

Grab a cheap Bluetooth keyboard if you want, and dedicate a spot in your office for writing without distractions. The lack of a windowing system on iOS and Android can be a burden for serious work, but sometimes a break from multitasking can help you focus. Working on a connected tablet is a great way to eliminate the distractions that crop up on PCs. (You could also MacGyver your own phone stand or monitor mount for practically nothing.)Ĭreate minimalist writing/sketching station This one’s easy: All you need is a phone or tablet with a front-facing camera and a cheap stand or monitor mount.

That way, you can free up your PC’s resources-and its screen-for taking notes or pulling up reference files. If you’re working on a small laptop or an older PC with limited processing power, you may want to offload Skype calls, Google Hangouts, or other video chat applications to a separate phone or tablet. The paid version costs $5 per month on both platforms. CamScanner, available for both iOS and Android, is loaded with features, and you can try it for free. ( PCalc for iOS and Real Calc for Android are both free for basic calculations, and you can upgrade to paid versions if you need more features.)ĬamScanner’s a handy tool for quickly scanning documents, complete with baked-in optical character regonition technology to extract text from pics as well as tools to optimize your images.Īs long as you’re making up for missing peripherals, you can also use your phone as a document scanner. Tapping digits on a touch screen is easier than pointing and clicking on your PC’s built-in calculator program. Just install the companion server app for Windows or Mac and start shaving the minutes off your work routine.Ĭreate a desktop calculator or document scanner You can quickly launch a new window in Chrome, expose the desktop, open the search bar, or control media playback. IPad users should check out Actions, a $5 app that lets you create buttons for all the things you do most on your PC. The touch screen can also quickly launch applications and execute commands faster than you can point and click with a mouse. With a little effort and a few bucks, your tablet can be more than just an extra trackpad. Turn your tablet into a full-blown command center Here’s a neat trick for either app: With your phone’s on-screen keyboard, use the microphone key for voice dictation on your PC. Mobile Mouse’s Android version isn’t quite as slick, so for that platform I recommend Unified Remote instead. You can add gyroscopic air mouse controls by upgrading to the $2 Pro version. On the iPhone, Mobile Mouse is a fine option that supports gestures such as two-finger scrolling.
