Infinitely more useful, nonetheless the smartphone is the modern equivalent of the traditional Swiss Army knife. Here’s a sampling of our favorite productivity enhancing apps:
During a recent trip, as my plane was taxiing to the terminal, I realized we’d failed to reserve a rental car. Using the free Avis app on my iPhone 4S, I made a reservation and selected the class of car. After I deplaned, the shuttle bus dropped me at the car and I simply drove it off the lot. Since Avis has my profile on file,there’s no paperwork involved.They scan the car’s bar code when it leaves and when it returns.
To keep track of my running, I prefer using a GPS watch that uploads the data to my laptop. When the watch isn’t available, the “MapMyRun” app records and uploads the data to my account on their web site. It works well in a pinch, and when I’ve tested it against the GPS I’ve found them to be within 2% of each other on the distances. The app isn’t nearly as accurate on the actual paces, so I don’t use it on the track.
There are three different scanner apps, all utilizing the camera lens:
- TurboScan creates PDF files of documents. It’s a lot slower than my $9,000 Xerox Work Centre, but the document images are almost indistinguishable between the two sources.
- ScanBizCards reads business cards, interprets which fields are names, titles, addresses, etc., puts the contact directly into the device’s address book, as well as allowing an automatic upload to our business’ address book (SalesForceCRM).
- ScanLife reads “QR Codes ”, those square shaped bar codes that appear printed on ads and products. We have one that redirects to a “landing page ” where you can visit our web site, connect on LinkedIn, or request a promotional item. Just for trying it and entering the code “CASE2”, we’ll send you a pouch in which to keep and clean your smartphone!
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