3. Apple’s i Tunes Store is where most apps are downloaded, many
free of charge.
While it can be difficult to squeeze
your iPhone into small places to
see minute detail, you might be
glad you had it. The reason you
need an app to do this is that the
iPhone has a built in ambient light
sensor to automatically dim the
screen in the dark (so you won’t
annoy those sitting around you
quite so much while texting in a
dark movie theater). Another app
available is a level. The iPhone
has a built in accelerometer (fancy
word for a sensor which detects
movement) which allows this app
to detect the angle at which it is
tilted. While this app might not
replace the real thing, you can’t
really beat the $0.00 price tag.
4. The built-in maps program is
great for getting directions.
5. Others prefer voice guided
turn by turn navigation.
While of limited use, I also
have a VIN decoding app which
can sometimes be useful for
quickly getting information about
a car from the VIN, (photo 7). In
particular, sometimes it is nice to
double-check the year of the car.
Other apps which I use regularly
include a calculator, (photo 8)
and a couple measurement apps,
(photos 9 and 10), as well as a
translation program to help with
my Spanish speaking customers,
(photo 11). Even the stop watch
app can be useful. For example,
when waiting the time out period
between keys in VATS-equipped
vehicles, (photo 12).
helped me out on more than one
occasion while lost in suburbia.
The one thing the iPhone
doesn’t do right out of the box with
regard to navigation is turn by turn
directions. For that you’ll need
a third party app like MotionX
GPS Drive, (photo 5) or Tom Tom
U.S.A. I personally find turn by
turn directions to be somewhat
distracting as I don’t live in a
particularly large city, but I can see
it being useful in some situations.
These apps range in price from
$0.99 to $50 or even more.
The iPhone can also make the
finances of the on-the-go lock-
smith easier. Many major banks
have released free apps for mobile
account access. These banks
include Bank of America, Wells
Fargo, Citi, and Chase to name a
few. There are also countless bud-
geting apps including one that I
have used called Mint.com, (photo
6). The app is free and it ties into
bank accounts and credit card
accounts to help you budget in
real time—pretty slick, especially
considering that it’s free.
There are also a number of
“utility” apps which come in pretty
handy. One such app is simply
a flashlight. It turns the screen
white (or a color of your choice)
at the highest brightness setting.
The iPhone is a convenient
tool for storing sensitive information. Information such as credit
card numbers, login details, key
code and bitting information,
access codes, or safe combinations can all be accessed on your
iPhone conveniently on-the-go.
For security reasons I obviously wouldn’t want to have this
sensitive available to anyone so
I use an app called iSafe. iSafe
password protects and encrypts
sensitive data so it hopefully
won’t fall into the wrong hands.
It even features a “timer” feature
to automatically lock you out of
the information after a certain
amount of time, (photo 13).
