Stories by Michelle Mastin

Walkman is a familiar name in portable media players, going back several decades. Sony's Walkman Z Series ($210, as of June 1, 2012) is basically an Android phone without the phone, and with a strong emphasis on media playback and gaming.

The Retina display on the new iPad is one of the tablet's defining features, and it makes the device ideally suited for multimedia work, including image editing. Apple’s new iPhoto app and Adobe’s Photoshop Touch are taking advantage of that opportunity by bringing powerful photo editing and sharing tools to the iPad.

These tablets have extra security features that will keep your work safe and your IT pros happy.

Software keyboards have come far, but sometimes the best way to tackle work on the go is to use a physical keyboard.

Among the many options for storing information digitally, the biggest players in the note-taking software market are OneNote and Evernote. These applications come in handy for taking notes, making lists, managing projects, storing and organizing information, and sharing it with others.

Photoshop Touch is one of six new Touch Apps that Adobe has released for Android tablets running Honeycomb. It is designed to bring many of Photoshop's most popular features to Android tablets, allowing creative professionals to integrate these tablets into their mobile workflow.

Google+ Pages is here, allowing brands and companies to set up a presence on the social network. Now it's time to create a page for your business

Do you have your business card on you? Do you have your phone with you? No and yes? That's what I thought. Of course you remember to carry your business cards for trade shows and industry events--but what about on a daily basis, for those random coffee-house encounters, or for those times when you want to connect with someone at a party who happens to work for a company you want to do business with?

If you frequently use a mobile phone for business calls and text messages, you know that the fees from your carrier can add up quickly. But with suitable apps and programs, you can add an office line that lets you use Wi-Fi to make voice calls and send texts from your mobile device or desktop at no extra charge, using the Internet service you already pay for. Having a second phone line for business also can help you separate your work from your personal life.

If you use Google's Chrome browser (or a Chromebook), check out these great document creation, collaboration and management tools

Tablets are all the rage. You may have started with a smartphone to check email on the go, and then to browse the Web and play Angry Birds; then you started wondering if a bigger screen might be even better. The larger screens of tablets are certainly great for videos, reading, and Web browsing.

The Amazon cloud services outage that knocked out several popular Websites last week raised questions about the reliability of the cloud, but the general consensus is that it works if you plan for failure. Like any good business plan, a good cloud plan should include provisions for failure, including plans B and C, and plenty of backups.

When I started teaching viola and violin years ago, I brought all the books my students used along with me, just in case the kids forgot theirs. Then the kids became more advanced, and I had to carry more books. I also sent them each home with a practice chart for the week. The studio grew, and I printed out more and more weekly charts.