Apple | Home Office Warrior

Top iPhone Applications for the Home Office Warrior

Oct 10, 2008

This post is long overdue as I have had my v.1 iPhone now for over a year. Like my other Mac computers, the iPhone has become an essential tool in my business. What has made the iPhone even better was the release the summer of iPhone 2.0 and the App Store. I have way too many applications on my iPhone, but I just can’t help myself.

I have been trying to decide over the last month or so what applications on my iPhone I could not live without and below is what I have come up with. Please add to it in the comments if you have some you feel I missed.

Evernote: This great applications lets you capture any moment or idea as it happens, wherever you are. And it has cloud-based sync so you are always sync’d to your desktop. I use it to take notes, take photos of stuff I want to file away. It also works great for taking a snapshot of a business card and then organize them with Evernote. You can even record a quick voice memo. It has so many uses, and some of them you don’t even know about until you dive in an use it.

Air Sharing: With this handy little app, you can take files with you on your iPhone and access them anywhere. You simply drag-drop files between your iPhone and your computers. And you can view documents in many common formats. What I liked best about this app, it was so easy to set up and then run.

Jott for iPhone: As you have read here before, I love Jott and it is also one of those essential tools. Jott is the ultimate mobile notepad for the iPhone that turns your voice into notes. Capture to-dos as quickly as you can say, “get new whiteboards for office.” Jott transcribes your voice into text and place the resulting notes in your lists.

beejive: This is the instant messaging application I am using on my iPhone. I can stay connected with all the people I IM with. And it works with all my accounts too.

Things: Is my task manager of choice for the iPhone. Things talks about how easy it it to use and they are exactly right. And best of all, it now sync’s with my MacBook so my task are always up-to-date on my iPhone and my computer. It is another one of those must haves in my book.

1Password: 1Password takes care of all your online passwords. And it sync’s with my iPhone so I can use it to autofill al those passwords I may need while using my iPhone to access accounts or websites. It securely stores your information and logs you into websites automatically with a simple tap. I no longer have to remember any passwords, with the exception of the Unlock Code for 1Password.

Instapaper: With this application you can read saved web pages on the go, even offline. I use Instapaper on my MacBook to mark items I want to read later. Just one of the bookmarking tools I use. And I can sync my iPhone to this list of reading so when I am out of the office waiting, I can open up one of items in my list and read it right on my iPhone.

TwitterFon: TwitterFon is a simple, fast twitter client for your iPhone. I have tried many of the apps for twitter on my iPhone and I like this one the best. It gives me what I want in a twitter client for the iPhone. No fancy features or useless functions. I get my friend feeds, replies and direct messages. Each has its own tab.

I could keep going and list even more applications I am using on my iPhone. However the list above are those I would not be without for now. In a future post, I will list some more and if you leave your suggestions in the comments, I will include a “Reader’s List of iPhone Applications” too.

Apple, Best Of, Technology, iPhone Written By Grant Griffiths Comments (5)

Third Party Applications on the iPhone

Oct 17, 2007

The following was taken word for word from Apple Hotnews.

Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.

Some companies are already taking action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction. We are working on an advanced system which will offer developers broad access to natively program the iPhone’s amazing software platform while at the same time protecting users from malicious programs.

We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones.

Steve

I have been telling people for sometime that it was only a matter of time before Apple would do just this. But, best of all, it will be done right. I use the iPhone and love it. I will be posting soon about how it great for the business user.

Apple, Technology, iPhone Written By Grant Griffiths Comments (0)

Treo user switches to the iPhone

Sep 29, 2007

Recently, I received a comment on my post about the iPhone. The comment was such a great description of this person experience with his new iPhone, I asked if I could use it as a guest post.

Brooke Riggio gave me the following.

I had a Treo, and upgraded to an iPhone. I love it. I used both for about 2 weeks, to make sure it would work out, and found myself hating having to use the Treo for anything. It feels clunky, slow, ugly, and bad for my eyes. Just the other day, I went to a business meeting downtown. I left my house, checking bus schedules on the web as I went (parking is expen$$ive!).

On the bus, I monitored traffic with the Google maps app to make sure I was on schedule. I zoomed in the map to pick the perfect place to get off the bus. I got an email from the guy I was meeting with a last minute Word doc for me to review for the meeting. To his surprise, I was familiar with the contents when the meeting started, since I was able to read the attachment in the iPhone mail program.

While at the meeting, we used iPhone to check a few potential domain names for our product. I made some calls for another client (all synced from address book) on my way home, responded to some other emails, and listened to a podcast. I never touched my treo, and preferred it that way! The only thing I thought I would miss was the dial-up networking feature of my treo (so I could use internet from laptop over bluetooth). But with full web browsing on the iPhone, I don’t miss it at all… EDGE is actually faster than the BT transfer rates anyway!

My recommendation: Don’t wait for version 2. That just means lost time enjoying the greatest cell phone interface ever created. My treo was like a 10th generation product, and was buggy and crashy as heck. Apple did better in it’s first try than all the other manufactures have been able to do with revision after revision.

To add credibility to this comment, Brooke is a tech consultant for small business, including a law firm in Seattle. He is also working on a very interesting web based application called CaseHawk. Humm, web based case management!!! Can you say, case management web based application running on the iPhone?

Brooke also told me that he wrote his comment on his iPhone, with his right thumb, holding his 5 month old. He stated he is already faster with one hand on the iPhone than he was with two on his “old” Treo.

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