Old iPhone as Pocket Shop Reference. Practical or Too Much Fuss

Has anyone tried using an obsolete iPhone as a pocket size workshop reference and calculator?

Have finally admitted that my old iPhone 4 is obsolete as too many sites will no longer talk to iOS7. But it still works fine. 38 GB version means plenty of memory for apps and data. But is it actually practical to use the itty-bitty screen to pull up information either at the machine or when the main computer screen is full of CAD. Are there enough useful iOS7 compatible workshop apps left out there anyway.

Shop / engineering data needs to be local stored and come up sensibly scaled for the screen. The 10+ GB of engineering books & catalogues I have in PDF comes up fine on the big screen of the workshop office / CAD computer but really isn't small screen friendly.

It will get the HP15C emulator for sure as I need another calculator about the place since my HP67 died but it seems a bit overkill just for that.

Clive

if you got desktop computers all over the shop with 20 to 60" screens most dont bother with little screen
.
phone can take picture and send text message with it and ask another a question about picture. about only thing its good for

I have one I am rehabbing for a tool. I have OBD reader that uses an app. If yo do not have to update the app and don't update the software, if should work forever.

Clive603 said:

Has anyone tried using an obsolete iPhone as a pocket size workshop reference and calculator?

Click to expand...

Workshop reference? You mean like..

"Siri, how do I get these aholes to get some work done?"

Android is often the choice because it is less locked down and easier to install any application, and adapt in other ways.

wouldn't use a ten year-old cell phone for shop-floor engineering. i hate things without real buttons.
rather use a $2 chinese scientific calculator , or a 20 year-old win-2000 computer w/ floppy drive and 1gb ram.

my haas uses floppy 3.5" disks, but i program offline on a reasonably modern win-7 computer. i don't care for
apple products . whats the point. use it if you like it ... or don't.

was there ever a functional CAD/CAM that ran on apple os, or iphone? none comes to mind.

if you can design stuff on a cell phone.... you must have more patience than i will ever know!
good luck.

Being a Brit I keep Zeus pocket reference either in the top pocket of the overalls or no more than step and stretch away. As per the Laws of the Medes and Persians, British Machine Shop section. But handy as a Zeus is the amount of information that can be fitted onto 26 oil proofed flip over 6" by 3" pages is somewhat limited.

I figured the iPhone is about the same size and would be equally convenient with plenty of room for pretty much all the immediately useful information in the machine section of my library, currently about 100 books & counting. But it needs to be reasonably easy to get at. Throwing a stack of PDFs into iBooks won't cut it!

Agree with tnmgcarbide about buttons being better on a calculator, especially at the machine. But I do pretty much no calculations beyond next cut at the machine. Those are best done on the whiteboard anyway so you can see any cock-ups. Old style slide'n windows "calculators" are much better for the basic stuff, usually just sanity check of memory anyway. Anything complex gets done at the desk and written on the whiteboard. Given that an iPhone 4 is worth about thruppence three farthing on a good day with a naive buyer its still cheaper than a 2$ Chinee calculator. But like most folks I have a couple or three cheap calculators which just sorta appeared over the years.

Really its more about having something at the desk when its either pre-job prep or CAD time. Walking back to the house for a library session being a significant distraction and time-waster. File or internet search on the big screen computer does OK (ish) for pre-job but copying to paper and then to whiteboard gets old. If the "iPhone reference" idea works properly its immediately there. Maybe get away without transferring to the board too. Interrupting a CAD session to go file or net searching gets old fast and usually involves pen and paper transfer. A3 scribble pad on the desk fills up fast. Tried a second computer but over half my CAD is reverse engineering of a thing on the desk so there just aint room for proper size screen.

Clive