When you think personal finance software, the first thing that comes to mind is probably Quicken. While Quicken has been a mainstay on Windows desktops for years, its Mac presence has been less than stellar. That changes today, with the release of Quicken Essentials for Mac. Re-built from the ground up and integrating lots of features from Mint.com, Quicken Essentials is a great addition to the Mac software space.

Quicken has always treated the Mac platform as kind of an also-ran. Although new versions of the tool appeared yearly (at least until 2006) alongside the WindowsWindows variants, the Mac editions always lagged behind in features, stability and even pricing options. Quicken Essentials for Mac, previously known as Quicken Financial Life for Mac, has been promised since Macworld 2008. After two years, it’s finally here.

Rebuilding Quicken for the Mac

Quicken Essentials for Mac is a native Cocoa app. This in itself wouldn’t be that noteworthy, except that previous versions of Quicken for Mac have not been built on Cocoa (or even optimized for Intel Macs), which has meant that there were user interface quirks and behavioral differences that made Quicken feel like less of a real Mac app.

With Quicken Essentials for Mac, the interface and program have been designed to use Mac OS X’sMac OS X core features and strengths. This is a really good thing, and it shows a commitment to the Mac platform. This is important because it has been nearly four years since a Quicken app was released for the Mac. QuickBooks has had more frequent updates, but for home users who want to manage their finances, this is a long time coming.

A Dose of Mint (.com)

In September, Intuit, the makers of Quicken, acquired the money management web app, Mint.com. The acquisition was controversial among some MintMint users, out of fear that Intuit would end up changing Mint into something different.

It’s still too early to assess how the acquisition has affected both product groups (Mint.com continues as a separate product), but consumers did get something out of the deal: Aaron Patzer, the founder of Mint.com, is now Intuit’s vice president and general manager of the company’s Personal Finance Group. That means that Aaron and the Mint team are now working on both Quicken and Mint.com.

I spoke with Aaron at the Future of Web Apps in Miami on Monday night, and he offered me some insight into his new role and the changes on the new Mac product.

Aaron described Quicken Essentials for Mac as “the closest thing to Mint on the desktop as you are going to get.” From a personal money management perspective, that’s really great, because it means that not only is it easier to visualize where money is going, but you can connect to more financial institutions through the program than ever before. More than 12,000 institutions are supported now, and a total of more than 18,000 is expected by the end of the year.

Categorization is also much easier in Quicken Essentials for Mac, which is again, a hat-tip to Mint.com

A Few Notes For Users

Quicken Essentials for Mac is designed for home users and while it supports basic investment tracking, it isn’t as robust as the Quicken for Windows offerings or the old Quicken Mac 2007. Better support for investments is planned for future versions of Quicken Essentials for Mac, but for right now, this isn’t really designed for users with heavy portfolios.

Because only 6% of Quicken users used the built-in Bill Pay option in Quicken, this was removed from Quicken Essentials for Mac. You can still track your bills and make sure you have the money to pay them, but you can’t pay directly from the app unless you sign up for Intuit’s Bill Pay service.

If you’re a TurboTax user, Quicken Essentials for Mac doesn’t integrate or export to TurboTax, although again, that type of support might be added to the future. If you rely on getting your Quicken info into TurboTax, you’ll need to use Quicken Mac 2007.

A Nice Start

This is a great rebirth of sorts for Quicken for Mac. After being virtually abandoned for such a long time, it’s nice that the most popular money management tool is finally back on the Mac and in style. Quicken Essentials for Mac is $69.99 and requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

Mac users — what do you think about Intuit’s new commitment to Mac? What are your favorite Mac-based financial management apps? Let us know!

Indulge in One Financial Vice to Keep Your Overall Spending in Check

If you want to be financially successful, it's important to clamp down on your spending. On the other hand, allowing yourself to budget money for a single regular indulgence might be an effective way to keep your overall spending on track.

Photo by John Weise.

Finance blogger Adam Baker says even though he's typically a frugal guy, he allows himself to sink part of his hard-earned cash into martial arts training, a hobby he really loves. Although the classes run him more than $160 a month, the benefits—good mental and physical health—far outweigh the pain to his pocketbook.

Sure, he doesn't need the classes in the same way he needs to pay his electric and phone bills. Baker's point, though, is that while financial advisors might suggest cutting back on his expensive hobbies, doing so might make him liable to burn out on saving money altogether. All work and no play… well, you know the rest.

If you're trying to decide whether an expense falls under the “financial vice” category, Baker says to ask yourself a series of quick questions to help you figure it out. Chief among them:

Is it consistent with our other goals? This is tough because many of these expenses will work against our financial goals by nature. However, we try to consider any ancillary benefits that are generated from the financial vice. Martial arts helps my fitness goals, provides me with a fun community of people, and helps me to stay mentally calm while under intense pressure (trust me).

Check out the post for more questions to ask yourself, and some ideas on limiting the amount of financial vices you indulge. What about you? Do you find that giving in to a spendy craving or two helps you stay on budget, or do you fold like a house of cards once you buy something not in your budget? Talk about it in the comments.

http://removeripoffreports.net

When it comes to personal finances, there are plenty of times when users “can't get no satisfaction.” Especially when they are dealing with banks that have little concern for them being able to connect their bank accounts to personal finance tools like Mint.com. But, thanks to a new partnership with Get Satisfaction, Mint users will soon be able to get their questions answered by community members and Mint employees without leaving the Mint tool.

Get Satisfaction is a customer service tool that has been adopted by many companies and allows them to better serve customers and answer questions without complex Frequently Asked Question Pages and byzantine contact forms that have more drop-down choices than a FAFSA form.

“Mint.com's integration with Get Satisfaction is a natural fit,” said Thor Muller, chief technology officer at Get Satisfaction in a the press release announcing the partnership. “We're both committed to creating friendly and compelling online user experiences and we're delighted to be able to provide Mint.com with a way to scale up and serve their customers with a tight integration of Get Satisfaction.”

Mac owners still have deal with a lack of proper Mac compatible versions of many popular programs, although the situation is improving. For the past few years this shortfall has included personal finance software such as Intuit's Quicken, an issue that has finally been addressed with the release of Quicken Essentials for Mac.

This new version of Quicken for Apple owners is the first version of Quicken software which has been written from the ground up for OSX, partially thanks to Intuit's purchase of Mint.com last year.

Notable improvements over the last version of Quicken for Mac (from 2007) include:

• New Mac-like user interface
• Connects to 12,000 banks and financial institutions
• Better categorization using an algorithm similar to Mint.com
• Conversion software to help you bring your data from earlier Mac versions and Windows versions of Quicken or MS Moneyeds.

While some users will be excited to have a new version of Quicken for Mac, tech pundit Walter Mossberg wasn't too hot on the new version for its lack of features that come standard in Windows versions such as Bill Pay, TurboTax integration and the ability to view or edit transactions in investment accounts.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog has the best description of Quicken Essentials for Mac's lack of power features, calling it the “iPhoto for your finances” and suggesting alternatives for users who need more advanced tools.

These are notable omissions for individuals looking for a rounded and robust personal finance tool, but as Intuit points out, this version of Quicken Essentials for Mac is just that; the essential personal finance tools.
.

http://removeripoffreports.net

MILAN (Reuters) — A Milan court convicted three Google executives on Wednesday for violating the privacy of an Italian boy with Down syndrome by letting a video of him being bullied be posted on the site in 2006.

Google will appeal the six-month suspended jail terms and said the verdict “poses a crucial question for the freedom on which the internet is built,” since none of the three employees found guilty had anything to do with the offending video.

“They didn’t upload it, they didn’t film it, they didn’t review it and yet they have been found guilty,” said Google’s senior communications manager, Bill Echikson, in Milan.

The court convicted senior vice-president and chief legal officer David Drummond, former Google Italy board member George De Los Reyes and global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer. Senior product marketing manager Arvind Desikan was acquitted.

The executives, none of whom are based in Italy, do not face actual imprisonment as the sentences were suspended, while an appeals process in Italy can take many years.

The guilty verdict “poses a crucial question for the freedom on which the internet is built,” Google asserts.

They were not in Italy for the hearing. Drummond is based in California, Fleischer in Paris and Desikan in London, while De Los Reyes has since retired, Echikson told Reuters.

The complaint was brought by an Italian advocacy group for people with Down syndrome, Vivi Down, and the boy’s father, after four classmates at a Turin school uploaded a clip to Google Video showing them bullying the boy.

“A company’s rights cannot prevail over a person’s dignity. This sentence sends a clear signal,” public prosecutor Alfredo Robledo told reporters outside the Milan courthouse.

Down syndrome is the most common genetic cause of mental retardation, occurring in about 1 out of 700 live births.

The video was filmed with a mobile phone and posted on the site in September 2006.

“Threat To Net Freedom”

Google argued that it removed the video immediately after being notified and cooperated with Italian authorities to help identify the bullies and bring them to justice.

It says that, as hosting platforms that do not create their own content, Google Video, YouTube and Facebook cannot be held responsible for content that others upload.

Drummond said in a statement the verdict “sets a dangerous precedent” and meant “every employee of any internet hosting service faces similar liability.” He said the law was clear in Italy and the European Union that “hosting providers like Google are not required to monitor content that they host.”

Leslie Harris, the president of the Washington D.C.-based Center for Democracy and Technology said the ruling was an “extremely dangerous precedent.”

“This is precisely the sort of action by a Western democracy that undermines Secretary Clinton’s call for global internet freedom,” Harris said. “The principle that technological intermediaries should be protected from liability for content posted by users has been a cornerstone of Internet freedom. It is enshrined in both E.U. and U.S. law.

“Most troubling, what happened it Italy is unlikely to stay in Italy.  The Italian court’s actions today will surely embolden authoritarian regimes and be used justify their own efforts to suppress internet freedom.”

Fleischer said if employees were “criminally liable for any video on a hosting platform, when they had absolutely nothing to do with the video in question, then our liability is unlimited.”

The prosecutors accused Google of negligence, saying the video remained online for two months even though some web users had already posted comments asking for it to be taken down.

Down syndrome support group Vivi Down said in a statement that it was “very satisfied” with the guilty verdict.

Censoring of websites has become a hot issue in Italy in recent months, following a spate of hate sites against officials including Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The government briefly studied plans to black out internet hate sites after fan pages emerged praising an attack on the premier, but the idea was dropped after executives from Facebook, Google and Microsoft agreed to a shared code of conduct rather than legislation.

(By Manuela D’Alessandro. Additional reporting by Emilio Parodi and Eleanor Biles; writing by Stephen Brown in Rome; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton. Additional reporting by Ryan Singel.)

Photo: Bill Echikson, senior manager of communications of Google Inc, speaks to the media after a court passed the sentence for three Google executives in Milan Feb. 24, 2010. REUTERS/ Paolo Bona

More From Reuters:

• China PLA officer urges new Internet control agency
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Publishing | Jonathan Yaged has resigned as vice president and U.S. publisher of the Disney Book Group to become CEO of House Party, a consumer-activation and marketing company. Yaged joined Disney in 2000 as director of business affairs.

The Disney Book Group's Hyperion imprint publishes such graphic novels as Jellaby, Houdini: The Handcuff King, the Artemis Fowl adaptations and the popular W.I.T.C.H. series. [Publishers Weekly]

Publishing | Japanese cartoonist Shuuhou Satou, who in April announced he would make his comics available online for a small fee a month after they appeared in print, reportedly earned about $5,500 from Internet sales in January. The mangaka began the online venture because he was unhappy with the profit-sharing setup of traditional publishing.

Publishing | Bandai Entertainment finally has launched a separate manga website.

Legal | Steve Geppi, lawsuit magnet. [The Beat]

Retailing | School of Comics in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, will close at the end of March. Manager Jeff Wally hopes to open a new, “more streamlined store” to replace it in early April. [Daily Comet]

Creators | Douglas Wolk kicks off a five-part interview with artist Kevin O'Neill.

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Tea partiers will be the first to tell you that they don’t intend to
start a third party. They’re angry with Washington and with the
behavior of both parties, but the way toward the nation’s salvation is
to hold current leaders more accountable, not sending new ones to fill
the ranks of Congress. “We just don’t have enough time to do that,”
says Joyce Smith, a retiree from Ellijay, Ga.

Since the movement’s first-ever convention started in Nashville on
Thursday, the pursuit for reporters has simply been to figure out the
force of the movement and how formidable its voice will be in November.
Partiers are uniformly against public spending and expansion of
government, but it’s harder to figure out what exactly they’re for.
Campaigning on “throwing the bums out” might help win an election, but
it’s not a governing strategy. And until now, one of the movement’s
biggest snags has been its inability to articulate concrete changes it
would make to Washington and the federal government.

Until I met a man named Fred Everett, a tea-party patriot from Marietta, Ga. Cognizant of the movement’s lack of a concrete platform, he wrote one. He brought 500 copies to distribute to delegates as a proposed vision for the movement. It’s broken into two parts: fiscal reform and election reform—social programs aren’t included—and the idea is to get candidates to sign it as a pledge before they get tea-party support.

Under fiscal reform, Everett proposes curtailing all earmarks (“regardless of the importance of the legislation”) and balancing the budget by, as he says, sunsetting each and every federal program and “matching federal expenditures with federal revenues.” No exception, although one tiny caveat: no raising taxes. And on that note, he’d like to restructure the tax code to sharply reduce personal and corporate tax rates without shifting the income-tax burden from one income bracket to another. The result, he says, will “grow our national economic pie, create jobs, and increase federal tax revenues.”

Shifting to election reform, Everett thinks it’s unfair that incumbents have the upper hand to finance campaigns with taxpayer money when events coincide with their public duties. He thinks challengers should also get a weekly, federally funded town-hall meeting during the two months before each election. Once elected, lawmakers should be subject to term limits: eight years in the House and 12 years in the Senate. (Some tea partiers tell me the numbers should be higher, others say lower.) And last, to end gerrymandering, all House districts should be redrawn by an independent commission based on “democratic principles.”

Even though Everett’s contract offers some reasoned ideas, it’s a valid question whether candidates would sign on to something still so broad. But if they want tea-party support, they might have to. At yesterday’s press conference, convention organizer Judson Phillips laid down the gauntlet: “The tea party doesn’t endorse candidates; candidates endorse the tea party.”

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1. You should also check out http://www.FiLife.com. FiLife is a personal finance question and answer platform that is now the #4 personal finance site on the web according to Comscore (December 2009). Users can come to the site and ask questions and get expert answers in a few hours.

   Posted by: EK |
   January 14, 2010 5:45 AM

2. I second that FiLife nomination. I've asked several questions there on a variety of topics and my questions usually get answered by somebody right away. Plus, tax season is coming up, and it's going to be good to have a place to ask those pesky tax questions!

   Posted by: Barclay |
   January 14, 2010 7:26 AM

3. Its still early days for these services yet, and whilst options like Xero might be good for professional type businesses, for anyone who carries / needs to account for stock they are not yet suitable. But as they build an eco-system of integrations around them then will become suitable for a wider range of businesses.

   Core accounting doesn't really change, (tax rates etc change but the basics stay the same), so we've been able to use the same desktop accounting software, bought for around £300, for the past 5 years. Which make the SAAS providers very expensive by comparison. As they build more features and more data integrations then that cost may become justified.

   Posted by: Robert |
   January 14, 2010 9:24 AM

4. Small business accounting doesn't have to be complex…or scary. And that's what the web (internet DNA) can bring to small businesses…'De-scarey' accounting into simple, easy to understand workflows.

   Surprised that with all the mentioned of Intuit, there isn't one of QuickBooks Online? For small businesses who want that anywhere/anytime access (and majority will in a short time!) QuickBooks Online is a big player.

   We're bringing that Internet DNA (and the decades of trusted accounting knowledge) to how small businesses think about and run their books. Pretty exciting stuff there.

   Kristen
   QuickBooks Online Product Manager

   Posted by: Kristen Berman |
   January 14, 2010 9:45 AM

5. Doesn't First Round Capital have an interesting portfolio company that competes directly with Xero? Might be worth a mention… I forget the name.

   Posted by: Andrew Parker |
   January 14, 2010 9:59 AM

6. For personal finances, I use Mint.com - very useful feedback via emails in terms of where my money is going, and where I stand at the end of every month.

   Posted by: Ceyda |
   January 14, 2010 12:23 PM

7. I would love to try Mint but they weren't operating in the UK the last time I checked.

   I've used Wesabe for a while, but the whole download/upload approach was too much for my low frustration tolerance. I blame being spoilt by API's for this

   Posted by: Ray Scott |
   January 14, 2010 12:25 PM

8. I use Quickbooks (for Windows) for business. While a solution like Xero would be an ideal, most SMB focused Accounting firms still recommend and rely on Quickbooks. I think I will be introducing my accountant to Xero.

   On the personal side, Mint is great, but lacks certain features that are necessary for some people. I use Quicken (for Windows) in order to track checks and attach images. Once Mint/QOE introduces a feature set similar to the desktop version, the switch will be a no-brainer.

    Posted by: Bryan Radtke |
   January 14, 2010 12:36 PM

9. I use FreeAgent (http://www.freeagentcentral.com) for my small business. For UK based companies it's particularly fantastic as it “knows” about UK tax and VAT rules but for pretty much anyone it is beautifully designed and works a treat. First thing I signed up for when starting the business, don't regret it for a second.

    Posted by: Ed Moore |
   January 14, 2010 12:38 PM

10. Xero is missing Payroll functionality for the UK, although integration is available with two external providers at additional cost.

    FreeAgent Central has it's own payroll functionality included within the Limited Company service plan (£25 per month plus VAT).

    Neither FreeAgent or Xero can manage stock which is a major limitation currently.

    Posted by: James |
    January 14, 2010 6:19 PM

11. I'm not clear about why nobody's created a 3rd party service that can actually perform transactions. Mint.com, etc. make it easy to watch what's happening with your money and set budget goals, etc. but don't actually help you allocate your money. I've long wanted an online method to automatically manage balances across multiple accounts (e.g. different accounts intended for different spending categories, or just automating savings better). Banks have their own tools for doing recurring transactions but as far as I've seen they are all limited to a fixed-amount transaction and are restricted to single-future-date or fixed-interval-recurring scheduling. Why not allow a percentage of each paycheck to be transferred to savings whenever it clears? Or set up rules like pay down credit card balances before transferring to savings.

    Is there some technical (doubtful) or legal reason why this type of account management isn't available?

    Posted by: Brandon |
    January 17, 2010 9:15 PM

12. Saasu.com is interesting too, it is richer than xero (e.g salary processing, inventory) so a hybrid online ERP and accounting.

    Blippy.com is new and also unusual, used for sharing credit card transactions on twitter, only a matter of time before some accounting software integrates that feed from all employees with hash tags for expense categories

    Cheers, Pete.

     Posted by: Peter J Cooper |
    January 18, 2010 2:44 PM

13. For SME accounting, there is also an interesting development for taking book-keeping and making the numbers useful through benchmarking. By capturing the data within book-keeping, animalizing it, analyzing and producing reports - benchmarking allows SMEs to see how their business ticks and how competitive they are in their market sector.

    FreshBooks is offering it, and there are specialists such as MyCake.org which is a front end API linked to online software such as KashFlow.

    Hannah
    MyCake.org

    Posted by: Hannah Knowles |
    January 29, 2010 2:31 AM

14. Quickbooks is what I use but have been following Mint and realized that a lot of persons how it in high esteem.

    Posted by: FinanciallySmart |
    January 30, 2010 8:43 AM

15. One thing that's worth considering is that remote desktop and remote application technology is bringing traditional desktop applications to the web. This means that Sage and Quickbooks, the market leaders here in the UK can be accessed anywhere with the speed and familiarity of desktop software.
    The costs are higher but the benefits are significant and it can be a difficult and often unsuccessful process moving from sage to a web based system, data migration, user training etc. In my experience a remote desktop solution is often the best route for an extablished business.
    Having said this if I were starting a business up I'd certainly use a web-based app, QuickBooks online if or when it's available in the UK.

    Posted by: Dan Hancock |
    January 31, 2010 1:09 AM

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‘Tis the season for… W-2s. When you get that handy-dandy form from your employer, we suggest that you file it with your federal income tax return — in timely fashion.

And don’t forget to file any applicable state and local tax returns, too. Otherwise you could find yourself in deep doo-doo. From the Long Island Press:

Three attorneys, an accountant and a doctor were arrested Tuesday for failing to file a combined total of more than $365,000 in state personal income taxes, Nassau prosecutors said. The arrests were part of a statewide sweep by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance (NYSDTF).

Arresting someone on a failure-to-file charge? Seems a bit extreme. But if the authorities wanted to send a message about how seriously they take tax crimes, they succeeded.

The attorneys who were charged with failure to file a personal income tax return include 47-year-old David Mollon of Great Neck, 50-year-old Kelly Talcott of Sea Cliff and Dennis O’Leary, 57, of Westbury. Facing the same charge is 53-year-old Gerald Gartner of Lawrence, a certified public accountant, and 62-year-old Avelino Rosales of Cedarhurst, a physician.

O’Leary is a personal injury lawyer — res ipsa loquitur. But Mollon and Talcott are (or were) partners at large law firms, places whose names you’d recognize.

Find out which firms, as well as how much Mollon and Talcott earned during the tax years in question, after the jump.

We find it surprising when Biglaw partners run into tax troubles. As we previously wrote with regard to John O’Brien, the former Sullivan & Cromwell partner who allegedly left the firm because of a tax problem:

It also seems odd for a corporate — er, “general practice” — partner at S&C to get in trouble over a tax matter. First, and most obviously, one would expect a corporate partner at a top-tier firm to know a lot about — and follow — the law. Second, Biglaw partners usually receive a great deal of assistance in preparing their tax returns from the administrative / accounting staff at their firms (especially since they must file in all jurisdictions where the partnership does business).

We were speaking in O’Brien’s case about a transactional lawyer, but our point about expecting lawyers (especially ones at top firms) to know and follow the law applies more generally.

Returning to the cases of David Mollon and Kelly Talcott, the New York Law Journal reports:

Mr. Mollon, a partner in Winston & Strawn, was charged with third-degree criminal tax fraud and failure to file a personal income tax return for 2008. According to prosecutors, he failed to file state tax returns from 2006 to 2008, during which time he earned more than $1.79 million and failed to pay more than $117,000 in taxes.

So it appears that Mollon earned $1.8 million over three tax years, for an average of $600,000 a year — not too shabby. But we’re guessing that Mollon was earning less than the average equity partner at Winston & Strawn (and we hear that Mollon was an equity rather than non-equity partner). In 2008, Winston’s average profits per equity partner clocked in at $1.285 million, according to the Am Law 100 survey.

Although his LinkedIn profile indicates that he is still a partner at Winston, his professional home for the past decade or so, we understand that Mollon has left the building. According to Michael Elkin, managing partner of Winston’s New York office, Mollon resigned from the firm last week. Elkin also noted that the allegations against Mollon are “purely personal” in nature (i.e., unrelated to Mollon’s work for the firm).

Kelly Talcott, the other arrested Biglaw partner, allegedly missed more years in terms of his tax filings:

Mr. Talcott, a partner in Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, was charged with third-degree criminal tax fraud and repeated failure to file personal income taxes. Prosecutors say he failed to file state tax returns from 2002 to 2005 and again in 2008. During that time he earned more than $2.68 million and failed to pay more than $111,000 in taxes.

If you take $2.7 million and divide it out over five tax years, you get $540,000 — also a tidy sum.

Like David Mollon, Kelly Talcott is also no longer a partner at his firm. From a spokesperson at EAPD:

Kelly Talcott, who had been a partner in Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge since September 2008, has resigned from the firm. Because of the pending legal proceedings involving Mr. Talcott, the Firm will not make any further statement regarding this matter.

Prior to Edward Angell, Talcott was a partner at Pennie & Edmonds, the dearly departed IP boutique.

None of the three lawyers had to spend time in the pokey. According to the NYLJ, they all pleaded not guilty and were released on their own recognizance.

Still, it seems unfortunate to have a successful legal career, along with a lucrative partnership at a leading law firm, derailed by tax accusations. Let this be a lesson to us all (as the authorities surely intended).

Moral of the story: CHECK YOU TAXES.

ATL does not advise on any personal income tax requirements or issues. This commentary is for general information only and does not represent personal tax advice, either express or implied. You are encouraged to seek professional tax advice for personal income tax questions and assistance.

To the extent that this post concerns tax matters, it is not intended to be used and cannot be used by a taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed by law. Thank you.

DA: 5 Men Failed to Pay Income Taxes [Long Island Press]
Three Attorneys Arrested for Alleged Tax Failures [New York Law Journal]
Prominent Lawyers Charged with Failing to File Personal Income Tax Returns [ABA Journal]

If you haven’t heard an Apple Tablet rumor by now, you’ve most likely been living in a cave somewhere for the past year. It’s all anybody can talk about, especially since it could launch at the end of the month.

With the daily deluge of rumors flooding your TwitterTwitter stream and RSS feeds, it’s easy to become cynical about the mythical device. Why should you care about a device that has no confirmation at all of its existence?

The answer is that its potential impact could be nothing short of revolutionary. Like the iPod and the iPhone, an Apple-built tablet could not only become a consumer hit, but actually redefine multiple industries and how they do business. Here are just some of the ways an Apple Tablet could spark a revolution.

1. Publishing and Media

Let’s start with the most obvious choice: Media. We’ve covered the previous rumors that Apple wants to redefine print with its rumored tablet. While the Kindle has done a lot to bring print into digital form, a tablet could be far more suited for reading the newspaper, opening up your textbook, and even sharing notes. Hell, Wired’s already preparing for the tablet.

The simple point is that it’s easier to carry a smart tablet than 300 hardcover books and 20 newspapers with you. Apple’s tablet will almost certainly have a focus on bringing all of print into the digital world, whether the industry is ready for it or not.

2. Healthcare

Above: The AirStrop OB iPhone App. It allow doctors to check on their patients vitals on-the-go.

A few days ago, a rumor spread that Apple was designing the tablet specifically for the healthcare industry. While we, of course, have no idea whether the tablet is being made for doctors or whether it’s being made at all, the notion is very logical.

First, the iPhone is already a tool that doctors use to save lives. If the tablet can run apps, then those tools will immediately be at their disposal. Second, it has the capability to replace the clipboard by accessing digital records, making medical data easy-to-search, and having references built right into the tablet.

Healthcare is a lagging industry in terms of technological adoption, but if any company has the resources to break that barrier, it’s Apple.

3. Entertainment

Entertainment is another industry that could be immediately affected by an Apple Tablet. It’s big enough to provide easy viewing for your movies and television shows. And if the 3G rumors are true, you could access that data via an iPhone app. Having the ability to view TV from anywhere is no small deal.

It’s not just the TV and movie experience that could potentially be upended, either. Gaming would get a completely new platform, paving the way for a new wave of touchscreen games, depending on how the tablet is designed (I wouldn’t want to hold the tablet in one hand and touchscreen with the other). It probably won’t have the same effect on the music industry as the iPod had, though.

4. Finance

The finance industry is a giant behemoth with many arms — trading, banking, personal finance, and investment banking, just to name a few. The tablet could have a dramatic impact on all of these areas.

Trading: Traders need to have information at their fingertips and make trades in an instant. Many use their mobile phones or specialized devices for this, but a tablet could present a lot more information and be far more dynamic. You could see tablets everywhere on the floor eventually.

Banking: Bank tellers could process information with the tablet and easily hand it over to someone else when the situation arises. A tablet would be a far more effective way of sharing financial data or even making payments. The need for paperwork would be gone.

Personal Finance: With apps like MintMint at your fingertips, managing your finances would be a snap. If tablets have a wireless way to communicate with one another, it could also prove to be the ultimate payment system.

Investment Banking: In addition to facilitating faster and more effective trading, investment banks could use them to quickly conduct research and swap notes.

The right software and the right interface could stir many financial institutions to purchase Apple Tablets in bulk.

5. Computing

Consider the big picture with this final industry. For years, we’ve relied on desktops and laptops with bulky keyboards. Only recently has mobile become a computing force, but even that is nothing compared to the computing industry.

Imagine that the Apple Tablet comes with a new type of tactile, gesture-based keyboard, something a recent Apple patent supports. Imagine you can type almost as well on it as you can with a keyboard, or even 75% as well. It immediately becomes a great device for computing on the go, an object that could be used as a primary computer if you wanted to.

Now imagine that the devices does have a few input ports, specifically two USB ports. Now you have a device that can be connected to your keyboard and mouse, as well as your other devices potentially. Stick the tablet on a stand and it’s a computer. Unplug and take it with you and your computer can come with you, even easier than a laptop.

While this was a thought exercise, this is the type of thing Apple has clearly thought about in the tablet process. If the Apple Tablet proves to be real, you can expect this type of imaginative thinking to be present in every aspect of the tablet’s design, interface, and functionality.

This is why the media and millions of early adopters care so much about the potential tablet and the rumors: Its potential as a revolutionary device is very real.

More Apple resources from Mashable:

- 5 Mac Apps to Boost Your Productivity
- Mac Gift Guide: 10 Buying Ideas for Apple Fans
- HOW TO: Create a Mac Theme for Windows 7
- Top 10 iPhone Apps as Judged by Mashable Readers
- APPLE TABLET: Ultimate Gallery of Concept Designs and Prototypes
- 10 iPhone Apps to Avoid Work Disasters
- 20 Creative Apps For Your iPhone

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