Now that you’ve made the easy decision to upgrade your old data collector to a modern tablet, what should you look for in a tablet to get the best bang for your buck? Not all tablets are the same, the surveying profession has unique requirements and sometimes it’s the small things that can make a big difference. Here are my top 7 features to get the most from your upgrade. 1. Battery Life Intel has made powerful fanless processors that have very low power consumption. However, the larger screen format of the tablet has a big impact on the battery life. A typical survey day would also include the Bluetooth and modem running full time, which further impacts
I can go on and on about Moore’s law but we see it in action every day. This year’s TV is bigger but thinner and has a higher resolution than the one you bought last year. It also connects to the internet, has cameras, can record TV and you can direct it with hand signals. Even your dog can use it if he’s good with his paws. The surveying industry is no different, in fact the technological advancements are happening so fast it’s can be hard for the suppliers to keep up to speed. So how can you the end user be expected to when you have your day job to worry about? The simple answer is, you
There has been a big trend in the global software industry away from buying and ‘owning’ a software licence in favour of taking out a monthly, quarterly or annual subscription. Whilst some survey software companies have been slow to roll out this new subscription or in some cases Software as a Service (SaaS) model, some developers are leading the charge and offering a full field to office workflow solution that can deliver big cost savings and dramatic productivity improvements. It’s likely that the computer you’re reading this on has several software packages already on a subscription based model. Microsoft office launched its 365 solution in 2011 and more recently Autodesk transferred its suites to a subscription only model.
If someone handed you a Nokkia 5110 to run your business you would likely laugh them out of the room…..after playing snake for a few minutes. The same could also be said for today’s smart phone, if it doesn’t have a data plan then it’s just a phone and not very smart at all, certainly not smart enough to help run your business. I could even go one step further and suggest that if your data isn’t centrally stored and accessible remotely then you might as well keep playing snake on the 5110. So why do I still see so many projects and surveyors using old data collectors when we are all using smartphones in our daily lives?
