Have you every wondered what is possible with the iPhone and iPad? Ever shared an idea with someone, and they’ve replied, “There’s an app for that..”

There are reports suggesting that Apple’s App Store now contains over 300,000 applications, the milestone was supposedly reached yesterday and includes both free and paid apps. With so many great applications available to download to your iPad or iPhone, these devices can do pretty much any task you can think of.

Steve Jobs made a surprise announcement recently, boasting that between the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, Apple activates 275,000 devices per day!

With the combination of the large number of devices and apps, there are bound to be some very creative uses for the iPad and iPhone. The following are just some examples of what you can do with these devices:

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SOME companies understand social media and how to deal with negative comments about their businesses.

But most small and medium-sized firms prefer to ignore the comments rather than deal with the problem head-on, as Mocks founder Lara Solomon has.

Last year Solomon decided to swap PR for social media as the main marketing method for her business, which sells sock-like mobile phone covers in Australia, Britain and the US.

She focused on a Facebook page but didn’t anticipate the full consequences of engaging with her customers on social media sites.

The Mocks brand attracted about 12,000 Facebook fans (it now has more than 15,000) within three months, with the result that sales doubled in the final quarter of last year compared with 2008. What Solomon didn’t expect was the magnitude of the task of dealing with online comments from mainly 12 to 20-year-old girls.

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What is it?

Google has just announced Google Instant! They say it’s going to transform search forever—making it faster, better, stronger. But what is it, exactly?

In a word, it’s ‘predictive’. When using Google instant, you’ll start seeing search results as soon as you start typing. You’ll also be shown a range of possible queries in grey to refine your options, all before you even hit the “Search” button.

Google VP Marissa Mayer stated that this latest initiative will save 350 million hours of wasted search time with Google Instant.

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At Google, Ross McDonald(RM) – Head of Retail and Consumer Goods – Google Australia / New Zealand  has been responsible for commissioning ground breaking studies into Australian consumers and their interactions with retailers. Having worked with organizations such as Goodman Fielder, Nestle and Guinness, Ross’ understanding of shopper behavior is second to none.

TFR – What are some of the key online customer behavior traits that you have noticed – which might not be so apparent to business people in general?

RM – The most important consumer behavior online is research online before purchase. ‘Research’ used to mean walking around three different stores on a Saturday morning, asking questions. Not any more – Australians love to research their gifts and products online before they go to the store. The visit to a store or an outlet is to confirm their information, make final choices, and finalize the deal. Any retailer who is not part of the online research journey for shoppers is lucky to have shoppers come into the store.

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Having had one of my staff recently develop a rostering system, called Elvanto, to help churches globally to become super- efficient, this following article about the success of a business online rostering system caught my attention….

‘THERE are about 90 staff working across six Subway restaurants on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and Subway owner Jason Sandford-Bell was looking to gain control of a spiraling wages bill.

Having attempted a paper-based system and Excel spreadsheets to try to determine costs, Mr Sandford-Bell was no closer to an accurate forecast.

“We were using a fairly complicated Excel spreadsheet, which was all done by the managers individually on the computer system at the stores,” Mr Sandford-Bell said.

“One of the problems was it was taking a manager up to an hour to be able to get the roster correct because it was a fairly cumbersome way of doing it.”

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