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26 April 2017 Landscape and Irrigation www.landscapeirrigation.com BUSINESS RESOURCES With Markup Photo you can show your crews, or even your subcontractors, exactly what you and the client were talking about so the work can get done right the first time. Google Street View › Free › iOS, Android While this feature is baked-in to the main Google Maps app, the standalone Street View app has some cool features that can be useful to landscape professionals. Type in an address and push on the photo to go into "street view." If you press the little icon that resembles a compass and you will enter "360 view." From here you can move your device around to check out the surrounding area. This can allow you to get a sense of the client's property before you arrive at the job site. Do note that it is using Google's database of photos, not a live video feed so there is certainly a chance the photo for your location is outdated by a year or two, but often it can give you some insight. Waze › Free › iOS, Android This routing app recommendation came from my Uber driver — so you know it must be good! Waze uses many of the same features as other popular mapping apps such as highlighting the best route and traffic warnings. The big difference of Waze is that it uses crowd-sourced data — meaning it is other app users on the road updating information such as slow downs, accidents, lane closures, gas prices, or even spots where the map doesn't align with real life. Secretly, the handiest information Waze users provide is the 10 Apps for Landscape Professionals ■ BY BRANDON M. GALLAGHER WATSON Your smart devices are getting smarter all the time. Here are 10 apps that are worth your consideration for performing a wide variety of tasks. iScape FREE › Free with limited plant/feature options › In-app purchases for more options available › iOS, Android Want a quick and easy way to show a client a visualization of a landscape you are proposing? Take a photo of their yard or property, then drop landscape features onto it. While it won't look like you spent an hour Photoshopping the details, it does gives a surprisingly decent representation of what a final design might look like. Free version has a few options in each category including shrubs, hedges, arbors, pathways, and even water features. Offers in-app purchases so you can add different sets for more options. Markup Photo › Free › iOS One of my favorite apps to tell people about was called "Skitch" and it allowed you to take a photo, draw on it with your finger, and then e-mail that image off to someone. The geniuses behind the product decided to merge it inside another app, and all the ease-of-use went away, making it practically unusable. I was bummed, until I discovered Markup Photo — which I now like even better! So why is an app that allows you to draw on photos useful? Say, for instance, you were talking with a client about performing some pruning work on a tree whose branches were going over their garage. Now that you have Markup Photo, you could quickly snap a picture of the limb in question and, while drawing right on the photo, you can show the client exactly what branches you were recommending removing. Once you and the client are satisfied with the recommendation you can save the photo and even send it to the crew that will be actually performing the work. No more vague work orders with directions like "prune branch over the garage" only for the crews to realize there are a dozen branches over the garage. PHOTO ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/EGGEEGGJIEW