3 Ways to Break Away from Your Desk

CPA’s can transform the way they work by adding today’s newest laptops, desktops and/or tablets, equipped with Internet of Things (IoT) technology, into their office workspace.

How IoT works

IoT is any network of connected objects that can collect and share data with each other. If you have a smart phone and read your work email with it, or your Gmail, Yahoo or other public email with it, you are using IoT. If you bought a Fitbit or an Apple Watch, and it connects to your phone or laptop, you’ve got an even bigger IoT. That’s really all there is to it.

At the same time, capacitive technologies—sensors activated by touch, voice and audio—have also become cheaper and smaller. So major electronics manufacturers have put them in displays as small as a smart watch or phone, tablet, or laptop, or even larger monitors and television screens. It is this array of IoT tech that now enables not only a paperless office—but an almost hands-free one, as well.

Three Ways CPAs Can Benefit from IoT-enabled devices

1. Use touch screens and projectors

Smart phones have been with us for more than a decade now, but perhaps you can remember the time you first bought one and could access emails and phone contacts with just a tap. Now those screens are available in many sizes—from watch faces less than a fingertip wide to movie screens 100” across. Sensors embedded inside electronics displays allow you to make swipe, wipe, pinch, zoom and tap gestures to open, close and move through applications, web pages, images and documents with ease.

Digital projectors, including some projectors embedded into tablets, like the amazing Lenovo YOGA Tab 3 Pro, can display images, diagrams, charts and video up to 70” wide on any surface. With the Lenovo Tab 3 Pro, any wall in any treatment room can become a light board or projector screen.

2. Use active pens and styli to write

With capacitive screens, digital styluses, or styli, have been around for a while. They usually have a round, fat tip and are good for drawing or making quick marks on notes, like circles, arrows or numbers. Today, active pens are making a mark. These pens, which look and work just like ballpoints, are activated, or “opened,” with a click that releases a thin, pen-like tip to allow for thinner line drawing and handwriting.

The “clicker” at the top can be programmed to open a specific application, like Windows OneNote or Microsoft Word. The Lenovo Active Pen 2 delivers pin-point accuracy by sensing more than 2,000 areas of the screen, translating your handwriting into text almost instantaneously. 

3. Say hello to Cortana

Cortana is a virtual audio assistant built into Windows 10 that can “remember” everything on your system—from your schedule and emails to your documents and folders. Cortana can find things for you, make appointments, pull up documents when needed, and search both your system and the Internet for information and help.

All it takes to get started with Cortana is a bit of conversation so the system learns your voice. After that, Cortana can hear you from several feet away, making it easy to dictate notes and schedule follow-ups right from your stool. 

Exclusively for AICPA Members

To serve today’s Accounting professionals, Lenovo offers the new YOGA, a device that is simply like no other computing machine around. Available as a tablet or 2-in-1 with a 360-degree hinge, the YOGA uses the same design found in luxury metal watchbands to flex its display to any angle you desire. The YOGA Tab 3 Pro features a hinge that functions as a stand or wall hanger, and includes a projector lens for displaying video and images with incredible clarity.

Besides its agility, YOGA offers stunning design, configurable specifications in some models, and an optional Active Pen stylus that works almost exactly like your favorite ballpoint, among much more. Visit www.lenovo.com/us/en/aicpagold  (Passcode: AICPA*GOLD) to shop for yours today.

For more information about the AICPA Lenovo Discount Program visit here: https://www.aicpa.org/membership/discounts/lenovo.html