How does a high school student 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 michaelchang516’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’m a high school student going into my Junior year in September in Taiwan. I’m also the president of our grade and also a leader at the local youth group. So I use my iPhone along with my Mac to do the tasks I have, and also have fun at the same time.

I’ll take you through my day starting in the morning. I use Apple’s default Clock application as my alarm. Then as soon as I wake up, I check Omnifocus to see what needs to be done during the day. This is because throughout the day when a student or teacher would tell me such and such needs to be done, I would quickly jot it down in the inbox of Omnifocus. Then when I arrive home from school, I would take about 10 minutes to organize all the tasks and give it a context, project, start time, due time…etc. All the organizing is done in Omnifocus on the mac and I have syncing set up between my iPhone and mac through MobileMe. After I figure out what I need to do, I will go do them. After that, if I have any free time, I will check Facebook and Twitter on my iPhone with the official Facebook and Twitter apps. Throughout the day, I will also jot in the inbox of Omnifocus if I will have a test coming up or if I have homework due.

I use the Mail app a lot because that’s the primary way our teachers contact us and that’s also how the class officers discuss meetings times. I also use Calendar because I’m quite busy and I need to make sure I don’t miss any classes or meetings. The way I enter my events into Calendar is not directly through the Calendar app, I feel like this is slow because I have to be constantly going in and out of pages. I use an app called QuickCal Mobile to quickly enter my events. This app is very smart and it will read your everyday language and turn it into a calendar event. For example, I would type “Officer meeting tomorrow at noon for 45 minutes in the student office” then it would automatically add an event that’s tomorrow from 12:00-12:45 at the location “student office”.

Evernote is also a big part of how I take notes and write down questions I need to have with me. Again, this syncs with my mac so I can, for instance, have my research information with me when I go discuss our project my partner. But recently I’ve started to use Awesome Note instead of Evernote because the interface is a lot cleaner and prettier and also the notes can be stored offline. Awesome Note also syncs with Evernote servers, so it’s a great addition. For taking notes, if it is a quick note, I don’t ever go into Awesome Note or Evernote to start writing a new note. I use an app called FastEver. This app is very simple and all it does is let you write a quick note and then you can quit the app. Then it will sync and send it up to Evernote servers because this app has task completion written in.

Throughout the day I need to use the browser to look up various things. Most people would use Safari all the time but I’ve discovered a really nice browser called Atomic Web Browser and it really does take browsing on the iPhone to the next level. For making long distance calls, I use Skype. Sometimes I will need to chat with a classmate about homework or projects and I use Beejive IM. This app is absolutely the best IM app in the App Store. It’s really well designed and, most importantly, it’s really fast and snappy overall.

On days when we have class meetings and we’re running a powerpoint, I use the Keynote Remote app on my iPhone to control the slides so I can be on stage and advance slides at the same time.

At last, when I’m home and I’m bored, I play Veggie Samurai (a similar game to Fruit Ninja but tons more fun). Recently, I’ve discovered an app named Pulse News; it basically lets me read all the news I want in one app and in a beautiful interface.

As you can see, throughout my day, I use many fabulous iPhone apps for my school life. I would be completing a lot less if I didn’t have my iPhone.

Any other high school students use their iPhone to stay organized for school? If so, which apps help you the most?

iPhone at Work: high school student is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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By now you probably know that I am big into productivity apps and I am always looking for the next big thing. I use a lot of task management apps on the iPad, and there are some great ones for sure. However, I have just come across the ultimate task management app for your iPad; OmniFocus. This is, without a doubt the best app for utilizing David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” (GTD) methodology. What makes this app stand out so much are three things: good design, Forecast and Review. But, I am probably getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning. Note, a lot of the features I am going to discuss are not unique to OmniFocus, but I think it is fair to describe them so you know what is contained in GTD and can get a better grasp for how it is used. For this review I literally rebuilt my tasks in the app form scratch except for the made-up Inbox screenshot below. I had to do that since I am already organized

Gather your stuff

The first step in using a task app is to get all of your tasks together in one spot. This spot is known as the Inbox. You can add items to your Inbox by tapping the Inbox icon on he left of the screen. This allows you to enter the basics such as a name and maybe even a description of what it is you are trying to do and a date you want it done by. You can also assign Contexts and Projects, but more on that in a minute. For some people (like my wife) adding a bunch of items in a list with due dates that can recur is enough for you. If that is the case, stop right now and use another task management app. OmniFocus is more robust than that and it would be a shame for you to only use a fraction of its power. Now, it is time to move beyond the Inbox.

Organize

So you now have a lot of individual tasks. OmniFocus helps you out by allowing you to create projects for your tasks. Think of a project as a logical grouping of related tasks. For example, I might have a project to paint the house, which involves several tasks: buying paint and supplies, taping, mixing, etc.

On the OmiFocus sidebar located on the right of the screen in landscape or the overlap menu in portrait contains the link for creating projects. Once you tap it, you are presented with a screen that displays what projects you have. If you don’t have any, tap the plus sign in the top right. A project can have a few different types: Sequential, Parallel and Single. Sequential means that the project you are about to start follows the typical finish-start task relationship in project management. So, back to my previous painting the house example, you must finish buying the paint before you start to paint the house. Parallel means that the tasks do not have to have a specific order. For example, I have bills due this month, it doesn’t matter when I pay them as long as they are paid by the 30th. Last we have Single. Single is used if there really is a single task to your project, or, how  I use it, a general grouping of unrelated tasks that fall under a bigger more general umbrella like “Personal” or “Work”. Hmm, let’s talk about those bigger umbrellas now.

Once you have projects outlined you can group them together into logical areas of your life. Tap the plus button in the top left and choose folder. Some examples of my folders include: Personal, TiPb and a couple of work-related folders- that’s it. Every project, every task in my life can be put into projects within these folders.

Now, to maximize your time completing tasks within your projects, you can use what are called Contexts. Think of a context as a way to virtually group your tasks into a place or method of communicating. For example, I have an errands context I assign to tasks that I need to do while I am out shopping. I have an email context for when, if I am doing email, I can get those specific tasks completed and so on. But what is the best part about contexts in OmniFocus? You can create location- based contexts! For example, I create a location context for Starbucks (where I do most of my writing). I assign that context to tasks I need to get done when I am at Starbucks. When I arrive, I tap on that context and using the iPad’s location services, it finds my location and tell me relevant tasks that I have selected that need to be done in this location. Another example might be creating a context for different office locations at work. I need to speak to certain people at a location. I assign that location context to a task and OmniFocus only shows me contexts for that location.

At this point things might start to sound a little overwhelming. I mean, you have a billion tasks with a million projects, even with contexts and due dates, how do you keep it all in order? That is where OmniFocus really shines. Where other task management apps end, the power of OmniFocus really shows it’s stuff.

First, you can filter your projects and tasks by seeing only what is the very next action (task) in each project to be completed, see what tasks are available across projects (even items that are on Hold, more on that in a minute), what active tasks are remaining and all of your tasks. You can easily focus on specific projects by tapping and holding on the title. It magically makes the other projects go away so you can focus on the project or task at hand. Using the same method, you can quickly expand all or collapse all to make viewing even easier.

Forecast and Reviews

Forecast is a simple yet infinitely useful calendar/timeline function that shows you dates in boxes for the upcoming week and a box for past and future. Inside of each box is a number representing the number of tasks you have due on that day. When you tap on the day you want, it gives you a list of the tasks due for that day. This is an great tool for people that are looking ahead to what needs to be done and they want to manage accordingly. The Forecast tool allows you to easily tap a task and change a due date for example. Most other task apps simple have a couple filters to do this, the Forecast tool is the best I have used so far.

Review allows you to literally review your projects on a weekly basis. You can change this interval to another time, but I think one week works well. This is so incredibly useful. It acts like a reminder, but without nagging. You can review your project, add tasks, adjust due dates and more knowing that in a week, it will be time to review these projects again. Of course this is something you should be doing anyway, but building it into the app was pure genius.  You can do more than just marking  a project complete. You can change the status of the project to Active (which is the default), On Hold (if you don’t know when you will complete it or need more information), Completed (Yeah, it’s done. Think if it like you are archiving the completed project) and Dropped (Canceled).

Syncing and conclusion

Of course, it is great to have this data on your iPad, but what about syncing? OmniFocus gives you options. First, they have their own beta syncing service. This is great for folks that don’t have another OmniFocus product or don’t use another syncing service. You can sync to MobileMe, your own WebDav server or over Wi-Fi with the Mac desktop version of OmniFocus. These services can be used to sync with the iPhone version of this app (no, it’s not Universal).

I did not cover every aspect of OmniFocus here (yes, there is more…) but I think you have a good indication of what it does and how well it does it. Oh, and did I mention it’s pretty with a cool app icon? Those are great bonuses, but this is clearly leaps and bounds ahead of what else is out there and our patience for this app release has truly been rewarded; thanks OmniFocus. It would be nice if there was a lite version of this app as the $39.99 price might be too steep from some. However, if you use the GTD methodology, then you are probably already hooked.

[$39.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Beautiful, intuitive design
• Workflow to add tasks is painless
• Multiple organization options
• Different sync options

Cons

• Expensive
• No way to sync to the web via a website (like Toodledo)
• No lite version is available for users to try before buying

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

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We’ve been keeping our eye out as more iOS 4 app updates keep hitting the App Store filled with multitasking, state saving, Retina Display-ing goodness.

Hit the jump to see some of the latest we’ve found!

BeeJiveIM with Push 4.0

One of the best IM clients on iPhone gets better with:

• iOS 4.0 compatibility. Background support for iOS 4.0 devices.
• iPhone 4 compatibility. Enhanced image resolution for Retina Display.

[iTunes link - $9.99]

iHound 3.0

We spoke with iHound back at Macworld and now their already solid location tracking service has been beefed up:

If your device supports multi-tasking, then it checks in with the iHound server every 10 minutes, and the following new features become available for you in your Security Dashboard at www.ihoundsoftware.com:

• PowerSave Tracking: Your device determines its location, transmits to the server, then shuts down until the next check-in.

• Full On Tracking: Your device’s GPS will run continually as iHound transmits to the server every 30 seconds.

• Siren: Plays a siren alarm on your device. It will not quit until you shut it off from the web site.

[$3.99 - iTunes link]

Line2 2.4

No Google Voice app on iPhone? No problem, Line2 offers many of the same services, some extras for business, and now background support so you can use it like a real phone replacement. (Requires Line2 service).

• Receive calls while Line2 is in the background
• Continue talking on a call even when you switch away to another app

[Free - iTunes link]

Omnifocus 1.7

They had us at the purple brush-metal icon.

• In preparation for the new high-resolution display on iPhone 4 we’ve refreshed all of the artwork in OmniFocus. We hope you like the new look!
• OmniFocus now uses local notifications to present due alerts when running on iOS 4 or later, so you can receive alerts for due tasks even if you’re not syncing with a server. (Synced calendar alerts are still available for devices which are running earlier versions of the operating system.)
• OmniFocus is now a multitasking-aware application, allowing it to be quickly suspended and resumed on iOS 4.
• OmniFocus can complete some operations in the background on iOS 4, such as optimizing its database.
• The Completed perspective now includes items from completed projects, not just active projects.
• Fixed a bug which prevented audio from recording in OmniFocus 1.6.5.
• Fixed a crash when tapping “Save” while audio recording was still in progress.

[$19.99 - iTunes link]

PCalc 2.1

If it’s beyond 2 + 3 = apple, it’s beyond me but smart mathamagicians like Leanna tell me numbers are good and PCalc has consistently been one of the best. Now it’s better. And sharper.

• Added support for iOS 4.0 and fast app switching.
• Added support for the Retina display on the iPhone 4.

[$9.99 - iTunes link]

That’s what we’ve found so far, but if you find any you think deserve a post-up let us know in the comments or send us a tip!

iOS 4 updated: BeeJiveIM, iHound, Line2, Omnifocus, PCalc 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, iPad

I'm by no means a power GTD user, but like a lot of you I am juggling different projects and need to find a way to organize them. When I was younger, I carried around a paper planner, but now I have an iPhone and an iPad in addition to my desktop Mac.

The iPad on its own makes an awesome replacement for a paper planner. Paired with the iPhone, it's incredible. Any productivity developer for the iPad needs to have the following in mind.

• It has to stand on its own as an effective program.
• It has to work seamlessly with the iPhone, preferably with cloud syncing
• It has to be affordable.

The available productivity apps that span both iPhone and iPad are usually lacking in one of the above areas. For Things, it's price and the lack of cloud sync. You're shelling out $30 for the iPhone and iPad products alone. Tack on the desktop and that's another $49.95. Same goes for OmniFocus, whose iPad app is not available yet.

Within the past couple of weeks, some affordable alternatives have emerged on the App Store. These programs are pretty great on their own, but they also come with issues -- especially when it comes to syncing with other devices. First up, we take a look at BitAlpha's Taska for the iPad and iPhone.

Continue reading First Look: Taska for iPad and iPhone

First Look: Taska for iPad and iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 14 May 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

First Look: Taska for iPad and iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 14 May 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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William Van Hecke, User Experience Lead at The Omni Group, talks to TiPb’s Rene and Leanna about OmniFocus [$19.99 - iTunes link] for the iPhone, and their future plans for iPad. Recorded live at Macworld 2010.

Watch along after the break…

OmniFocus for iPhone and iPad (Macworld 2010) — TiPb Apps #1.3 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

CEO of The Omni Group, Ken Case announced last week that the company plans to port all five of its major productivity apps to the iPad. According to Case, our pals in Seattle have already begun work on OmniFocus and OmniGraffle for iPad and OmniGraphSketcher is next on their list. It'll take a little longer for OmniPlan and OmniOutliner to be tablet-ready, so don't expect it on iPad day.

You can read all of the specifics on The Omni Mouth, I'm gonna go fantasize about the iPad version of OmniFocus... mmm, now that's a Hipster PDA.

Filed under: Software, Features, iPhone, iPod touch, App Review

[Update] Ken Case comments below, addressing some of the concerns listed here. It looks like a future version of OmniFocus on the Mac will be able to directly update the OmniFocus reminders on the server, removing at least one of my complaints.

Ken Case from The Omni Group has been twittering for awhile about the impending inclusion of alarm reminders for OmniFocus. The task management app's iPhone users have been pestering The Omni Group to implement reminders as push notifications, but OmniFocus refuses to do so. They say that reminders that rely on connectivity are not good enough, and they have instead chosen to implement reminders by exporting due dates and times into iCal. Once the time comes for a reminder, it pops up like a normal iCal appointment reminder.

Well, OmniFocus 1.5.2 for iPhone was released, and now we get to see how this alternative reminder system works. If I had to choose a word to describe this implementation, that word would be "awful." Here's why:

• The Omni Group has taken great pains to point out that you do not need to be using the desktop version of OmniFocus to get use out of the iPhone version. But for users that only have the iPhone version and are not synchronizing it to either MobileMe (which has a yearly fee) or a WebDAV server (complicated for non-techies), they can't use this implementation of reminders. That's right; the way it works is that OmniFocus on the iPhone exports your reminders to your synchronization server, then points iCal on the iPhone to the server to import your reminders. That means that if you enter new due dates in OmniFocus for iPhone but don't happen to have connectivity, you won't get reminders. Wait, I thought it was implemented this way in the first place to guard against a lack of connectivity?

• Your OmniFocus reminders unnecessarily pollute your iPhone calendar with reminders. This is a visual problem when you need to glance at your calendars and see what actual appointments are coming up. On the iPhone you can either look at one specific calendar, or all calendars, so if like me you need to regularly stay on top of more than one calendar, you're forced to look at your OmniFocus reminders as well. Oh, and even when you complete them in OmniFocus and resync, they don't go away in your calendar. [Update] Stephen points out in the comments that this works as expected, and upon further testing I have to agree. Maybe I was being a bit too impatient.
  

• Since your OmniFocus reminders are actually just fake appointments, there is no way to audibly differentiate them from appointment reminders. They sound and look exactly the same. Remember the Milk, for example, uses push notifications on its iPhone app, and you can set the notification sound to a number of different options. That way you know that you're being reminded of a task rather than an appointment.

• Reminders are set based on Due time, rather than Available time, and in terms of flexibility you can set the reminder to be 5 to 60 minutes before the task is due. By the time a task is actually due, isn't it too late to be reminded about it?

• Finally, if you're a user of OmniFocus for the Mac, your reminders are not created on your iPhone until you think to launch OmniFocus on the iPhone and synchronize it. That means that if you work all day in OmniFocus on your Mac (like I do), then drive home and start doing other stuff and don't happen to open OmniFocus on your iPhone, you won't receive any reminders for tasks that you might have set for that night, or until you actually open and sync OmniFocus on your iPhone.

So, what would I rather see? Push notifications, like the many other OmniFocus for iPhone users out there that have been providing their feedback to The Omni Group.

As mentioned, Remember the Milk has implemented push notifications, and the ability to change the notification sound isn't the only trick it has up its sleeve. The Remember the Milk icon on my iPhone's screen shows how many due tasks I have that day, and the number changes almost instantly when I make changes on the web version. To see how many currently available and due tasks I have in OmniFocus, I again have to launch the app and wait for it to synchronize.

While I love OmniFocus and I think The Omni Group does amazing work, this implementation of reminders for the iPhone version of OmniFocus is just full of an amazing amount of fail. It's a hacky workaround that still doesn't ensure that a lack of connectivity won't adversely affect the user's ability to receive reminder notifications. Omni folks, this is just meant to be tough love -- I wouldn't be saying all of this if I didn't truly care about OmniFocus.

OmniFocus for iPhone finally has reminders, but implementation is awful originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

OmniFocus for iPhone finally has reminders, but implementation is awful originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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