I remember, decades ago, when you were a somebody if you needed a pager at your job. After that came the portable bag phone the size of a lunch box. Then came portable phones about the size of a walki-talki, then smaller and smaller flip-phones. Now there are the so called smart phones. They are amazing because they allow you to do so much more than make & take phone calls. I’m not a phone person, but I am an apps guy. Apps that make a routine function easier are great. (I’m still a wristwatch guy because it takes less effort to find the time looking at my wrist it does pulling a phone out of my pocket.)
I have a lot of apps on my phone. For day-to-day field work I find myself using about 25 to 30 apps on a fairly regular basis.
- Calendar – need to know what day it is
- Bible – start the day reading devotionals/scriptures
- Local news & weather – need determine if weather will impact the day – monitor Doppler maps
- Text Messages – great way to have short discussions. Discussions are easily saved to a job log
- Flashlight – very handy for inspection work in basements, attics etc.
- Camera – great tool for job records, also photos are a great way to communicate – worth 1000 words
- Photo Album – place to organize those photos
- Label box – for adding notes to pictures before sending them off
- Awesome Note – (paid version) make folders for each job. Keeps details organized
- OneNote – use interactive project notebooks shared with staff and customers – everyone is always up to date
- Genius Scan – a great way to copy plans and documents, save or share with others
- Image To Text – take a picture of a document and it changes words to text. Formatting is lost, but you don’t have to retype the document.
- GasBuddy – when prices are fluctuating, shop for the best gas price
- Maps – whenever you need to give or get directions
- Digits – a nice calculator that lets you save the “tape”
- Carpenter’s Helper Lite -easy feet-inches calculator
- Carpenter – (paid version) great plumb, level and angle tools
- DeWalt Pro – collection of simple construction calculators
- OneDrive – cloud storage for large files
- Pandora – sometimes you just need some music
- Phone – handy feature to have!
- Mail – check/respond to email when out of the office
- Safari – for searching the web
- DropBox – for accessible cloud storage
- Distance Measure – great for pacing measurements off in the field.
Got a favorite of your own you want to share?
