complicated industry jargon instead of words people use. As an example, did you know it isn’t car insurance but motor insurance? Neither do most people who use search engines looking to insure their car.
3. Use local terminology; words in different parts mean different things (thong comes instantly to mind). If you market is Americans, using “cell phones” rather than “mobile phones” makes sense. Ditto “vacation” over “holiday”.
4. Be specific, overt and use repetition; you may know what you do, but be sure to state it overtly. “We are specialists who can help you” isn’t as effective for SEO as “Looking for an accountant? XYZ Accountants can help meet your business’s accounting needs”. Don’t over do it, but be sure to use the keywords at least a few times on a page.
5. Build new pages; search engines rank individual pages, and no one page can rank for every search term. Building new pages for specific areas, for example separate pages for divorce lawyers and corporate lawyers, will help a site rank for a larger number of unique and different searches.
6. Get links from other sites; the more links a site has, the more important it is, and the higher its pages will rank. Building links is hard, but getting links from friends with a website and from partner businesses is usually fairly easy. Directories are another good source. The WMS Consulting website lists a great number of directories that can be submitted to, many for free.