5 Apps for Ag Communicators

Smartphones have turned from a fab way to make phone calls, text and play games to a tool used to maximize your business. My first smartphone was an iPhone 3GS. I didn’t jump on the bandwagon right out the gate simply because I was a poor college student and had to wait for my first decent paying job to make the purchase. When I did I quickly started downloading apps like Facebook, Pandora, Weather Channel and lots of games. I used my iPhone for pure entertainment.

Now, I have an iPhone 4 and as I flip through my apps I still find a few go-to-games, but I see myself using more apps that serve a purpose. That purpose for me is being an agriculture communicator. I would like to share with you a few apps to help you work from your phone and spread the message about the wonderful world of agriculture.

1.  HoursTracker

• Price – $2.99 or a FREE Lite Edition
• Details – HoursTracker easily tracks your working time and earnings with a streamlined, easy-to-use interface great for use on the go. Start a timer with two taps of the finger or track your time by just entering in your punch times manually. Track time while using other apps, add as many jobs are you like, assign a pay rate to calculate earnings, set up pay periods and view your time by weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly or monthly, export reports to email, etc.
• Why I Love – Keep track of the hours you work on your clients websites, blogs and social media sites. Organize hours you edit photos or video footage to send to customers.  It is always hard to guess the amount of time you spend on certain projects, this app allows you to stop short changing yourself and start getting paid for all your hard work and creativity.

2.  Dragon Dictation

• Price – FREE
• Details – Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application that allows you to speak and instantly see your text or email messages. You can dictate status updates directly to your social networking apps or send notes and reminders to yourself.  Editing feature provides a list of suggested words, voice driven correction interface, paste text into any application using the clipboard, etc.
• Why I Love – While on the road or out in the field this app allows you to get your ideas and thoughts on paper quickly.  I am always brainstorming blog topics, status updates, to-do lists and emails while driving or away from my computer.  This helps me keep track of all the random thoughts going through my head that I would otherwise forget.

3.  Instagram

• Price – FREE
• Details – Instagram is a simple way to make and share photos.  Pick from one of several filtered effects to add creativity to your mobile photos.  Share photos in a simple photo stream for friends to see and follow friends’ photos.  Instantly share photos to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare, and Posterous, unlimited uploads, receive likes and comments.
• Why I love – Smartphone cameras are state-of-the-art capturing pictures with as much resolution as a small hand held camera.  I always have my phone on me and use it to capture everyday memorable moments I want to share with others.  I use this app with Twitter the most.  It adds the picture in a short URL right to your tweet.  The effects allow you to share photos that look like they have had hours of editing.

4.  Keek

• Price – FREE
• Details – Keek is an easy way to share video moments and status updates.  Send microvideo updates (“keeks”) using your smartphone. Share your keeks to Facebook and Twitter followers. Connect. Capture. Share.
• Why I Love – Who knew it was as easy to share video as it was a simple photo. Instead of writing a status update to announce to customers of an upcoming event or sale…how about you record a short video clip.  Keek is a fun way to be different and show some creativity.

5.  TurboScan

• Price – $1.99
• Details – TurboScan turns your smartphone into a multiple scanner for documents, receipts, whiteboards, business cards.  Scan, store, print or email them as multipage PDFs or JPEG files.  Auto edge detection, fast processing, document naming and storage, open in other apps like Dropbox or Evernote, compact attachments, etc.
• Why I Love – Using this efficiency app allows you to organize your on-the-go business. Instead of losing those reimbursement receipts or forgetting where you put all the business cards you got at the last farm show…scan and export to email or other word processor.