Jan 29th, 2011

After holding on to my Palm Treo 650 for over 5 years (actually I’ve gone through 4 of them, 1 unfortunately met its end between the car & the car door – not a pretty sight) I’ve finally taken the plunge.

Every year I’d upgrade to the latest fan-dangled unit, and although I’d try over 1-2 weeks to get the “hang of it”, each one just didn’t seem to offer what seemed to be the Treo’s ease of use and functionality. So I’d get rid of the new upgrade and find / source another T650. However Telecom are going to shutter the CDMA network soon so this time I was under a bit more pressure to upgrade to XT.

So with the arrival of the Galaxy I thought I’d give it a good go this time around. Lo and behold I was surprised….its a delight to use and so far I’m loving it. I still long for the ease of use of the Treo when it comes to texting or inputting characters, but most other things work well.

In light of my experience, & perhaps the shuttering of the old network it set me wondering whether there might be some other baby boomers out there going through a similar experience.

With this in mind, I thought it pertinent to cobble together the most helpful apps  I’m using and let you know about them…so that if you were to upgrade to an Android phone you too, could hopefully see & experience some tangible benefits. Here we go….

Sun Board

Great little app that displays via an overlay over a Google Map, where the sun rises and sets, where it is now….winter & summer sunshine rise and set angles……and

according the many apps sites from where you can download it…..

It can be used to
– plan photo shoots
– plan trips and holidays
– position flowers and plants on the sunny side
– choose a real estate
– calibrate orientation and inclination of solar panels
– estimate exposure to sunlight

Click on Image above for further details.

Compass

As the English say in the UK “where is the South….”

So it is down under, all home buyers are always asking “where is north?”

If you are a bit geographically challenged then this is a quick & simple program that does just what you think it will do.

For Nelson we’re fortunate in that most locations are hemmed in, and you can practically always get a idea of a landmark somewhere, but appreciate it some really built up areas it might not be so easy. Could imagine that for an inner city apartment dweller, this would be quite a neat aid when viewing downtown apartments.

Spirit Level

Obvious one by its name……

for when you are asked “that doesn’t look right does it, is it level?”

Maps Ruler

Keeping in mind it’s as the “crow flies”, but you can change that and enter your own “track”…this tidy little app will do your measurements all for you.

And it definitely comes in handy every day.

Tweetcaster

Your intro to reading and sending tweets + photos from your phone.

As well as this app Tweetcaster that I use, there’s also an official Twitter app and plenty of others too.

NZ Road Info

Unfortunately it doesn’t cover the whole of New Zealand at this stage, just traffic cam images from Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Tauranga.

Still, if you live in one of these places and don’t prefer to purposely sit in the car for an unnecessary extended period, this site might just be worth a look.

Android Date Wheel

Helps if you are “chronologically impaired”….in a calendar type of way I mean.

Very handy when you are working out unconditional and possession dates for a buyer or seller.

TideApp

So that you can ensure you co-incide your viewing inspection appointment with the High Tide. Not pretty because its not a graphical representation mainly just a list of numbers, but it does the job. Also assist with finding the right time of day to get fabulous listing photos of your new seaside/estuarine property.

Check it out here.

Dig The Planet

This is for when you get overseas folk asking that same old question every viewing appointment………   “If I I dug a hole here….where would I come out?”

Ok, …..so its not really from the “useful” real estate agent section, but it is a fun one you must admit?

And there you have it.

To add to this there are plenty of mortgage assessment / calculators out there, and although not in New Zealand yet, plenty of Android Apps worldwide that allow you to search for property based on your GPS estimated location…..or so called “location aware” apps.

Android……says is now outselling the iPhone

I’m aware that realestate.co.nz has an iPhone app….but with US researchers like Gartner Inc’s comment above…… forecasting increasing Android uptake, it must only be a time factor until we see an equivalent Android one.

I’m sure there equivalents to these apps here in iPhoneland, however I have personally found these to all be really useful and quite relevant in day to day real estate work.

One thing I have come to appreciate on this Galaxy S / I9000 is the brightness of the fancy named Super-OMOLED screen, its brilliant when trying to read the screen outdoors in the especially sunny skies we are accustomed to here in Nelson.