What Is The Best Pad/tablet For Formfilling In The Field?

[Randolph Kinney]

One other feature to consider in these pads was the ability to interface with your PC via wifi only, or I think you could somehow use your cell phone connection as an option. How do you upload reports to the cloud Randolph?

I have a Cellular data plan with my iPad Air 2 so I use Siri to voice dictate or access the internet directly but I can upload to the cloud with wi-fi when I get home and connect to my home wi-fi network. Or, if you want, stop by a Starbucks, have coffee and upload to the cloud through their wi-fi.

I can also use my cell phone as a wi-fi hotspot and connect my iPad Air 2 to the internet.

When I get home, I turn off the cellular data. I sync my iPad Air 2 with my iMac, backing it up to my computer. I am running OS X El Capitan and use Parallels 10 to run Windows 7 & Total. Once the file Total Mobile is uploaded to the cloud, syncing desktop Total to the cloud downloads the Total Mobile file to the Total desktop.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Does the iPad Air 2 have Siri?

Yes. All Apple devices released after the iPhone 4s include Apple's voice assistant, Siri. This includes the iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad mini, iPad mini with Retina display and iPad mini 3.

To use Siri, hold down your device's Home button until you hear the beep and begin talking.

 

[Randolph Kinney]

Turn on dictation
First, you need to make sure dictation is turned on. To do this, go to Settings > General > Siri, and then turn Siri on. Even if you don’t want to use Siri’s personal assistant features, you need to turn it on for speech recognition to work. You can choose which language you’re using here, which is especially useful if you speak with an accent. I live in the United Kingdom, but since I’m American, I set the language in Siri’s preferences to English (United States). However, I set myRegion settings to reflect UK dates and times. (Tap General and thenInternational).

Dictate anywhere…almost
You can dictate anywhere in iOS where you can enter text. For example, you can compose emails, dictate texts, and even dictate search terms in Safari’s search field. Any time you see the small microphone icon next to the spacebar on the iOS keyboard, dictation is available. Just tap anyplace you can type text, and then tap the microphone icon to start dictating. When you’re finished, tapDone and then wait for your words to be processed. It can take a few seconds for text to appear.

Whenever you see the microphone icon (circled), you have the opportunity to dictate.

 

[Double Eagle]

You can use various could storage to transfer data between the pad and the PC. Dropbox, SugarSync, iCloud, OneDrive, etc...

I use iCloud to sync up my work file to the tablet so I have access to any property data and comp data and use Goodreader to view or annotate the any pdfs.

As far as the report side, I upload and download in the office through Wifi using the cloud via Alamode mobile tools (Total).

You can upload and download out in the field via a Cellular connection. You can get an iPad with a Celluar connection or use your phone as a WiFi Hotspot or use Bluetooth to link to it.

They all go through a cloud service unless you set your own up. There are quite a few products that let you do that.

Again my setup is original iPad Mini, iCloud, and Alamode Total tools.

 

[Doug in NC]

You can use various could storage to transfer data between the pad and the PC. Dropbox, SugarSync, iCloud, OneDrive, etc...

I use iCloud to sync up my work file to the tablet so I have access to any property data and comp data and use Goodreader to view or annotate the any pdfs.

As far as the report side, I upload and download in the office through Wifi using the cloud via Alamode mobile tools (Total).

You can upload and download out in the field via a Cellular connection. You can get an iPad with a Celluar connection or use your phone as a WiFi Hotspot or use Bluetooth to link to it.

They all go through a cloud service unless you set your own up. There are quite a few products that let you do that.

Again my setup is original iPad Mini, iCloud, and Alamode Total tools.

I have a Microsoft-based operating system on my office laptop. Do you know if the iPad would have any compatibility issues interfacing with a non-Apple office computer?

 

[BrendaCraig]

I use the Samsung tablet because of the flash for interior photos. How do you I pad users take interior photos?

 

[JTip]

How do you I pad users take interior photos?

35mm camera w/ flash + 1 hour Walmart photo. Scan to the iCloud with a MacBook Pro 15.4" and insert photos to their preferred software whilst sipping a triple tall soy enjoying Enya's new album in the background.

 

[Doug in NC]

I use the Samsung tablet because of the flash for interior photos. How do you I pad users take interior photos?

I got the Samsung too. I've only tested it out a little so far though. I love the way you take a pic and it goes right into the form where you want it. I realized how significant that is yesterday, when I downloaded my camera's pics from 2 inspections; difficult to quickly locate which room sorts into which photo space on the form, and I frequently mistake which comp pic is which - especially when I am working in a subdivision that has many similar plans or even the same model. The problem I learned is that I can't take a pic of the subject property unless I back up to the street to do it, camera will zoom in to a point, but I get much better shots with my standalone camera. Because of the inability to capture a wide angle view, I can imagine how taking interior photos of smaller rooms could be a problem. The other big problem I've run into is that Total Sketch doesn't seem to have a tutorial video to learn how to do mobile sketching (and mobile sketcher is markedly different than my laptop version). I tried to do a simple sketch once in the field and it was a disaster. The only way I could figure out how to correct a measurement error early in my drawing was to delete the whole sketch and basically start over again (including having to re-measure). I'd really like to learn how to do the field sketching, because I know it could at least save me the time it takes to re-draw every sketch once I get back in the office.

 

[bnmappraisal]

I'd really like to learn how to do the field sketching, because I know it could at least save me the time it takes to re-draw every sketch once I get back in the office.

One of the big reasons I want to get more mobile. I know ALM has random live classes at different times of the year around the country. I'm considering taking one; I believe they come near Orlando or something. Maybe look into where they may be near you in NC

(Edit: I just looked quick. Looks like they only have 2 more live trainings this year. Dec 2-3 in Oklahoma City, OK and then Portland, OR Dec 7-8. They were in Raleigh-Durham April 7-8 of this year; Charleston, SC in Sept and Greensville, SC back in Jan/2015. Maybe next year!)

 

[Non Sequitur]

Because of the inability to capture a wide angle view, I can imagine how taking interior photos of smaller rooms could be a problem. The other big problem I've run into is that Total Sketch doesn't seem to have a tutorial video to learn how to do mobile sketching (and mobile sketcher is markedly different than my laptop version). I tried to do a simple sketch once in the field and it was a disaster. The only way I could figure out how to correct a measurement error early in my drawing was to delete the whole sketch and basically start over again (including having to re-measure). I'd really like to learn how to do the field sketching, because I know it could at least save me the time it takes to re-draw every sketch once I get back in the office.

a la mode has a YouTube channel, you can pretty much learn most of what you need to from there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNj4aaIRdWzKcfRzssoEC3Q

As far as the wide angle photos, there is no cure but the good thing is no one cares. If you're uncomfortable or really need to show something you can take several photos of the same room through the app, another space for a photo shows up after you take the first one.

Some things are frustrating. The trick is to just commit to using it and accept that it's a total transformation in how you collect data in the field. You have to forget how you were trained and learn this system, some things are similar some are not. And don't kill yourself trying to make it work the way you want it to, learn how it's set up and retrain yourself.