Top apps for SEs

Dragon Dictation (free)

While the speed at which high school students can whip out a text via thumb-typing is certainly impressive, there are better ways to writing that 2 paragraph reply on the fly. Dragon provides a free mobile version of their desktop software that records and transcribes your voice. I can attest that it actually works very well and saves me time on anything over a 1-2 sentence reply. Simply open up the app, dictate your message, make a few (if any) corrections, and copy it into an email, text, clipboard etc.

It’s dirt simple and really shines because of its accuracy.

Mapquest (free)

Mapquest is the only free app that gives you voice prompted turn-by-turn directions and is GPS integrated. I’m sure there are many better solutions out there for a fee, but I get by just fine with this app and it rarely can’t locate the place I’m going. It does lack a good general map-based search feature which Google does so well, hence I do have to switch back and forth sometimes. That said, it allows me to skip carrying a second stand alone device or paying the 10 bucks at the rental car counter.

Award Wallet (free)

Assuming you travel you probably have a few different accounts for air, hotels, cars, etc. and it can good to see what rewards options you may have with each one. Award Wallet syncs all of that data and makes it available on your mobile while traveling. That should save you some hassle of having to log into a half dozen single purpose vendor apps. By keeping all of the data in one place it gives you a single view itinerary of your trip. Very handy.

Another companion app is TripIt, which was recently purchased by Linkedin. It also manages your travel and has a easy email option to load data, but it doesn’t monitor reward data as Award Wallet does.

Mocha VNC (free)

As much as we try to compartmentalize and make ourselves self sufficient on the road, there are always times it would be great to have access to our home or other desktop systems. This app gives you remote access to your VNC server from your phone. Navigating takes some getting used to, and you definitely wouldn’t touch up a photo using this, but if you need to get to something to attach in an email, or start an FTP upload, it will allow to get it done.

SalesForce.com Mobile (free)

For users of the SFDC CRM tool, this gives you quick access to perform reference checks and quick searches for something you may need onsite.

EverNote (free)

This note-taking app narrowly beats out the Microsoft OneNote app simply because its host version is free online. It has all the features EverNote users expect and the interface is quick to move around in. This doesn’t replace taking notes in a meeting, but does allow you jot quick notes and record critical bits that you need synced when you get back to your laptop.

iBooks (free)

iBooks is here not because of the app itself, which everyone likely already has, but what you can use it for. Most folks overlook the PDF option. Simply take your product manuals, whitepapers, and other docs and load them in bulk. Whenever you’ve got some downtime you can make a little progress or look up an important tech fact when your laptop isn’t nearby.

Linkedin (free)

I find the mobile app useful when you’re at the customer site and you find out you’re going to meet someone unexpected. During a 5 minute break (restroom or otherwise) you can do a quick search and get some good data about the prospect. usually it turns up at least something in common you can use to build rapport.

Card Munch (free)

Snap a quick photo and it gets turned into a contact record. Good for removing clutter and having to keep track of them for later.

Side tip: Keep the cards out and accessible while in the meeting. Arrange the cards in the seating order of the table to keep names straight. Only after the meeting should you scan and discard.

O Player HD (free)

If you’ve tried to take some movies with you on the road, you know what a pain it is to convert everything to Quicktime format. O Player plays pretty much everything. Even better, it can wirelessly access a Windows/Samba share to copy files (in addition to via iTunes). While the entertainment value on the plane is good, it also is great for productivity. Similar to iBooks, you can load up the webex recordings and other (e.g. .avi) content. Fill in your downtime into some training cycles.

ApptDialer ($4)

This is a gem of an app for iPhone users. I’m sure you’ve noticed (and if you’ve used a Blackberry you definitely notice) that you can’t direct dial a conference number+passcode from the Location field in a calendar entry. Since some of them have 10-digit passcodes this quickly had me searching alternatives. Outside of jailbreaking your phone, ApptDialer is the way to go. It gives you a slide wheel of all numbers in an invite and constructs the complex dial code for you. Don’t tell them, but I would have paid $10 for this.

Side tip: If you’re always dialing into a certain bridge like yours, your reps, boss’s etc. you can construct the same dial sequence in a contact record which is even quicker than using ApptDialer.

Why Apple blew this feature so badly I don’t know, but I’m sure it involved a kickback from someone.

Calendar Alarm ($2)

This is another app for the blackberry->iPhone converted crowd. You quickly notice there is no way to snooze a calendar invite. Cal Alarm does a bit more but that’s the killer feature that actually made me shell out a couple bucks for it.

Webex Meeting Center (free)

Most of us spend a good deal of time delivering webex-style presentations to remote customers. This app is handy for two reasons. First, it allows you to view
presentations that your rep might be giving or while you’re sitting at the airport dialing in to some corporate training. Second, while I wouldn’t recommend you
use this to do a screen share, it’s good enough that you can pull over to the side of the road and share a slide deck and advance the slides. Sometimes that’s enough.

While I mention Webex, GoToMeeting and others are available that have a similar featureset.

Dropbox (free)

I don’t keep it a secret that I love dropbox and use it for a great many things. The dropbox app works as advertised and comes in very handy for accessing notes and any other files that natively open on the iphone. Since I keep my active customer folders inside Dropbox it gives me access to pretty much everything else I need on the road. My one complaint is that I can’t set it to sync all files in certain folders. That would be the icing on the cake.

Toodledo ($3)

With a myriad of free options why pay 3 bucks for a task list? The answer is simplicity in my case. Toodledo is the only free web service that allows for Outlook synchronization. I wrote about this in depth in my GTD series. Toodledo made a smart business move charging a 1-time fee for an app (something I would do) to pull money in from an otherwise free service that many rely on. This allows me to keep 2 different computers, and iPad and iPhone all synced and it works very cleanly.

Side tip: Many people sync Outlook via “contexts”. The Toodledo app relies on folders. Therefore, you’ll need to reset your sync app to map Outlook categories to folders.

Flight Aware (free)

This app simply gives you the most reliable flight status of any source/app I’ve tried. They must have a mole in flight traffic control because I get time updates several minutes faster that competing services. The first update is almost always the eventual arrival/departure time as well; contrast that against SWA/AA/UA/etc updates that seem to update in increments of 15 minutes (my guess is to let passengers down easy?).