Increasingly few people in this modern era work solely on weekdays. Many people, such as myself in the past, work on a rota system meaning that they might work anything from 8 days on to 4 days off or 4 days on and 3 days off, all depending on their type of work. An app such as Workdays aims to help users know exactly what is coming up next with their rota so that they can plan ahead easily.

The app calculates the schedule according to how many days are worked before a set amount of holiday. It can then calculate this for a number of months into the future thus ensuring that the user always knows what’s coming up. Workdays are colored in grey while days off are more colorful making it easy to just glance at the calender and determine if the user is working on that day.

The color scheme can be changed according to preference and users can create and edit appointments and events for each date making Workdays a pretty flexible tool for the shift worker.

It’s out now and is priced at $0.99.

$0.99

Workdays

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-06-10 :: Category: Productivity

Most anybody that’s worked in an office, or in any position that requires use of a computer that’s connected to the wonderfully distracting World Wide Web, has likely done it: slacking off from their work in favour of sending a tweet, updating their Facebook status, or perhaps, simply browsing the net to look at anything other than what they should be. It’s much more interesting, and can even feel a little daring at times — unless, of course, Mr. Boss walks by with an over the shoulder peer that ends in seeing his star employee sending a tweet that reads, “I hate work. Want to go home!”

iSlack attempts to recreate exactly what’s detailed above in the form of an iPhone game.

The game presents the player with an on-screen image of the main character sitting in front of his new iMac computer. All the while fellow employees are wandering by, but they’re not too interested in what he’s up to: as the game’s rather comical tutorial pages detail, they don’t want to be there either. Four on-screen buttons on the lower portion of the screen allow the player choose what their character is looking at on-screen at any given time — one being boring spreadsheet graph work, one is Twitter, and the other two being websites of game developers Trainyard and Kaida Games — the latter of which is responsible for the creation of iSlack itself.

The game has a highly-polished presentation, includes Game Center integration and several giggle-inducing moments. iSlack is available now in the App Store.

We took a quick look at Gigwalk back in February when it was still in beta. But the app and the service are now out of beta and accepting both gigs and workers.

As a quick reminder, Gigwalk can be described as a casual mobile workforce. As a Gigwalker, you log into your account and see what open short jobs are available around you. These jobs typically pay $3-$7 for a quick walk into a business, snapping a couple pictures, and filling out a quick survey. For business, it’s a great way to crowd source the small data gathering jobs that need to be done. Things like documenting restaurant menus, hours of operation, locations of red light cameras, and product display details. These are the kind of jobs that businesses need done, but traditionally it’s rather expensive to send out a person to gather this data. For the Gigwalkers, it’s a quick and easy way to make a few extra bucks. Do the jobs, they get approved, and you get money via Paypal.

What makes Gigwalk special is that it is perfectly tailored for the mobile user and these short jobs. From the need of these quick data collection jobs, to the integration with the mobile device. It’s one of the best examples of what a mobile platform is really capable of doing to change the way business is done that I’ve seen. The potential here is gigantic.

I had the chance to sit down with Matt Crampton and Ariel Seidman two of the three co-founders of Gigwalk to talk about the platform, and where they hope it will go. Right now, Gigwalk is available in a few major US cities such as San Francisco, New York City, and Philadelphia, but they hope to expand to other cities, and eventually internationally as demand grows.

I asked Matt & Ariel about the typical Gigwalker. Are they doing one job per day or 20? Turns out Gigwalkers run the full gamut. They have one user with over 600 jobs done already. While they have other users that will do the odd job when it’s close to them at lunch or right after work.

Interesting in joining Gigwalk? Start by opening the Gigwalk app and registering or logging in. From there look at the map and see what gigs are available around you. Click one for instructions on getting started. An easy, casual, second job. Work when you want to. Who can’t use a little extra beer money these days? Get walking.

Into Gigwalk? Let us know what you think in the comments. Also, take a look at the great Gigwalking Tips site for some more ideas on what Gigwalking is all about.

FREE!

Gigwalk

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-09-24 :: Category: Lifestyle