Tech Tips

Must-Have iPad Apps For Professionals

When it comes to organizing, simplifying and entertaining, the iPad has it.

In Pictures: Must-Have iPad Apps For Professionals

This week, across the country, people are ripping open some very precious Apple boxes to reveal Steve Jobs' newest wondertoy, the iPad. Sales analyses for the tablet computer's opening weekend are estimated at around 700,000 units, including pre-orders, at a starting price of $499 per model; Apple hasn't offered any official numbers.

There's been much debate and hype over the iPad's next-big-thing status. Instead of jumping into that particular mosh pit, we've been closely watching as the applications have started rolling out, anticipating which tools will organize, simplify and entertain. Here, our picks for the top apps for any business professional.

In Pictures: 10 Must-Have iPad Apps For Every Professional

Air Sharing Pro
The Air Sharing Pro app turns your iPad into a portable hard drive, and the upgrade from the iPhone version puts the larger screen to good use. Wirelessly mount your iPad as a drive on your computer so you can load any files you need on-the-go. The iPad now can open, view or e-mail files in any format--Excel docs, movie files, pdfs, you name it. Air Sharing also allows your iPad to locate any printers available on a wireless network, which will surely come in handy. $9.99.

Big Oven
Ever find yourself roaming the grocery store aisles with little or no clue what to make for dinner. BigOven, a recipe-centric social-networking site with over 170,000 recipes, has built an app just for you. Browse for recipe suggestions and create grocery lists right on the iPad; you'll be eating better and shopping smarter in no time. $4.99.

Cube
Forgetting a taxi receipt or business lunch can get you into trouble when it comes time to fill out your montly T&E report. Cube, which works with your existing Google ( GOOG - news - people ) or Gmail accounts just might be your saving grace. This minimalist app (no fussy design elements here) is an easy way to keep track of time, travel and money. Freelancers, especially, can benefit from Cube's feature that tracks different projects, tasks and clients with color-coding. Free.

Dragon Dictation
Typing on the iPad has mixed reviews from early users, many saying that pecking away at the screen when placed flat is awkward, and propping the tablet on an angle is problematic when you're on-the-move. Enter Dragon Dictation--a voice dictation app from the well-known software maker that translates your voice into text.

• The One Big Money Mistake You Don't Want To Make

• What The First Date Can Teach You About Love, Money And The Person You're With

• Five Topics To Help You Determine Financial Compatibility

• Practically Painless Guide To Managing Money

• Are You And Your Partner Financially Compatible?

• Do Men And Women Think About Money Differently?

• Ten Questions To Ask When Hiring A Financial Advisor

• Why Older Women Are Going Back To Work

A reviewer from USA Today says his tests were a whopping 98% accurate--a serious step up from most other voice dictation software and far faster than the earlier app developed for the iPhone. Click a tab and your voice note becomes email-ready. Free.

Instapaper Pro
Instantly makes a newspaper out of the many articles and blog posts you come across during the day--but never the time to read. Instapaper lets you cache Web pages right to your iPad to read later on. Bonus from Instapaper: The app is universal. You only have to pay for it once, and it will work on any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. $4.99

U.S. automakers plan to reopen their union contract and may sell Saab and Volvo to the Swedish government as a way to pare brands

Ford said on Dec. 1 that it is considering selling Sweden-based Volvo, as the struggling U.S. automaker tries to survive the industry crisis. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

General Motors' (GM) board was meeting on Dec. 1 to review a plan that management hopes will persuade Congress to lend the company about $12 billion in public funds. Collectively, Detroit wants $25 billion in bridge loans. The plan includes moves that will cut executive pay, narrow the cost gap vs. Japanese carmakers, and review several of its brands for sale or cuts.

Sources say GM will tell Congress (BusinessWeek.com, 11/20/08) that it plans to reopen the labor agreement to negotiate a deal with the United Auto Workers that would narrow that cost gap. GM will also make a case that it is pushing hard to improve the fuel economy of its lineup. And it is looking at different strategic options for as many as four brands—Saab, Saturn, Hummer, and Pontiac. If any of them go away, namely Saturn or Pontiac, it would be done by slowly phasing them out over several years.

GM is trying to work out a sale of Saab, BusinessWeek has learned. For several months, GM has been shopping the brand to Chinese, Indian, and Russian carmakers, as well as to the Swedish government, sources familiar with the talks said. Saab Managing Director Jan Ake Jonsson and GM-Europe President Carl-Peter Forster have been leading the efforts to find a buyer, or at least get someone to take the company off GM's hands.

Taking a Loss

Meanwhile, Ford (F) said it is also willing to sell Swedish carmaker Volvo to raise cash while the company asks the U.S. government for a loan. Ford has been trying to sell Volvo for more than a year. It has even rejected an offer, says one industry source, from a Chinese automaker. Ford has wanted as much as $3 billion to $5 billion for Volvo, which it purchased from an independent holding company in 1999 for $6.4 billion. But both GM and Ford may now have to settle for a deal that pays them little in exchange for a majority stake by the Swedish government.

Part of the problem for both automakers is that members of Congress who are opposed to or reluctant to granting government loans to the automakers said in last month's Capitol Hill hearings that they were against any of the money going to overseas operations or jobs. As long as both Saab and Volvo are wholly owned and losing money (BusinessWeek.com, 5/6/08), the companies cannot make that promise.

Volvo will have about 18,000 employees by yearend, and it lost $458 million in the third quarter alone, as its sales declined 24%, to $2.9 billion.

In a statement issued on Monday, the Swedish government said it was willing to consider its options and was talking to the carmakers. "The Swedish government has to be worried about this," says David E. Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. "In the case of Saab, they won't want to lose that facility in Trollhattan [Sweden]."

GM has about 5,000 employees in Sweden, most of whom work in the Saab factory in Trollhattan, where the 9-3 and 9-5 models are built. GM has shelved plans to build the 9-5 at its plant in Russelsheim, Germany, since the brand's future is under review.

When Chrysler was near death and awaiting a government bailout in 1979, then-CEO Lee Iacocca ordered drastic spending cuts and required all checks above $1,000 to be approved by a senior vice president.

Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp. need to follow the same play book now, industry analysts and management professors say, as they try to outlast the debate in Washington over whether they will get billions in government loans.

With no hope of getting credit elsewhere and auto sales at a 25-year low, both automakers are perilously close to having only the minimum amount of cash needed to operate.

Today, with GM alone spending $6.9 billion more than it took in last quarter and having operations in 34 countries, Iacocca's $1,000 limit might not be practical. But industry analysts and bankruptcy experts say both companies must take similar measures to ensure their companies live long enough to use any loans they get.

"You turn the electricity off. You do things like shut the proving grounds down," said Jim Hall, managing director of 2953 Analytics of Birmingham, Mich.

Top executives of GM, Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. went to Washington this week seeking roughly $25 billion but ran into so much opposition that Congress delayed voting on the bailout until the automakers prove they can be viable.

They must submit a plan to Congress by Dec. 2, followed by more hearings before any vote is taken. That means money won't be available at least until late December, probably not until early next year.

Meanwhile, the companies face huge expenses and a lack of revenue because car buyers are having trouble getting financing or are delaying big purchases because of uncertainty about their jobs. October was the worst U.S. auto sales month in 25 years, and November is looking only slightly better.

Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli told the Senate Banking Committee his company had $6.1 billion in cash at the end of the third quarter after burning up $1 billion in cash per month from July through September.

GM fared worse. It burned up $6.9 billion last quarter and about $6 billion in the first half of the year and has warned that it could reach its minimums sometime next month.

Ford, while burning through billions as well, has a big stockpile of borrowed money and says it can last at least through 2009.

But without aid soon, GM and Chrysler will have trouble paying bills and may have to seek bankruptcy protection.

Inside both companies' headquarters, teams likely are looking to cut spending any way they can, including delays in new investments, experts say.

"They have to take really drastic steps in their cost-cutting," said Robert Wiseman, a Michigan State University professor who teaches strategic management. "Stop buying everything except for the most critical things they need for their operation."

GM announced Friday it is canceling its traditional holiday party for the media "due to the very difficult economic situation facing the nation, the state, the industry, and our company." The party will be replaced by a $5,000 donation to a journalism scholarship fund.

At Chrysler, Nardelli testified, there's a cash committee that scrutinizes requests every week.

But what they're doing now may not be enough. Some in Congress criticized the CEOs for flying to Washington on separate corporate jets. GM is reducing its leased fleet from seven planes last year to three, but the stigma remains.

Lawmakers also rapped the automakers' high labor costs and particularly the jobs bank, in which laid-off workers get 95 percent of their pay plus benefits even though they aren't working.

The United Auto Workers said it has cut the jobs bank and placed time limits on it in new contracts signed with the companies last year. Still, more than 3,500 workers are getting paid for not working, and that number is sure to rise as the companies continue to cut jobs.

On Friday, GM announced it would extend holiday shutdowns and make other production cuts at five North American factories. It also accelerated the closure of a truck plant in Oshawa, Ontario.

Harlan Platt, who teaches corporate turnarounds at Northeastern University in Boston, said GM should turn to the UAW for help.

"The bank right now is the union, and they're going to have to give up something in the near term so they have something very valuable in the long term," Platt said.

Initially the UAW said it already gave up a lot in the new contracts, agreeing to lower wages for new hires and to shift the companies' huge retiree health care costs to a union-administered trust.

But on Thursday, President Ron Gettelfinger softened his stance, saying that the union is at the bargaining table already.

"We would welcome all the other stakeholders to the table to make some concessions," he said.

In Washington, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said lawmakers are trying to get reassurances that the companies have a specific plan to survive before the government hands over taxpayer money. But that might be troublesome for the automakers.

GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner told reporters Thursday that the company already has shared a detailed plan confidentially with the Bush administration and key staffers in Washington. He's concerned that sensitive information could be made public.

"Historically things like your future product plans, technology plans and financial plans would be competitively sensitive information, and so for a variety of reasons, we wouldn't be sharing that publicly," he said.

Douglas Baird, a professor who specializes in bankruptcy at the University of Chicago Law School, says the automakers were too vague, giving Congress less information than companies normally give lenders when seeking bankruptcy financing.

"That's not the way you approach a lender in a work-out. That's just not the way it's done," he said.

Wagoner, he said, will have the difficult task of showing Congress how GM can be viable with its current structure.

"That's not going to be easy to do," he said.