Michael Doan

When I reviewed TurboScan for iPhone, I noted that I can email the scanned document to Evernote.

What I recently discovered is that I can tap the “Open PDF in…” button and select the Evernote option. TurboScan will launch Evernote for iPhone and add the note for me. This is a better way to add a document than emailing to Evernote because I don’t have to worry if the email was actually delivered¹.

TurboScan is getting heavy use from me (at least once a day). It’s really a great app.

I’ve been a user of JotNot Scanner Pro, an iPhone document scanning app, for some time. Upon reading Patrick Rhone’s post about TurboScan on MinimalMac, I thought I’d give it a try.

Dead Simple

TurboScan’s interface is dead simple. The home screen has three buttons for the different scanning options: Camera, SureScan 3x, and Album. Below the buttons is a listing of your scanned documents.

The camera and album buttons allow you to take a photo of the document or pull a document in from your Photo library, respectively. SureScan 3x pulls up the camera and takes a photo of the document three times. It then does its magic to give you a nicely scanned image. According the help documentation:

SureScan is our proprietary scanning mode that delivers sharper images with less jitter or smear. SureScan mode is especially useful in low-light conditions

It works great.

Options – PDF, JPG, Paper Size

A scanned document can be emailed, printed, open with a PDF reader app, or saved to the camera roll. You have the option of emailing a PDF or JPG.

Multiple paper sizes are available: US Letter, A4, US Legal, Receipt and Business Card. I ignore these options because I don’t ever intend to print the documents again.

You can also scan multiple pages into one document. This is ideal for a few pages but can be cumbersome if you have lots of pages.

Why Use This?

I hate paper and try to go paperless as much as possible. I often scan business receipts and email them to Evernote and throw the receipt away on the spot.

Sometimes I’m reviewing an SEC filing and have hand-written edits on the filing document. It’s easy to take a photo of the filing and email it my staff or the client. This is handy when I don’t have my Fujitsu Scansnap with me.

A scanner in your pocket for $1.99 isn’t a bad deal.

 

TextGrabber is a mobile scanner for iPhone that has optical character recognition (OCR). Using the app’s camera, take a photo of text and the app will convert it to text that can be copied, emailed, or pushed to other apps. It can even translate the text to another language.

I find myself using this app occasionally when I want to copy text from Kindle for iPhone, which does not allow text to be copied, to another app. I also sometimes use it to OCR text from a scanned PDF or photo of a document.

It’s a handy little app. Below are screenshots of TextGrabber OCRing text from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-Reliance.

A screenshot of the text from Kindle for iPhone:

 Select the text to be OCRed:

The result:

Since subscribing to iTunes Match, I’ve always wondered if streaming songs from iCloud on iPhone or iPad actually downloads those songs to your device (I suspected that it does, but was too lazy to check).

In Walt Mossberg’s review of iTunes Match today, he provides the answer:

On iPhones and iPads, Apple downloads the whole of any cloud-based song you’re streaming, even if you don’t want it on your device. Apple says it does this for smooth playback, and for playback when you’re offline. It adds that all songs stored on your hand-held devices are now placed in a special cache from which old or rarely played songs are automatically removed periodically to make room for new ones.

Sageworks releases ProfitCents for iPhone:

The app allows current Sageworks and ProfitCents customers to access SIDA, our industry data platform that provides real-time benchmarking data and trend analysis using all available (more than 1,300) NAICS industry codes plus custom breakdowns.

The iPhone is one of the best tool on my accountant’s tool belt. Since picking up the fist generation iPhone back in 2007, there isn’t a day that goes by where my trusty iPhone has helped me through the work day.

Yesterday Apple announced the release if it’s lastest iPhone, the 4S. For those of us who have the iPhone 4, it may be a hard decision to jump on the upgrade bandwagon to the 4S, especially if we have to pay full retail due to contract timing.

But, for those of you who have been holding off purchasing an iPhone or a smartphone, Apple didn’t leave you a way out given that you can buy last year’s model, iPhone 4 for a mere $99. Furthermore, the iPhone 3GS is free win a new contract (AT&T only).

If you are going to work a smartphone into your workflow, the iPhone is the better choice than Android. Aside from the better user experience, the number of quality apps available on iPhone is light years ahead of Android.

If you are not completely sold then go for the free iPhone. You really don’t have anything to lose.

The iPhone home screen is the second most coveted screen real estate on my iPhone – the Dock is the most coveted. For an app to make the cut for a home screen spot it needs to meet the following criteria:

1. It’s an app I use daily; or
2. It’s an app the I need quick access to.

Here’s a screen shot of the apps on the home screen, starting from the top left corner:

Camera+

This app is not work related but I like having quick access to the camera. With three children, having this app on the home screen increases the chance of me getting “the” shot. This app has some enhanced features not found in Apple Camera app that are off-topic for this post.

Capture

Like Camera+, this is not a work app. Capture is a video app that starts to record immediately when the app is launched. Again, it’s all about the kids.

Weightbot

I track my weight. Enough said.

Instacast

I listen to podcasts almost every morning while preparing breakfast and driving into work. This app let’s me subscribe to my favorite podcasts without having to tether iPhone to the computer. Podcasts are updated when the app is launched so I’m always current on my podcasts. There is also an option to cache podcasts for offline reading. Listening to podcasts is a great way to learn about new ideas, so it’s not all about entertainment.

Evernote

This app is my external brain. It let’s me capture (text, photos, voice) anything I want to remember later. It synchronizes to all other computers/devices that have Evernote installed. There’s also a web-based version so I don’t ever have to go with out access to the information. It works with PCs, Macs, and almost every relevant mobile phone platforms.

Settings

I find myself messing around with the iPhone settings almost daily. This app falls under the category of quick access more than frequency of use.

Instacard

This app is a the fastest way to send a contact card (vCard) to someone. I developed it with a friend, so if you buy it, you’re giving me some money (disclaimer). I wrote about instacard previously.

Digits

I don’t use Apple’s default calculator app. I prefer Digits because it runs a “tape” of my inputs. I can go back to the tape and correct an entry which is handy when I am adding long list of numbers. I can also label amounts to remember what the numbers mean. Tapes can be emailed and printed. I can also have multiple tapes – very handy. It’s a universal app so it works on iPad as well.

Notesy

This app is a text editor that synchronizes to Dropbox. The app is universal so it works on the iPad. I can access the text files from my work PC using Window’s default text editor or Mac’s default text editor when I’m at home. By he way, much if the first draft of this post was composed on Notesy for iPhone.¹

Verbs

Verbs is an instant messaging client that supports multiple multiple protocols: Gtalk, AOL, MobileMe, and Facebook. There are many IM client apps available but I like this one for it’s simple user interface. In addition this app allows me to stay connected up to 7 days even when I’ve exited out of the app (this feature is an in-app purchase that require a one time payment).

Twitter for iPhone

This is the official Twitter client for iPhone. I have only recently switched back to this client after using Tweetbot and Twitterriffic. There’s much to like about the other clients but I find that my twittering needs are minimal so Twitter does the job. Also I switched back with the anticipation that this app would have some tight integration with the upcoming iOS 5 which has Twitter functionality baked in.

Surprisingly, I have business people that I communicate primarily via Twitter’s direct message feature. Twitter is a communications platform so if you haven’t signed up because you thought Twitter is for kids, well, sign up.

1Password

All my passwords are maintained in this app. It works crossplatform on iOS devices, Mac and Windows. Security is an important issue for me, so I use this app to generate most of my passwords – many of which are 18+ characters long and I can’t remember them. There’s a nice browser integration so I don’t have to type in the long passwords. When I get to the website, the browser knows (via a browser plugin, Chrome in my case).

Due

Due is a reminder app. Set a time and date to be reminded to do something and it will sound an alarm when that thing is due. Alarms can be recurring at a future date as well. Now why use this when I have Omnifocus (see below)? Well, I use Due for things that must be done so when the alarm goes off, I either due it or defer it to another time. Reminders in Omnifocus occur once. Unless I check Omifocus habitually, I am likely to forget. Due nags at me until I check the task off as being done. I’ll write more about how I use Due in a future post. It’s an app that I can’t live without.

Safari and Contacts

I won’t cover these apps because anyone with an iPhone probably know about these apps. They are on the home screen because I need quick access to them.

Agenda

I don’t like Apple’s default Calendar app. It’s difficult to navigate and takes too many taps to move to different dates. Calvetica was my replacement calendar app – I wrote a review about it here². For the past several months, I’ve been using Agenda. The user interface is way better than Apple’s Calendar. There an excellent review of the app on The Brooks Review, so I’m not going into it here. The app synchs into my work’s Microsoft Exchange server so I am always current with my work calendar.

OmniFocus

Day to day task and project management is handled by OmniFocus. It’s a robust app that synchronized with iPad and Mac (no Windows version). It’s not an easy to use app so there’s a steep learning curve. It sits on the Dock, best piece of real estate on iPhone because I need access to it from any of the screens.

There you have it, the apps that I use almost everyday.

Brian Stelter submitted stories to the New York Times and tweeted from the ground of the Joplin disaster using only an iPhone. Submitting stories were challenging due weak cell coverage:

What I learned: It’s easy to scoff at the suggestion that satisfactory cell service is a matter of national security and necessity. But I won’t scoff anymore. If I were planning a newsroom’s response to emergencies, I would buy those backpacks that have six or eight wireless cards in them, all connected to different cell tower operators, thereby upping the chances of finding a signal at any given time.