Quip is a free word processor that allows multiple users to edit documents in real-time from different devices with an integrated chat feature for collaboration. Waze is a free social maps app that provides navigation based on user-reported road alerts and alerts users to the locations of Facebook friends and cheap gas stations. Crossfader is a free DJ mixing app that lets users create mixes by moving their device to blend between songs or connect with other DJs.

1. Executive | May 2014 facebook.com/executivebusinessmagazine76
Quip
This is the modern word
processor. Quip lets multiple
colleagues edit the same
document in real-time on their own
devices, and provides a chat thread
alongside to aid collaboration. Work offline
and then use the sharing folders to compare
notes, or keep track with a newsfeed
showing each edit of the document.
Price: Free
Waze
Contribute to the common
good of commuters with this
social maps and traffic app.
Get intelligent navigation based on
road alerts entered by users. Find the
cheapest petrol stations, and navigate to
the current locations of your Facebook
friends. The app learns your preferences
and gives profile points along the way.
Price: Free
Crossfader
Become a pro DJ
at home simply by
picking the songs
and moving your device to
mix between them. Create
flawless mash-ups and
connect to fellow DJs around
the world, or just entertain
your guests at home!
Price: Free
Apps of the month
Kris
Gamble www.customised.uk.comDirector of Dingwall-based Customised
Whether an owner or tenant, most people take
great pride in their home, which is their own little
space in which to relax and forget about the daily
stresses. No doubt everyone adds their personal
touch to make their home unique, but does this
loving treatment extend to technology, or is your
home falling behind?
This work-day technology timeline might seem familiar:
 It might be May, but as you roll out of bed to find that
buzzing clock, you shiver at the early morning chill. First
stop will have to be the thermostat downstairs to get the
house warmed up.
 Having turned on the heating and made it back upstairs,
you decide that you’d like to listen to the news while you
shower, so you turn up the bedroom radio really loud to
hear it in the en-suite.
 After the traffic fiasco of the morning before, you
decide to try and make up some time by taking a new
route. Your car is only too happy to oblige, and its satellite
navigation system instantly maps the way.
 The screen at your fingertips gives you the chance to
hear the news headlines. Since there isn’t much happening
this morning, you hit a button and you’re soothed by the
sounds of your own iPod, keeping you happy for the rest
of the journey.
 You sit down at your desk to enjoy the pleasure of
a high-speed internet connection, and try to use it for
something productive, instead of logging into Facebook.
Your busy morning is eased by an efficient phone system
that ensures the right team
members take the right calls.
 Your afternoon was to be
taken up by a briefing with
colleagues, but they haven’t
been able to make it here from
the other
branch.
However,
this won’t
stop you, and
you choose a meeting room.
Before you can search for a switch,
the sensors spot you and turn on the
lights. To keep yourself awake, you
choose the appropriate setting on
the panel and watch them brighten. The same panel lets
you bring down a hidden screen, and before long you set
up a video conference call with the missing colleagues.
 When the day ends and you return to your car, it
immediately begins to feed you with data. With live
information on traffic, the car is able to advise you not
to take the same route you chose this morning, and
recommends a clearer path.
 The temperature in the house is even higher than
outside, and you realise that you left the heating on all
day. The journey to the thermostat is far from simple as a
trailing cable for the lamp in the hall catches you out, and
you go headfirst.
 You notice that the door on your shed is hanging open.
Further investigation tells you that an intruder has been in,
but your security camera has captured only the back of
someone’s head, and you hadn’t bothered with the system
that would sense movement and send a notification to
your phone.
If your daily routine is anything like a less extreme
version of the above, then your house is lagging behind.
It seems strange that so many of us are content to
spend most of our time in homes that are lacking the
technological comfort that we take for granted in our
vehicles, places of work, and the public spaces we visit
routinely.
Simple, smart changes to the set-up of existing buildings
can streamline daily life and give you more time to focus on
the things that matter. Similarly, if new builds are provided
with the right cabling from the start, they will be
ready for any upgrades and additions that the
future brings, removing
the constant battle
with wires that
we are all familiar
with.
 Euan MacNicol
has been taken on
by Customised
as an intern
via the Adopt
an Intern
scheme. He
helped with this
month’s column.
Smarten up your home
Simple,
smart
changes to
the set-up
of existing
buildings
can give
you more
time to
focus on the
things that
matter
Technology
@customised