iPhone, iPad, iPod Forums at iMore.com

[potroast]

1. Firefighter/EMT in a rural area in Texas.

2. I picked up a 16gb 3G iPad on launch day and started using it at work almost immediately. I have used it already to update the maps of fire hydrants in our district. That information is then imported into a database and we can keep track of maintenance/etc a whole lot easier. The iPad & Google Maps have been very helpful in getting us from point A to point B. We've found that it is a LOT faster to whip out the iPad and punch in an address into Google Maps than it is to pull out the map books, especially when we're not at the station and the destination is outside of our district and we're running a mutual aid call. Two weeks ago we were called out for mutual aid on a structure fire in a newer development in a nearby town. I had the address & routing information pulled up before my captain found it on the map books. We were even able to pull up a Street View image of the address we were responding to, so we knew where we could park and what kind of building it was. (This is very important information to have when running into a burning building!) I have used the WebMD pill identifier to help us identify various pills found next to an unconscious patient. With that information at hand, we were able to react accordingly. I can honestly say that my iPad (and iPhone) has saved lives.

3. I got the Apple case for mine. Fingerprints aren't a problem, and I can type on it when wearing gloves. (except my structural firefighting gloves - and no, I'm not taking my iPad into a structure fire!)

4. Waypoints, Google Maps, Medscape, WebMD, Informed's ACLS Field Guide. But there are many more.

[Jason Price]

1. I am a mobile wedding and party DJ.
2. I share a PowerBook and iPad with my live in girlfriend and check my mail most of the time on the iPad. When receiving emailed bids for weddings, I use the iPad to quickly reply, and can send my contract to my client right from the device. I also use the iPad when taking notes at meetings to sign contracts, a process that I have also simplified by filling out contracts directly in Pages, and then using Autograph, I capture their signature, drop it into the contract, and immediately mail a copy of the signed contract to the client. When deejaying weddings I typically have my full reception sound setup, and a smaller, mobile, battery powered setup for ceremonies. With Sonosaurus Rex, I have the ability to still actively mix the pre-determined ceremony music without carrying my computer and mixing equipment around. I also use Dropbox frequently to quickly drop documents onto the iPad wirelessly from anywhere. Using iPad I have been able to communicate with my clients much quicker, and have converted almost all of my business to paperless.

My essential apps are Pages, Autograph, Paperdesk, Dropbox, and Sonosaurus Rex.

[iBri]

1. Attorney, compliance for my company, and blogger.

2. I wear many hats for my work and play life and have been waiting for a device that would be easy to carry around with me and would make my life easier in general. The iPad, so far, meets most of my requirements. I use it to read news in the morning (i.e., USA Today app), listen to music while I'm getting ready for the day (Pandora), and then it travels to work with me, sheathed safely in the Apple case and carried securely in my messenger bag.

I work in a secure office -- locked doors, no Wi-Fi -- so my iPad 3G is a godsend. Not only can I take notes with my iPad during meetings and then reference the material later (using Search, for instance), but the iPad is invaluable to me for my blog writing. I don't feel comfortable using my work computer for blogging so the iPad is an excellent pinch-hitter and permits me to travel much lighter instead of carrying around my MBP. I use the calendar for work meetings and court hearings, and browsing the internet is particularly handy when I'm in BORING meetings.

3. I don't have any super-secret tips or tricks to share, but I will mention that I have not needed a physical keyboard nearly as often as I thought I would. I have become fairly adept at typing on the iPad's on-screen keyboard -- somewhere around 40 wpm when I'm really flying.

4. The most important apps for me are: Pages, BlogPress, Analytics HD (Google), iReconcile (checkbook), and Appigo's ToDo. Honorable mention: Awesome Note, Pandora, NetNewsWire, Notes.

[dieseljesus]

1. Hi. I'm a man of many professions. Daytime i run a Tattoo studio in town, and night time im doing music production, app development and just about anything that me and my business partner find interesting.

2. Ok, here we go. The iPad for me is freedom. Complete freedom. I have never used such a simple yet advanced device, that doesn't freeze up at you every now and then. Some people say that the iPad is for consuming data, not creating it, but i have to disagree. It's what you make of it. yeah, sure, there isn't the best apps for creating data out there yet, but remember, this is version 1 of the iPad.

This is what my day looks like:

07:00 i get up, woken up by the alarm on my iPad. since i rarely go to sleep before 3-4am in the morning, i have to have multiple alarms on the alarm clock, the ipad and the iphone. After battling the snooze buttons from hell, i wake the kids up by playing them either the dora soundtrack, the Martin Luther King speak or any high tempo scene soundtrack from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, then i go downstairs to make some breakfast. Now i read all the news with the SkyGrid app that lets me read about Lindsay Lohans liquor habits and whats hot at the moment.

8:00 i Drive my son to school.

9:00 I usually fall a sleep for a bit on the couch while my daughter is playing with the Dora app, or iCreate and SERIOUSLY takes about 50-100 screen dumps, filling up the photo app albums as a suprise for sleeping daddy.

11:00 i go to work at the tattoo studio. Here i read the mail for a bit, checking up on clothes orders and such for our clothing shop that is in the same building. Also check up on new projects we're doing. talk to the first client for the day. Usually shows him/her my new gizmo, and have to fight the customer to keep it. When they calm down, we browse google for porn... uhm....image inspiration. Then i shown them how i can add a moustache on their face with the Stachetastic app. Then we might do some simple sketches with sketchbook pro that we later print with a printing app (Wireless printing rocks!). Note: I dont have a computer in the studio anymore, and only the iPad

12:00 We're tattooing. While we do it, we usually let Pandora handle the music. If the client has someone with them, the friend usually play some game on the iPad to get the time going. This is a problem for me, because now i have more highscores to beat.

17:00 Im done for the day. Hopefully without a broken back which is usual in the tattoo artist trade. I crawl out to the car, get in and head back home. When i get home, the kids say "HEY THE FUNNY MAN IS BACK... CAN WE USE THAT COMPUTER PLATE?"... Ofcourse they can. They use it for a while and adds yet another 50-100 snapshots of Dora fun!

21-22:00 the rest of the family goes to bed, and i go to youtube or stumble upon after working through the e-mails. I usually stumble for tech, youtube or arts and design, but dont tell my wife this. When she's asleep, i change the genre pull down to 'babes' instead.... just for inspiration of course.

03:00 im still surfing around, but by this time i have been going through SkyGrid, Twitteriffic, the Youtube App, Mashable and Safari. Sometimes even a Safari Page or two.

Then its sleeping time.....

3. My tip is: ALWAYS bring the iPad with you. There is always an app for what you want to do. If you want to go house browsing, use maps and some house browsing app. If you want to go raveing, open a green JPG and use the ipad as a glowstick and if you want to go fishing, there is probably a good app for that too. Seriously, i have it with me 24/7, and i tend to use it for everything i do as well. I see that i use the iPhone less and less for every day. I will look more into video blogging -> editing videos on the ipad with the camera kit soon, and if i can solve that, my iPad is perfect for what i want to do.

4.
* Sketchbook Pro - Groovy sketching app. I can sketch up quick mock up tattoo designs, but also do really nice 'paintings'. I can also draw pictures of bombs, guns and knifes to show my weird neighbour through my window.

* Taska - Task management. I need to know what to do. I tend to lose track of things, and this is one of my best friends in the whole wide world.

* Safari - We use an online booking system (Backpackit) so i need Safari badly. I also spend around 2-3 hrs a day searching for inspirational pics, edit them and store them for later use. I also use it to read news. Note: Facebook have never been in my Safari, and will never be. Facebook is SATAN!

* SkyGrid - I love to use this app for reading news and trends, and all about Lindsay Lohans latest drinking bends!

* Print Magic HD - This does it for me. I love being able to print whatever i need. One popular item to print is "Kick Me" signs that i put on my colleagues backs!

[Courtfrogger]

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 the eBook reader. 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, ebook, notes and planets.

[combatdoc]

Ok, how I use my iPad and iPhone.

Well, first off I am flight medic and the iPhone goes everywhere with me. My day starts when the iPhone alarm goes off around 0530. I stop the alarm, then I proceed to delete all the spam I got over night.

Once I get into work for PT in the morning, I use the iPhone to call anyone who is late for formation and ensure they got up when their iPhones went off. Then I might use MotionX GPS to track the run route that day and check my pace and distance.

Once I return from the shower ( one place the iPhone doesn't go), I pull out the iPad and review the to dos and notes I have for the day. Generally, I track my To dos with ToDo since I can sync my iPhone and iPad todo lists together. I'll usually make a few calls, and dig into the projects I have.

Twice a week I have mandatory planning meetings. I use the iPad to keep my notes since it has generally replaced my old "green book" for note taking. I can use Notes, but I prefer Paper Desk currently since I can email the notes to myself, or anyone else, immediately following the
meeting. Of course, lately the meetings have been delayed with all the iPad demos I have had to give, including hooking it up to the projector.

Now, I do fly pretty regular. During flights I'll use the iPhone calculator to keep track of fuel burns, the GPS via MotionX again to track the flight routes and times for review later, and sometimes I use the camera to take a picture or two, although I prefer a al camera for that. I'll just plug it into the iPad and import the photos after the flight.

At home, I use both the iPhone and iPad to keep my oldest kids occupied. I have loaded both with different drawing apps and games so no matter where we are I can keep them entertained. My wife and I also keep our various calendars in sync between our iPhones/ ipads / Macbooks with MobileMe.
She lives as much by her iPhone as I do my iDevices.

Currently, my must have apps are:
Calendar
Contacts
PaperDesk
ToDo
Good Reader
Evernote
Mail

That's about it.

[S.Casey]

Hi. I am a SAHD (Stay-At-Home-Dad) to a Beautiful, Energetic 3yr old baby girl. My wife and I got our first Apple products about a year and a half ago-- iPhone 3Gs. We LOVE them and have never looked back, never Needed To!!
1. This creation of Electronic Majic has turned me into a blogging, tweeting, picture and video taking, Shouting-out-to-the-World Stay-At-Home Daddy!! The timing of jumping onto the iPhone bliss wagon was Perfect as I had something to share--a darling 3 yr. old baby girl--and the iPhone gave me a million and one ways to do that. So, needless to say, I hit the ground peeling rubber!
Right off the bat I started a blog for my baby girl as iPhone friends were extolling the virtues of Posterous! From there, everything spread like wildfire. I was already on Facebook, but I had not yet been blogging as a daily routine. Posterous was the begining of that. At first I only had the one Posterous blog for my baby girl called 'Daddyville', then I quickly created another for myself, then another for my long tweets (of course Over 140,...doh!!). So then I connected my blogs with FB, and my newly established Twitter Acct. and....BAM!!! Instantaneous SAHD Publishing was Up and Running!! From there it has been a Blur of Wonder!!
I just Love this phone!! I would have serious withdrawls without it!

2. The top 5 apps that I use Everyday without Exception would be:
Simply Tweet (for Twitter, obviously): I Really like ST for it's Posterous Integration and all the functionality it offers. Hwe-Boon Yar is also a swell guy (the developer) that is very personable and attentive to his customer base. Haven't really gotten the TLC from other developers like I have from this guy!! He's a gem. :-)
PicPosterous: This is a really handy one-step live web pulishing app for pic and vid taking enthusiasts that works in seamless tandem with your Posterous Blogs. Great App, Great People!
Stitcher: I use Stitcher keep up with news outside the DaddyVerse. Love to listen to TipB podcasts on this one. Invaluable!!
Mashable for iPhone: (Not the one developed by 'InClud', but the Other one. There are only two currently. As a side note: The Mashable app developed by InClud has never really allowed me to view or comment on articles from within the app itself.) This one I use to keep up with all things Technology.
Facebook App: This would be the 5th for me, although there are many more, these are certainly standard fare for my daily use.

I use my iPhone for Everything in relation to my daughter and otherwise. I use the native alarm and timer app for an appointment and nap time reminder, as well as for a cooking timer when she and I are involved in another simultaneous activity. I send and receive e-mails and texts from family and friends about Shayla All The Time!! This phone is a Constant Nexus of Information sharing and relaying for me as a father! This includes things like Googling Lyrics to Childrens' songs thru Safari to finding and playing them on the Pandora App through the Uni -Dock that's hooked up to our sound system.
We, my daughter and I, simply use it wherever we go whether checking in at Amy's Ice Cream with the Foursquare App or taking pictures at a local playground with PicPosterous....the iPhone is Always my Right Hand Tool for the Live Photo-Journalistic Daddy that I have become. Cheers!!

[happycamping]

1. Food Broker and Most importantly a Mommy!
2. First I check email (too see how bad my day will start at work), then Calendar (to see how busy I am work and personal), We Rule (to get a moment for mommy/self), Pandora (listen to music while getting ready) all this while hoping the little boy is still fast asleep in his crib! Once ready, load up iPad, drop off little boy at daycare and start the professional side of my day. Work does not allow Wi-Fi so the iPad is pretty much used for notes and ibooks over lunch or any other application that doesn’t require internet
When traveling for business the iPad is my line to my life - email and internet are a number one all day long
3. #1 Tip/Trick - Do not let other people touch your iPad...you will be about to have a heart attack till they hand it back! It is a precious item that only a few select people should be able to touch!
How it makes my job easier: keeps me from going nuts throughout the day and gives me a few minutes of my own time while I am going through my day. When traveling it saves my back, literally! By not having to carry an 8 lb laptop and all the connectors!
4. for my work life: (not preloaded apps) ibooks, We Rule, ABC Player (have to keep up with my shows while on the road)
For my mommy life: These are all apps my 18 month old son loves to play and screams in excitement when he gets to play them: magic piano, my drum pad, c aquarium lite, Peekaboo barn (this app has saved us many a times in stores on the iphone even better in iPad form)

Long story short - the iPad makes me life easier in many ways and keeps me on track...the iPad also brings my family together not only by helping me figure out what to cook (epicurious & big oven lite) but also by having family game time with my 18 month old!

[bdegrande]

I work part time at home, so my iPad (64GB 3G model) is on pretty much full time. Since getting the iPad, my Macbook has seen very little use. The main thing I still use the Macbook for is podcast editing, I do audio editing for the Hellmouth Podcast, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer themed podcast. Although there are multitrack audio recorders for the iPad, they are not as good as the OS X ones yet. I also intend to travel with just the iPad rather than the Macbook.

The apps I use on a regular basis:

Bento - a database app which syncs with the Mac version. The iPad interface is much better than the iPhone version's.

Pages - this was the app which made me realize that the iPad was more than just a big iPod Touch.

Dropbox and GoodReader - a couple of good ways of getting files on and off the iPad, and GoodReader is great at handling large PDFs, so I keep a lot of documentation on the iPad.

Plants vs. Zombies - my favorite game in many years. I have it on Mac, Windows, and iPod Touch, but the iPad is the best platform for it with its multitouch interface.

Cloud Browse - think the iPad can't access Flash sites? Think again. There is ONE Flash site that I need, and I would have to carry my Macbook on the road if not for Cloud Browse.

Air Video - very popular and deservedly so. Strams video (and audio) over wifi or 3G, and converts incompatible formats and resolutions on the fly.

iStrobosoft - I am a guitarist, and this tuner has the same accuracy (one tenth of one cent) as Peterson's standalone $200 tuners, and costs $10.

Bridge Baron - card game. I am an avid bridge player. $20 on iPad, $65 on Mac/Windows.

Skype - I don't have an iPhone, so the ability to make phone calls on the road is a big plus.

2Do - ToDo list with a beautiful interface that syncs with The Hit List, my to do program on the Mac.

Twittelator - my favorite Twitter app on any platform.

MotionX HD - $3 GPS program.

ProKeys - good free keyboard program

Pinball HD - pinball didn't work well on the iPod Touch, but the screen size of the iPad is big enough to do it justice.

Remote Tap - good VNC program - well designed, lots of features, only $5, but Mac only.

There are dozens of other apps that I use regularly, but these are the ones I use most often. I am flat out amazed by the battery life. I never have to bother to power down the iPad or even turn off wifi, it will last all day under any circumstances.

[Mittens the kittens]

1.Wireless Sales/Photographer/Musician/Artist/Blogger/Tech Junkie/Student/Wine Enthusiast/Gun Enthusiast
2. I wake up in the morning and crawl out of bed and the first thing i do is check the pad(64G+3g), emails/twitter/myspace/facebook. Then shower and get ready for work.. During the long lengthy sales process, customers may ask just how fast our network is(HINT HINT) and just what you can do with an ipad or an iphone for that matter. I demonstrate the web browsing/email/general fun stuff that makes these devices what they are. I run through Facebook,Myspace,Twitter,Camera Roll(I have a Yorkie and he is the most adorable thing that i have ever owned.) After selling whatever XYZ device or service i take the customers name/email/business card.I add it to my contacts and jot down any prevelant notes that i may add.Lunch time comes and i order pizza with the help of my IPAD and Google Maps.I Purchased a business card reader that i use in conjuction with my Iphone/IPAD to keep track of business customers.I also use the IPAD to send test emails to customers when needed in case their mails isn't working or some sort of error.
3. I don't really have any tips or tricks just keep the ipad charged at all times you don't know when you'll need it. The Camera Kit is awesome for importing pictures and then emailing them to yourself or others!(or as a backup)
4.PAGES notes, writing papers etc
Dropbox For your pdf file needs
Limechat IRC client(I still <3 IRC)
Other mentions
Pandora
Wine Noggin
Hello Vino
WSJ/NY Times
Photoshop Mobile
So much more.
pardon the spelling errors i am le tired