In 2002, the smart phone BlackBerry took much of the tech-savvy world by storm. Five years later, Apple’s iPhone raised the stakes through an innovative operating system and touch-screen interface with a rapidly growing number of applications. In addition to iPoolman, which calculates pool/spa volume, chemical dosage and turnover rates, there are a number of apps for each device that service technicians may find useful.
For BlackBerry:
- Drive Safely. Reads text messages and e-mails aloud so users can concentrate on the road. This application further eliminates the temptation to handle the phone by reading and automatically responding to messages.
- It also comes with customizable auto-response and timeout duration functions.
- Copy2Contact. Saves contact information to the BlackBerry address book, and puts new events onto the BlackBerry calendar from everyday messages like “Appointment with Mrs. Smith at 1 p.m. tomorrow for one hour.” Contact and appointment information is automatically entered from any source of plain text, including e-mail signature, SMS message or Web directory.
- One Touch Flashlight. Provides light from wherever, whenever and for however long it’s needed. The flashlight uses BlackBerry’s video recorder to access the device’s camera light, as opposed to the often-dim LED screen light.
For iPhone:
- TextLater. Sets a date and time to send text messages. Users can schedule a text to be automatically sent at any point in time. The “Me” button also allows users to send themselves reminders at any time.
- Say it; Mail it. Quickly e-mails voice memos from the iPhone to the user or others. No typing is required, as users can also send themselves reminders when they’re away from their computers. Pictures, as well as a Google Map link to your location, can be included in the e-mail too.
- iGroupEmail. Allows users to quickly send e-mails to everyone in a contact group. Inform a client base or staff of important information through QuickMailing, which sends e-mail messages to multiple people simultaneously with a few clicks using the existing Contacts database
