Is Your Phone Smart Enough To Help You?

Smartphones can be a great tool, but they're like buying a computer: You have to know what to look for. There are critical considerations and if you don't do your homework, it's easy to end with a phone and/or a carrier you can't stand. Then, not only are you upset, you're yoked to a phone or a carrier, or both, for the rest of your contract. Whether you have a smartphone already or are thinking about getting one, we'll cover the things you need to look out for when you buy: the carrier, the processor, the operating system, the touch screen/keyboard, and more. We'll provide specific advice that you can actually use as you try to sift through your choices.

Once you bring your smartphone home you have know how to use it and what applications to load. We're going to cover a host of "apps" (geek brief for applications) for smartphones, apps that are useful for court reporting professionals and which will in some way make your life easier, increase your client access, improve your ability to respond to your clients and agencies, and make job scheduling easier.

Security is an enormous issue. Lose your smartphone and you may be losing information that will enable someone to access your banking, credit cards, online sites, and more. We'll show you apps that will prevent that.

There are apps that can connect your clients to you and apps that can you to your clients, GPS apps that will help you get to jobs more easily, transcript viewing apps that enable your clients to view your jobs on a mobile phone, a new realtime transcript viewing app your clients can use to view your writing in realtime on their iPhones (and, soon, Android-based smartphones), calendar apps that allow your clients to check your availability and request your services even when you're unable to answer your phone (don't lose one good job because you're busy on another), apps that will help you find a place to grab a bite between depos, or an ATM, a bank, a coffee shop or other retail locations, and other apps that are just plain fun to have.

We’ll also include a primer on keyboards and text messaging. Typing is a crucial part of smartphone use so having the right keyboard for you is essential. We'll also cover the most useful texting briefs as well as briefs you may want to know as a parent. For example, “9” means a parent is watching and “99” means the parent is gone. Good to know if you’ve got a teenager!

WHAT ABOUT HEADSETS AND TABLETS LIKE THE iPAD?

We'll cover those, too. The right wireless headset makes a lot of difference and there are stereo headsets that you can use for calls for music. So you can work out to music and still take and make the calls you need. Tablets are all the rage since Apple released the iPad. Are these any different than the e-book readers, like the Kindle, that were already out? Can they help us in our profession? Join us and we'll give you the low-down.