I'm thinking about getting an iphone. Have any of you ever used one to report a shop or take pictures for a digital shop?

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Are you talking about the pizza shops?

spam

I love my iPhone and the apps. The quality of the pictures often surpasses those taken with my expensive digital camera. I use the Job Slinger app for every shop to document time in, time out, fee, reimbursement, details and special requirements. I send myself PDFs of current signage that I can double-check before or after a shop.

I confess, transitioning from a Blackberry to the iPhone was challenging for me, but I would never go back. I have filled out web forms on the road, but waited until I got to my laptop to double check and add narrative before submitting the reports.

I did accept a job that required an iPhone. Their software was pre-beta and the reporting had to be done the old fashioned way, but it is probably the wave of the future.

I'm talking about being able to start a report on a smart phone and maybe finalize it on my computer.

As far as the pictures, I'm taking about any shop that requires digital photos. I do a lot of petroleum shops and others that require several pictures.

Not real sure what that post about purses has to do with my question.

And it could be any smart phone, not just iphones!

Joan_InDE Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I love my iPhone and the apps. The quality of the
> pictures often surpasses those taken with my
> expensive digital camera. I use the Job Slinger
> app for every shop to document time in, time out,
> fee, reimbursement, details and special
> requirements. I send myself PDFs of current
> signage that I can double-check before or after a
> shop.
>
> I confess, transitioning from a Blackberry to the
> iPhone was challenging for me, but I would never
> go back. I have filled out web forms on the road,
> but waited until I got to my laptop to double
> check and add narrative before submitting the
> reports.
>
> I did accept a job that required an iPhone. Their
> software was pre-beta and the reporting had to be
> done the old fashioned way, but it is probably the
> wave of the future.


Thank you! That is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. Any other comments on this are truly appreciated.

I really appreciate all the forum members. I don't post a lot, but I read you often and benefit from it.

I've started reports and even completed them with my (Android) smartphone and my tablet. I still use my Mac more for forms and such because of the full size keyboard, but if I need to get started on a form and it's one of those easy ones with few narratives, I do them right on my phone. Happens rarely, but I enjoy being able to have that option.I haven't figured out how to attach photos of receipts and such from my phone. I defnitely use my phone more often to apply for and accept shops! I don't agree with the smartphones being a requirement for some MSC's, but they are definitely helpful tools. From the stopwatch, calendar, voice recorder, camera and many more features, they are awesome devices and personally I'm addicted to mine. They do malfuncion and the more you use the features, the less battery life you end up with so it's always good to have your back-up devices ready just in case

I haven't used my iPhone for a shop requiring a lot of photos, but if it only needs a couple I do. I agree the quality is excellent. I have also used the recorder which works great. It can double at the timer and record of time in/out because it shows the time on it. I haven't done one of those gas station shops in a while (PITA for the $$), but I would still use my compact camera for that because it's more versatile (zoom/wide) and some require the day/time stamp which, as far as I know, you can't do with an iPhone unless it's jailbroken or going through some other software on your computer to add it.

I totally agree that it depends on how many photos are required and, of course, if the date/time stamp must be there. I'm finding the iPhone to just be a great little multi-tasker. Pics, audio, notes, voice navigation, tons of stuff. For traveling I've added hotel apps, cheap gas finders, restaurant finders, and most importantly Panera and Starbuck's apps so I can get a cappucino fix and WiFi It's also nice to have a PayPal app for transferring funds quickly. I keep telling myself that I'm going to try actually buying some apps one of these days, but so far everything I use is free.

Reports are a different animal. Personally, I find it hard, but as long they can be saved and finished off later it's not as bad. Narratives on the phone just wouldn't work for me.

I had my digital camera die on me in the middle of a gas station audit once on a day I did several of them (oops, forgot to charge it the night before). Luckily my iPhone 4 takes great photos so I was able to finish my audits with no problems

there is a free app for the iphone that does time stamp... its pretty cool you can also add caption on the photo like pump 1... pump 2... and even the address of the location so you dont forget.... it works great for me it takes maybe 5 mins a location longer but when your submitting your reports its worth it.

Love my ambition.

My iphone mostly gets used for taking notes during shops (doesn't look strange at all to be on a smart phone these days), taking pictures during shops (especially discreet pictures, I just pretend to be using the phone for something else while I snap a picture), timing, and if need be, voice recording. I don't use my phone to enter shops online because it is a 3G piece of cr*p and takes an hour and a half to get on the internet (well, maybe not THAT long, but it's not convenient at all). If you are going to get an iPhone, get a newer one, I think they are a lot faster.

Yes I have used my smartphone to either access the job boards of various MSC (provided I have their password with me) and also to report results of shops. My camera is pretty good too,(8MP) so when photos are a requirement I know I can depend on it too. I find it a convenience to use my smartphone for mystery shopping purposes in fact.

Automilez is the coolest app. It follows my route and reports the miles driven and tallies up the 55c mileage deduction for business purpioses

I love my iPhone. The photo quality is excellent and I use the notepad feature a lot to jot down descriptions, times, etc.

Question - Those of you who say you use your iPhone to submit your surveys:

How on EARTH do you submit a survey when the screen is so small?

How do you even see what is on the phone?

How do you type out narratives on an iphone without having a crapload of errors?

I can't see the screen well, even with my glasses (bifocals) on.
I cannot see it well even when I try and do that finger thing that enlarges the screen. Besides, then I have to scroll to the left or right just to read something. Takes more time than driving home and turning on the computer!
I cannot for the life of me text. I have to have a qwerty keyboard - even then, my big old fingers constantly hit the wrong keys - which brings me to the problem of submitting a survey with a lot of errors!

I've tried using my phone - it's a windows phone until my contract runs out - to look at job boards, but again, the screen is so damn tiny, I can't see anything on it.

I would carry my laptop around, but the time I would waste dragging it out using the mouse (I cannot use that finger scroll thing, I lose the pointer, and I forget how to scroll up and down a page), so then I need a flat surface. Well, by the time I drag everything out - I would be 1/2 way home!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2012 10:12PM by r@inyDayZ3.

r@inyDayZ3 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Question - Those of you who say you use your
> iPhone to submit your surveys:
>
> How on EARTH do you submit a survey when the
> screen is so small?
>
> How do you even see what is on the phone?
>
> How do you type out narratives on an eye phone
> without having a crapload of errors?
>
> I can't see the screen well, even with my glasses
> (bifocals) on.
> I cannot see it well even when I try and do that
> finger thing that enlarges the screen. Besides,
> then I have to scroll to the left or right just to
> read something. Takes more time than driving home
> and turning on the computer!
> I cannot for the life of me text. I have to have
> a qwerty keyboard - even then, my big old fingers
> constantly hit the wrong keys - which brings me to
> the problem of submitting a survey with a lot of
> errors!



If I take off my glasses, I can see the screen upclose OK. LOL!! I need bifocals. It IS small, but not so small I can't see what I'm doing. I definitely feel more confident on my home computer!

A friend says he thinks most iPad purchases are made by folks who love their iPhone, but the screen is too small for them! There might be some truth to that.

I started to sign up for a shop today, but the MSC said "No mobile phone photos". Would they really know? The iPhone has an 8-MP camera, it actually takes better photos than my old digital camera! Well, and my camera's lens cover is stuck, so - definitely better than a black screen!

I thought about taking the shop anyway, but then thought, maybe they would know these were iPhone pictures and reject the shop. I don't even know if that's possible.

Right click on a photo and open properties. At the bottom of the window it says "Remove Properties and Personal Information." From there click "Remove the following properties from this file" and check which you want taken off the pic