CONTEST: How do you use the iPhone for your job?

[brislink]

How I use my iPhone...

iPhone at Work article

Without blushing too much, I am a self-described Renaissance Man inasmuch as I am a high school teacher (TV Production, Audio Engineering, Electronic Music?and Algebra) and also run a recording studio and label out of a small barn in the back of my property. (I also do abstract painting and write?but that?s another story altogether.) All of my endeavors utilize the iPhone to keep me organized, informed, and inspired. Lemme ?splain.

On any particular day, there are a number of apps that I have come to rely on quite heavily. One that is essential to how I start my day is WeatherBug Elite. Being able to check the weather as soon as I?m up lets me know what vehicle I am going to take that day (no rain ? the bicycle, late afternoon storms ? the Vespa scooter, rain most of the day ? the truck.) If I ride my bicycle, I keep track of the workout using RunKeeper Free, which also gives me an idea of how many calories I?ve burned getting to school.

Once at school, my day is pretty much divided between using Pocket Informant, Evernote and DropBox. My daily teaching schedule is set and does not vary for the entire school year, so keeping track of what I teach isn?t as important as keeping track of the mass of meetings that occur. Between after-school activities/groups, two different types of learning community meetings, parent conferences, faculty meetings, department meetings?you have to stay organized to a fault. Pocket Informant, with its rich blend of calendar and to-do activities, allows one to stay on top of the myriad of obligations for which the typical teacher is responsible. It also allows me to sync to Google Calendar and ToodleDo to access my schedule and lists on any computer I?m near, both at school and at home. And since everything for any particular day can be seen in one place on my iPhone, I?m not bouncing between apps trying to keep track of what I?m supposed to be doing.

For my class files (Word handouts, PowerPoint presentations, and a slew of websites for demonstrations), I keep everything I teach in DropBox and in Evernote. I can access my files in DropBox from anywhere, so it again doesn?t matter if I?m working from home updating lesson plans or at school or even in the parking lot of my dentist?s?I can access my files and work. Evernote has become such a great organizer since I can quickly capture websites to peruse later for classes, or just keep production notes on what we are doing for any particular student project. When we were producing three different music videos last year, it was imperative that I keep track of what we were doing for each one when we were in the field. Even standing on the roof of the school (we were recreating rooftop concert from the Beatles? movie ?Let It Be?), I was able to take and make notes about the video in a timely manner without having to lug my notebook computer with me. And the mere fact that both are free is just icing on the proverbial cake.

After teaching all day, I have my other duties to attend to for my recording studio and record label. I keep track of clients and their musical progress using a set of databases that run in Bento both on my MacBook and iPhone. It allows me to quickly take notes of tracking sessions while the client is in the studio and transfers to my computer as soon as I both applications on my network. I even occasionally use the iPhone as an instrument for a session; I recently added a weird synth part to a song by using Bebot instead of trying to find a sound on one of my synthesizers. It was just faster and had a better sound to it since I was gliding from one note to the next.

Granted, I still use a ton of other apps on my iPhone; Password Wallet, Groups, Zenbe Lists, IMDb, ZenGrader?but the core apps are the one I described. I?ve used handheld technology since the first Newton?but the iPhone really has integrated so much better than anything that I?ve ever used.

 

[kmiahali]

In the blogging world, you know how hard it can get to manage, write posts, and take heat about questionable work at times, when you just can't stay awake anymore. Everyone at TiPb knows waht it's like and that's exactly when the iPhone comes to the rescue. On a long, tiring night, the last thing I want to do is write posts, research and gather information, so the iPhone comes to great use on the commute home.

The Wordpress app helps you write posts and manage them properly from the bus (you know when the spam comments begin to get out of control). The notes app on iPhone helps me keep my thoughts organized in a clear and coherent manner and during this time, cut copy and paste helps a lot. Weather helps me know whether a trip to the office will require an umbrella. Phone helps me talk to editors and the Boss Man. Lastly, the Calendar on iPhone helps me plan out my next long day in the blogging world.

Blogging can get very hard at times, but the iPhone relieves a lot of the stress, a lot more than when I used to attempt to use the mobile internet on my Razr to do the work. iPhone is a lifesaver through it's great applications, and many other ways.

 

[metalmike]

My iPhone at work stories covers my 2 different jobs that i have and use it for equally at both

First my professional job is a line cook. I work at a small country club here in Baltimore City. I mainly use my iPhone for looking up where some of the ingredients we use are from or what a certain thing could be called in a different reason because you wouldn't believe the little name differences from region to region or the different cooking styles of a steak that people want done.

Also i use it to find recipes or ideas for our weekly fish specials or what can be done for the Amuse bouche for the day. The iPhones web browser makes all this tasks so much easier to accomplis then my blackberry did and even the apps available help me organize my recipes and ideas for our menu whenever one strikes.

Also the iPhone keeps me entertained with games when we have nothing to do becuase its our slow season and members dont usually come in till later to eat.

For my second job i play bass in a local band called 3 Easy Payments.
The iPhone is a real life saver for anyone in a band. I have used it lately to just keep tabs on ordering all our supplies for the merch we are making as well as getting in touch with promoters or just getting a hold of my band members to get stuff ready for shows.

The Apps from fed ex and usps make it super easy to track shipments. And the push email is just as good as my blackberries when it comes to me getting instant notification on orders as well as emails from promoters about show details.

The iPhone also serves as a flashlight on stage or a quick way to finding the tuning we need for a song when we forget to write it down on the set list.


All and all my iPhone has become a life saver and deff replaced any hope of me switching back to a blackberry or any other device just becasue it does everything i need fluidly and makes my life easier

 

[weblou]

I do internet marketing/affiliate marketing.
The iphone helps me a lot in my job. I need a phone that could browse the web fast and that could render pages as my laptop would.
Day start with my alarm waking me up.... My iphone alarm. After a couple of snooze sessions i get up.
Go in the kitchen eat some cereals and start to read my emails. reply to anything that needs a reply and move on to RSS. If anything interesting in RRS i copy the link and email my self for later reference.
Once all that is done, finished my cereals and had my coffee i get ready and im out to the office.
Most of the people I work with are on Skype or AIM so those 2 apps are always running on my iphone and i would consider those along with the email and ability to make calls the most used and important feature on my IP4.

How doe's the phone help me? Well i get a lot of links that i need to verify and keep track on so it's nice to have a mobile browser that could handle this task. Not always in the mood to sit in front of the computer so i love having Skype and AIM anywhere i go. It gives me more flexibility. Sometimes I'll stay at a cafe shop for 2 or 3 hours and get everything done from my phone..... Love to able to do that

 

[All-Eyez-On-Me]

Well. I use my iPhone for twp things. The first reason (not trying to promote my website in anyway) is for an app reviewing site I run called On The Edge Apps. I absolutely love doing app reviews on my website and I find it a very fun thing to do in my iPhone when I am not working on schoolwork, which leads me to my next occupation.

I will be a 9th grade high school student this year and I cannot wait. I have used a GTD app for the year or so and it has really come through for me. Since my teachers are pretty awesome, they said I could use an app called 2Do instead of a planner. I don't know how I could live through school without my iPhone

 

[michaelchang516]

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 so and so 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, and due time?etc. All the organizing is done in Omnifocus on the mac, I have syncing set up between my iPhone and mac through MobileMe. Then 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. I use the Facebook app and the Twitter app.
So through out 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 throughout the day 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. An example would be, 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, this is 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 a app called FastEver, this app is very simple and all is 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. And throughout the day sometimes I will need to chat with 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, this way 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). And recently I?ve discovered an app named Pulse News, and it basically can let 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.

 

[creiij]

iPhone at Work

I look at my iPhone as it's blinking and making notices, it's 4:50 AM and I have to go to work, on a Sunday. I get dressed, prepare breakfast and starts syncing my phone to my computer. Nice, new Podcasts for work. I load up Reader and sync my RSS-feeds before I leave.

I arrive at work at 5:40 AM and I get into the crane at 5:50, as I'm a crane operator at a Steel Rolling Mill in Sweden. I start checking some news in Reader until everything at work have picked up some pace. I start a Podcast, Engadget, to begin my day shift as I move around rolls of steel, 20 tons at a time.

Oh, something happened and my colleagues have to check what's wrong, I pause my podcast and start up Angry Birds. After a few minutes I have killed some pigs and the Mill is rolling again so we can get back to work, and my Podcast.

Break! I read some more articles from Reeder as I eat breakfast and then I get back to my Podcast.

A few Podcasts later it's time for another break, and food. After eating I load up Air Hockey and challenge a coworker, he wins but who cares, it was fun and I get to show of my new phone.

I let my phone rest for a while as I listen to normal radio but I quickly remember the name of a movie I've wanted to see again. I launch Evernote and type it down for later.

8 hours after I began my shift is over. Thanks to my phone, which I've only had less then a week, it felt a lot shorter... and nothing can really compete with that.

1. Job: Crane operator.
2. See above.
3. Makes my job easier? Well nothing, but my iPhone makes my days feel shorter, which I love.
4. Reader, Evernote, a game (Angry Birds at the moment), iPod for Podcasts and lastly, Mail.

 

[TheCheapGeek]

My First Post

Well the contest got me join the forums, but after browsing around for a few days it looks like an awesome community. Anyways on with my iPhone/iPad story.

Ok so let me walk you through a day in my life with my iOS devices. I wake up to my built in iPhone alarm and promptly check twitter w/ twitter for iPhone and my RSS feeds with Reeder and my email. I then hop on the scale and ether my weight into weightbot. I then sync my iPhone to my mac to update all the latest podcasts before heading out to work as a mechanical engineer.

During the day I use the iPod app to play numerous podcasts, use calcbot to do simple calculations, pastebot to manage multiple email signatures, use prowl to receive notifications from my Mac at home. These are mainly when a file is added or removed from dropbox, a superduper backup is complete, or when a video encode is complete. Sometime I then open remote tap to log into my machine at home and start a handbreak encode, or even grab a file and move it into my dropbox.

At lunch I use MyWi to tether to my iPad where I will browse the web, use Facebook and twitter for iPhone, and get some more RSS taken care of with Reeder. I also generally read a chapter of a book using iBooks on my iPad. I use toodledo to manage all my tasks on my iPad and iPhone throughout the day.

When I am finally home from job one I start my technology consulting business where I use my iPad to prepare invoices with numbers, then email a PDF of the invoice off to my mac where it is loaded into a dropbox folder. I think generally take payment for my services using square and my square credit card reader.

I then end the day by watching video podcasts on my iPad before bed, then setting my iPhone alarm to start again the next day. I use many other apps during the day but this is just a small snapshot.

 

[bluebomberx]

Estimator

I am an estimator by trade for home exterior renovations. Since no one day is exactly like the other, I use a handful of apps to make my life easier in the field and in the office every day. My job encompasses a grand scale of projects, which span the gamut, such as fencing, roofing, siding, windows, and decks. The iPhone has become an indispensable tool for me. It all starts with a phone call to discuss what projects we will be estimating and setting an appointment. My appointments are scheduled with the Calendar app.

How do I get there? I use the Maps app or MotionX GPS Drive. The latter offers a paid subscription for a nominal fee of $2.99 / month or $24.99 / year for voice guidance packages. The turn-by-turn directions are great and it has the ability to give me the shortest or fastest route. It also can be set to avoid freeways. The app even includes a drawer for iPod controls. It?s a boon because my car can stream the music through Bluetooth. Rocking out on the way to a job site is good way to get focused for me.

Speaking of guidance, another app I use for every appointment is Zillow. Thanks to EPA regulations enacted on April 22, 2010, contractors are required to perform a lead test on any home older than 1978. If lead is found then measures must be taken to contain the lead paint chips during the renovation process. The consequences are dire, as an infringement results in a $37500 fine to the contractor if reported. Zillow allows me to use either the GPS or address to determine the age of a home. It makes me sleep easier at night.

Each job is different and the need to document with photos arises on occasion. The Camera app is perfect for this. I can send it over to one of my contractors and get a second opinion on an issue with either the Mail or the Messages app pretty quick.

I pull my measurements the old fashioned way with either a tape or a measuring wheel. However, if I?m looking at replacing a roof, I can use Google Earth to take a look at some rough measurements. What?s that you say? Google Earth for iPhone doesn?t have the ability to measure? That?s absolutely true and it?s where RealVNC for iPhone really shines. It allows me to VNC in to my iMac at home and use the desktop version of Google Earth. Depending on the image quality available, I can pull measurements within a foot of the actual dimensions of the home without leaving my office. Being able to see a home before I leave the office gives me an idea of how much time I need to take on an appointment.

Each of these jobs requires calculations to be made. BuildCalc is the absolute best construction calculator available today for this task. With BuildCalc, it is possible to handle complex construction calculations with ease. I used to carry multiple calculators to handle this task. Now I just carry an iPhone in an Otter Box Defender case. This app has single handedly replaced lengthy pencil and paper calculations with a few button presses. If I want to know how many pickets, rails, and posts a 75? fence will require. I just press [7] [5] [Feet] [Conv] [Fence], and the advanced readout puts all of this information on the screen. Calculating roofing material is a snap ? no need to look up pitch factors in a table. It even allows you to input custom sizes for it?s estimating functions. In addition, the app has built-in help menus for every function by holding your finger on the button for a moment. I highly recommend this app to any estimator, contractor, handyman, or DIY homeowner. There has been many days that this app has allowed me to get out of a previous job faster and squeeze an extra appointment in to a day.

Once in a while, I have a need to take copies of competitor?s bids or other documents back to the office. I use TurboScan to take a photo on site and e-mail a PDF to myself. It?s easy to use and works with photos already in the camera roll. I?ve also been experimenting with GeniusScan lately. Its cataloguing feature is nice, but I prefer the quality of files with TurboScan.

There are so many positives to the iPhone in my line of work. It has absolutely revolutionized just about every way I use a cell phone, calculator, calendar, camera, and computer in daily life. It is truly an amazing device.

 

[Rene Ritchie]

Okay folks, this one has run its course for now but we'll bring it back in the future. Thanks to everyone who participated!