Taking Place

I’m still getting used to the idea of my phone as a serious tool, but I find I’m using it more and more. Here are some apps I’ve come to rely on:

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I was taking site measurements with Susan Opton when she showed me My Measures and Dimensions. My Measures doesn’t actually take the measurements itself (not yet anyhow), but it provides an information-rich way to capture them. Instead of recording measurements on paper, I can place the measurements directly on a photo. When I get back to my office, I have the measurements and a good record of what I’ve measured.

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My Measures allows me to place dimension lines precisely, change their color (to contrast with varying backgrounds), give them different end markings (depending on the type of measurement), and supplement them with notes. It doesn’t yet provide a way to make sure the dimensions are right-side-up. Maybe in the next version.

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When I need to convert vertical measurements taken in feet and inches into decimal elevations, I use Convertbot.

Convertbot is elegant and friendly.  Aside from lengths and distances, Convertbot handles weights, speeds, temperatures, volumes, areas, currencies, data sizes, and time.

Another surprisingly capable app is AutoStitch Panorama. There are lots of iPhone and desktop apps that automatically assemble photos into a seamless panorama, but most are restricted to linear panoramas based on a single row of photos, and don’t provide a way to include images that are higher or lower than that row. AutoStitch can stitch in more than one direction, converting arrays of photos into mosaics that are both broad and high.

AutoStitch can leave the edges ragged, as above, or it can crop them smooth, below.