I am using the Palm-Tech Plus software. I am thinking about getting a tablet since it’s hard for me to use my phone. I use an Android system now. Looking for suggestions and opinions from those of you already using tablets. Thanks in Advance!!!
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I think most of the mainstream software systems operate from phones rather than tablets. I’m still super old-school and use a digital camera and import to my laptop. I’m far from a techie but am getting the feeling tablets are going the way of the dinosaur. Basically, things are either getting done on phones or computers. Not to say you can’t do it on a tablet… there just might not be a lot of others to offer opinions.
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I use an 8” android active 3 tablet with Spectora. If you use an android or apple tablet you’ll have the same connectivity options as a phone with a bigger screen. The problem with iPad is they can overheat and get too cold to operate… in general I would recommend a “rugged” tablet to withstand the elements
I have an 11 inche iPad pro. Great photos and has a flash. I use my phone in the attic and crawlspace, which loads to the cloud and imports to my tablet. Never had a problem with overheating unless it was laying in the sun.
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I’m with Matt, I use a digital camera (Nikon) and have a backup camera (also a Nikon) a Go Pro on a painters pole for those hard to reach places and a Ferret with a couple of fiberglass “fish sticks.” I complete the report on a laptop. I use a Samsung Galaxy S8 for a phone and it looks good for Home Gauge Companion software but I never got around to using it that way and HG changed the software so you had to subscribe to the cloud. Sending reports to someone elses server to download later is stupid, expensive, and violates my client’s privacy so I won’t do it.
Tablets are cumbersome, bulky and won’t fit in your pocket. If you need to go that way use your phone.
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Samsung galaxy s23 ultra works great. No over heating issues. I am in florida so they can use the stylus to sign the wind wit. Everything is done on my “device”. And I then proof read and make edits on my laptop …if necessary. I also use spectora.
Old school here too. First, I wrote up my own report form many years ago, before Spectora. I park my Surface in the kitchen and inspect an area. Take my photos with a real camera. Come back and do my notes and repeat. At my office fill in the commentary and add the photos. Rarely do I see good photos in reports taken with a phone or notepad camera. Two reasons, I think. One, few HIs know how to compose a photo. Secondly, phone cameras rarely have the zoom and features that real cameras have.
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Ipad 12.9 Pro, but honestly I do more engineering work on it than home inspection stuff. The 12.9 Pro can handle AutoCad, and the Concepts app is great for sketching and floor plan data collection. And the Notability app is second to none when doing pavement, facade, and roof assessments.
Def backup pics of everything with a camera as well…
A buddy recently sold a house and he forwarded me a copy the HI report his buyers sent him and it looked like Spectora. The photos were an absolute joke. Blurry and just overall really poor quality. It just screams, “I don’t care,” and degrades the whole report IMO.
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Spectora is a report writer… not a camera.
You can drag the photos in from whatever camera you want. A 13mp camera and up on a tablet isn’t a joke. My Olympus G6 has the same pixel clarity as my tablet. As far as narratives, you can write them from scratch after the inspection obviously, you don’t need to use stored comments. As far as spectora narratives I would imagine an extreme minority of inspectors use their canned narratives. The difference with Spectora reports and something like palm tech v 9 or 3d is their reports don’t look like an invoice from an auto parts store.
Yeah, and I don’t mean to just dog on them since all the mainstream new systems operate similarly… in that they generally encourage (someone correct me if I’m wrong) inspectors work from their phone cameras.
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I don’t think you’re wrong, Matt. It’s also just good practice to take backup photos of everything with a real camera. If anything it’s nice to do a rough draft on-site and do quality control after the inspection.
Being a newer inspector, I was never exposed to the ways before the mobile/cloud writer
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Is this ever accurate… No one likes change. HIs REALLY dislike it 
I started before digital photos and used to take voice notes into an analog tape recorder. It took me years after having pictures to reference to stop relying on that stupid tape recorder.
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I get that… then again voice recorder doesn’t sound like a bad idea
They definitely do. But modern phone cameras are easily capable of taking great pictures.
Assuming the user had a phone manufactured withing the last decade, this is operator error, not a camera capability issue.
I’m still using an Iphone 8…should I upgrade? 
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I thought the conspiracy was that Apple sabotaged the battery life or something to make sure the old phones got replaced with new? How’d they miss you? 
Conspiracies run rampant, especially on this MB… 
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Brianslopes fact check: True but missing context
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