Best Way to Connect Your Apple Devices for Better Home Business Efficiency

Best Way to Connect Your Apple Devices for Better Home Business Efficiency

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Improving efficiency in any home business starts with the technology you choose and the products that you buy. For this reason alone, many home business owners and entrepreneurs place their trust in Apple – from iMacs to Macbooks, to iPhones and iPads; knowing that their devices can be connected in a way that helps them to work more, collaborate with a shared purpose, and to solve problems more creatively. But if you’re just starting out, you may not know where to begin when it comes to connecting your Apple devices for better home business effectively, and the benefits that it provides. Read on to find out how to sync your devices, the advantages it brings, and the productivity apps you have at your disposal.

Designed to Work Together

By and large, Apple devices have been designed to work together. Sidecar, for example, a new feature for macOS Catalina and iPadOS, lets you extend your workspace by using your iPad as a second Mac display. This free feature enables anyone to work seamlessly on one app, while referencing another, or to use their main view as a display, and the second as a tool palette. Whereas the Continuity Markup feature lets you sign documents or circle important details in images on any device and then share it, and Continuity Sketch makes it easy to create graphics on your iPad or iPhone, which can be automatically inserted into any document on your Mac. Perfect for creating and collaborating on presentation decks on the go.

And these benefits extend past simple sharing and pairing. You can also unlock your Macbook while wearing your Apple Watch, take iPhone calls right on your Mac, Apple Watch, or iPad, or even copy and paste images and text from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac, or vice versa. There are endless ways to access, edit, and share files. Every device was designed with compatibility in mind, making it easy to transfer files from one to the other, AirDrop without a WiFi network, or to pick up where you left off, by sharing your internet and search behavior, regardless of whether you want to work from your Mac or your iPad next.

There’s almost no end to the benefits of being within the Apple ecosystem when it comes to the company’s products working seamlessly together to turn you into an efficiency genius. And it’s important to bear in mind that these features are all free – built into the devices or into the apps that come with them. You don’t have to purchase any monthly subscriptions or invest in third-party software in order to build a robust and safe system that boosts your home business efficiency.

Productivity at Home or Anywhere in the World

Regardless of whether you want to work from a physical home office, or on a beach in Bali, you can connect your Apple devices so that you can get your work done on time, and carry all the documents and files you need without carting around heavy paperwork. Apple’s Reminders, Notes, and Calendar apps can help you to stay on track, GoCanvas can help you to create logs and forms easily, while the built-in Siri support can make it possible to write a text or email without even seeing your screen – perfect for when you have a lot on the go. On top of this, the collaborative nature of Keynote, FaceTime, and join.me, helps you to connect with clients and business partners anywhere in the world. You can present your ideas across a desk, or across four different time zones.

By now you must be wondering, how do you go about connecting your devices, to unlock all these great features? You’ll be pleased to hear that the answer is simple and straightforward. There’s no perfect setup for a home business, and you don’t need to buy one of every device to make the most of the ones you have. The best home business setup for you is the one that allows you to make the most of your time, and not spend hours troubleshooting software problems, mucking around with cables, or having to constantly scan and email your paperwork.

For maximum efficacy, we suggest syncing all your devices, turning on Continuity so that you can share files between the devices, and downloading apps that can simplify your workflow. Assuming that you have a Mac, the process is as simple as connecting your devices and then deciding how much content you want to share across your Macbook, iMac, iPad, iPhone, or Apple Watch. This process takes less than an hour of your time, and all you’ll need is the appropriate USB or USB-C cable, plus a strong WiFi connection, to get started.

The Best Way to Connect Your Devices

At the heart of your setup should be your Macbook or iMac. From your Mac, you can sync your iPhone and your iPad, and then later your Apple Watch. If it’s the first time that you’ve set up syncing, you’ll need to connect your devices to your Mac using a USB or USB-C cable. Once connected, you’ll find that a device icon appears in the Finder sidebar. Selecting this icon will give you the opportunity to select the items you want to sync. After you have manually synced your device to your Mac, and set the ground rules on what content you want to share between devices, you’ll find that these files will then update automatically.

If you have an iPhone (with iOS 5 or later) or iPad, you can choose to sync it with your Mac wirelessly. This only works when both devices are connected to the same WiFi network. You’ll need to turn on WiFi syncing and select the settings that you want. After this point, whenever your device connects to your Mac over WiFi, you’ll be able to see and select the device icon in the Finder sidebar.

Once your devices are synced, you’ll need to ensure that you’re signed in to all of them, using the same Apple ID. This will enable you to take advantage of the Continuity features mentioned earlier, which makes it seamless to move files between your devices. These features give you the added benefits of being able to start working on one device and then switch to another nearby device to pick up where you left off, to copy content such as text, images, photos, and videos from one device to another, to make and receive calls from your Mac or iPad, use Auto Unlock, Sidecar, AirDrop, Apple Pay, and to connect to the Personal Hotspot on your iPhone or iPad (Wi-Fi + Cellular) from your Mac, without entering in a password.

Connected, Collaborative, and More Efficient

Once your devices are prepared for working from home or remotely, you can explore the range of apps developed by Apple and third parties, which will help you to enhance your efficiency. These can be categorized as productivity, project management, and messaging apps, and can offer different benefits to different types of home businesses.

Productivity Apps

Most Apple devices come with Pages, Numbers, and Keynote built-in, allowing you to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, and collaborate with others in real-time. Outside of these, you may want to consider:

  • The range of Microsoft Office 365 apps, which are available from the App Store and integrate with iOS, iPadOS, and macOS
  • Google G Suite app, which works in Safari on macOS and iPadOS, or native iPadOS apps such as Google Drive and Google Docs
  • Electronic form and document apps like DocuSign and iAuditor, which can help capture and share signatures and business data
  • Apps from Cloud storage providers like Box, Dropbox, and Microsoft OneDrive, which can help you to share and collaborate on documents with others

Project Management Apps

If you need a little help to stay focused on the task in hand, you may want to consider downloading:

  • Apps like Reminders, Things, and Todoist, which will help you to track what you’ve done, what you’re working on, and what you’ve got lined up
  • Or a more advanced project management tool such as Teamwork Projects, Basecamp, Trello, or OmniPlan, which would allow you to plan, visualize, and then monitor shared project activities and actions

Messaging Apps

If you need to make a lot of calls, or typically find yourself booking a lot of meetings with clients or business partners, you may want to look into conference tools or messaging apps, which make it easier for you to hold virtual meetups and to share your screen. These include apps such as:

Making the Most of Apple Technology

Better home business efficiency starts with the right devices and understanding how to use their best features to your advantage. If you’ve already kitted out your home office with Apple devices, you’ve made the first step towards creating one of the most productive, creative, and collaborative setups possible. And to do your best work, wherever your office is, you simply need to sync your Apple devices, turn on Continuity, and then get to work.