reader

If your phone is your go-to business gadget, you absolutely need a way to view PowerPoint presentations. PowerPoint Reader lets you read them, but you won't be able to watch them as a slideshow. You can't make any edits or changes to them either.

Before you can actually read documents with PowerPoint Reader, the app has to convert them to PDF. That means you can't view the animated slideshow, transitions, or annotations. PDFs are usually larger than the original documents, as well. Make sure you have space on your phone before you convert. Annoyingly, the app drops … Read more

If you're on a mission to have a fully mobile office, this app might seem like the answer to your quest. It offers to help you read Microsoft Office documents from any smartphone or tablet, but sadly, Office Reader is a massive disappointment as it offers limited functionality and is ad-infested.

This app only works with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, but instead of letting you read the documents in their native format, Office Reader has to convert them to PDFs to display them. If you have a bigger file, that leads to a very long conversion process. It also … Read more

Smartphones and tablets are standard-issue in the business world, but they don't come with great Office software. This software, however, gives your smartphone the magical ability to read Excel spreadsheets from your phone. That is, if you can see through the numerous ads.

This is a reader app, which means it doesn't let you make any edits to the documents you read. The app doesn't actually work with the .xls format in Excel; instead in converts Excel files to PDF format to display them. That means you'll end up with two copies of the file, with … Read more

BeamReader PDF Viewer is a free Android app that opens, displays, and saves PDF files and email attachments. It's compact and has most of the features you expect from a PDF reader, such as zoom, pinch-to-zoom, text wrap, bookmarks, and password protection. It's suitable for Android 2+ devices, but it doesn't seem to support Android 4 releases, and the developer seems to have stopped updating it. With excellent PDF utilities available from Adobe and others, and at the same price as BeamReader (free, as in no money) it's hard to see how it finds a place … Read more

If you're in the market for an e-reader, you've no doubt read some reviews, checked out some user feedback, maybe even spoken with friends. That's all well and good, but sometimes you just want to put the leading candidates side by side and see which one wins the day.

That's the idea behind ReaderRocket, a seriously nifty tool that compares e-readers and gives you a complete rundown of specs, features, reviews, and more -- all so you can make the most informed decision possible.

To get started, either choose one of the existing comparisons, or type … Read more

There is something about a business card. That small piece of cardstock is the foundation of millions of networking success stories every year, making it a vital tool for anyone who frequently goes to networking events, business lunches, or conferences. Yet, increasingly contact lists and communication tools are online only, so the traditional business card holder isn't an option to organize all that useful information. This is why apps like WorldCard Link are becoming increasingly popular, providing a quick and easy way to digitize business cards and share contact information.

WorldCard Link is an ingenious blend of technology both … Read more

QR codes have had an interesting role in technology culture in recent years. These small square codes allow you to encode anything from an e-mail address to a Web site address that users could scan with a mobile device's camera. QR Reader is an app designed to do just that, providing an intuitive interface that makes it easy to scan, save, and share those QR codes with anyone.

QR Reader is primarily designed for scanning QR codes as the name indicates. However, it works equally well to create your own QR codes. In fact, the QR code generation interface … Read more

As mobile devices take on a more prominent role today, file readers are becoming more popular as they allow Android devices to view and/or edit files from Microsoft Word, for example. WordReader is one option, and while it can be useful, there are still many other alternatives that offer more features and work with more file types.

On the plus side, WordReader is a fairly light app that loads very quickly and allows the user to get right to work. The first unusual aspect of this app is the fact that it comes with its own file browser. Microsoft … Read more

Barnes & Noble is replacing its self-publishing platform, PubIt, with a new system presumably designed to make publishing with the bookseller easier than doing so with rival Amazon.

Nook Press lets authors compose the book within the platform, instead of requiring them to upload a file and convert it to the system's formatting. An author need only upload the content once and then write and edit within Nook Press, and preview the work, before it turns into an ePub file.

Theresa Horner, Barnes & Noble's VP of Digital Content for Nook Media, said this allows authors to avoid … Read more