Sprint has announced that as of this past Sunday, the long awaited Motorola i1 is finally available through business, web and phone sales.  The i1 is the first touchscreen Android phone to also use Nextel Direct Connect.  This news is especially welcome to construction professionals who currently carry both a Push-To-Talk phone and a Blackberry or other smartphone for email.  

Even with its fairly rich feature set, the phone is priced competitively at $149.99 (with the obligatory 2-year contract of course), near the entry level price for a decent smart phone. It's no throwaway device either, earning the Mil Spec 810 rating for protection against dirt, harsh impacts and blowing rain. In other words, it'll last more than a day on your job sites. 

This free eBook examines the time and attendance process within the Construction industry, and draws on lessons learned from real construction companies.  At 21 pages, this eBook provides a road map for a contractor that wants to streamline time collection, job costing and payroll. In addition to discussing the challenges unique to our industry, the eBook also outlines the steps necessary to evaluate the current process and drive change effectively within your organization. 

Download the Construction Time & Attendance Playbook here

Developers of rural or suburban areas can tell you that national food and beverage chains popping up can be an early indicator of a looming building craze.   If fast food restaurants created "coverage maps" they would likely blanket more of the U.S. than AT&T and Verizon combined.  Oddly, they serve as a sort of basic infrastructure for those who work and live nearby.  This infrastructure is quickly becoming more robust as more chains add free Wi-Fi to the menu.  

Today, Starbucks announced that all 7,000+ company owned locations in the U.S. will offer free Wi-Fi access to patrons, with the added convenience of requiring no registration whatsoever. Starbucks is hardly the first to offer such a service. McDonalds rolled out free Wi-Fi nationwide to nearly all of its 14,000 locations in December 2009. Panera Bread also offers free Wi-Fi at most of its 1400 locations.