How does a "shooting scene reconstructor" use his iPhone to get the job done and what iPhone apps help get him through his day? TiPb’s iPhone at work contest aims to bring you just such slices of the iPhone life. Here’s Theta's answer and as a small token of thanks we’re sending him a $20 iTunes gift certificate. If you want to see your name up on the TiPb home page and get a gift certificate all your own, head on over to the TiPb iPhone Forum and share your story now!
I just got my first iPhone, an iPhone 4. Before that I used two different generations of iPod touches.
I do quite a few "shooting scene reconstructions", and other investigations related to firearms examination. To that end, I have converted over from using a Tablet PC for field note taking, to using Office² and various self made worksheets. I can quickly enter various types of data related to the evidence I am examining. Today I even took a picture of a fired casing comparison using the iPhone 4 camera through the microscope objective, cropped the image (CropForFree), annotated it (iRetouch Lite), and then inserted into my worksheet in Office².
I track my various Google calendars using SaiSuke. I have used it for a few years now. I allows me to update and track various calendars (work, personal, baseball, swimming, cub scouts). When I'm and get a call from a client, I can quickly add an event, which will update on my company website that many customers use to check on my work availability.
I also use Office² to track case numbers, payments received, to update a Google Doc that my bookkeeper checks daily to make invoices for me, and to track courtroom testimony.
I use Air Sharing to take PDF copies of my electronic case files along with me, for reading while on the phone with clients, or reviewing prior to courtroom testimony. It truly allows me to have a mobile office.
I use MileBug to track my mileage and email reports to my accountant.
I use the standard Apple Notes app to email bank deposit summaries to my bookkeeper.
skobbler has become my GPS app (I switched from Sprint with free turn-by-turn, so I'm a little hesitant to start paying for a formerly free service).
Those are just the main ones. There are various other ones I will quickly use on the stand to covert units to answer questions from attorneys, spreadsheets for performing blood alcohol calculations, rulers for measuring, protractors for measuring angles, periodic charts for chemistry questions, and even RxDrugs for looking up prescription drug information.
What about you? Do you do investigations related to firearms examination? If so, how do you use your iPhone for work? If not, head on over to the TiPb iPhone Forum and let us know how you use your iPhone for your job.
