My oh My! Its been a while since I updated this blog. I’ve been busy to say the least. Since my last post the iPhone 4 is on preorder, iOS 4 is out with over 100 new features even for us 3G and 3GS users, oh and the Mac Mini has a bit of refresh with its new Unibody self. Bummer its no longer available for $599 entry price it seems to have gone up by $100 (what’s up with that?) Apparently BP repositioned a containment cap on the underwater gulf gusher that’s been causing all kinds of health problems and other issues for those folks living in the affected areas. Hope that the cap holds this time. We’re worried about oil around these parts ourselves mainly gas drilling and hydrofracking.

So what have I been doing these past months. I’ve been diving into the ESRI Flex World a bit mainly for work and also just getting some away time from my computer. Its been fun but I’m seriously wiped out. I’m off to get some shut-eye long day tomorrow. One more thing… there are now 4 groundhogs that have taken up residence on my property we have a bit of an understanding so they stick to the un-mowed areas of the grass. At some point there will be too many of these creatures to manage so I’m looking into a way to deal with their case…

I was browsing around the ArcGIS Resource Center earlier today and came across the ArcGIS for iPhone site at ESRI.

I was a little in shocked actually but was happy to see that ESRI is finally showing the iPhone some GIS attention. Perhaps it was brought on by the iGIS iPhone app from Geometry who knows either way we won’t get our hands on it until summer since the ESRI iPhone app is still in development unless you are using the SDK. There are some interesting videos here. It will be interesting to see how things rolls out in the summer… This would make more sense to me via an iPad for the extra screen real-estate but if the user interface is similar to iGIS (this is available now for $19.99) it would be nice esp. given that the ESRI app and SDK is free.

I had to go to the store yesterday to pick-up another quart of paint since we didn’t get enough the first time. It was a batch that was color matched so I took a picture of the label that was on the can with my iPhone the evening before and presented this at the counter after entering the store.

I just handed the guy my iPhone and he was looking at it and tried to scan it because he could not make out the numbers in the lighting. The first time he tried to scan the photo it didn’t work so he gave it back and I zoomed in on the picture and handed it back to him. He scanned again and this time it worked beautifully and after adding the colors and mixing he handed me my paint and I went on my merry way. I was glad that the iPhone came in handy coz peeling that label off the can or having to take it back to the store would have been annoying. I suppose I could have looked for the color sample… not happening when things are all displaced in the house…

Last week, a friend of mine alerted me that there was a mobile GIS app for the iPhone called iGIS by Geometry never heard of them until last week.  She asked if I was planning on getting it since I have an iPhone and I’m interested in the latest and greatest . We don’t do as much mobile GIS work in my office but I figured what the heck I’ll go check it out and give it a try. I have to warn you that I’m pretty impatient when it comes to app testing if an app fail my 5 minute test, I tend to stay away. That said, I bit my lip (it still hurts) and paid the $19.99 to download and test. After the download, I spent a few minutes creating a new project and set off to importing some shape files that I had sitting on my computer. These shapefiles were >50 MB with the exception of one file that was 65 KB. I pressed the import button, which gave me an IP address to upload the files and watch the progress of the uploads. You basically have to specify the spatial reference if your data had none… That was pretty painless once I figured out that I needed my Wi-Fi turned on for this to work. A wired network won’t work you need Wi-Fi. The instructions actually specify that “A Wi-Fi network is required to import or export data…” after flipping the Wi-Fi switch to on all was well and the data import wizards started doing their thing. This was not a long process and it is as fast as they claim…

Unfortunately for me, only one of the shapefiles imported. I’m assuming that it had to do with the size of the files and number of features. The smallest file imported fine but the rest did not. I also had some problems displaying the attributes for the layer that did import. The screen was blank when I tried to ID a feature on my map. Having big fingers don’t help. I can’t wait for this to be ported to the iPad it makes more sense there but is a little tricky on the iPhone. You can add comments but no way of editing data which seems to me to be a requirement for this type of application. If not straight edits the ability to add and export markups would be helpful.  I give it 3 stars for nice try… but for it to be useful as a mobile app it should not only allow you to view but to edit/mark-up the data on the maps as well. A nice list of current features as well as several videos are on the iGIS website. I think its a great app sans the aforementioned issues above. Also perhaps there should be some warning as to the limits of files that can be imported somewhere in the help.

I was looking for an iPhone App to take notes last week. I wanted to have the ability to organize my notes into folders and keep a journal of sorts but I did not want something Evernote, I found it a bit too much. I found a product called Awesome Notes which is exactly what I was looking for the only thing that it does not allow me to do is incorporate photos but that’s coming soon. Awesome Notes offer beautiful theme backgrounds, ability to add a quick note (sticky type note), you can search your notes and organize them into folders with icons and view your notes on one screen by list view, icon view as well as offer password protection. There are loads of other features. I really like it because it is easy to use, it even has some GTD to-do and checklist features. For those of you who use Google Docs you can sync with that as well.

I use my iPhone for quite a lot things talking on it comprise about 10% of the usage. The other 90% is emailing and text. I’m quite the writer not so much the talker. Anyway, one of my latest activities is taking photos with the iPhone camera, illustrating them  and sending said photos to various persons of interest. I used to snap the photo, then email it to myself, check my email on my laptop, illustrate and email the photo from my laptop. One evening after a few sips of something strong I decided that I was acting stupidly and that there had to be an iPhone app to take care of this business. I pushed the App store button and did a search and after trying a few apps that had awful instructions and a clunky interface I came across goSnap Photo editor for the iPhone. Unlike the other apps goSnap had a very intuitive interface and came with clear instructions. When you launch the app, your tools are at the bottom of the screen. You simply select a snap from you photo library or take a new photo, make sure you are in edit mode (select the pencil) and use your fingers to drag and draw. It’s that simple you can undo by selecting the  undo icon at the bottom of the sceen and select tool options by selecting the wrench. The icons should be very familiar to the average person who has used a photo editor in the past.
I’m really glad that I came across this app it will save me a lot of time in the future. goSnap also reminds me of Skitch one of my favorite photo annotating programs.