Voice. That’s it. My phone lets me talk, and listen to someone on the other end; if I’m working, I can plug a headset in or hit the speaker phone button. And use the ‘Mute’ button if necessary.
I opened Toby’s iPhone app post with reservations, having felt saturated recently with iPhone app ‘articles’ that seem little more than ways for a newspaper or blog to fill space. (In the Boston Sunday Globe Magazine recently I mistook a piece on phone apps for an advertisement, because it was largely a collection of photos of phones, each one showing a different app, with a weblink below. It was not poor beleaguered print journalism’s finest hour.)
I’ve been a dedicated voice-only phone user forever. Low-to-the-ground technology is what I like to use, knowing how easy it is for me to get lured in to a moving display and find myself sidetracked for an hour or four. And I just got a new phone contract last week, turning down the chance to get a new phone because the one I have works just fine. So a post about phone apps? Argh.
But the apps Toby shows are making my dialing finger (so to speak) itch. It would be hugely helpful to be able to place dimensions directly on a photo in the field. My field notes tend to be scratchy and blobby, and while I’ve developed a method for keeping straight what numbers go with what dimension line, that dimensioning app holds out the promise of more organized field dimensioning. So tempting. And stitching together a bunch of photos a la David Hockney would simplify my reference photo printing, too. Even the number converter looks inviting, though I keep a handy cheat sheet with me for quick and dirty conversions.
An excerpt from a recent set of field notes.
Still, colored pencil and paper are quick, and while they’re not beautiful they do give me the information I need, in exactly the way they’ll be useful when it’s time to draw a base plan and work out the details. You can’t beat the price. So far, the end results over the last couple of decades have been successful.
Stay tuned. I’m betting that I’ll stick with a voice-only phone, but if the iPad adds a camera and a UWB port and can use those apps I may turn into a technology maven yet.
Deborah Howe
Taking Place 
Yes, that dimension thing did seem tempting. But so far, you’ve done OK. I tend to the Luddite point of view, because these electronic conveniences , added on, could wind up being just One More Damn Thing, when putting your mind to your project has worked well in the past.
I shall now step off the soapbox.