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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Wired did some poking around and discovered Phillip Shoemaker, Apple’s director of App Store — the man purportedly in charge of App Store approval and rejection — was or is the developer of fart and urination apps.

Shoemaker apparently had or has a company named Gray Noodle, whose titles include Animal Farts and iWiz. Although the social networking profiles and posts that led Wired to the discovery have subsequently been removed, they’ve retained archive copies. An Apple spokeswoman gave them the following comment:

“Phillip’s apps were written, submitted and approved before he became an Apple employee,” an Apple spokeswoman said in a statement. “His experience and perspective as a developer is one of the valuable things he brings to Apple’s developer relations team. Apple’s policy allows for employees to have apps on the App Store if they’re developed and published prior to their start at Apple.”

Other former Apple employees confirmed that special, executive level permission was required in order for an Apple employee to publish on the App Store, though if the apps predated Apple employment permission for them to remain on the App Store might be easier to obtain.

So is it reassuring for developers to have someone with experience getting controversial apps approved inside the App Store? Does it mean if you were rejected, you didn’t even meet the Animal Farts sniff test?

[Wired, thanks Luke!]

Director of App Store for Apple also made fart and wiz apps is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Vimeo has announced a new HTML5 universal player to finally bring Flash-free embedded videos to iPad and iPhone. How do you use it?

Starting today it is the new default embed code and is available via the embed button on any Vimeo video. Just copy and paste like any other embed code. This new embed code is available for any video, new or old.

They’ve also created a small javascript snippet you can add to your site to enable older, legacy embeds to work with the new player.

Mobile versions of all videos, however, is still a Plus feature.

For much, much more on the new feature, check out the link below.

[Vimeo]

Vimeo adds HTML 5 universal player for iPad, iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Why won’t my iPhone or iPad case work with this cable? is one of the questions we’re being asked a lot lately. A naked iPhone can pretty much fit any sync, charge, or media cable you connect it with at home, at work, or on the go. When you start introducing some types of cases, however, and add in different kinds of cables — all bets are off.

The UBS to Dock cable Apple includes with every iPhone and iPad case is typically razor thin. It just has an incredibly small profile and will generally fit almost any case you throw at it. [Cheap plug: the Apple USB cable with AC adapter is 50% off right now at the TiPb Store]

Other cables, especially when you get into things like car or video connectors can be broader, thicker and fatter. Maybe it’s a lack of forethought, maybe it’s a matter of shielding, maybe it’s both.

If your iPhone or iPad has a skin shield, it’s basically the same as being naked and not a problem. With cases, your mileage will certainly vary.

Many of the very light, thin cases, especially where they have very large cutouts around the dock, aren’t usually a problem either. It’s when you start getting into the thicker, more protective cases that are cut tighter around the dock that there starts to be a problem. Namely, the thicker cables don’t fit.

In an ideal world all cables would be as thin as possible and all cases would have the ports cut as wide as protection allows. In the real world, here are your options:

• If you want to use one of the cases that offers better protection try to get as thin a cable as possible.

• If you want to use thicker car, media, or other cables, get case that’s cut as wide around the dock as possible.

The same rules can apply to some cases when matched with some headsets as well. It’s a mix-and-match game that accessory makers have forced onto iPhone and iPad users.

If you’ve come up with any particularly good matches, let us know in the comments!

Why won’t my iPhone or iPad case work with this cable? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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I went by Apple’s Canadian Flagship store this week and there was a lineup of about 100 people waiting for iPhone 4. Actually, waiting just to see if there’d be a shipment of iPhone 4 so they could lineup for those. Apple staff said it’s been happening every day around 10am. Even some of the smaller stores are seeing dozens of people lining up every morning. Checking with carrier stores it was the same, only they had less stock to begin with. So did the Best Buys and other big boxes. As Apple COO Tim Cook said about the US launch a month earlier, iPhone 4 is selling out as fast as Apple can make and deliver them.

This isn’t launch day. This isn’t artificial supply constraints. This isn’t a product that’s only available in Apple Stores. This is a single phone sold in probably more places than any other phone. It’s on every carrier, it’s in every tele-franchise, it’s in every big box.

Or it would be, if they had stock.

Curiously, Apple hasn’t put out a press release with post-international launch sales numbers, but we’ll keep an eye on next quarter’s result.

International lineups persist for iPhone 4 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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During QuakeCon 2010, ID Software’s co-founder John Carmack demoed Rage on a iPhone 4 running at a very impressive 60 frames-per-second. And what’s maybe even more impressive is the fact that Carmack believes this game will “kill anything done on the Xbox or PlayStation 2.” We first heard of Rage coming to the iPhone and iPad back in March so it’s good to see that this is finally going to happen and sooner rather than later.

Any first-person-shooter fan out there should definitely be chomping at the bit to see this one land into the App Store “later this year”. And if one title is not enough, perhaps the planned sequel that will be available just in time for the 2011 launch of the PC version will make you happy.

Check out the most impressive video after the break!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

id Software’s Rage running on a iPhone 4 at 60 FPS is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Once again the internet is flooded with catchy headlines that Android outsold iPhone for the first half of 2010. And why not, that’s a great headline. But it’s also — to quote the Simpsons — unpossible.

Which Android device out sold iPhone? No, not the one with the GBs. Android is an OS, not a device. iPhone is a device, not an OS. Android is also not sold, it’s given away by Google for free. Android devices are what’s sold.

Maybe a more accurate, if admittedly awkward, headline would have been “All Android devices combined on all carriers in the US sold more than the iPhone on AT&T during the period where Apple constrained supply right before iPhone 4 launch”.

That’s not to say there aren’t Android devices that sell phenomenally well. Just one look at Android Central, especially any of the articles on Verizon’s Droid brand, will show tons of hot-selling devices. It’s just a completely different business model. No, not a truly open one, but one that values diversity. (I think there’s a good chance my fridge is even running Android now!)

In Canada, and many other countries, iPhone is available on pretty much every carrier and unlocked directly from Apple. There’s no Verizon Droid brand here. The original Droid is called the Motorola Milestone and any bets how well it sells on Telus compared to the iPhone?

Even in the US Verizon’s Motorola Droid 2 just launched yesterday to little in the way of lineups. Anyone think it will outsell iPhone 4 in Q3?

Point being, the US market is in no way, shape, or form able to express any meaningful “Android outsells iPhone” numbers or vice versa.

If iPhone shows up on Verizon next year, or better yet on Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile US, then at least the carrier field will make for more useful comparison.

And maybe that’s the point of Apple wanting iPhone on Verizon, because Android is coming on so strongly and with such good handsets lately.

So which Android device out-sold iPhone? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Chaos Rings fans rejoice! The big hit by Square Enix is now available for iPad. Users have been enjoying the iPhone version for some time now, but the new iPad version supports 1024×768px HD resolutions so you can experience beautiful graphics, detailed backgrounds, intricate character expressions, and intense battle scenes on the iPad’s large screen. The RPG features

• Amazingly smooth 3D graphics
• Gorgeous sound that takes full advantage of the iPad powerful hardware
• A deep story with unique twists for every pair and multiple endings
• Traditional game and battle systems polished to perfection
• Hours upon hours of gameplay, complete with hidden bosses, secret weapons, and more

In celebration of the release of Chaos Rings for iPad, Square Enix is offering all of their games at a discounted price for two weeks. So if there’s a title of theirs that you’ve been meaning to pick up, now’s the time.

If you choose to pick up Chaos Rings for iPad, be sure to tell us what you think!

[$15.99 - iTunes link, Square Enix - iTunes link, touchArcade]

Chaos Rings for iPad now available, all Square Enix games on sale is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Just a week after the PDF exploit was uncovered, Apple releases iOS 4.0.2 to patch the vulnerability.

The PDF security flaw was found on iOS 4.0 and 4.0.1, as well as, all versions of iPhone OS 3.1.x. The vulnerability allows hackers to complete control of iPhone by using a malicious PDF file. This iOS update is intended to fix the security bug.

Stay Away from the Upgrade if You need Jailbreaking

Unfortunately, the JailbreakMe, the browser-based jailbreak tool, also utilizes this security flaw to jailbreak iPhone running on iOS 4 and iPad running on iOS 3.2. That means, once you upgrade to the iOS for your iPhone or iPad, you can no longer jailbreak the device with JailbreakMe. So, if jailbreaking is imminent for you, DO NOT UPGRADE when iTunes prompts you.

Stay with iOS 4.0.1 for iPhone and 3.2.1 for iPad. But bare in mind that your device is exposed to an security hole and you need to take extra care when downloading PDF.

Upgrade the iOS if You think Security is more important

If you do not need jailbreaking, I highly recommend you to upgrade the iOS to the latest version for your iPhone or iPad. To upgrade, you can simply connect to your device to computer and upgrade it via iTunes.

As always, please leave us comment if you have any questions or anything you need further clarifications.

Update #1: Saurik, the creator of Cydia, will soon release a patch specially designed for jailbroken iPhone to patch the PDF security bug. Stay tuned.

Would you switch from AT&T to a Verizon iPhone 4 if such a mythical beastie ever proves real? You’d gain a different network footprint, which could provide better voice and data coverage in your area, but you’d also lose simultaneous voice and data as EVDO Rev A currently can’t walk and chew that gum at the same time.

You’d also trade AT&T customer service for Verizon customer service, which could be good or bad depending on your experience. Likewise, while AT&T has received tons of flack for their network, they’ve also had 3+ years of experience handling massive amounts of iPhone traffic, something Verizon may also struggle with.

We’ve already asked if Verizon Droid owners would switch to a Verizon iPhone, so fair’s fair, if you’re an AT&T iPhone owner, would you switch to Verizon iPhone? Simple answer in the poll up top, and tell us why or why not in the comments.

Would you switch from AT&T to a Verizon iPhone? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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