Increase your productivity with iPhone apps

July 5th, 2010 at 12:26 · Filed Under Computing, Gadgets, iPhone, Mac OS X, Productivity, Technology · 1 Comment 

PalmPilotMy first PDA was PalmPilot Professional (photo to right) produced by U.S. Robotics (later as Palm, Inc.). I bought it  in 1998 but I did not use it often due to limited apps. My use was restricted to Calendar, Address and Todo. It was a huge hassle to purchase apps for PalmPilot because there was no single app store like Apple’s App Store. Commercial apps for Palm Pilot at that time were hard to come by. The device went dead during a flight from KLIA to Taipei transit via Singapore on September 11, 2001. I guess it was fried by ESD (electrostatic discharge) while I walked on the carpeted corridor in Changi airport terminal.

Two years later, I bought a Sharp Zaurus SL-5500. It ran Zaurus and OPIE GUI environment. The Zaurus SL-5500 was Sharp’s first PDA to run Linux. Linux was the main reason I chose Zaurus. It was fast and colorful (at that time). It came with a couple of useful apps and desktop sync software. Syncing to a desktop running on Linux was good. After using it for a few months, some commercial apps which I bought, began to crash more often after I updated the operating system. I gave it up after a few attempts to restore the original operating system. Here is the photo of Zaurus (I managed to find its charger) with iPhone lying beside it. Well look at its size! The iPhone 3GS is half the thickness of Zaurus.

Zaurus and iPhone

The other drawback of the Zaurus is its retractable physical keyboard. The keys are too small for my fingers and typing is real pain. So, BlackBerry with physical keyboard is totally out of the game. Here is the picture of Zaurus with its keyboard and iPhone with the virtual-touch keyboard for comparison:

Zaurus and iPhne

I was tempted by HP and Toshiba but, hey, they ran on Windows. No way! In early 2008. I purchased a 2nd generation, 32GB iPod Touch. I was immediately captured by its charms. In December 2009, I got a 32GB iPhone 3GS. My response was: “Damn! I should have gotten it earlier.”

Both PalmPilot and Zaurus need stylus to tap on their screens. If you lose your stylus, you need to buy a new one. iPhone is more convenient because everything is manipulated with your fingers. Apple’s innovative multi-touch screen gives more user experience and more operability to the device.

All I can say, I have never used other PDAs like I use my iPhone. I mostly use my iPhone in my work (especially) and for fun during leisure (social networking, music, games and etc.) Here are some apps I use to boost my productivity while I am on the move and even at my desk.

iPhone PaymoPaymo is a free online time tracking and billing service. With a small fee, user can upgrade the service for unlimited users and invoices. I use Paymo to track my time spent on various projects and business/work related activities. The Paymo free iPhone app works in both online and offline mode. When I am out to support my clients, and/or having business or technical meeting and discussion, I can easily track my time with this tiny useful app.

iPhone app OmniFocusWith design based on the concepts and techniques described in David Allen’s book, “Getting Things Done”, OmniFocus for iPhone is a powerful to-do app that let you stay focused in whatever you are doing or trying to complete. The app is priced at $19.99 which is a little bit on the high side. I was hesitating for a while because of the price. After using it, I will say, “Save your money for OmniFocus and forget about other to-do apps.” Before this, I was using Things and I am still using it. The only reason I want to keep Things is that it allows assigning teammates to your tasks. OmniFocus is more comprehensive than Things and it let you stay focused in getting your jobs done, which is most important. Besides, you can sync your data via MobileMe, Bonjour, WebDAV server or locally mounted disk on your Mac. Personally, I think it is worth the investment.

iPhone app ThingsThings is an easy-to-use to-do app priced at $9.99. It’s a good alternative to OmniFocus if you are on a tight budget. The price tag of $9.99 is considered quite high especially there are some free to-do apps, but to do a good job, Things will be above average. Unlike OmniFocus, syncing can only be done with a WiFi at your local area network where your Mac is running the desktop version of Things. One feature which I don’t like is its ability to assign more than one tag to your tasks. Too many tags confuse me.

iPhone app EvernoteEvernote is a free online service which let you save your ideas in the form of texts, voice memos or photos. You can save a web clip or PDF. Syncing between multiple devices and Macs over the Internet is a breeze. I use it while I am writing computer codes to note down what I have done and new ideas that come along. You can tag your documents for easy retrieval later. If you would like to enjoy a larger storage and monthly usage bandwidth, you can upgrade the service to Evernote Premium for $5 a month or $45 a year. Evernote is a good companion for notetaking while you are working, engaged in meetings and discussion and even at leisure.

iPhone app Invoice2GoInvoice2Go allows me to issue invoices on the go without a notebook or desktop computer. With it, I no longer need to go back to office to issue invoices. It saves me a lot of time from traveling back and forth between office and clients. Just email the invoices to your clients and you can make the delivery right away. For only $9.99, it saves you time and gasoline.

iPhone app DropboxDropbox is a free online storage service. You can take any file with you on your iPhone to meetings. Your co-workers or clients can drop files to your Dropbox and you can pick them up anytime, anywhere on your iDevice or Mac, provided they are connected to the Internet. It also allows you to share your files on Facebook or Twitter via link. By getting your friend to sign up you can earn 250MB of extra free disk space (up to 8GB) for every new account created. Click here to sign up.

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iPhone is good for business

January 12th, 2010 at 10:55 · Filed Under At Work, Gadgets, General, iPhone, Phones, Technology · Comment 

As I promised earlier in an article that I would write about my experience of using the iPhone. Well, here it goes…

Read more

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iPhone 3.0 Software Update

June 28th, 2009 at 0:26 · Filed Under At Home, Call Me a Geek, Computing, Days in My Life, Gadgets, Mac OS X, Technology · 4 Comments 

A couple of weeks ago, the iPhone 3.0 software update was official launched. I connected my iPod Touch to iTunes 8.2 and clicked Update. Unfortunately, iTunes said that the update wasn’t available at iTunes Malaysia store. I wasn’t very happy with the service Apple has provided. The update was supposed to be free but it would cost me US$9.95 to upgrade my iPod Touch to iPhone 3.0.

Here’s the screenshots (click to enlarge): Read more

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Miranda

April 10th, 2009 at 20:42 · Filed Under Blogging, Computing, Days in My Life, Gadgets, Mac OS X, Technology · 1 Comment 

Finally, I have got an idea what name to give to my iPod Touch. It was named “Adrian Hoe’s iPod Touch” to make things simple. The hardest part was to find a name which implies its usefulness.

I have several reasons to buy an iPod Touch but I am not going to talk about them here. One most ostensible use of it is that I am no longer required to lug my MacBook (code-named Uranus) everywhere I go. Since it replaces the function of Uranus when it is not with me, I name my iPod Touch, Miranda, one of the five moons of Uranus. Miranda is the inner most and smallest moon of Uranus and is also referred to Uranus V.

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GPS tracking

February 6th, 2009 at 11:28 · Filed Under Blogging, Gadgets, GPS, Marketing, Technology · 1 Comment 

The GPS (Global Positioning System) can tell your exact location. If you are on the move, it can also indicate your heading and speed. With advanced GPS equipment, you can find your destination when you are lost. It is very useful when you are into unfamiliar territory. Most modern GPS equipment comes with huge memory enables you to log your journey to record and analyze your trip.

With today’s miniaturization technology, a tiny GPS tracking device has opened up new potential. You can now monitor where your kids go after school. At the size of no thicker than a golf ball, these GPS trackers can monitor in real-time, the GPS location and movement of the devices from anywhere in the world using any standard web browser.

But GPS tracking is also a very controversial debate. Although,  you are able to know the whereabout of your kids, their privacy has been violated. Nobody likes to be monitored or tracked. While some overly concerned parents are worrying their children’s safety, privacy is still a debatable issue. Parents can inform their children about the GPS tracking devices and the reasons to have one, privacy will still be an issue to older children when they begin to understand their rights about privacy.

Privacy issue is not so much of a concern in commercial sector especially in fleet tracking. Company needs to know the progress of the drivers and the exact location for planning and in case of emergency. Drivers will be informed of the GPS tracking devices and have to accept the terms when accepting the jobs.

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Discover your iPod touch

February 4th, 2009 at 2:30 · Filed Under Blogging, Call Me a Geek, Computing, Gadgets, Mac OS X, Technology · Comment 

One of my most desired applications on iPod touch is to be able to take PDF and source code anywhere I go for discussion without taking a MacBook with me. The good thing about iPod touch is its ability to sneak into my shirt pocket or in a carrying pouch on my belt. Sometimes taking a MacBook along just for the purpose of viewing a PDF or some source code is deemed to be cumbersome. One obvious problem is that I have to carry my MacBook in the bag anywhere I go, for example, shopping. It is risky to leave the MacBook in the trunk. Many theft cases have been reported.

Discover is the best application that allows me to wirelessly transfer my files to iPod touch and view it. It is free and secured. Unlike other free applications of the same class, Discover is only limited to physical storage available on your iPod touch. It supports many file formats such as PDF, Office document formats (which I don’t use), and Unicode support (C/C++, Objective-C and more). Unfortunately, it does not recognize Ada source files. I hope BBase will support Ada in coming release.

Download Discover from iTunes store and install into iPod touch. Just launch Discover and connect (using any WebDAV enabled browser) to iPod touch with the IP address provided on the iPod screen. You can setup secured access with passwords to protect your iPod touch from unauthorized access.

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