Most real estate appraisers probably carry a flashlight with them.  You might need a flashlight when doing a head and shoulders inspection of an attic or crawl space and definitely need a flashlight when appraising a bank owned property that does not have the power turned on.

You might not need your flashlight anymore if you have an iPhone 4.  The iPhone 4 has a LED flash on the back of the phone and there are several free iPhone apps that turn the iPhone’s LED flash on and keep it on so you can use it as a flashlight.

Click HERE if you can not see the embedded video above.

There are several free iPhone apps that turn the iPhone’s LED flash into a flashlight

1) LED Light for iPhone 4 Free

This app enables you to use the iPhone 4’s LED flash as a flashlight and strobe light.

2) LED-Flashlight

LED FlashLight for the iPhone 4 is the ultimate free flashlight for your iPhone 4. Forget digging for your keys with those dull screen lights!
Features:
- Instant-on flashlight on startup
- Simple one-button on/off flashlight
- Auto-Off while switching to other apps
- White-background for additional light

3) Free LED Light

The first Flashlight-App that uses the iPhone4 LED-Flash!

4) FlashLight4G

FlashLight4G is a very simple flashlight application,but very useful!
Flash LED for iPhone4 can be turned ON/OFF quickly.
Features:
・Blinking mode equipped
・Simple on/off button
・You can light while hearing the tune of iPod on the back ground.
・Cool real flashlight picture

5) CameraLight – See in the dark

NOW FREE! – because like 500 other people made this app!
CameraLight turns your new iPhone 4 into the brightest flashlight yet using the new LED flash!
Simply open the app, and the LED turns on.
You can switch it on or off, or even take low light pictures with the camera.

6) Flashlight 4: LED Light for iPhone 4

The absolute fastest, simplest LED flashlight app for iPhone 4.
It does one thing, and does it ridiculously well.
It quickly and easily turns on the LED flash next to the rear camera, and keeps it continuously lit.

7) LED Flashlight HD

– INSTANT ON -
Our flashlight is one of the FASTEST starting flashlights on the market. Don’t sit around waiting for your light in the dark.
- BRIGHTEST LIGHT -
The iPhone 4’s LED light on the back is incredibly BRIGHT. In a completely dark room you can see clear to the other side.

8) LED Flashlight – Brightest Flashlight for iPhone 4

Ever wanted to use your iPhone 4’s camera flash as a flashlight? Well, now you can with our LED Flashlight app!
This is the brightest iPhone flashlight you’ve ever seen!
You can even play music while the light is on. (Some others don’t do this.)

A LED Flashlight app for the iPhone 4 is a must have iPhone app for real estate appraisers.  The LED on the back of the iPhone 4 is very bright and is a great backup for your flashlight.

Do you carry a flashlight with you during real estate appraisal?

Real estate appraisers commonly walk long distances, whether it is appraising a large tract of land or measuring a big house.  Have you ever wondered how many calories you burned during a real estate appraisal?  You can easily find out by using the free iPhone app by Jillian Michaels.

Click HERE if you can not see the embedded video above.

The Jillian Michaels Fitness Motivation is a free iPhone app.

You’ve seen Jillian Michaels help people shed hundreds of pounds on NBC’s The Biggest Loser and Losing It with Jillian. Now you can get that same hard-driving encouragement for your own workouts – when you download the only fitness app from America’s toughest trainer – FREE!

Just for fun I used Jillian Michael’s iPhone app while measuring a house for a real estate appraisal.  It took me about 25 minutes to measure the house, workshop, sunroom, and porches, and patios.  I burned a total of 35 calories in 25 minutes.  It is important to note that measuring a house for a real estate appraisal is not an intense workout, but it was fun to use the app and I would recommend using it during a real workout.

The iPhone app has several great features:

The app has motion tracking to calculate your workout’s intensity and then tells you how many calories you burned.

GPS feature that tracks the distance you ran.

The app tracks your goals and progress.

The app also gives tips to maximize your workouts and videos of Jillian demonstrating some of her exercises.

You can follow Jillian Michaels on Twitter and Facebook.

Do you ever feel like you have had a good workout after measuring a large house for a real estate appraisals?  Do you use any iPhone apps to track your workouts?

Google Docs now converts the text in scanned documents to Google Docs.  This is a great feature, especially if you are a paperless office.  For example, you can upload an appraisal file that is in PDF format and not only store it in Google Docs, but search the text within the PDF file.

Upload your scanned images (JPEG, GIF, PNG) or PDFs, and Google Docs will extract text and formatting from the scans for you to edit away.

OCR works best with high-resolution images, and not all formatting may be preserved. The original images will be included in the new document to make it easier for you to correct mistakes.

How does it work?

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) lets you extract text from images using automated computer algorithms. Images can be processed individually (.jpg, .png, and .gif files) or in multi-page PDF documents (.pdf). For more information on OCR, check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_character_recognition

How do you upload a document?

Step 1:

Go to docs.google.com and log in.

Step 2:

Click the “Upload” button in the top left corner of the screen.

Step 3:

Select the file you want to upload.

Step 4:

Select to “Convert text from PDF or image files to Google Docs documents”.

Step 5:

You can select a folder to upload to, determine file permissions, and then start the upload.

That is it.  You can now view and edit your document.

To test the service, I creating a PDF file from an appraisal report and uploaded it to Google Docs.  You can see from the image below, Google easily extracted all of the text from the PDF but none of the formatting was preserved.

The OCR feature might be more and more convenient to real estate appraisers.  Appraisal orders and real estate contracts are commonly emailed as PDF documents.  If you use GMail as your email client, you can open the PDF in Google Docs and search for text within the document.

Click “view” to open an email attachment in Google Docs.

The document will be opened in Google Docs.

Now you can search for text within the document.   For example, you could search for the FHA case number in an appraisal order.  This might save you time by not having to read through the entire document to find the FHA case number.

Google Docs currently gives you 1 Gig of free storage.

You can buy an additional 20 GB of storage for $5.00 / year.

Do you use Google Docs to view your appraisal or real estate files?

With the release of iOS 4, AT&T finally allows internet tethering on the iPhone.  This lets you share your iPhone’s internet connection so you can surf the web wherever you have a cell phone signal.  This will definitely be useful for any mobile real estate professionals that need internet access but are not close to a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Click HERE if you can not see the embedded video above.

How To Tether Your iPhone With Your Laptop in 5 Easy Steps

Step 1:

Upgrade your data plan with AT&T to allow tethering.  You can change your plan on their website or with the AT&T iPhone app.

You should know that if you change your plan from the unlimited data plan you will not be able to change back to the unlimited data plan.

Step 2:

Download the latest version of iTunes onto the laptop you want to tether.

Step 3:

Enable tethering on your iPhone.

Go to Settings > General > Network > Internet tethering.

You can tether your iPhone via a USB cable or a bluetooth connection.

Step 4: Plug your iPhone in your computer.  You might need to select “iPhone’ from the list of available networks on your computer.

You know you are sharing your iPhone’s internet connection because there will be a blue bar across the top of you iPhone that says, “Internet Tethering”.

Step 5: That is it!  Enjoy the internet wherever you have a cell phone signal!

You can view the new pricing plans for the iPhone that includes the ability to tether at ATT.com

You will have to monitor your data usage if you change from the unlimited plan.  AT&T will help you by sending you text message and email alerts. You will get an alert after you reach 65%, 90%, and 100% of the threshold.  You can also check your data usage by using their free iPhone app.

If you are curious about how much internet surfing you can do with the new data plan, check out our previous post,

AT&T Gives The iPhone Some Love With Tethering, that shows you how you can track how much bandwidth you use on your computer.

Will you be tethering your iPhone to your laptop now that AT&T allows it?

Starbucks announced that starting July 1 it will begin offering unlimited free Wi-Fi.  The best part is that no registration is required.

At Starbucks, we love to give you more of what you’ve asked for. So soon you’ll be able to enjoy Wi-Fi at Starbucks in a way that goes beyond what we currently offer.  Starting July 1, you’ll be able to enjoy free, one-click, unlimited Wi-Fi at all company-operated Starbucks stores in the United States.

Currently if you want access to the free Wi-Fi at Starbucks, you have to have a Starbucks card.  Even with a card you only get up to two continuous hours of free Wi-Fi.  You don’t have to keep a balance on the Starbucks Card, but do have to log in with your username and password to use the internet.  Starbuck’s new free one click Wi-FI access will be easier to use.

Not only will you be able to access the internet at Starbucks, you will have access to some paid sites.

In addition to the new free Wi-Fi program, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz told Wired’s Chris Anderson that the company is also planning on rolling out a new Starbucks Digital Network in partnership with Yahoo later this fall. This network, which will only be accessible in U.S. company-operated stores, will offers customers free and unrestricted access to paid sites and services like WSJ.com and other content providers on their phones, tablets or laptops.  via Mashable

Being able to access the internet when out of the office is becoming a requirement of real estate professionals.  Almost all of the real estate agents and appraisers I know have smartphones and access email while out of the office.  But sometimes you need to access the internet for more than email.

How do you find free Wi-Fi hotspots?

Besides Starbucks, both McDonald’s and Panera Bread offer free Wi-Fi access.

There are several websites that list free hotspots if there isn’t a McDonald’s or Starbucks close.

There are also numerous iPhone apps to help you find free and paid Wi-Fi hotspots.  JiWire’s free Wi-Fi finder has a mobile version that can find free hotspots by zip codes.  Access the mobile site @ iphone.jiwire.com

Do you use Wi-Fi hotspots when you are out of the office?

Apple released an update to its iPhone software today.

With over 100 new features, the free iOS 4 Software Update lets you do some amazing things.

What does this mean for the real estate industry?

1.  Multitasking

Now you can run your favorite third-party apps — and switch between them instantly — without slowing down the performance of the foreground app or draining the battery unnecessarily.

While multitasking is not new to smartphones, it is new for the iPhone and is the most exciting feature.

Multitasking means that you will be able to run a location-updating app in the background.  Let’s say you are shopping for a house and have filled out a real estate website questionnaire about what kind of house you are looking for (price, square feet, bedroom / bathroom count, etc).  Now, while you are driving around looking at houses you might receive a notification that a house in the area is listed for sale and meets your criteria!

This type of technology is called a geofence and exists today.  REbliss has written about it before and the iOS 4 brings us one step closer to this type of technolgoy being adopted in the Real Estate industry.

Multitasking will also help real estate professionals be more productive.  Your to-do list can now be location based!  You might need to pick up a contract from a real estate office.  If your todo list app is running in the background and tracking your location, it can send you an alert reminding you of the task.

Multitasking means you might be able to use less of your cell phone minutes.  Skype announced that you can now make skype calls over a 3G signal (before now you had to be connected to WiFi).  Now with iOS 4, Skype can run in the background and alert you of incoming calls and texts.

Multitasking will allow you to run your GPS app in the background while driving.  Turn-by-turn GPS direction apps will be permitted to generate audio and small text alerts.

2. Tap to focus video and 5x digital zoom

While shooting video, tap the display to choose where to focus.  Get closer to your subjects by zooming in up to 5x.

The camera and video technology in smartphones is amazing and getting better each year.  You can take pretty good photos with the iPhone and one day you might not need to buy special equipment to take great photos or videos of your real estate listings.  REbliss has asked if your iPhone can replace your real estate camera.  While your iPhone might not replace your real estate camera today, it might one day.

3. Better Email

See messages from all your accounts in a unified inbox, organize messages by threads, open attachments in third-party apps, and more.

The new operating system provides a single inbox that displays emails from all of your accounts.  iOS 4 also supports multiple Microsoft Exchange-hosted accounts.

Who gets the new operating system?

Original iPhone owners cannot run iOS 4. iPhone 3G owners can run iOS 4 but multitasking will not work.  iPhone 3GS and the upcoming iPhone 4 are fully compatible with iOS 4.

Original iPod Touch owners cannot run iOS 4 at all.  Second-generation iPod Touch devices can run iOS 4 but multitasking will not work.  Third-generation iPod Touch (32GB and 64GB) devices fully supports iOS4.

iPad owners won’t get iOS 4 until the fall.

How do you upgrade to the new operating system?

1. Upgrade your iTunes version to 9.2.  You probably want to back up your data before installing iOS 4.  Plug in your iPhone via USB and hit Sync.

2. When the Sync is compelte, click Check for Update.

3. Download iOS 4, then follow the on-screen instructions to install.   That is it!

Want to know more aoubt iOS 4?  Gizmodo has a rundown of the best features of the new operating system.

Multitasking on the iPhone could mean exciting new developments for the Real Estate industry.  You can also expect most of the social networking sites (Facebook, foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite, Loopt, etc) to update their apps to take advantage of multitasking.

Do you have an iPhone?  Are you excited about the new operating system?

MapQuest has released a route planner that will optimize a route for up to 25 addresses.  You can even view and edit your map on your iPhone.

Need directions for a trip with multiple stops or are you simply looking for the ideal road trip planner? You have found it with the MapQuest Route Planner, which can help you create your fastest driving route. You can decide your travel directions or we can recommend the best route, mapping out the order based on fastest driving route or distance.

Hands on with the MapQuest Route Planner.  Click HERE if you can not see the embedded video below.

How to use the route planner

Step 1: Enter the addresses.

Enter the addresses individualy, copy and paste the addresses from a file, or upload an Excel (XLS) or Comma Delimited (CSV) file.

Step 2: Optimize the route

After you have entered to the addresses, you can reorder the route for the shortest time or the shortest distance.

That is it! MapQuest will plan and optimize your route.

You can edit or reorder the map if you are not happy with it.

One of the best features of the Route Planner is that you can save your map to view on your iPhone or view later.

You have to create an account if you don’t have one or log into MapQuest to save your map.  Once your map is saved, you map will be listed under “My Places” in the MapQuest iPhone App.

It is a tremendous time saver to be able to map multiple addresses and optimize a route.  The MapQuest Route Planner and iPhone app are great tools for the mobile real estate professional.

Be sure to check out my review of the MapQuest iPhone and how to map multiple address on your iPhone with Google Maps.

What is the best way you have found to plan your routes?

Google has unveiled their Google Cloud Print that will enable you to print to ANY printer that is connected to the internet from ANY computer.

Our goal is to build a printing experience that enables any app (web, desktop, or mobile) on any device to print to any printer anywhere in the world.

According to Google, the cloud print will work with all printers, including those that are not themselves connected to the internet (referred to as “legacy printers”).  You will no longer need a local computer and printer drivers to print!

The Google Cloud Print is exciting news for the mobile real estate professional.

Click HERE if you can not see the embedded video above.

There are obvious security concerns with the Print Cloud.  Google already controls vast amounts of data through Gmail, Google Voice, and their search engine.  Their cloud print would mean they would control even more data as all of the printed documents pass through their cloud.  There would also have to be some control over user permissions.  You would not want anyone to to be able to print to your printer.

Let’s forget the security concerns for a minute.  The Google Cloud Print means that you could pick up your smartphone, laptop, or iPad, or any computer and print a document no matter where you were.  Not to mention printer drivers are a pain, especially when you upgrade your computer or operating system.  You might not have to every worry about printer drivers again.

There are numerous real world scenarios where the Cloud Print is useful: A real estate appraiser needing to print a document for a homeowner could use his/her smartphone and print the document while they were at the homeowner’s house.  Maybe you are sitting in Starbucks checking your email and realize you need to print something.  You can see there is an available printer at Kinko’s next door, print the document, walk next door and pick it up.

The possibilities go far beyond just printing from your smartphone.  With Google Cloud Print (or something similar) you might be able to print from any device. You might want to print a coupon that is on your TV, you could print the diagnostics test results from your car to your home printer, or even print photos directly from your digital camera without the need to hook it up to a computer.

While you might be moving towards a paperless office, there will always to be need to print and the Google Print Cloud appears to be a good solution, especially for mobile devices.

Bottom line: enabling any app to print to any printer is very exciting.

Boxcar is a free iPhone / iPad app that sends free push notification to your iPhone or iPad for services like Twitter, Facebook, email and RSS feeds.

Boxcar is a great way to be notified when someone sends you a tweet, retweets you, or sends you a direct message on Twitter.  You are on Twitter right?

Here is a demo of the app.  Click Here if you can not see the video below.

Setting up Boxcar with Twitter and Facebook is pretty straight forward.  You can even add more than one Twitter account.

To set up push notifications for your email, you will need to forward the email messages you want pushed to your phone to a unique Boxcar email address.  For Gmail, you will probably need to set up filters so you are only notified of the most important emails.  Rebliss covered how to setup filters in Gmail in a previous post.

Boxcar lets you receive notifications for mentions, retweets, and direct messages on Twitter.

Boxcar integrates with most twitter clients so you can pick which client will open when you view a new message.

One of best features about Boxcar is the Quite Time feature that lets you specify when you don’t want to be alerted to new messages.

Once you have the services setup, you will receive a push notification for each new message.

Boxcar is free but does have some advertisements.  You can get rid of the ads with a one time fee of $4.95.  Boxcar also has an API so you can integrate your website or service with Boxcar.

What service or app do you use to notify you of new Twitter messages?

Do you have a bunch of devices that charge via USB: an iPhone, iPod, Blackberry, Bluetooth headset, or a digital camera?  All of these will charge while hooked up to your desktop or laptop, but if you have a limited number of USB ports you need to use an adaptor in order to charge them from a regular electrical outlet.

FastMac has introduced the U-Socket, an electrical outlet with two built-in USB ports that can power any device that is capable of being charged via a 5V power adapter.  There is no need for a power adapter!  According to Engadget, they are capable of 10W, enough to charge an iPad.

The U-Socket can be installed on any existing wall outlet and are energy star rated.  The USB outlets will only draw power when something is plugged into them.

Please also note that the USB ports only draw power when something is physically connected to the port. We didn’t want a vampire port that continually sucks and wastes power when not in use so this was one of the features on the top of our priority list during the design phase.

It might not be long before you see a U-Socket in a hotel or airport.

The company is in talks with hotel chains, conference centers, airports, and more to begin rolling out the U-Socket so that travelers, businesspeople, and conference-goers have a way to charge their USB devices just by carrying around a cable. Via Arstechnica.com

The U-Socket costs $19.95 and is available for pre-order from FastMac and should ship around October.

I don’t know about you, but I have several devices that charge via USB.  Imagine being on vacation and needing to charge your Flip Camera.  You wouldn’t need to find the power cord or boot your laptop to charge the camera.  Or maybe you are sitting in a real estate continuing education class and forgot your USB adaptor.  No problem, just plug your device into the U-Socket.

The U-Socket looks like a great home improvement project that is inexpensive and easy enough for anyone to install. I can’t wait for builders to start installing them (at least in a few rooms) in new construction homes in my area.