Favorite Apps Thread

[DWBuilder]

Also, I second all that Tom said about BuildCalc for iphone.

I often use the trig functions (iphone's calculator does this as well, but you have to turn the phone sideways to get the scientific calculator to come up-not a big deal but BuildCalc is easier). When laying out anything with a curve or arch, the circle functions are great. You can get arc angle, chord length, segment length, area, circumference etc.

What is really handy is if you hold any key for 3 seconds the help screen for that key pops up.

Bill

[jstoddard]

My favorite iPhone app is "TuneIn Radio" - It was $.99 I think.

No practical business use - but it ties the world together in an odd way.

It consolidates practically every commercial terrestrial radio and Internet radio stream from all over the world into one application. You can search for content... talk shows, etc. ... FM and AM... even some oddball stuff , as long as it's streaming somewhere on the planet, the app seems to find it. It will also find you stations that aren't streaming, but of course there's no way to listen to them.. But if you want to listen to an Arabic talkshow from Abu-Dahbi ... you can do that. Indian classical sitar music... yup.... Top 40 from Finland.. yup. Sports talk from New Zealand (lots of cricket) - yup.

I found it was handy while driving to figure out what was on the actual radio to listen to - it has a "what's on locally" feature that uses location services to figure out what is playing on which stations - both AM and FM... want to listen to "Kim Komando" in an hour from now on your way through the "Leatherstocking District" of NYS ? Yup you can see if she's gonna come in.

Or - you can just plug your iPhone into your car speakers and listen to the talkshow from Abu-Dahbi in real time.

JLS

[Jef@FDB]

My favorite app is Evernote, it work on my android phone, my iPad and my desktop. They all sync together. So wherever I am working, all info is current. You take a picture within the app on my phone, and it's available everywhere. I start project punch list with it, track key photos, and keep a journal of other business issues.

[WarriorWithWood]

You can also do all of that on dropbox for free with no transfer limits Jef.

[Jef@FDB]

Thanks Dennis, I will check it out....Jef

[WarriorWithWood]

When you take a photo on the android phone, you can hit the share key and send it (full size) directly to dropbox.

[Jasper]

Also, I second all that Tom said about BuildCalc for iphone.

I often use the trig functions (iphone's calculator does this as well, but you have to turn the phone sideways to get the scientific calculator to come up-not a big deal but BuildCalc is easier). When laying out anything with a curve or arch, the circle functions are great. You can get arc angle, chord length, segment length, area, circumference etc.

What is really handy is if you hold any key for 3 seconds the help screen for that key pops up.

Bill

I tried looking a BuildCalc's user manual on-line, but I could not view it in my browser.

How well does BuildCalc handle elliptical arches? Given the major axis length and the semi-minor axis length, can it calculate the focal points? How well does it calculate arc length? (Calculating arc-length along a non-circular ellipse is a non-trivial integral.) Does it provide the information needed to approximate an ellipse as a four-circle ellipse?

[tjbnwi]

Jasper,

My email address is in my profile. Send me your email address and I will email you the arc results page from BuildCalc. If you include the cord length and the rise I will use those numbers.

I know BuildCalc is in beta for the droids. Two members of this forum i know are involved in the testing. From what I have been told, once the Droid work is completed, more updates are coming for the iPhone. I'm looking forward to beta testing the new iPhone updates.

Tom

[Jasper]

My wife found a level app for the Android. She says it is "silly", because it is only precise to 1 degree. The app name is "Bubble", and was written by Ben Zibble.

On the other hand, it can be calibrated. This lets it adjust for uneven cell phone covers, which can consistently tilt the cell phone.

[tjbnwi]

Jasper,

These are screen shots of the instructions for the Arc function in BuildCalc, it does the same for irregular hips. There are 7 pages so rather than do 4 posts, they can be viewed here;

https://picasaweb.google.com/tbadern...86117231528802

Tom

[Jef@FDB]

Dennis,

Dropbox looks great, thanks for the heads up. I can see using it for photos sharing to my iPad.

Evernote and Dropbox share certain characteristics, but are used very differently. Evernote doesn't seem to be set up for sharing files types, but organizing notes, clippings, rss feeds, and having them all available from different devises. ....I'm still learning what it can do...but for me right now, taking job site notes, voice recordings and photographs, it's easy, free, and works.

[frenchie]

My wife found a level app for the Android. She says it is "silly", because it is only precise to 1 degree. The app name is "Bubble", and was written by Ben Zibble.

On the other hand, it can be calibrated. This lets it adjust for uneven cell phone covers, which can consistently tilt the cell phone.

There's a few of those. I had one that was pretty good, then I killed my phone (screen cracked)... now I can't remember which one it was.

Speaking of which... anyone find a good backup app? Re-installing everything on the replacement phone is a real PITA.

My favorite app so far is Android Assistant: CPU, battery & memory info, hardware info, etc... sort of like speccy for your handset. Also some useful tools... especially the startup manager: allows me me to block apps I don't use (doubletwist, drivesmart) from loading.

[WarriorWithWood]

Dennis,

Dropbox looks great, thanks for the heads up. I can see using it for photos sharing to my iPad.

Evernote and Dropbox share certain characteristics, but are used very differently. Evernote doesn't seem to be set up for sharing files types, but organizing notes, clippings, rss feeds, and having them all available from different devises. ....I'm still learning what it can do...but for me right now, taking job site notes, voice recordings and photographs, it's easy, free, and works.

I like it for file sharing between my desktop, notebook, Evo, ipad, and Xoom, no matter what device I'm using I have all of my most important files. That along with Exchange makes multiple device usage a breeze, I just grab whatever I feel would work best that day. I did use Evernote for a while back when I had a windows phone, it was very limited. I'll have to give it another try with my android device.

[D Brunsell]

Very nice work Allan.

[Dick Seibert]

Anybody found a decent Timeclock App for the Android system? I've looked but don't see much, my Exaktime system is not supported anymore and even though I kept an XP machine and an old Palm based phone I can't get the phone to synch with the clocks. Their new Bluetooth based system is a minimum of $1,000 including a $269 a year license fee that will go on forever.