CONTEST: How do you use the iPhone for your job?

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greensuper

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Golf Course Superintendent and iPhone Phanatic

Rene,
I have a very unique job, I am a Certified Golf Course Superintendent. My hobby includes being an Apple and iPhone Phanatic. Below is an email I sent in response to one of my industry magazines asking Superintendents how they use mobile technology. Because the iPhone was relatively new and Mobile technology in my industry is just beginning to scratch the outer surfaces, I was selected for a feature article in Golf Course Industry Magazines October 2009 Issue - Mobile Mileage

Your forum is not letting me attach the link to the article, but I would happy to send you the web address for you to view. The Magazine, Issue and article are above.

That's me on the cover. Below is the email I sent that will tell the story I my integration of the iphone. My wife has an iPad and I can't wait to get my hands on one to start using that as well. Oh, by the way, as I am sending this, I am turning sprinklers on at the golf course 20 miles away. I LOVE THE IPHONE!

To Marissa Palmeri, editor at Golf Course Industry Magazine

Good morning! Boy, where do I start. I have been a loyal Apple user since the Apple IIe first came out. When the iPhone first came out, I had just purchased another Blackberry with Verizon, I didn't want to incur a cancellation fee and the purchase price of the iPhone. 8 months later, when the 1st gen was offered as a refurb, I got my first iphone. i follow Apple/iPhone news as much as I follow the Turfgrass industry. I have always told my wife, if I had the opportunity to do something else, it would be to work for Apple.
Now, how do I use my iPhone. To really get the full functionality of the iPhone and some of it's apps, you really need to subscribe to Apple's MobileMe service. I will explain why below.

The first app I use religiously is "Who is Hot?". It is a great weather app for free. No one in my opinion, beats the animated radar in this app. I haven't found one that has beat this yet. I am a Regional Agronomist and one thing this app does is gives me the weather for all my contacts. You open the app and click on one of your contacts and you have all the weather and radar right there.

I also use "The Weather Channel" app. I use the free version, don't see a big difference in the $4.99 version. I use this app for forecasts and current conditions. This app mirrors the "local on the 8's" from the Weather Channel. It is a better forecasting tool than "Who is hot?"

The Turfgrass Management app developed out of the University of Georgia is fantastic!! I have several small travel turfgrass books that allow me to reference diseases, weeds and insects. This app puts all that in the palm of your hand with it's extensive turfgrass database. It has been communicated that this app will continue to follow with updates as information on any pest becomes available.

We just installed a new RainBird control system at one of my properties. RainBird has recent'y released their MI control system, this program works phenomenal on the iphone. I am able to control the entire system from anywhere. This summer it has proven invaluable with all the late night storms we have had. In concert with Who is Hot, if I see weather is heading to the property late at night, i can use my MI controller on the iPhone and turn off or adjust the irrigation. All this while playing with my kids!!

Toro recently released an official iPhone App, Toro NSN. This is like the MI Controller only this is actually an iPhone App versus a website. This also gives me the ability to control my entire irrigation system from the palm of my hand. I think the neatest part of this is that Toro has developed an iPhone app. If they have done so for irrigation, imagine the possibilities, apps for equipment repair, apps for ordering at your local vendor, it's endless.

The next program is one that is tied directly to MobileMe without it, you can't really take full advantage of this program. This app is Quickoffice. Quickoffice allows me to create, edit and email Word and Excel documents. Since you can't store files on your iPhone like a Blackberry, this app links to your MobileMe idisk as a work around. I have my entire work load on my idisk, everything! I am able to use this program to email anything to my company or Superintendents from the palm of my hand. This program released an update which allows you to email any document you receive directly to your MobileMe idisk, this is a perfect work around to not being able to store documents on your iPhone. When I receive an email with a document I need to edit and respond to, I simple forward the email to a specific address. This sends the attached file to my idisk. I then open my idisk on QuickOffice and there is my document to edit and resend. The whole process over 3G can take 2 minutes, over WiFi much faster.

I also have Documents To Go. Although the UI is much more friendly than Quickoffice, this program falls short in other areas. I am not able to access my work files on my idisk, although DataViz has stated you will be able to do so in the future. You can't edit Excel files yet, again they (Dataviz) are saying this update will be released soon. If these two updates are released, I will no longer use Quickoffice.

I developed a Blog for one of my properties, to communicate information to members. i was finding by the time our weekly news letter was distributed, much of the information I need to pass along would b out of date. The Blog has been a huge success at my club. My members love the fact that we use technology like this! The iPhone comes into play because I am able to send an email directly to the Blog to make a post. All I do is create an email, the subject line will be the subject of my blog post, create my blog post in the body of the email, hit send and I have just created a new blog post. This has been great for communicating issues like, cart rules and other daily information.

I also use Twitter to communicate with other industry professionals. I do not use this to communicate to any members, it is important to separate the two. I use two apps for Twiiter, Tweetie and Tweetdeck. They are pretty much the same, except Tweetdeck allows me to create columns for separate categories of people I communicate with. For example, I have a column for PGA Tour tweets, a column for turf professors I follow and a column for other Superintendents. This makes reading tweets easier.

Logmein Ignition was a fantastic app I used prior to Toro releasing their Toro NSN app. Logmein allowed me to login on my iPhone and control the irrigation system. I know a lot of people who use this app to access files on their computer.

Bump is a great app, but in order to be useful you need to be with someone else who has the iPhone and the app. This app allows you to simply bump iPhones together to share pretty much anything you would share on your iphone. I use this with my wife for photos of our kids. Could you imagine walking the Trade Show floor at the GIS with this app. You could arrive at a vendor booth and bump iphones to share contact information. The vendor could use it to send you product information as well. Again, the possibilities are endless.

The camera is another app that is used all the time. I used to carry a camera on my hip, if I needed to take a photo of something I could. I would find myself at times, forgetting my camera at the moment I needed "that" picture. The iphone camera takes care of this. I am also able to send that photo immediately to the GM, members and other workers.

The iphone for me has become more of a tool than my small multitool. The possibilities are endless as to what Superintendent could use this phone for. I am glad I have a charger of my gator. During those long days, I need that extra boost to get me into the evening. I was actually thinking about starting another blog on exactly this subject. Each day would be a post on how I use my iPhone for my job as a Superintendent and Regional Agronomist. I wouldn't limit it to App Store apps. If GCI would ever be interested in having someone write on a periodic basis on how to use the iPhone in our industry, I would be glad to contribute. I don't think you will in another Turfgrasss Industry professional who follows the iPhone more than myself.


William Brown, CGCS
 
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Fashion Editorial & Glamour Photographer

1. Tell us what your job is.

Hey! I'm a professional photographer from Massachusetts. I have the wonderful job of photographing some of the most beautiful women in the world in the coolest locations all over the country. Models, celebrities, NFL Cheerleaders, it goes on and on. My work has been in magazines, advertisements, Maxim, websites.. the works! I love my job! You can see some of my work at Justin Hammond Photography

2. Give us a paragraph or two describing how you use your iPhone during your workday. Tell us the *story*.


I honestly realized for the first time when reading this contest how much i ACTUALLY USE my iPhone on a day to day basis for what I do. It's A LOT! Especially now that I have my iPhone4 it's been even more. Here's when:

  • I own a studio, but I'm very often ON LOCATION shooting, which means no wifi (on the beaches, bars, outdoors, etc). so having a 3G connection is great. I often pull up Safari in the middle of a photoshoot to come up with a pose idea, or sometimes girls want to show me a picture of a shot they really love so it's easy to Google image search some ideas! It helps out a lot during a shoot!

  • Also, because I do travel to photoshoot, I'm always using MAPS! maps is so crucial to getting around because I barely know area's well, it's definitely got me out of so many jams or has even HELPED FIND SHOOTING LOCATIONS! I remember this one time I was doing outdoor shooting and I pulled up my map and noticed a large pond nearby so we walked toward where it was and got some really beautiful shots by the water at a place i would have ahd no idea about if it didnt show up on the gps.

  • It works great in times of urgency! EVEN LAST NIGHT the "model light" on my strobe died (lights the model so you can auto-focus on her when there's low light/lights off). Well I pulled out my iPhone, and opened the new trusty video camera, turn the new amazing LIGHT from the iPhone on, and my assistant held it to the model! WAS PERFECT! I was so happy about having the new iPhone4 last night.

  • Also with the new video feature, being HD, I have decided to do some "behind the scenes" videos that I will be posting in the near future of my photoshoots, which is really great for my website and facebook page as a lot of models/fans follow my work, and it's real fun at photoshoots. I am beyond excited about that. I may even start video blogging and doing tips/pointer videos for photography.

  • I also use it for networking with models and clients or even frinds with my photography. I save all of my edited photos to my iPhone so when I am out and about, when someone asks what I do, I just open up "Photos" and show them my work right from my phone, and they look amazing on the new retina display! It really allows me to have a portfolio with me at all times. such a perk in the industry! It's like carrying my book with me in my pocket!

Then obviously the basics! Calendar for booking shoots/remembering what I have to do that day & Email for keeping up with everything going on in my life in and outside of photography.

3. Share any tips or tricks you might have come across. What about the iPhone makes your job easier?

ALWAYS KEEP IT CHARGED/CHARGE EVERY NIGHT! I use my iPhone so much, so my battery tends to go fast.. I do have multiple chargers to make sure I never am without it. The iPhone really is my personal assistant. If it could only bring me coffee and water and move around lights! I wouldn't need to hire my real assistant anymore! lol

4. List the top 5, must have apps you use to get that job done.

Safari
Calendar
Mail
Photos
Maps

those are my most important and all apple created! thank you Apple!
 
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iPresto

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The iPhone 4 does EVERYTHING for me. I am a mechanic so i use the screwdriver app to take apart parts of the interior. The paint app allows me to paint the car as if it were NFSU. It also help when someone comes in with a flat tire. It also can be used as a flashlight when looking under the hood.

HAHA IM JK. My iPhone means the world to me but I won't get my i4 for another week :(
 
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update to my article on how i use my iPhone with my photography.. now i figured I'd test out the camera in studio..... inspired by the video that was posted on the page using an iPhone 3GS camera... here is a photo I took with my iPhone 4. Using studio lighting and touched up in photoshop just like any other of my photos I take professionally.

Model is NFL Cheerleader: Crissy

iphone1.jpg


You can see more of my work (including more iPhone 4 photos to come) at Justin Hammond Photography
 

TCSchwa

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Student Minister

I am a full time student minster, working with students grades 7-12.

Before the iPhone 4, I had to carry a huge bag with my Nikon D60, a Canon GL2, and my laptop. Now with the great camera that comes on the iPhone 4 I can simply carry my iPhone, and sometimes my laptop with me wherever I go. I also use the Facebook app and Twitter app to keep up with students and keep all of our students updated on upcoming events. I spend multiple weeks of the year on a 40 passenger bus with a whole lot of downtime. The iPhone has made traveling time extremely productive. With as many camps as we do, I cannot tell how many times I have needed a song on the spot to play for a speaker or before a band goes up. The fact that I can have any song in the world in less than 30 seconds without a wifi signal has saved my life more times than I can count. Another great app that makes my job easier is the Planning Center Online App. I use this app to keep our band up to date on our weekly set lists, what we are speaking on, and what videos we will be playing. It it's truly a organizational monster! As great is all that is, the app that has made the iPhone a keeper for me is the Maps app. When you have 120 students on the road and need to find a mall, restaurant, or rest stop on the fly there is nothing more amazing than maps. I have ordered pizza from a bus and had it delivered to the bus at a rest stop and fed over 100 students in less than 10 minutes all thanks to the iPhone.

I'm a pretty simple guy, so I don't have too many tips or tricks.

My top five apps for my job are
1. Maps
2. PCO
3. Facebook
4. Twitter
5. USA Today
 

Koolaid10199

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1. Tell us what your job is.
I work as a Producer for a local tv station, for news.


2. Give us a paragraph or two describing how you use your iPhone during your workday. Tell us the *story*.


The use of an iPhone has opened up alot of options for us to use in tv news. The iPhone 4 has opened it up even more.

We have made use of the UStream app to produce live shots of breaking news, when we may not have a live truck on the scene yet. It gives us the option to go live, from wherever we want, in a matter of a minute or two.

I also handle our social networking for our station, and have used the hootsuit app to update our Twitter and Facebook pages. We can upload photos or video from the scene from wherever we are.

3. Share any tips or tricks you might have come across. What about the iPhone makes your job easier?
Car charger, never leave with out your car charger. There is nothing worse then getting there and having a mostly dead cell phone battery. I would also say, be aware of where you have a 3g, edge, or Wifi. That can make a big difference of the quality of the on air product.

4. List the top 5, must have apps you use to get that job done.

1. UStream
2. Hootsuit
3. Facebook
4. FTP to go
5. Twitter
 

elijahpr

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How I Use My iPhone As An Audio-Engineering Student

I go to a small, private college in New England that focuses on media-related careers such as audio engineering, film/video, and radio broadcasting. My first iPhone was a black 8GB 3G, which I stood in line for on launch day at my local AT&T store. Since then, I?ve bought both the 3GS and iPhone 4 on launch day, and they have been immensely helpful both when I?m in school, and out.

A typical day with my iPhone starts the night before, when I open up the Clock application and set my alarm for the next day. Usually it?s something obnoxious, like a Bon Jovi song or the Crickets ringtone, mostly because I know it?ll wake my roommate up and we don?t get along very well. (Mature, I know). After waking up to something along the lines of ?Dead or Alive?, I check my SMS, Mail, and Weather applications, as well as my Calender application so I know that I?m on the right day. After deleting my spam, ignoring the multiple emails from my parents (until later, of course) as well as responding to any text messages, I usually read the news from either the CNN, Huffington Post, or NY Times application. After seeing what went wrong in the world while I was blissfully sleeping (face it, no one reports happy things like puppy-births or that the Obama sisters made a new friend at school) I check my calender to see what classes I have. If I?m too lazy to get out of bed to get to my MacBook Pro, Documents to Go will help me finish (or start) the paper that is due by noon. Throughout the day, I keep doing all of the above tasks, including waking my roommate up with Bon Jovi while he?s trying to nap. Throw in how I use the iPod app for music, and the Voice Recorder app to record lectures when I don?t want to take notes, and you?ve got a typical day for my iPhone usage at school (Plus the calls from Grandma).

The Top Apps That I?d Fail Out Of School Without Are:

Here, File File!-- This app lets me connect to my MacBook Pro back in my room, search through my ?Homework? stack, find my essay that I forgot to bring to class, and email it to myself so I can print it 30 seconds before it?s due. Sad but true story; this has happened more than once. This app is beautiful, but may be a bit pricey for some ($9.99).

Notify Me(2)-- I use this app in collaboration with my calender to make sure I don?t forget the really important stuff. It?s simple, and utilizes the iPhone?s ability to send push notifications. You can add as many details to the reminder as you want, but for me just seeing the title will jog my memory. Sometimes. If you?re like me and sometimes forget things RIGHT after you see them, this app let?s you repeat the notification as often as you?d like. ($5.99)

Docs To Go-- I cannot even BEGIN to express how many times this app has saved me. It is definitely the most versatile, advanced, sophisticated, and not to mention simple word processing application in the app store (aside from Notes, but that?s just not as fun to use). It lets you create, open, edit, and view literally any type of Microsoft Office or iWorks document, and easily make changes. Although I love using my MacBook Pro, I would have no problem if I was only allowed to use Docs To Go to write my papers or create my Keynote presentations. It?s so good, and simple, that I wrote 36 pages out of my 50-page essay on it. I?d recommend this for anyone and everyone. ($9.99 I believe).

Audio Recording Terms-- As mentioned above, I am majoring in audio engineering so this app is unbelievably helpful for last-minute studying, or if I need to look up a console function while I?m recording a band. Although there are some flaws (Like the dev apparently letting his 12-year old proofread it), it gets the job done and is well worth the money if you?re a professional in the audio field. ($0.99)

Shazam-- I love this app in general, but mostly because it scores me ?brownie points? in class. For instance, my teacher will play a song, and ask the class who it is and what the song title is. My disgustingly musically-inept class will stare at him blankly, while I?m off in the corner opening this app and analyzing the song. Not only can I tell him the name, artist, and album, but I can buy it for him on iTunes! Sure it might be sucking up a little, or even cheating if you really want to go there, but the point is that it?s useful for many things. (Like getting those extra quiz points for correctly identifying a song).


All in all, I love my iPhone, and while I could live without it, I certainly wouldn?t want to. These are just a few of the many ways in which it makes life simpler, without even mentioning things like Multitasking (which I had when my 3GS was jailbroken; sue me.) and the awesome battery life it has. Plus, the iPhone 4 is simply beautiful to look at. I can't stand having a case on it because it makes it look... well, ugly. (Although I did just drop it on my wooden floor from about 4 feet. iPhone is unscathed; floor now has a dent. Oops. Find me another phone that can do that.)
 

Rolf

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I'm a Team Lead for a product demonstration team that operates out of Sam's Club. Basically, I'm the guy who manages the people who give you free samples at the store :D

Anyway, our company communicates almost entirely by email, and adding new contacts and sending out emails has never been easier. It's so nice to have a phone that just works, and I know will be there functioning tomorrow morning.

The iPhone 4 has a robust design too, so everyone always thinks I'm a flashy businessman rather than a dumpy kid with a job at Sam's Club. Gives that rich effect.

It also gives me something to do on lunch breaks. Whether it be read a book, play a game, surf the web, listen to music, or poke through dumb videos on youtube, this phone does it all, does it all well, and looks pretty effing cool doing it. And then I hook it up to my car and blast music going to and from work. I just cant wait to get a car that I can connect to via bluetooth, for the maximum coolness effect.

And I can't tell you how cool it is when I've been at a lunch meeting, or just a night at a restaurant and we're having an arguement about what Steve from Blues Clues is doing these days, and my eyes light up and I say "LET ME CHECK MAH IPHOOONE" and I whip it out and find a gangstafied picture of ol' Steve. However, my girlfriend's addiction to Angry Birds is becoming a bit of a nuisance. She needs to get her own phone!

Basically, this phone is a sexy powerhouse, and it makes life easier and more luxurious.
 

mullrat

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I'm an Anesthesiologist

My iPhone is with me all the time.

I wake up with the alarm clock. I usually have no messages to check but I check my calendar which is linked to exchange. This allows me to review my schedule for the day.

I use the traffic.com app to plot out traffic to work and listen to music/podcasts on the way there. I also keep up on cme using oakstone.com's services which allow for download of scholarly articlesand studies that are associated with my field..

For my specialty, we often meet our patients for the first time on the day of surgery. I only speak to them on the night before surgery. Using my iPhone btw.

If there is an issue I can do a quick google search(bing lately) or use one of the excellent reference apps in the store. Epocrates, Esono if I'm doing any kind of blocks as a review, I also use papers to look through some core textbooks that I have on PDF. (obtained legally btw).

My office as well as my colleagues communicate with me and I with them via email and text message. Most issues can be solved using simple messages. Additionally, our schedulers use the exchange calendar to make various changes to the schedule, which will alert me as needed for anything of which I need to be aware.

Additionally I use my iPhone as a pager. Most pages are data these days. Thererfore it is easy to translate this to an mms or an email. Email is my preferred method as it can be filtered. I use Pushmail to filter, and set up specific tones for specific situations. The pages are always phone numbers so there is no confidential info that is shared into an offline server. The hospital in which I mostly practice has wifi blanketing the area. Cellphone signals are blocked and often restricted. Therefore, wifi is often all we get. So in the past sometimes our pages were lost or horribly delayed. No more with the iPhone and this app.

After the surgery is concluded, I often have paperwork to do. I log my cases into our secure server using jotnot and email it in. I have to specifically index as they don't have the slick text recognition that some services provide like Evernote. (we don't use Evernote to log patient data).

I use simple note to take notes in meetings. (people think I'm playing angry birds thank goodness for multitasking).

And of course, my hours are often long and tough. So I finally have the opportunity to say goodnight to my wife and kids almost every night when im working late with face time. This feature has been wonderful. (yes I do realize that we have had Skype and other avenues for video chat before).

That's a quick snapshot of how I use the phone. I've tried using android phones and blackberry to perform all these tasks. Although both platforms perform some of the tasks better (sometimes well better like blackberry sound profiles) th iPhone provides the most balance. It will do it all.
 
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JJJMan

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I am a Helpdesk Tech for a software company. They bought me an iPhone 4

I use the MS Exchange mail system for emailing my company, have 2 different contacts groups, one for personal contacts, one for the entire exchange address book. I also use the calendar to have all my exchange calendar info as well as my personal setup for viewing and reminders.

I take notes using apple's notes program, our company has a repeater in the building so i have service everywhere. I use google and wikipedia apps to do searching for anything when i am not at my desk.

not to mention the iPod usage when I am at my desk so I can listen to my music.

Plus, since work is paying for this phone, I am a test model for the iPhone for the company so we can see its impact on our infrastructure and to see if its functional enough as a blackberry in a business environment to start justifying it to have our VP's and executives using it.

thanks!
James
 

zeteo#IM

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I am retired, I use the pod casts a lot, camera, misc. location apps, I also use it to read books and listen to audio books.
 

kt20L

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iPhone at Work: Accoutant

I started working for my current company last summer as an intern. I received my iPhone 3Gs in February as a birthday present (undoubtedly the best I?ve ever gotten!) and it has been unbelievably useful since day one.

As an intern, my life revolved around training, basic data entry, and yes, getting coffee. As my officemates were shouting out orders, I used Coffee Time to get everyone?s order right and while I waited in line at Starbucks I used Payometer to keep my sanity. People were always impressed that I could ?remember? everyone?s orders and fascinated to learn that my savior was my iPhone. The last day of the internship required my fellow interns and me to give a presentation relating to process improvements for the company. I of course did mine on ?Why We Should All Get iPhones? (a policy that I am happy to report is in the works today) and awed the partners by using my iPhone (thanks to iClickr) to give my presentation.

Now, as a Staff accountant, I use my iPhone more than I ever imagined. I start every night by setting my two alarms using the iPod?s Clock and turning on a selection from Ambiance to lull me to sleep. I get up, check my Mail, Calendar, and the Weather for the day, then use StyleMixer to make sure I can match my blue suede pumps to a paisley blouse. The drive to work (30 minutes longer than it should take due to traffic) is made easier when I use my car?s usb port to listen to my Lady Gaga Pandora station or my Journey?s Greatest Hits play list on my iPod. Using the iPod?s TomTom GPS, I never get lost on the way to a client. During the day I use HandyLogs Money to keep track of my commute to clients and other expenses. LogMeIn allows me to connect to my desk computer from a remote location and I am able to email myself prior year files from which I can make a comparison. Using CardSnap, I can keep track of all of the business cards of my client in a searchable format. Finally, to keep my Busy Season calories down, I use Lose It to control my calorie intake and exercise each day.

The top five apps an account can?t live without are

1. HandyLogs Money: Using separate systems to keep track of all of your expenses, travel time, time spent on projects is a headache waiting to happen. With Money, I can do this easily all at once and then export it to the excel format my company uses.

2. GPS (iPhone Standard or other): Getting to the client is ? the battle of completing an audit. The last thing we need is to make a wrong turn along the way and let?s face it, some of these locations really are off the beaten path.

3. LogMeIn: I use this application daily so that I don?t have to spend time backing up files to a million different locations. I can use LogMeIn to access any file anytime my work computer is available.

4. Pandora: Though we are accountants, we are not all your stereotypical pencil-pushers. We really like to have a good time and nothing makes the day go by better than a good tune (though I think my colleagues are getting tired of "Songs from Glee!").

5. Becker CPA Mobile: This app is pretty pricey but most firms will pay all or some of the bill. I used this app to study when I was working out, was riding in the back on the way to a client, or anytime I had a free minute and some motivation. It was a lot easier than having to get my computer and the workbooks out together and all spread out and I ended up doing quite well on my exams!

I?ve had a lot of victories in my life since in the last two years and I have my iPhone to thank for these successes every step of the way!
 
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