Your Android smart phone can come in handy in hundreds of ways for you while you are out surveying in the field.  The hardest part about getting your phone the way you like it or need it to perform is simply finding the best apps to do the job.  Here we have a 2nd installment of hand-picked android apps for professional land surveyors.

Read Part One of the Android Apps for Surveyors Here

I'm going to breeze through some very useful and FREE android apps for you to consider for productivity, theft, communication, etc.

Camscanner- You guessed it! Scan Documents with Your Phone

You just never know when you might need to take a document with you to the field!

CamScanner came highly recommended by several friends of mine who used it, but only when I needed to sign and email a scanned document in a pinch did I realize what a remarkably excellent app it was.

The concept is extremely simple: use CamScanner to take a picture of a document, then let it auto-crop to the angles of the resulting picture, auto enhance the image (i.e. apply a filter that will remove most blemishes and artifacts to produce a very convincing ‘scanned’ document). It can also export to PDF. Works remarkably well.

CamScanner is ad-supported, but it shouldn’t matter that much since its not the kind of app that you will be using constantly. If it is or it will be then I suggest you buy the full ad-free version.

Just Look at All of the things Camscanner can do:

With CamScanner you can scan and manage documents like:
* Receipt, Bill, Tax Roll
* Business Card, Membership Card, VIP card
* Agreement, PPT and Whiteboard
* Note, Memo, Script, Letter
* Books, Magazines, Newspaper, Poster, Coupon
* Courier Sheet, Resumes,
…… Any other use cases, please share with us at [email protected].

CamScanner is capable of:
***** Scan
1. Multi-page document—Scan and manage your documents which can include many pages.
2. Quickly batch scanning—Continuous batch scanning and no more wait, fast and convenient.
3. Auto-cropping—Auto crop off unnecessary part on an image with smart image processing algorithm.
4. Color enhancement—Adjust color and brightness to ultimately make images clear and recognizable automatically.

***** PDF
5. Creating PDF—Preview and create PDF files (with note embedded).
6. Multiple PDF page sizes—Over 10 different sizes of PDF files are available (Letter, A4, B5 and etc.).

***** Share
7. Fax— Fax scanned documents via Internet.
8. Save images to gallery— Save processed images into gallery.
9. Email—Send files (PDF) or processed images via email.
10. Cloud print—Print files wirelessly with Google cloud print.
11. Cloud storage—Upload files to online storage such as Google Docs, Dropbox, Box.net, Evernote and SkyDrive

***** Protection
12. Backup and Restore—Back up / restore the documents into /from phone SD card.
13. Password Protection—Protect your confidential documents with password!

***** Management
14. Add Tags— Every page in a document can be attached a note and searched by them.
15. User-defined tags—User-defined tags to be attached to document so as to facilitate management and search.
16. Multiple viewing modes—List view, thumbnail view are available.
17. Copy/Move—Support copy or move files between documents.
18. Search—Search achieves by title, tag and note.
19. Merge— Combine multiple documents into one.

Prey - Android Anti-theft That May Come in Handy (pun intended)

This one may save your day if your phone is stolen or you lost it in the woods.

So what happens if you can’t locate your phone? If you have prey installed, you could log into the Prey website and remotely lock your phone (completely preventing access from the thief), and even see your device’s location on a Google map. If you lose your device in your house, office or in the woods, you could have your device emanate a loud alarm sound, which could instantly reveal if, for example, it had simply slipped between the seats in your worktruck. Impressively, it can even counteract attempts to change the phone’s SIM, although I have not yet tried that myself.

You could activate or deactivate Prey’s phone lockdown by using the website or by sending SMS messages, or via the web interface, which is very user friendly The free version of Prey is fully functional and quite adequate for daily use of a land surveyor. The paid version has more features which frankly don’t seem necessary for an ordinary user.

Track down your lost or stolen phone or tablet.

Open source, cross-platform anti-theft tracker. Prey lets you keep track of *all* your devices easily on one place. Android version supports:

- GPS + Wifi geo-location.
- SIM change detection.
- SMS or Push (On Demand) activation (2.2+).
- Lock phone/tablet for privacy (2.2+).
- Uninstall protection (2.2+).
- Loud alarm sound.
- Alert messages to user.

More info: preyproject.com
Follow Prey on Twitter: @preyproject

AIRdroid - Easily move your files to and from your Android, on air

Airdroid will allow you to Easily move your files to and from your Android wirelessly and control pretty much every aspect of your device from your desktop.  Of course, there are quite a few of these free apps out there for moving files wirelessly. This one, however may be the best of the bunch, and is certainly the most ambitious in scope.  Download it in the Google Play store here.

AirDroid is a fast, free app that lets you wirelessly manage your Android from your favorite browser.
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Enjoy below features after installation from the comfort of your favorite web browser on Windows/Mac/Linux computer or other devices:
(Video Guide: http://youtu.be/WfNnQxpw7Uw)

*Files
Transfer files between Android devices and computers. Now with drag & drop support.
Cut, copy, paste, search, rename or delete files on the SD card.

*SMS
Receive, send, forward or delete SMS messages.

*Apps
Install, uninstall, backup, search apps and do batch processing.

*Photos
Preview, delete, upload, download, set as wallpaper and photos slide show from desktop.

*Clipboard
Share clipboard text between desktop and device.

*Contacts
Group, search, create contacts, check and delete call logs.

*Ringtones
Search, preview, upload, download, delete and customize ringtones for phone calls, notifications and alarms.

*Music
Play, search, upload, download, delete, or set as phone call, notification and alarm ringtones.

*QR code login via web.airdroid.com
Tired of the long IP address 192.168.xxx.xxx? 
Scan the QR code on web.airdroid.com and you are all set.

*Https connection
Stay safe even on a public Wi-Fi network.

*Realtime Android screen (experimental feature, root permission required)
View your Android's screen, take a screenshot, or even record a screencast.

*Multiple virtual desktops
AirDroid is designed for multitasking. Move apps between desktops to better organize your work.

 Do you know of any Android apps that you have found especially useful in the field?  Please share them with us in the comments below and enjoy!

Read Part One of the Android Apps for Surveyors Here