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Comment by dunderdunder | Hacker News Reader

It's funny, I'm an industrial electrician and my smart phone is my handiest tool. I can take pictures from awkward spots like up a pipe behind some bus bars, even thermal, download a manual and keyword search my issues. Video chat with more/less experienced employees to problem solve. Use my phone to trouble shoot cellular issues (m2m iot). Remotely configure network systems. Use OTG cable to serial interface with rs232/485. Scan a barcode of existing hardware,compare it to new hardware and order it online. A LOT of mobile technology is wasted on company's thinking I want this to snap a highlight reel of my weekend and other trivial shit ....When what I really want to do is take a picture with my device, save the location of picture and send it to all parties concerned and document my time.

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My piano tuner uses an iPhone app called TuneLab.[1]

$500.00USD. For an app. Interface that looks like the dev Googled all the images needed and used the first result. First line of the app store description is Do not buy this app unless you are a professional piano technician. Yet it's a highly powerful tool and professionals use it.

[1] https://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/tunelab-piano-tuner/id335568...

Wow this is amazing. It really shows how powerful the app store has become.

If anything is exactly what the app store should be. Cell phones are incredibly powerful but it's rare they're used for anything besides a dumb ui for a server or games

To be fair, there's an equal amount of trash software available from your laptop/desktop as well, the only difference being that there isn't a centralized repository that it all must go through; the trash heap that rests under the app stores was inevitable, since such junk was always going to exist and people would find a way to sell it.

What I find interesting is that everyone's trying to make the next big game or consumer app, a market that's already insanely saturated.

Meanwhile a single decent professional piano tuning app can sell for $500 (I don't know the sales numbers of course) with the most amateur-looking UI ever and a description that's a warning not to buy it.

Considering that most games get lost in the heap and sell basically nothing, maybe looking to see if there's some niche tool you could make instead isn't a bad idea.

Well to be fair, it's priced at $500, and aside from the single point of reference, I wonder how many have been sold.

These are all hugely underrated uses of mobile phones. Having drawings and documentation to hand, downloading manuals for random pieces of equipment without leaving the field, being able to stick your phone in behind equipment to get photos of stuff you can't see, talking to network equipment... This stuff can save days of wasted messing around.

Also just quickly recording things. Terminal block wiring inside the case of a VSD or other equipment (so when later you think 'oh wait, what was wired in to X5' you don't have to isolate the damn panel again to get in and check). Mark up drawings and take a photo to document it. Take a photo of that scribbled-over page of the manual that the client's been using for 10 years to configure their product and that's not recorded anywhere.

I think it's a lot easier to sell a consumer experience than an enterprise device. And you can tell a consumer how to use a product, whereas an enterprise expects the product to meet their needs.

I wanted my Glass to help me with my business flow (namely, being on call at work), but it wasn't built to do things like... Connect to a non-Gmail account. And Google's requirement of uploading every photo I took meant I couldn't securely take work photos with it.

I have one of my best pictures of my chinchilla because of it though... Only way I've ever been able to hold something with two hands and take a picture.

You would probably be better served with something from Vuzix.

https://www.vuzix.com/

Their products are full Android devices, as best i can tell.

they don't seem to sell anything

Their M100 model seems to be on sale, with the M300 up for preorder.

Hey i am thinking about becoming an electrician, any advice in how to start out? Union or no? Domestic or industrial?

The "sad" part is that outside of the thermal thing (i think) all this was going on for years before Apple introduced iPhone. But over night it was the "jesusphone" that was the definition of "smartphone". Heck, one reporter tried to redefine it as the "superphone" at some point...

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