How does a self-employed, creative carpenter use his iPhone to get the job done and what iPhone apps help get him through her day? TiPb’s iPhone at work contest aims to bring you just such slices of the iPhone life. Here’s Farmdread’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 self-employed general contractor specializing in creative carpentry (oh, and I also build giant puppets.) Here’s my story:

My work day starts when I get up, and that starts with my iPhone. The Clock alarm is set to a peaceful tone that doesn’t annoy my wife (she got sick of “marimba” real quick so currently it’s set to “strum.” We’ll see how long that lasts.)

From here I check TiPb and my Mail in bed as I wake up. Hopefully there aren’t any emails from a client that said that their house burned down last night due to something I did. I would expect that in a text, not an email. As I make my morning elixir – coffee – I check my Calendar to see what is on my schedule. Ah, today I am building a fence out of old reclaimed doors and windows.

I jump in my dilapidated truck (needed a new truck, got an iPad instead), record my starting miles using Trip Cubby and find my route using Google Maps. On the way I plug in my iTrip to listen to Pandora (I swear, I don’t have a Michael Buble channel) while using my bluetooth headset to call the lumber store to order the framing materials. When I get to the lumber store, I realize that the coffee hasn’t totally kicked in (did I even remember to put the espresso in my mocha?) and I need to use Convertbot and Calculator to figure out how many 4×4’s and 2×4’s I need. Simple math but it’s just too early to strain my brain.

As I get set up at the job site, I plug my iPhone into my Ridgid job site radio which conveniently has a 30-pin dock for Apple products. More Pandora ensues (what can I say, Buble is my muse) as I create a masterpiece of wood and glass. Now the end of the work day is near. I open Notes to list the materials needed for tomorrow (easier than trying to remember in the morning.) Then I check the weather using Accuweather to see if I’ll need rain gear tomorrow (it is Oregon after all) and I squeeze in a few levels of Angry Birds, check TiPb again for the latest Apple news, and check my Facebook while the homeowner isn’t looking. Before leaving, I snap a few photos of my work for my portfolio using the Camera. Driving home I listen to my iPod app for a change of pace (More Buble, different album). As I pull up to my house, I record my ending mileage using Trip Cubby and set my Clock alarm for tomorrow to start it all over again.

The iPhone has become my most important tool. If only it has a “hammer” feature then it would be just about all I would need. I have found that by pluging it into my Ridgid radio I have a full charge throughout the day. That way when I go to lunch I can hit the internet, play TowerMadness and frequently check TiPb (shameless plug but true!)

Are you a carpenter or craftsperson? How do you use your iPhone to get you through the day? What apps get your job done?

iPhone at work: Creative carpentry is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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As of today, if ... ]]> http://iphonedownloadworld.com/macrumors-app-store-listings-added-to-google-mobile-search-results/feed/ 0 http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/03/verizon-spokesman-no-iphone-plans-in-immediate-future/ http://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/03/verizon-spokesman-no-iphone-plans-in-immediate-future/#comments Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:52:20 +0000 MacRumors iPhone Blog tag:www.macrumors.com://235254855ebdb0c52a29f3a1d8876135 In a very brief response to a question from Beet.tv regarding the iPhone, Verizon spokesman John Johnson notes that the company is not planning to carry the iPhone in the "immediate future", before quickly redirecting the conversation to tout...

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Since the iPad launch on April 3, TiPb’s been getting tips about desktop/dashboard/widget-style apps being removed first from the iPad App Store, then from the iPhone App Store as well. There are a number of examples, some well known by now, some relatively unknown. The commonality between all of them is that they’ve tried to somehow make the iPad or iPhone into a Mac- or PC-like screen filled with mini-apps like browsers, email clients, calculators, weather, etc.

Some look almost exactly like Apple’s Mac Dashboard, other like Windows of various flavors. Others don’t look like desktops at all but rather place widgets on top of photos or other, more specific backgrounds.

Devs have worked around this by using a much more restricted metaphor, like a double tiled display, or by going the Jailbreak route, or they haven’t worked through it and just gotten frustrated at the opacity of the App Store review process and not known how to proceed.

I can’t claim any special insight or information on this, but my best guess is that Apple is removing (or advising they will be removing since not all of them have been pulled yet) the apps for the same reason they originally didn’t include cursor (arrow) keys on the Mac. It’s a pretty well known story and one that’s been used a few times in different commentaries on the iPhone and iPad and Apple’s direction thereof, but it bears repeating.

The Mac was the mainstream transition from CLI (command-line interface) to GUI (graphical user interface). People had to become comfortable using a mouse to drive the new interface, and Apple felt that if they gave them arrow keys users would just launch text windows, abandon the mouse, and revert to what they were comfortable with at the first opportunity. They’d never learn the new paradigm because they wouldn’t have to. So, like the metaphorical bird, they pushed us out the CLI nest and made us madly flap our GUI wings (or risk crashing).

The iPhone and now iPad mark a similar mainstream transition from GUI to multitouch user interface (I’m not calling it MUI). The iPad’s display is bigger, but Apple doesn’t want it treated like an old-fashion PC or Mac desktop, and they don’t want apps in the App Store that encourage users to treat the iPhone or iPad like desktops.

Developers who have invested time and money into building those apps get crushed, of course, and Apple really has to figure out a better way of advising people which apps are on the “unforeseen” list as soon as they can possibly foresee them. I’m not defending Apple’s process or policy here — as I said I have no idea if I’m even right about the reason — I’m just trying to figure it out. Curation isn’t bad, but bad curation is chilling.

Users also will no doubt be upset they can’t get these apps, just as users were probably upset Apple didn’t include arrow keys on the original Mac. I don’t know if Apple realizes that and just banks on having enough momentum and cool tech that users will once again forgive an App Store removal in light of what still remains and is coming. (That bank of user good-will isn’t limitless, however, and I certainly hope Apple realizes that).

[Yes, or Apple could be getting ready to announce their own widget platform for iPhone OS as a special feature for that large-resolution iPhone HD/iPhone 4G at WWDC 2010. Those types of things are always possible.]

Why Apple may be removing desktop/dashboard/widget apps from the App Store is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Why Apple may be removing desktop/dashboard/widget apps from the App Store is a post from: iPhone Download World

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