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Tesco trials receipts sent directly to your smartphone
Some receipts are just about worth keeping -- you may have second thoughts on the fit of those new jeans, after all -- but the scrolls you receive at supermarket checkouts are basically just paper waste. Every under-the-kitchen-sink plastic bag has one of these unread companions, but things could get a bit lonelier under there if Tesco's latest tech trial is successful. At one store in Harlow, Essex, the supermarket is testing out a paperless receipt system that skips the printer and sends it straight to your phone instead.
Microsoft makes it easier to sign your Office 365 documents
It should now be much easier to sign your Office 365 documents without taking them offline or printing them out. Microsoft has reached a deal to offer DocuSign's digital signature apps through both the Office Store and corporate deployments, letting you affix your virtual handwriting while staying in Office 365's cloud. The two companies also promise to team up on future projects. The improved signature support isn't likely to fulfill those dreams of a paperless workplace, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. [Image credit: Sebastien Wiertz, Flickr]
Google, HelloFax, Manilla, Fujitsu and others urge you to go paperless in 2013
Even with the popularity of cloud computing and terabyte servers, most US offices are still drowning in a sea of dead trees; around 10,000 sheets of paper a year per worker, according to the EPA. Enter Paperless 2013, a campaign that will email you monthly tips on how to make the paperless office a reality. It's funded by the "Paperless Coalition," a group of digital solution companies comprised of Google Drive, HelloFax, Manilla, HelloSign, Expensify, Xero and Fujitsu ScanSnap -- none of which have any ulterior motive behind encouraging this paper-free existence. None at all. Of course, you don't have to go with these specific companies to go eco-friendly (Dropbox and PDFPen are a couple of other options) but if you need some advice on how to shed those wasteful printing habits, then go ahead and sign up at the source. Or you could do what we did and unplug our printers altogether -- just in case it gets possessed.
Reports: American Airlines wins FAA approval for in-cockpit iPads, will launch Friday
If you fly as an American Airlines premium passenger, you'll get to play with a Galaxy Tab. If you actually fly the plane, though, you'll have to make do with an iPad. According to ZDNet, the carrier has already won FAA approval to use iPads "as electronic chart and digital flight manual readers," making it the world's first airline to be totally tablet friendly. A source close to the situation tells ZDNet that AA "will begin iPad operations on B-777 aircraft" before expanding to other planes, and that both first and second generation devices have been cleared for cockpit use. An AA pilot, meanwhile, tells TechCrunch that the company's tablets will feature JeppTC (a flight chart app available in the App Store), and that all onboard slates will be required to fly with an extra battery. The program, slated to kick off this Friday, could also offer substantial savings in paper and fuel costs. According to Seattle Pi's estimates, a single iPad would replace some 35 pounds of paper per year, translating to approximately $1.2 million in saved fuel costs. Insiders say United and Delta are pursuing similar initiatives, with the latter reportedly looking for an Android-specific solution, though at the moment, only American Airlines has won the FAA's seal of approval.
Mac software deals for this Thanksgiving weekend
We're on the lookout for great deals this Thanksgiving weekend! Mike Schramm has already put up two posts on iOS apps which are on sale, and I've got a few Mac software deals to tell you about. The first one is Soulver, which is an app I've had my eye on since Marco Arment mentioned it on Build & Analyze. Soulver lets you do all sorts of mathematical calculations using words as well as numbers. Speaking as someone who isn't very good with numbers, I love Soulver because it lets me calculate things the way I think. It does conversions, currencies, file sizes (bytes to gigabytes), and yes, it can even calculate tips. To really get sense of how it works, watch the video. Soulver for Mac is on sale for $12 (50% off). The iPhone version is $1 (75% off) and the iPad version is $2 (66% off). This deal is only good the 24th and 25th. Mariner Software is offering a deal through Saturday on Paperless for Mac for $30 (40% off the usual price of $50) through their online store. Check their site for details on what scanners it works with. DEVONtechnologies is offering 25% off their apps DEVONthink, DEVONagent, and DEVONnote. Note that this deal doesn't start until Friday and ends Monday. These are great apps for searching for and storing information. Marked, from our own Brett Terpstra, is on sale starting Black Friday (and going through Sunday) as well, at 50% off. It's a terrific Markdown tool for previewing your work from any text editor. Speaking of Brett, if you look closely you can spot him in the team picture over at the AgileBits site (he worked there once upon a time). The company is offering a 50% off discount on all its products through 11/30, including the indispensable 1Password -- if you get it through the Mac App Store, you'll be upgraded for free to the forthcoming version 4. And, just in time for Advent, the premium version of Glo Bible is available for $35. If you order through their website they are offering a free movie on DVD, as well as 3 DVDs worth of content which allows you to use most of the Glo Bible off-line. They won't even charge you for shipping. You can download the "lite" version of the app for free and try it out first. Have you spotted any great Mac deals? If so, let us know in the comments! (Just a reminder, we have comment moderation turned on to stop the flood of spam comments we were getting, so your comments might not be visible right away, especially on Thursday!)
North Carolina town goes paperless, embraces iPads
The town of Cornelius, NC has launched a new program designed to cut down on paper use in the town's government facilities, and the linchpin of this program is none other than Apple's tablet, the iPad. According to the local Herald Weekly paper, the town passed out iPad 2s to commissioners at a recent board meeting, and plans to use the devices for sharing agenda packets, budget information, and everything else you need to run a small town, without printing any of it out. The whole plan seems surprisingly well thought out -- the town actually ran a trial of the program with just three iPads, and the paperless agenda plan has been set up for quite a while now. It was relatively cheap, too -- the town has only spent $5200 on the iPads (not counting some document sharing software previously purchased), and fully expects to make that money right back up in saved time and paper costs. Pretty impressive move, and of course this means the town commissioners also get to use Apple's magical and revolutionary device during meetings (though they should probably keep the Angry Birds off of government property, just in case). We've seen iPads used in a professional setting before to great effect, and here's another situation where Apple's product is not only better for a few reasons, but actually cheaper as well. [via Gigaom -- but the town is not in Colorado, it's in North Carolina]
Alaska Airlines ditches paper flight manuals for iPads
The iPad has already gotten the go-ahead from the FAA as a replacement for paper flight charts and maps, and now Alaska Airlines has become the first major US airline to hop on board the paperless bandwagon. While it's not quite ready to ditch paper navigation charts just yet (though that is under consideration), the airline has announced that it will be replacing its traditional flight manuals with iPads, which will be loaded up with the GoodReader app and PDFs of 41 different manuals and other materials. According to the airline, that change will result in savings of about 2.4 million pieces of paper, and it says the cost of the project will be offset by fuel savings from the reduced weight, and additional savings that are expected from "fewer back and muscle injuries caused by pilots carrying flight bags," which can weigh up to 50 pounds. Let's just hope those newly lightened flight bags still have room for a charging cable.
Paperless: A solid, easily customizable document manager for OS X
There are several bloggers here at TUAW who are slowly moving toward a paperless office. Steve Sande has had the best success, sharing some of what he's learned about culling out the piles of paper in his freelance business. However, it doesn't stop reams of paper from entering your life, or to even begin to manage it. Paperless from Mariner Software, formerly known as ReceiptWallet, aims to pull all of the paper pieces of your digital life into one location, then encourages you to keep going by adding to it by creating separate databases within the program to sort out different parts of your life -- a digital file cabinet, so to speak. Paperless works with almost any scanner and even offers a few bundled packages with Fujitsu's ScanSnap scanners that include a boxed version of Paperless. Yes, the irony of including a boxed version of a software designed to make your life paperless isn't lost on us. The folks at Mariner were good enough to let us dive into the software.
The paperless office: How to get there (and a discount e-book offer)
Last Wednesday on TUAW TV Live, I discussed my success over the past year at moving towards the ultimate goal of a paperless office. I thought it would be a good idea for me to pass along some of the methods I've been using to accomplish this elusive goal, and also offer a deal to our readers for an e-book all about the subject. My earliest steps towards a paperless office actually came a few years ago, when I went to electronic statements for my banks and credit cards. However, up until the beginning of 2010, the filing system for my business consisted of big binders or folders into which I would slip the printed copies of those statements along with a ton of other paperwork. Now, as the statements come in my email as PDFs or are downloaded from the bank or credit card company website, I save them directly into special folders in my Dropbox.
TUAW TV Live at 5 PM ET: Chasing the paperless office and more
CES 2011 is over, Macworld Expo 2011 is just two weeks away, and just twelve days into the new year, we've had a lot to be excited about. Our favorite computers have their very own Mac App Store, the iPhone has a second carrier in the U.S., and the rumors of iPad 2 are beginning to fill the air. Today on TUAW TV Live, I'll be talking about all of these topics and more. You can join in on the discussion through the Ustream chat tool, suggest topics and even see if I can touch my cat without having my mic go offline (you should have been there last week...). I also plan on discussing my mixed success in going to a paperless office in 2010, what software and hardware I used to be able to accomplish those goals and how I expect to move even further towards a paper-free office in 2011. Join the usual suspects for TUAW TV Live at 5 PM ET / 2 PM PT / 10 PM GMT today. Drop by TUAW about 5 minutes before the show goes live, and you'll find a post with instructions on how to watch the live streaming video and use the chat.
Next edition of Oxford English Dictionary may be online-only
Video killed the radio star and the internet, it seems, is about to obviate printed reference tomes. Oxford University Press, the publisher of the 20-volume authoritative text on the English language, has said it might not publish a printed version of the next edition. The OUP cites 2 million monthly hits on its subscription-based ($295 per annum) web lookup service, which compares rather favorably to the 30,000 total print sales since the current (Second) edition's publication back in 1989. The complete Oxford English Dictionary hardback set costs $1,165 and weighs in at a whopping 130 pounds altogether, so perhaps Oxford would be doing Ma Earth a favor as well by going paperless. Of course, we're talking about the somewhat distant future here; the next OED isn't expected to be completed for another decade, by which time we could have all sorts of magical devices, maybe even a color Kindle!
NYC mayor Bloomberg loves his iPad
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg loves his iPad, apparently -- he carries it with him everywhere, uses it for briefings, and even reads speeches off of it, as seen above. He's checking weather in the places he's heading off to vacation at, and he's reading in iBooks, too -- lately it's "The Fires" by Joe Flood and "Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition" by Daniel Okent. Very cool to see someone so busy and so important trying to seriously use Apple's magical device to improve their day-to-day. And even the Mayor realizes that what he's going is important -- he's consciously trying to go "paperless." Glad the iPad could help him. "It's amazing," he said at a tech conference recently. "I told Steve Jobs the other day, if he can improve on this, it'll really be amazing. I just, every time I play with it, I discover something new." Wait, improve on the iPad? That's a tall order, Mr. Mayor. But maybe Cupertino will see what it can do. [via 9to5Mac]
T-Mobile to start charging $1.50 for the pleasure of slaughtering a tree in cold chlorophyll
Just how bad do you want a bill in the snail mail? Companies big and small have been putting serious effort for some time into getting consumers to bypass their paper bills in favor of "e-bills," "eco-bills," "paperless statements," and all other manner of semi-trademarkable terms for the same thing: getting your passive-aggressive request for payment in your email inbox, saving a tree (and postage) in the process. Now, T-Mobile's taking it to the next level and charging a whopping buck fifty for getting your bill the old-fashioned way, which by our rough calculation significantly exceeds the bulk postage they're paying to mail it out. Of course, the effort is as much about being environmentally conscious as it is about covering T-Mobile's costs, but still -- we bet they'll make themselves a little extra coin every month out of this deal. [Via Phone Scoop]
Continental Airlines expands paperless boarding in US
Handset addicts traveling domestically through Houston's Intercontinental Airport have likely utilized the paperless boarding option if hopping on a Continental flight, and apparently the initiative is going over so well that the aforesaid airline and the TSA are expanding it to three more venues. As of now, passengers traveling within the US can enjoy the same luxury at Boston's Logan International Airport and Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C; later this month, the program should slide into Newark International Airport in New Jersey. As expected, only folks traveling alone can take advantage, as the airline feels that pulling up passes for an entire group would actually slow the flow of boarding. There's been no word given on future expansion plans, but at this rate, we wouldn't be shocked to see it hit even more airports in the not-too-distant future. [Via WBZTV]
