Perfect tool for the professional

This app gives you the ability to see satellites hanging in the sky. Doing a site survey consists of nothing more than meandering around looking at the iPhone screen until no trees or buildings are in the way of the satellite. Problem locations that may have cost you an hour or more of time, or simply proved impractical, can be resolved in a couple of minutes.

If you’re an installer (which I have been), you are not only going to breeze through site surveys, you are going to pick up plus business because you won’t turn down installations that are “too close to call.”

If you’re in broadcasting (which I have also been), you’re going to be up on the satellite faster, sometimes a whole bunch faster. You know what that can be worth.

This app is a no-brainer. Get it.

Note for older iPhone users: For full the full Augmented-reality experience, you need an iPhone 3G S. The app will work with older iPhones without a compass, but you will have to set the compass direction manually. That’s OK. Get the app, show it to your boss and explain how much money this thing’s going to make/save, then go get your new 3G S with his or her blessing.

Note for 3G S users: If the compass in the app appears to freeze up, as mine did, that’s because you were playing with the Horizontal Reference Mode, as I had been, and left it in other than the Internal Compass position. If you are in the Camera - AR view, touch Done, then go into Horizontal Reference Mode and fix it.

Note for review-sceptics: My reviews tend to be pretty balanced. In fact, I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the precursor to this app and wasn’t afraid to say so. This app is great, and that’s why I’m raving about it.

Update: Helpful hints:

1) Wear a billed cap, like a baseball cap, when searching for a site during the heat of the day. Not only are the satellites to the south, so is the sun. (Yes, I know your mom told you not to look directly into the sun, but she never had to find satellite 110 through a hole in the trees.)

2) How to take a picture of your site survey, including the satellites in the picture: Press the power button (on top of the phone) and the home button (toward the bottom front of the phone) at the same time. Yes, its inconvenient, particularly since the power button is just above the camera lens, but Apple has yet to give developers a way to capture augmented-reality screens any other way. Blame Apple, not the developers.

Asktog about DishPointer Pro