How does a “shooting scene reconstructor” use his iPhone to get the job done and what iPhone apps help get him through his day? TiPb’s iPhone at work contest aims to bring you just such slices of the iPhone life. Here’s Theta’s answer and as a small token of thanks we’re sending him a $20 iTunes gift certificate. If you want to see your name up on the TiPb home page and get a gift certificate all your own, head on over to the TiPb iPhone Forum and share your story now!

I just got my first iPhone, an iPhone 4. Before that I used two different generations of iPod touches.

I do quite a few “shooting scene reconstructions”, and other investigations related to firearms examination. To that end, I have converted over from using a Tablet PC for field note taking, to using Office² and various self made worksheets. I can quickly enter various types of data related to the evidence I am examining. Today I even took a picture of a fired casing comparison using the iPhone 4 camera through the microscope objective, cropped the image (CropForFree), annotated it (iRetouch Lite), and then inserted into my worksheet in Office².

I track my various Google calendars using SaiSuke. I have used it for a few years now. I allows me to update and track various calendars (work, personal, baseball, swimming, cub scouts). When I’m and get a call from a client, I can quickly add an event, which will update on my company website that many customers use to check on my work availability.

I also use Office² to track case numbers, payments received, to update a Google Doc that my bookkeeper checks daily to make invoices for me, and to track courtroom testimony.

I use Air Sharing to take PDF copies of my electronic case files along with me, for reading while on the phone with clients, or reviewing prior to courtroom testimony. It truly allows me to have a mobile office.

I use MileBug to track my mileage and email reports to my accountant.

I use the standard Apple Notes app to email bank deposit summaries to my bookkeeper.

skobbler has become my GPS app (I switched from Sprint with free turn-by-turn, so I’m a little hesitant to start paying for a formerly free service).

Those are just the main ones. There are various other ones I will quickly use on the stand to covert units to answer questions from attorneys, spreadsheets for performing blood alcohol calculations, rulers for measuring, protractors for measuring angles, periodic charts for chemistry questions, and even RxDrugs for looking up prescription drug information.

What about you? Do you do investigations related to firearms examination? If so, how do you use your iPhone for work? If not, head on over to the TiPb iPhone Forum and let us know how you use your iPhone for your job.

iPhone at Work: shooting scene reconstruction is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

My latest productivity app this week? Penultimate for iPad. There are several competing “free hand” note taking apps on our favorite tablet device. After our recent TiPb at Work Post, I thought I would see if Penultimate tries to separate itself from other note apps on the iPad. Is being simple with just enough  of a “feature” to get the job done enough?

Penultimate starts you off with a single notebook. That notebook serves as a tutorial to show you how to use Penultimate. The example notebook is excellent as it “teaches” you everything you need to know about the app. The basic setup is this; you can have virtually unlimited notes in your notebook. You tap the bottom right corner to go to the next page and the bottom left corner to go to the previous page. You have a pen, eraser and a clear page button at the bottom as well. On the main screen you can create your own notebook, email or delete notebooks as need, you can even rename them by tapping the name located below the notebook.

Writing in Penultimate is a pure joy. As you draw or write with your fingers, the developers have given the virtual ink a very distinct look, almost like calligraphy. The ink is thick in some areas and thinner in others. If you want to adjust the thickness or color of your ink, simply tap and hold the pen icon at the bottom of the page to make your changes.

You can create new notebooks with the tap of a button located in the top left hand corner. The top right hand corner gives you additional settings. The style of paper be changed from graph to lined for example, you can reposition the tools (pen, eraser, etc.) to the top of the page and even email the entire notebook or just the page you are on via email. Penultimate converts the notebooks to PDFs for emailing.

I like Penultimate for what it does; it is a simple no-frills note taking tool. I find there to be a couple of irritations however. In landscape view, you are given a cropped view of the page and you can flick the right side of the screen to scroll towards the top and bottom. I feel there has to be a better way to implement this, or, give me completely different functionality in landscape. The other issue is that there is no way to zoom to give yourself more space; the notebook is it’s real size and there is no zooming. I would have liked to have seen a pinch-zoom function that increased the size of your note area. Ah, perhaps in a future release. Regardless, Penultimate is a beautiful fun and easy note taking tool that most of use can find a  use for in our busy lives.

[$2.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Simple
• Beautiful design
• Ink looks great
• Animation is smooth

Cons

• Landscape view is awkward to use
• No pinch to zoom functionality

Penultimate for iPad- app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

How does an elementary school teacher use her iPad to get the job done and what iPad apps help get her through her day? TiPb’s iPad at work contest aims to bring you just such slices of the iPad life. Here’s Courtfrogger’s answer and as a small token of thanks we’re sending her a $20 iTunes gift certificate. If you want to see your name up on the TiPb home page and get a gift certificate all your own, head on over to the TiPb iPad Forum and share your story now!

The iPad has added another dimension to my classroom! I teach music, English and theatre at a very small public k-12 school. I use the iPad for lots of different things in the classroom, at meetings and at play rehearsals. For my youngest students, who sometimes just need to dance, I use Pandora. I can just type in “Tito Puente”, for example, and get unlimited Latin jazz that keeps them moving and very happy.

For slightly older kids, who are learning band instruments for the first time, I can use the YouTube app to show them videos of famous musicians playing their instruments. With the cleaner interface, I don’t have to worry about R- rated adds showing up alongside the content I want.

For the spring production of “A Doll’s House,” I loaded the script into iBooks. I found it free through project Gutenberg. I can easily toggle back and forth between that and my notes, keeping track of actors’ lines while taking direction notes. I don’t have to worry about running out of paper, dropping my script, or forgetting a pencil!

For fun, I showed my kindergarten class the Planets app. They’re studying planets right now, and for music class they wrote rhymes about planets that can be sung to the tune of twinkle twinkle little star. Being able to spin beautiful images of the planets was engaging for them and added a tangible element to the class.

So there you have it! My top five apps for the music and theatre classroom are Pandora, YouTube, iBooks, notes and Planets.

Are you an elementary school teacher? If so, what apps do you use to enhance the learning experience in the classroom?

iPad at Work: Elementary school teacher is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

During the WWDC 2010 Keynote today, Steve Jobs announced new features for Apple’s iBooks app, including the much-in-demand ability to take notes, the ability to tap and and bookmarks, and support for the PDF format. Jobs also announced that, while it’s only been on the market for 8 weeks, iBooks already accounts for 22% of the eBook market. They also repeated that it would soon be available for the iPhone.

The iBooks app is now available as a free download for iPhone, so you can read your favorite books anywhere. On iPhone 4, the high-resolution Retina display renders every page beautifully. Vibrant colors, rich illustrations, and crisp, sharp text make reading a pleasure. Turn pages by tapping the right or left side of the screen or by dragging the page corner (just like a real book). Jump to a different part of the book by visiting the table of contents and tapping a chapter. When you’re finished reading, iBooks bookmarks where you left off. It syncs with iPad, too, so the story you started on your iPhone can be finished on your iPad.

[Apple.com iPhone iBooks page]

Apple updates iBooks for iPad and iPhone, adds notes, bookmarks, PDF support, sync is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

When you add an IMAP-based email account (including MobileMe and Gmail) to iPhone 4, in addition to the previous options you now get a toggle for “Sync Notes”.

Notes syncing was famously listed as an iPhone 1.0 feature but then mysteriously vanished only to return in iPhone 3.0 as an iTunes-limited option (i.e., not push or over-the-air).

Apple’s desktop Mail client includes special folders that serve as repositories for notes, so perhaps this is now (finally) being echoed on the iPhone.

Whether or not this gets tied in to the actual Notes app remains unknown (it doesn’t seem to right now, but it may just not be working yet). It also doesn’t seem to be an option for Exchange accounts (yet?).

If you discover anything else about iPhone 4 Notes sync, let us know!

[Thanks anon for the tip!]

iPhone 4: Notes Sync for IMAP is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

I am a huge fan of Evernote [Free- iTunes Link]. I knew they were working on an iPad version of their software, but I had no idea what to expect. Needless to say I am pleased with their design decisions and love the completely new layout for iPad.

Evernote for iPad gives you several new and fun ways to view and organize your notes. First, you can view them by thumbnail or details. I think thumbnails work best with pictures. I tend to have more text notes, so details works best for me. It gives me the name, etc. of the note at hand.

I love the way Evernote organizes notebooks and tags; the notes appear stacked on each other just like the Photos album. You can’t pinch to peek and open (though that would be cool) instead you simply tap to open the notebook or tags you want. You can also sort by name or by count. There is now a separate area of view notes by place too, you can even use location services to find notes by your current location. Take audio and picture notes? Now you can do both in one note on the iPad app. This is a very nice addition.

If you are an existing Evernote user, you are in luck — the app is universal. Download it once and use it on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Gallery and video after the break!

YouTube link

Quick Review: Evernote for iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Filed under: iPhone

A few readers have sent us screen shots like the one here. As you can see, iPhone OS 4.0 is finally bringing MobileMe note syncing to the iPhone! Previously the only way you could sync notes created on your iPhone or Mail.app was via a hard-wire sync.

We'll keep you updated as we discover more little tidbits from today's iPhone OS 4.0 preview.

iPhone 4.0 OS Secrets: MobileMe notes syncing originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iPhone 4.0 OS Secrets: MobileMe notes syncing originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of my favorite apps from my days using Palm OS was BugMe! Back in the day, it offered functionality that the Palm OS did not have in its Memo/Notes applications. You can pick up BugMe in the app store for a deal [$0.99 - iTunes Link]. Let’s take a look at what BugMe! For iPhone has to offer.

BugMe! is setup to have a cork board-like interface where you can stick your notes and rearrange them in any order you like.  From the launch screen you can view and rearrange your notes as you want by tapping and holding. You can tap the “New Note” button to create a new note. Once created, you have several options available to you:

• Ink or eraser
• Change ink thickness
• Change note color and add an image to the note
• Share note (email, Twitter, Home Screen, Photo Album)
• Alarm

One of the innovative features with this release is the ability to take a note and send it to your home screen. Typically, this is done via the “+” at the bottom of a webpage. How does BugMe! do it? If you decided to share your note  to the home screen, the app sends the image to the web on BugMe!’s servers. This then allows you to save the note to your home screen. Once saved, it will take you to the web interface, it does not take you back to the BugMe! app; disappointing.

Another nice feature is the ability to set custom alarms with push notifications. This can come in really handy if you jot down a quick note and need to be reminded later.

I  like this 1.x release of BugMe!. It is simple and fun, but lacks some features such as resizable notes (ya just can’t fit in a lot of the release given, even with a smaller ink size) and options to not size-to-fit images you place on a note. Other than that, if you are looking for a simple ink note app for your iPhone, BugMe! fits the bill! Lots of pictures after the break!

Quick App: BugMe! for iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Today’s TiPb Top 5 is directed towards our iPhone and iPod touch wielding readers who love to take notes/memos on the go. Just like our other TiPb’s top 5 must-have posts, all of these applications are available in the App Store. For the full run down, follow us after the break!

Notes

Okay, all the applications are available in the App Store but this one — Apple’s Notes is built-in and comes pre-installed on every iPhone and iPod touch. And it’s not bad. Harkening back to the old PalmOS Memo app, you can add a note, start typing, hit Home, and the Note is automagically (and persistently) saved. That’s right, no explicit user action is needed — not even to name it as Notes just pulls the first line and uses that as the name. You can add new notes, edit old notes, and delete what you no longer need. You can also sync Notes via iTunes now (though not via MobileMe… get on that, Apple!)

Set up to look like a yellow, legal-esque note pad, the only drawback is the almost universally panned use of the Marker Felt font. If you can stand that, it’s simple but it’s free and you don’t even have to download it. For some users, that’s all they’ll ever need. For me, it’s perfect to jot down a hotel room, phone number, parking space, or anything else I want to remember and keep with me.

Simplenote (and Notational Velocity + DropBox)

Simplenote [Free - iTunes link] came to our attention via Daring Fireball’s John Gruber and has stayed there thanks to the Notational Velocity awesomeness highlighted by 43Folders‘ Merlin Mann.

Simplenote by itself is just as the name implies, quick, clean, and highly usable. Instead of tethered iTunes sync over USB, Simplenote offers secure wireless sync to the cloud (their WebApp). You can keep using it free with fairly unobtrusive adds, or for $8.99 a year (less than $1 a month) you can go “premium” which removes the ads and gives you auto backup (versioning), create by email, an RSS feed, unlimited API use, and some cherries on top like early access to future features.

If you’re a note ninja, however, combining Simplenotes with Notational Velocity could dang-near blow your mind. Notational Velocity is a desktop client that offers modeless operation (search is your gateway), incremental search (start typing, it starts filtering), and keyboard-optimized operation. DropBox can store the data/files so you can enjoy not only iPhone to desktop, but cross-desktop sync as well. Getting things done indeed!

This is pretty much the nuclear option when it comes to note-oriented productivity, and the scaling from just Simplenote to the cross-platform sync solution is impressive. If you’re the high-order geek and notes are where your life lives, this combo can be hard to beat.

PhatNotes

PhatNotes [$9.99 - iTunes link] is a big, bold drought of note taking. On the surface, it’s covered in icons and colors. Under the hood you can organize “thousands” of notes in folders and groups. It also supports handwriting recognition so you can scribble your note on the screen and Phatnotes will OCR it and turn it into editable text. (A process which works pretty well (and yes, internet, it does OCR and print curse words without any censorship).

You can sync PhatNotes for iPhone with the PhatNotes for Windows desktop client (no Mac client… yet?). Given the price tag, PhatNotes will most likely appeal to hardcore on-device users who want to do as much as possible on their mobile, especially if they already use PhatNotes on the PC and see the sync as a bonus.

For those who like the handwriting recognition but don’t want the higher price and fuller organizational features, the same developer offers WritePad [$1.99 - iTunes link]

Appigo Notebook

Appigo’s Notebook [$4.99 - iTunes link] earns a spot immediately simply by virtue of its integration with the excellent Appigo Todo, but proves its own worth with clever offline/online note sync handling, password protection for secure notes, Toodledo.com sync, and TextExpander [$4.99 - iTunes link] support.

The user interface is simply gorgeous and the workflow is quick and easy. Notebook isn’t free but it’s not premium priced, it’s not bound to the desktop or the cloud, and if you’re invested in Toodledo, TextExpander, and/or Appigo Todo… well, you likely have it already! If you don’t, and you want a flexible yet elegant note-taking solution, give it a look.

Evernote

We’re not just including Evernote [Free - iTunes link] so that Chad (and Leo Laporte) don’t smack us around for not including, though that’s certainly a plus. Evernote is literally — and iconically — the big elephant in the note-space. Unlike the apps above, Evernote isn’t primarily focused on traditional, text-based note taking. It puts pictures and voice right up front alongside text. What’s more, it will make text included in your photos searchable (though it won’t OCR that text and make it editable — please ad?)

You can sync Evernote for iPhone with Evernote for Windows or Mac, or for other mobile devices running Android or BlackBerry OS. If the free functionality isn’t enough for you, you can “go premium” for $5 a month or $45 a year. Premium gets you 500MB of monthly upload bandwidth, support for Office docs, PDF, and videos, share and collaborate with other premium users, and SSL encryption.

Evernote is a great choice for people who want to include a wider range of material and basically scrapbook their notes as they go. It’s also especially handy for cross-platform users with different desktop and mobile platforms. If you’re not already using a different cloud-based or desktop solution, Evernote is something to check out.

Conclusion

iPhone and iPod touch users are fortunate to enjoy a wide range of high quality note apps, everything from the built-in to tons of App Store downloads (we barely scratched the surface here!), from free to premium, from cloud-based to desktop-bound. Which one is best for you will depend on what, if anything, you’re already using and what functionality matters most to you.

If we didn’t mention your favorite, or if you have any ninja or pro tips to share to take our iPhone note-taking to the next level, let us know in the comments!

TiPb Top 5 iPhone Notes Apps is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Filed under: Peripherals, iPhone, iPod touch, App Review

The iPhone wasn't designed from scratch to print things, but it can be done. I've reviewed some solutions in the past, including one that required you to run a small print server on your computer, which then directs your print jobs to any local printers. There are also some apps that print photos directly to printers.

I've just tried ePrint, which has some limitations, but gets the job done without any print servers. There are two versions of the app: The free version, ePrint Free [iTunes link] lets you print contacts, notes (more on that later), photo albums, and even brings up the camera so you can fire off a snapshot and print it immediately. The paid version [iTunes link], meanwhile, is U.S. $2.99 and adds the ability to print web pages as well

Setting up is easy. The app will find your printers in a snap if your phone is in Wi-Fi mode, and you are running Bonjour zero configuration setup on your network. You can also elect to enter the IP addresses of your printers as well. If your printer is color, and you send color images, you'll get them in color.

There are a few catches, however. To print a web page you either have to enter a URL for it in ePrint, or set a preference to bring up the last web page viewed. When you go to print notes in either app, it doesn't mean from your Notes app. ePrint can only print from the ePrint Notes app, although you can still copy and paste any text into it and print away. That's how I test-printed an email, because Apple doesn't allow any way to print an email or anything else directly. After doing a 'select all' on an email, I copied and pasted it into the ePrint Notes app, and it worked just fine.

Continue reading ePrint is a nice solution to printing from your iPhone

ePrint is a nice solution to printing from your iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

ePrint is a nice solution to printing from your iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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