Yes, a smartphone is a tool.

One of my favorite tools as a contractor has become my iPad and iPhone. With this combination, I pretty much have a mobile office with me everywhere I am and can perform just about all of the business I need to, while on the go. I thought I would share a few apps that I have found helpful and essential to keeping me on track.

Notability:

This is a handy app that allows you to take notes, draw sketches freehand, add pictures to you document and more. Notability also has settings to automatically sync to Dropbox. This leads us to the next app…

Dropbox:

Dropbox is one of several great cloud storage apps. I have used others like Box and Google Drive, but Dropbox is my favorite. Dropbox allows me to save files, PDF’s and pictures in the cloud that I can access with my iPad, iPhone or PC. This is definitely an essential app.

Mailbox:

Mailbox is an email app that is largely gesture based treating your email inbox like a to-do list. This is a great app for zipping through your email inbox and finding the elusive inbox number-zero. Using swipes to the left or right, you have options for remind me later today, tomorrow, in the future or on a specific date. You can send the emails that you want to keep in a certain place with just a simple swipe to the left, placing it in a list that you can customize. Right now it only works with Gmail, but other providers are on the way.

Clear:

Clear is a get things done app that is very easy to use. I love having a checklist and marking things done. This app does it beautifully.

Yahoo! Weather:

Keeping up with weather conditions is vital in the construction business, and Yahoo!’s weather app is really great for doing that. I need a weather app that has radar so I can see when the rain is coming! This app offers me plenty of other info as well.

TinyScan:

I haven’t gone completely paperless yet, but I’m getting closer. This app helps me do that by turning a picture into a PDF. You can create a multiple page PDF document as well. One of the things I like most about this app is that the automatic page edge finder works great. So when you take a picture of a document it will automatically find the edges of the document so you can crop it. Export options include: Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, Box, email etc.

Google Maps:

This one should be self-explanatory. In my job, I go to a lot of properties in areas I’ve never been before. Having a good GPS to get me there is very helpful. While I would never trust my life to GPS, Google Maps gets me there most of the time. (I’m still old school and like looking at a map before going on a long trip though!)

Native apps:

Among my most used apps are the native iOS apps. Calendar, Reminders and Notes sync flawlessly with each other. While I like the look and functionality of other to-do apps and calendars, none of them sync together as well as the native iOS apps do. With the benefit of icloud.com, I can even use these apps online from my PC. If I’ve learned anything from Mike Wood (I’ve actually learned a lot) it’s to write things down. I have a fairly good memory-at least at this point in my life-but the more you have to do, the easier it is to forget something. That’s why Calendar, Reminders and Notes keep me on track. I can type it in and move on to the next thing knowing that I will get a pop up when it’s time to act.

Camera:

Well duh, I have to mention the Camera app. Having an awesome camera with me is essential when I visit a job site. You’ve heard the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Well, I don’t have a lot of words to say sometimes so I let the pictures do the talking. Showing my guys a picture of work that needs to be done, is priceless and often self-explanatory, thereby saving me words :)

This is an all-around list of the apps I use most frequently for work. There are others, but we can save those for another time. Do you have some essential apps that are helpful to your work? Please share them with me!

Saving Money!

By Scott Boatright-Re-Bath of Middle Georgia.

July, August, January and February are usually the months that hurt our pockets the most when it comes to paying utility bills.  Start saving money now by following these simple tips. 

 

One the easiest ways to save on is to set thermostats at 78°F in the summer and 68°F in the winter. You can expect a 3% to 5% increase in energy use for every degree you set the thermostat lower in the summer and higher in the winter. Also consider installing a programmable thermostat, they are inexpensive and allow you to save even more by setting a different temperature when no one is home.

 

Installing ceiling fans can also help reduce energy costs. What you will find with using a ceiling fan is that your comfort level will remain the same, but your air conditioner will run less…which is where you will pick up savings on your cooling bills.

Consider replacing your standard light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs. ENERGY STAR qualified compact fluorescent light bulbs provide bright, warm light while using 75% less energy than standard lighting — they also generate 75% less heat and last a lot longer. 

 

Use storm windows or double-paned replacement windows to greatly reduce heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer.  Storm windows are relatively inexpensive, and they also help decrease the outside noise that enters your home.  Give us a call (478) 453-3060 and talk with us about installing storm windows/doors or replacing single pane windows with energy saving double pane windows.

An often overlooked cost saving area is your water heater. Replace that old water heater! Or wrap water heaters with an insulated blanket. Read the installation instructions and warranty to make sure this doesn't void the warranty. Another cost saving method is to lower your water heater temperature to 120 degrees to save money and energy.

Make sure your home is properly insulated. Start by checking your attic and floors.  HouseLogic (a home solutions web site) says that you can save as much as

$600 per year by boosting the amount of attic insulation from R-11 to R-49.  Let us at Mike Wood Builders help you with any projects that you are thinking about.
           

For more ideas and tips Georgia Power has a free online energy checkup at:

http://www.georgiapower.com/earthcents/residential/energy-checkup.asp

February

Check out our February newsletter: http://nl.r2rassoc.com/enews/4719/Mike-Wood-Builders

Our newsletters are designed to be helpful and contain some great information for your home and family. Go to our website and sign up to receive it monthly!

Louisiana

Last week our trivia question was,"What country did the US buy Louisiana from?" The correct answer is France. In 1803 the treaty was singed almost doubling the size of our country. For more interesting facts visit http://www.history.com/topics/louisiana-purchase

First in Color

"NBC made the first coast-to-coast color broadcast when it telecast the Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1, 1954, with public demonstrations given across the United States on prototype color receivers by manufacturers RCA, General Electric, Philco, Raytheon, Hallicrafters, Hoffman, Pacific Mercury and others. A color model from Westinghouse H840CK15 ($1,295, or $10.6 thousand in today's dollars) became available in the New York area on February 28, 1954 and is generally agreed to be the first production receiver using NTSC color offered to the public; a less expensive color model from RCA (RCA-CT100) reached dealers in April 1954. Television's first prime time network color series was The Marriage, a situation comedy broadcast live by NBC in the summer of 1954. NBC's anthology series Ford Theatre became the first network color filmed series that October.

Early color telecasts could be preserved only on the black-and-white kinescope process introduced in 1947. It was not until September 1956 that NBC began using color film to time-delay and preserve some of its live color telecasts. Ampex introduced a color videotape recorder in 1958, which NBC used to tape An Evening With Fred Astaire, the oldest surviving network color videotape.

Several syndicated shows had episodes filmed in color during the 1950s, including The Cisco Kid, The Lone Ranger, My Friend Flicka, and Adventures of Superman. The first two were carried by some stations equipped for color telecasts well before NBC began its regular weekly color dramas in 1959, beginning with the Western series Bonanza.

NBC was at the forefront of color programming because its parent company RCA manufactured the most successful line of color sets in the 1950s, and by 1959 RCA was the only remaining major manufacturer of color sets.CBS and ABC, which were not affiliated with set manufacturers, and were not eager to promote their competitor's product, dragged their feet into color. CBS ceased all regular color programming between 1960 and 1965 (including at least one of their shows, The Lucy Show, which was filmed in color, beginning in 1963, but continued to be telecast in black and white through the end of the 1964-65 season), while ABC delayed its first color series until 1962. The DuMont network, although it did have a television-manufacturing parent company, was in financial decline by 1954 and was dissolved two years later.Thus the relatively small amount of network color programming, combined with the high cost of color television sets, meant that as late as 1964 only 3.1 percent of television households in the U.S. had a color set. NBC provided the catalyst for rapid color expansion by announcing that its prime time schedule for fall 1965 would be almost entirely in color. ABC and CBS joined the bandwagon and over half of their combined prime-time programming also was in color that season. All three broadcast networks were airing full color prime time schedules by the 1966–67 broadcast season, and ABC aired its last new black-and-white daytime programming in December 1967. Public broadcasting networks like NET did not use color film for a majority of their programming until 1968. But the number of color television sets sold in the U.S. did not exceed black-and-white sales until 1972, which was also the first year that more than fifty percent of television households in the U.S. had a color set. This was also the year that "in color" notices before color television programs ended, due to the rise in color television set sales, and color programming having become the norm."

Color broadcasting in Hawaii started in September 1965, and in Alaska a year later.

Information from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_television