Best Smart Phone for Surveyors

Ralph,

I have the iphone 3S I believe, my wife ordered it for me. I have an efax service, and all my faxes come directly to my email account as PDF files. I can easily view, zoom, etc. all in the field. pretty nice.

I have not been able to set up the tethering for my laptop yet, but then again, I have not made the time yet either.

The pictures are okay, and I like the theodolite app that geotags the pictures, and allows you to add notes.

I have both of my email accounts set up on it, but only check them manually. When I am in the office, the phone constantly reaching out and checking the emails, messes with the desktop checking the emails, but it is an easy setting to change it if I am in the field all day.

It works for me.

Jimmy

Hijack

I've set the email client on my Droid to leave a copy of incoming messages on the server and to also CC me on any outgoing messages from the phone. This leaves me with a complete email chain on the office computer if I ever need it.

> In your opinion, what is the best smart phone out there for an on the go business? I've been looking at the Iphone but verizon only offers it with 3g capabilities.

What they call 4G is only available in a few select markets. I have the new iPhone 4s but it is only available in 3G. There isn't a real 4G out there yet.

Incredible

I have the incredible 2 and have been very happy with it. I went to the verizon store in need of an upgrade and wanted a phone that took good pictures. They are great for a cell phone. Only 3g, but I'm off the grid.

I was always interested in that cell phone that attached to a laptop shell. It had those commercials where the guy was stuck at security.

Good luck in your search. I always take the laptop on a survey far from the office just for the ability to run some CAD. Run the cell as a wifi provider (it costs to run through verizon, but there's an app for that) and your computer will be fine.

> Ralph,
>
> I have the iphone 3S I believe, my wife ordered it for me. I have an efax service, and all my faxes come directly to my email account as PDF files. I can easily view, zoom, etc. all in the field. pretty nice.
>
> I have not been able to set up the tethering for my laptop yet, but then again, I have not made the time yet either.
>
> The pictures are okay, and I like the theodolite app that geotags the pictures, and allows you to add notes.
>
> I have both of my email accounts set up on it, but only check them manually. When I am in the office, the phone constantly reaching out and checking the emails, messes with the desktop checking the emails, but it is an easy setting to change it if I am in the field all day.
>
> It works for me.
>
> Jimmy

Thanks Jimmy,
The Iphone is now available on Verizon, so I probably will go with it.

Cheers,
Ralph

> > In your opinion, what is the best smart phone out there for an on the go business? I've been looking at the Iphone but verizon only offers it with 3g capabilities.
>
> What they call 4G is only available in a few select markets. I have the new iPhone 4s but it is only available in 3G. There isn't a real 4G out there yet.

Actually there is a 4g in NYC, but there might as well not be.I was trying to wifi my rover through my Blackberry Storm and apparently it can't be done. So I picked up a mifi device and the 4g light comes on occasionally.

Ralph

I'll be getting another android based unit this fall.

I like my cheap LG Ally, but am looking forward to the new dual processor units, with more power and memory.

I can't see paying the Apple premium.

Rick

I have the Droid Razr with an Otter box rugged case. Very thin, light, large screen, and fast. If you guys are trying to tether your laptops, or data collectors with bluetooth or cable from a Verizon smart phone, it may NOT work until you pay Verizon the $20 tethering fee. I use a separate mifi device for that stuff. It saves battery on my phone.

I love the keyboards on the droids, so I'll be getting the droid 4 soon.

One thing that I like about Android versus iPhone is the ability to use microSD cards to expand the storage capacity. I personally use a lot of Google services so the Android integration is good for me versus the Apple products. I know that some Android devices allow a remote memory wipe if your phone is lost or stolen. Android is also more customizable.

-G

I would have to agree with Mr. Ashworth. I went from an Iphone to an Android because of the fact that I use so many google products for everyday use. It allows me to keep up with my contacts on the fly, which they are automatically updated in my gmail contacts account and vice versa. Furthermore, android market is coming out with some really cool apps and most of them are free. Google music as well, and I felt like google is going to be a lot more on the cutting edge of technology and software over the next 5 years, especially with Jobs gone.

Get an iPhone if you're already "Mac"ed out. The iPhone is awesome with syncing all of your Apple products. Otherwise, get an Android.

If you have Verizon AND 4G service in your area; and you want the baddest MF phone on the plant- get a Nexus Galaxy. Other than that all of the androids are still great phones.

The android market has more apps that I use. PDAnet is a great app if you want free tethering. You can also use PDAnet as a Bluetooth modem for dialing into a VRS network. PDAnet isn't available in the iPhone app store. The Android market also has most of the HP calculators as an app. I use the droid48 app which works just like an HP 48. If you're an old fart they have most of the other old HP calculators too.

As far as FAX to email goes, all smart phones can easily handle that. I use Unity FAX and setup a gmail account just for my faxes. Good luck.

A few months back, I finally moved up to a 'smartphone'. Now I find that I need to work on being at least as smart as the phone to take advantage of all it can do. Pretty amazing what they are able to do.

Here is the one I ended up with:

Hopefully This Works Right

Pretty pleased with it so far.

Not sure I can recommend a good phone (I use a crackberry curve), but whatever you get make sure you get the Otterbox case for it.

Otter Box

David

> I love the keyboards on the droids, so I'll be getting the droid 4 soon.

That's what I used to say. When the Galaxy Nexus came out, I upgraded. Haven't looked back since and I don't miss the hardware keyboard like I thought I would. Besides, I was not impressed when I first read the D4 specs and found out that resolution would be sub-par, so figured it was time to consider other options.

Totally concur with both of you except for the SD card part. I recently got a Galaxy Nexus and it does not have an SD card slot. I have a bazillion apps, every wallpaper on planet Earth and ringtones up the wazoo on it already and I'm only using 2.2GB of the 32GB built-in memory. No SD card app installation hassles, no moving stuff around, no mounting SD card when transferring files to the PC (I can plugin to the PC and use the phone normally even while transferring files and such) -- it just works without having to think about any of that.

And, unlike the iPhone, I don't need any special software (iTunes, yeck) to do anything. Windows recognizes it immediately and I can use it as a storage drive, media device, etc.

One thing I can't have is that cool Action FX app like iPhone does. Oh noes! 😉

Seriously, I know we aren't supposed to recommend manufacturer specific cases. BUT... The lifeproof case for the iphone blows everything else away. I dare you otterbox folks to drop yours in a swimming pool.

I recommend android after studying both in detail as a future platform for our surveying software. I just released 2 android land surveying related apps, with many more to come if the interest is there. The iphone won't connect with any instruments since its bluetooth doesn't support serial port profile, while android does.

I imagine folks here would welcome the opportunity to see those aps. Can you let us know how to review them?

Thanks.