Working on projects around the house? There’s an app for that.
Need to check the level on a plane of wood? There’s an app for that.
Like any excuse to whip out your iPhone? There’s an app for that.
Mentioned by both CNN and Tribune Media as a top app from 2009 is the iHandy Carpenter App. In the palm of your hand, it delivers:
- A plumb bob, the easiest way for you to verify the verticality of lines or walls
- A surface level, the best tool to level any flat surface
- A bubble level bar, exactly as you can see in carpenter tool kit shops, and more beautiful!
- A steel protractor, measuring angles from 0 to 180 degrees.
- A steel ruler, supporting both inches and centimeters. By swiping it left and right, the ruler is capable to measure things much longer than your iPhone!
- Once calibrated, the plumb bob, surface level and level bar can also be used as an inclinometer/clinometer by reading the angles on the screen.
One of the cooler aspects of this phone is that you can move it along to measure a space far longer than the phone itself – the ruler scrolls as long as the phone is in motion. Mind you, you probably wouldn’t want to measure a room with it, but it’s certainly handy in a pinch.
The iHandy Carpenter is available from iTunes for a whopping $1.99.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Great! Now if AT&T had better coverage, I would pony up for the phone. Unfortunately, in the mountains out west, Verizon is the carrier of choice. But I keep hearing rumors that Apple is unhappy with AT&T’s maps as well…
The iHandy Carpenter is one of the most useful apps on my iPhone (and I have pages of them). It’s actually more accurate than “real” measurement tools because it gives you both analog and digital readouts. It’s a great example of leveraging the power of the iPhone as a computer and always available practical tool, not just a phone.