Evernote

Android down on the farm.

ACFC 11 Mobile Panel Notes

This is a followup post to the Mobile Use in Agriculture panel where I covered the Android platform at the recent Agvocacy 2.0 conference in Nashville hosted by the Agchat Foundation. The current devices I am using are a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and a HTC EVO 4g phone from Sprint.

The main benefit of the Android platform is flexibility in service providers and handset manufacturers. There are android handsets that range from less than $100 (w/ contract) all the way up to the Tablets in the $5-600 range.

To maximize battery life:

• Use wi-fi for internet were possible this eliminates constantly searching for a stronger data (3G/4G) signal
• Use the Auto Brightness setting when in sunlight
• If indoors or at night turn the screen brightness down as far as possible
• Set the screen to shut off after 30 seconds or less
• Turn GPS off when not in use
• Use 4G only if necessary

Good apps for Android:

Security

Lookout This is a good app to have because of the anti virus capabilities

Protect your phone with award-winning security & antivirus from Lookout

Protect Your Phone. Get Lookout for FREE Antivirus, Phone Locator, Data Backup and

more!

Android Utility

ZD Box This app is a great way to maximize the memory of older phones that have limited memory

ZDbox is an amazing and free all-in-one toolbox. It holds a collection of useful tools and has a nice and easy to use interface. With ZDbox you’re getting your mobile/cell phone under control, do easily some optimization and customize it to your needs. An essential tool which you will love!

Productivity

Evernote I use Evernote for everything from parts lists to meeting notes, Evernote also has a great blog with tips and tricks.

Evernote turns your Android device into an extension of your brain.

Evernote is an easy-to-use, free app that helps you remember everything across all of the devices you use. Stay organized, save your ideas and improve your productivity. Evernote lets you take notes, capture photos, create to-do lists, record voice reminders–and makes these notes completely searchable, whether you are at home, at work, or on the go.

Evernote is available for: Desktop: Mac, Windows and Web

Mobile: Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm WebOS, Windows Mobile

Tablet: Android, iPad

Web: Evernote for Web; Web Clippers for Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer

Learn more: http://www.evernote.com/about/getting_started/

Repligo Reader I use this app to take notes right on meeting agendas & markup electronic documents

View and annotate Adobe® PDF files and attachments while on the go! RepliGo Reader is the first Android application to enable both viewing and annotating of PDF files. Review documents on the go by adding highlights, cross outs, underlines, sticky notes, arrows, lines, ovals, rectangles, freehand drawings and text boxes. Comments are stored as standard annotations in the original PDF file, just like Adobe® Acrobat®. RepliGo Reader integrates seamlessly with Gmail, Dropbox, Evernote and numerous other applications. It also makes a great eBook reader, with features like night mode and an intelligent reading view.

pFinance The only commodity future reporting app to include milk futures

One app serves all your personal finance needs. Highlighted by Google, pFinance is your personal finance hub with the following great features:

• Stock with real-time, after-hour, pre-market quotes

• Technical charts

• Stock options and option portfolio

• Market overview with indexes, funds, ETF, etc.

• Financial news from major news sources

• Currency portfolio, converter and news

• Commodity futures

Commodity Prices

Stay up to date with the latest Commodity Spot Prices.

Dropbox A great place to store files and have them accessible anywhere there is an internet connection

Dropbox lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. After you install Dropbox on your computer, any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, your Android device, and even the Dropbox website! With the Dropbox app, you can take everything that matters to you on the go. Read your docs or flip through your albums when you’re out and about. Save photos or videos to your Dropbox and share them with friends in just a couple taps. Even if you accidentally leave your Android in a taxi, your stuff is always safe on Dropbox.

LogMeIn I use this to remotely access the computer that has the dairy records in the barn office

Access your computer from your Android, and never leave anything behind. If it’s on your computer, it’s in the palm of your hand. Directly control your Mac or PC, all your programs and all your files – like that important presentation for your boss or that application that only exists on your work computer – with a simple click. LogMeIn Ignition for Android lets you remotely access one or more computers anywhere, anytime. So you never have to worry about leaving anything behind. Be Productive

Jorte I’m just starting to use this & I’m very impressed so far

Jorte is a personal organizer application designed to be practical.
Our objective was to create an app with the look and feel of real paper personal organizer with an appealing appearance and easy practical use.Jorte has a scheduler function and you can customize its style as you choose.Calendars are displayed in a monthly or weelky view the display will rotate automatically if you turn your device sideways.You can see in one glance the important schedules that are colored red and also the schedules that have already finished.According to your style, you can set the beginning day of the week, import public holidays events and add our own holidays events.When you manage a todo list, you can view important schedules in red or rearrange the order of items in the list.Schedule and todo data can be imported from or exported to a CSV file.Jorte can be controlled using Google Voice and interact with Google Maps.The app has many features such as synchronizing with Google calendar and supports a wide variety of widgets.Issue that synchronizing schedule information is not displayedThere is the issue that schedule is not displayed when users use Jorte with Google calendar Mode. This issue is not caused by deletion of schedule information, but by mal-function of synchronization function of Android OS and information is still left on Google Calendar.

Area & Distance 

Use your phones built in GPS to measure the area of a region. Turn this application on and walk or drive around a region to measure its area. The path length is measured as well.

Smart Tools (Tools come as individual downloads also) Great way to get those measurements!

You can measure the length, angle, distance, height, direction. Smart Tools is a toolbox of a collection of 1-4 series. It includes 4 Pro versions that have 14 tools.

In a word, All-in-One.

Part 1. Length, Angle, Slope : Smart Ruler & Protractor Pro

Part 2. Distance, Height, Width, Area : Smart Measure Pro

Part 3. Direction, Metal detector, GPS : Smart Compass Pro

Part 4. Sound level meter, Vibrometer : Sound Meter & Vibration Pro

Bubble Level I can’t remember the numerous of times it has been helpful to have a level in hand

A spirit level. Hold any of the phone’s four sides against an object to test it for level or plumb, or lay it down on a flat surface for a 360° level.- Calibrate- Show angle or inclination

– Sound effects

– Install on SD

– Orientation locking

– Roof pitch

Google Apps Google has so many good apps they are a must on any platform!

Collection of apps by Google including such popular things as Google Voice, Google Docs, Google Goggles and many more.

News Apps I use all three of these apps and still have not found a clear favorite each has a strength that is a weakness of the others.

News 360 (phones)

News360 for Android Phones aggregates more than 4000 different news sources around the web to bring you news stories in a concise and useful stream, along with photos and video covering the story. The semantic analysis technology behind News360 allows you to get background information and dossiers about all the companies, people and locations that make the news, and to personalize the news for your location, and create feeds based on your specific interests

News 360 (tablets)

News360 for Honeycomb tablets aggregates more than 5000 different news sources around the web to bring you news stories in a concise and useful stream. The semantic analysis technology behind News360 allows you to get background information and dossiers about all the companies, people and locations that make the news, and to personalize the news based on your specific interests.News360 can learn from your Facebook, Twitter, Evernote & Google Reader accounts to automatically create an interest graph that you can use to get the stories that are most relevant to you from the best sources around the web, that you would have never seen otherwise, and cut down on the clutter and noise that you used to have to filter out yourself.

Taptu

Clever social news feed reader. Get the latest on your interests in one place. Taptu is a social news feed reader that puts all of the stuff you’re into in one beautiful app. Taptu lets you add your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the content from your favorite web sites and blogs via RSS and transforms them into gorgeous visual streams. Or add, one of our specially curated streams on a variety of topics and genres. Found a news article or stream you like? Share it via Facebook, Twitter, Linked & email. Or, save it to read later using Instapaper

News Republic (phone)

All Breaking News in 1 App. Follow only the topics that really matter to you!

News Republic (Tablet)

News Republic, the best-rated news app on Android worldwide, is now available on Android Tablets.

A fully customized edition that brings you:
– A new slick user interface especially designed for Android Honeycomb tablets
– The best of the TagNav by hopping from topic to topic and reading the news on the same screen.
– A photo gallery that gives the top stories in full-screen photos.

News Republic, it’s all the news worldwide, live, and from all major press agencies : AFP, eWeek, Adfero, Associated Press and websites …

Entertainment Apps 

Spotify

Spotify brings millions of tracks to Android. Your music is always with you.How do you turn your Android into a mighty music machine? Just add Spotify.

 Pandora 

Pandora radio is a personalized radio service that streams music on your phone.Pandora® internet radio is your own FREE personalized radio now available to stream music on your phone.

Soundhound

What’s that song? Identify it FAST with SoundHound.

Shazam

Hear a song you don’t know? Shazam identifies it instantly

More sources of mobile information for farmers:

• Top 10 Android apps for Farmers (iPhone too) Dino Giacomazzi
• Top 10 Android Apps for Farmers, take 2 Dino Giacomazzi
• Agriculture Answering the Call of Smartphones This Week in Ag
• Running list of mobile ag/ag related apps stored in Delicious Truffle Media
• Agchat on mobile & smartphone technology
• The Mobile Farmer Blog

Related articles

• 3 awesome productivity tools that have changed my life! (trak.in)
• Evernote Acquires Skitch And Releases Skitch For Android (socialtimes.com)
• Evernote for journaling (socialcpr.wordpress.com)
• Evernote App Overview (macstarter.com)

A visual insight to my dairy farm.

Although it is a few months old here is an awesome video of my dairy farm that was created by Brett Marty and Launch Squad for Evernote ( a great notetaking, web clipping & more program) . I keep thinking I will take occasional videos around the farm to post and every time I am reminded of this one and it is just so good I feel I cannot compete with it.