If you have a smartphone or make use of apps, we'd like to hear from you.

Which websites or apps have you found particularly useful (from a farming perspective!)?

And are there any downsides (e.g. battery life)?

There's plenty to keep you amused! these are what i use on my iphone. WeatherPro from meteogroup is what i use for the weather, with the radar and satellite images extremely useful for making decisions such as to spray or not, i find it far more accurate than the television forecasts and you can use it to make your own forecast. Again useful for spraying is the wind meter app. Another is Measure Map, allows you to measure areas and distances from the google maps and is very accurate and handy. Also there is the GAI apps for wheat and rape, Vicon spreader apps but I'm still waiting for the weed id app that was talked about last autumn. It is also useful to save web pages etc on the app list, for such things as nozzle charts, LERAPS, growth stages the list is endless and for finding parts etc The sky go app is also a must have for long hours in the summer for keeping an eye on the cricket! The calender which can be shared with others is useful for for keeping appointments and daily records in one place. Plenty more out there but i wouldn't want to keep going!

I have now got a smart phone. It is a samsung galaxy s2. After a day of scratching m head, I can happily say that it has two really useful apps:

One lets you both make and receive telephone calls!

One lets you type short messages and send them to someone else so they can read them at their leisure!

It also lets me watch Masterchef when sleeping in the cab overnight. I expect it also does other things, although why it doesnt come with Acrobat reader already instaled I dont know.

TeslaCoils:

One lets you both make and receive telephone calls!

One lets you type short messages and send them to someone else so they can read them at their leisure!

But just think what else you could be doing. As a man not known for being shy I would have thought you would have been on twitter by now...

 I have an iPhone 4which I use for Twitter and to some extent Facebook. I also use Google calendar which is synced with it. As for apps, I use Trip adviser, a QR reader, Recorder pro (for podcasts etc), Area finder(uses phone GPS to measure areas by clicking at perimeter points), eBay, Camcard(imports bus card details from photo), Mycarcheck(VRN checker for chasing poachers etc) and BBC news. Weather via Met office.

Battery life is OK but will not make two days.

Synced calendar is great and others are handy and easy to use. All free except Area finder which was about a fiver.

cheers

FarmrPhil

Isabel Davies:

I would have thought you would have been on twitter by now.

 

I have managed to break my BFF habit. Thought I could stay on here and just enter the caption competiton but that seems to have failed. 

I have now installed the Gleadell app on my phone. Also have skype and a utility for finding BT zone hotspots. 

This is an interesting thread and I might pinch a few ideas for apps from it. I do not generally use the phone for farming related info (the PC is where I usually go) but I do use the met office app.

Every smartphone I've seen would last less than an hour on a beef and sheep farm. I'll stick to my bog standard waterproof, shockproof brick !

You can make calls and text with it. What more do you really need ?

welshnwilling:

Every smartphone I've seen would last less than an hour on a beef and sheep farm. I'll stick to my bog standard waterproof, shockproof brick !

You can make calls and text with it. What more do you really need ?

Mine had lasted longer than any other phone I've had ever, I think the fact that its touch screen helps as no dust can get in between the buttons. As for apps, target date for working out when cows are due to calve, sky plus app, angry birds for bored moment s, bubble app for spirit level, email on tap, ebay, calendar, alarm that wont let me lie in, youtube for the moments caught on video, useful apps for just about anything. Battery life is not great but I have an app that helps lengthen it considerably.

I thought the screen would crack when handling livestock

 

Smartphones are too big for my pocket I need as small and light a phone as possible as I'm on my feet all day with livestock.  Mobile phone companies spent the past 2 decades making phones smaller now they've become huge, clumbsy, fragile and battery life has got poorer.  Not for me I do the pc in the house and the livestock outside. Think that's the best way.

ps. wishing this ewe would lamb so I could get to bed!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, a great waste of time and global resources!

welshnwilling:

I thought the screen would crack when handling livestock

Mine never has and its the second touch screen phone i've had. The first did crack but that was because I had the cheek to sit in the back of the pickup with it in my pocket!

I've had smartphones ever since they first came out, and I've never had any trouble with breaking, or reliability come to that, apart from batteries giving out after a couple of years. My main problem is finding them when I've put them somewhere 'safe' while I do something that might make it fall out of my pocket.

I did break two phones many years ago, long before they got fancy (I think they were Nokia 6210s). One I had put on the front wheel of the digger while I was opening a bag of fertiliser into the spreader, then reversed over it. Then the replacement they sent me I promptly dropped a 4lb copper hammer on! 20 years of mobile phones and my only two breaks were within a few weeks of one another.