When you’re running a busy company, it’s essential to make the most of your time and resources. Help is literally at hand through with a range of time-saving iPhone apps now available.
Main:
There are thousands of iPhone apps out there, so to save you having to rummage around the Apps Store, we’ve asked everyone at CBHC to recommend their favourite business apps. Here are our top five:
1. LinkedIn
What: Contact management, networking
Price: Free
Many of us will spend a lot of our time networking or developing relationships with other businesses – why not do this online? Of course, there’s never any substitute for meeting people face to face, but LinkedIn has a lot to offer.
On the most basic level, it serves as a quick and easy way to add someone to your list of contacts. Business cards are still necessary, but easy to misplace. Now you can connect on LinkedIn straight away, so you’ll never lose a valuable contact again.
But LinkedIn has more to offer than just a virtual address book – it’s also a great tool for new business. This is because you can let others know what you are working on and where you are, and they can do the same. By keeping an eye on updates like these, you can quickly identify opportunities to add value to your contacts -for example, if they are starting a new business or department where your skills apply.
2. Scanner Pro
What: Portable scanner device
Price: £4.99
You many not think of a scanning machine as a business essential, but when you download Scanner Pro, you’ll wonder what you ever did without it. This clever app enables you to scan single or multiple page hard copy documents with your phone, and then preview, file, print* and/or email them.
The image quality is good thanks to advanced image processing, and features like the automatic edge detection and custom page size ensure that neat, clean edges are achieved. Even small documents like receipts, business cards and notes scan well.
All scanned documents are produced as industry standard PDF files, and you can even protect documents with a password for secure sharing. If you want to transfer the documents, you can do this via a shared network drive over Wi-Fi network (no additional software required), or you can upload the scans to online file storages such as MobileMe iDisk, Box.Net, and Humyo.
Scanner Pro also integrates with other products such as Dropbos, Evernote and Google docs.
And if you want to print the documents via your iPhone, upload the Print n Share app (from EuroSmartz), and then you can scan and print documents to any printer via PC or Mac.
3. Evernote
What: Note synchroniser
Price: Free
This handy app acts as your online memory, letting you capture all kinds of data – including text, audio, images or web pages – quickly and easily, and then automatically synchronising it across various platforms. This means you can access that information anytime from your iPhone, computer, or the web.
Simply use the voice recorder on your Evernote app, and not only will it be stored on your phone, it will also go straight to, and be backed up on, your Mac or Windows desktop and your online Evernote account.
Evernote also has many other nifty features, such as word recognition which makes text within snapshots searchable, and geo-location information for mapping and search.
4. Splashtop desktop remote
What: Remote desktop access
Price: £1.49 (current special offer)
While in a meeting, you realise that a particular document/web page/PowerPoint presentation/video, which you’ve got saved on your computer would be a massive help. Rather than try to remember it, you can simply recall it on your iPhone thanks to the Splashtop desktop remote app.
This useful app gives you full access to your PC or Mac from your iPhone. With it you can interact with your PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Outlook, and Quicken applications, view Flash videos and other multimedia, and even access your computer browser, including your bookmarks.
The Splashtop app is easy to set up. All you need to do is install the free Splashtop Streamer on your computer, sign in to your Gmail account on the app and the Streamer and the application will automatically find your local computers. It’s compatible with iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS, and works over Wi-Fi and 3G/4G networks.
5. SPB Brain Evolution 2
What: Brain trainer
Price: £1.49 (currently special offer)
If you’re one of those business people who feels guilty when you’re not working, this could be the app for you. A good balance of fun and work, this brain training app will ensure that you’re improving your grey matter – and therefore, it could be argued, your business – while having some light relief at the same time.
The SPB Brain Evolution 2 app offers a multitude of brain-challenging games which are designed to improve skills such as mental arithmetic, pattern finding, logic, response and memory. As you progress, new games are unlocked and existing challenges become increasingly challenging. A ‘brain power’ chart also tracks how well you’re doing.
If we were to say one bad thing about this app, it’s that it can become a little bit addictive – but that should only serve to improve your self-discipline!
