Today's TiPb Top 5 is directed towards our iPhone and iPod touch wielding readers who love to take notes/memos on the go. Just like our other TiPb's top 5 must-have posts, all of these applications are available in the App Store. For the full run down, follow us after the break!

Notes

Okay, all the applications are available in the App Store but this one — Apple’s Notes is built-in and comes pre-installed on every iPhone and iPod touch. And it’s not bad. Harkening back to the old PalmOS Memo app, you can add a note, start typing, hit Home, and the Note is automagically (and persistently) saved. That’s right, no explicit user action is needed — not even to name it as Notes just pulls the first line and uses that as the name. You can add new notes, edit old notes, and delete what you no longer need. You can also sync Notes via iTunes now (though not via MobileMe… get on that, Apple!)

Set up to look like a yellow, legal-esque note pad, the only drawback is the almost universally panned use of the Marker Felt font. If you can stand that, it’s simple but it’s free and you don’t even have to download it. For some users, that’s all they’ll ever need. For me, it’s perfect to jot down a hotel room, phone number, parking space, or anything else I want to remember and keep with me.

Simplenote (and Notational Velocity + DropBox)

Simplenote [Free - iTunes link] came to our attention via Daring Fireball’s John Gruber and has stayed there thanks to the Notational Velocity awesomeness highlighted by 43Folders‘ Merlin Mann.

Simplenote by itself is just as the name implies, quick, clean, and highly usable. Instead of tethered iTunes sync over USB, Simplenote offers secure wireless sync to the cloud (their WebApp). You can keep using it free with fairly unobtrusive adds, or for $8.99 a year (less than $1 a month) you can go “premium” which removes the ads and gives you auto backup (versioning), create by email, an RSS feed, unlimited API use, and some cherries on top like early access to future features.

If you’re a note ninja, however, combining Simplenotes with Notational Velocity could dang-near blow your mind. Notational Velocity is a desktop client that offers modeless operation (search is your gateway), incremental search (start typing, it starts filtering), and keyboard-optimized operation. DropBox can store the data/files so you can enjoy not only iPhone to desktop, but cross-desktop sync as well. Getting things done indeed!

This is pretty much the nuclear option when it comes to note-oriented productivity, and the scaling from just Simplenote to the cross-platform sync solution is impressive. If you’re the high-order geek and notes are where your life lives, this combo can be hard to beat.

PhatNotes

PhatNotes [$9.99 - iTunes link] is a big, bold drought of note taking. On the surface, it’s covered in icons and colors. Under the hood you can organize “thousands” of notes in folders and groups. It also supports handwriting recognition so you can scribble your note on the screen and Phatnotes will OCR it and turn it into editable text. (A process which works pretty well (and yes, internet, it does OCR and print curse words without any censorship).

You can sync PhatNotes for iPhone with the PhatNotes for Windows desktop client (no Mac client… yet?). Given the price tag, PhatNotes will most likely appeal to hardcore on-device users who want to do as much as possible on their mobile, especially if they already use PhatNotes on the PC and see the sync as a bonus.

For those who like the handwriting recognition but don’t want the higher price and fuller organizational features, the same developer offers WritePad [$1.99 - iTunes link]

Appigo Notebook

Appigo’s Notebook [$4.99 - iTunes link] earns a spot immediately simply by virtue of its integration with the excellent Appigo Todo, but proves its own worth with clever offline/online note sync handling, password protection for secure notes, Toodledo.com sync, and TextExpander [$4.99 - iTunes link] support.

The user interface is simply gorgeous and the workflow is quick and easy. Notebook isn’t free but it’s not premium priced, it’s not bound to the desktop or the cloud, and if you’re invested in Toodledo, TextExpander, and/or Appigo Todo… well, you likely have it already! If you don’t, and you want a flexible yet elegant note-taking solution, give it a look.

Evernote

We’re not just including Evernote [Free - iTunes link] so that Chad (and Leo Laporte) don’t smack us around for not including, though that’s certainly a plus. Evernote is literally — and iconically — the big elephant in the note-space. Unlike the apps above, Evernote isn’t primarily focused on traditional, text-based note taking. It puts pictures and voice right up front alongside text. What’s more, it will make text included in your photos searchable (though it won’t OCR that text and make it editable — please ad?)

You can sync Evernote for iPhone with Evernote for Windows or Mac, or for other mobile devices running Android or BlackBerry OS. If the free functionality isn’t enough for you, you can “go premium” for $5 a month or $45 a year. Premium gets you 500MB of monthly upload bandwidth, support for Office docs, PDF, and videos, share and collaborate with other premium users, and SSL encryption.

Evernote is a great choice for people who want to include a wider range of material and basically scrapbook their notes as they go. It’s also especially handy for cross-platform users with different desktop and mobile platforms. If you’re not already using a different cloud-based or desktop solution, Evernote is something to check out.

Conclusion

iPhone and iPod touch users are fortunate to enjoy a wide range of high quality note apps, everything from the built-in to tons of App Store downloads (we barely scratched the surface here!), from free to premium, from cloud-based to desktop-bound. Which one is best for you will depend on what, if anything, you’re already using and what functionality matters most to you.

If we didn’t mention your favorite, or if you have any ninja or pro tips to share to take our iPhone note-taking to the next level, let us know in the comments!

TiPb Top 5 iPhone Notes Apps is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

9to5Mac is yet again delving deep into the iPhone 3.2 SDK for iPad and this time they’ve turned up settings for internet tethering, voice mail, and MMS settings, as well as a search option for Wikipedia.

Again, whether or not this is legacy code from the iPad’s iPhone heritage, or potential future features we have no way of knowing. Being able to tether to the iPad would be good (at least for international users, since AT&T doesn’t even support iPhone tethering yet…) Being able to tether from the iPhone to the iPad would be even better, but we’re not holding our breath… Likewise voice mail and MMS are interesting to see on a data-only device.

Wikipedia, however, is a natural extension of the built-in, currently Google-centric search and on the popover-enabled iPad Safari would be especially handy. Can we have that for iPhone as well?

Still no sign of Bing, however, though the current Yahoo! option will soon be powered by Microsoft’s search engine anyway…

Video after the break!

YouTube link

iPad SDK Settings: Tethering, Voice Mail, MMS, Wikipedia Search is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

CrackBerry.com celebrates its 3rd birthday this week… and all they get is a BlackBerry Slider?!

First, we’d like to wish our sibling site, and best frenemy forever, CrackBerry.com and their fearless leader, CrackBerry Kevin a very happy 3rd birthday! They’re the #1 site for BlackBerry users… and abusers! for a reason, and they’re giving away a TON of free stuff to celebrate. If you have a BlackBerry in your other pocket, or know someone who rocks the pushy keyboard, get on over there and win you some stuff!

Now what do you get for the CrackBerry fanatic that has everything? How about leaks of a new BlackBerry slider that was once-upon-a-chuckle code-named “Mr. T”. Far as we can tell, it’s not anywhere close to what anyone would call sexy, but it does show how far RIM will go to try and get the full, touch screen but keep the physical keyboard.

It should ship with BlackBerry OS 6.0, which should include their new WebKit browser (as in the rendering engine behind iPhone Safari, as well as Google Android and Palm webOs).

Anyone wish Apple was making an iPhone slider, or are we thinking mainstream adoption of some 50,000 units shows the era of physical keyboards is over?

All CrackBerry.com Gets For it’s 3rd Birthday is… a BlackBerry Slider?! — The Competition is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Analyst doom and gloom predicted Apple would delay the iPad’s “late March” shipping date and restrict initial sales to the US and while that now seems to be the case, John Gruber over at Daring Fireball says software and not hardware was the reason:

My sources suggest [...] It was the software, not the hardware, that took a week or two longer to finish than they'd hoped. Nothing extraordinary or unusual, just the usual hard-to-predict timing of turning software that's almost ready to ship into software that's ready to ship. In the grand history of major OS release date slips, one week is pretty tame.

One week for the US, one month internationally… Can that be solely attributed to software?

DF: Software, not hardware the reason iPad is shipping in April? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Apple has just announced that the Wi-Fi iPad models will be available in the US on April 3 with pre-orders beginning March 12 via store.apple.com, with 3G and international availability following in late April. Says Steve Jobs:

"iPad is something completely new. We're excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before."

So, you ordering the second it goes online? Camping out? Avoiding completely? Waiting to see if you win one from the TiPb iPad Give Away?!

Check out the poll below and tell us your plan!

iPad Wi-Fi Available in US on April 3, Pre-Orders March 12, International Late April is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Rene takes a look at the SCOTTEVEST Quantum Jacket, Fleece 5.0 Jacket, and Ultimate Hoodie, and talks to Scott about SeV’s plans for the iPad!

As I explain in the video, this isn’t stuff I was sent to review, it’s stuff I bought to use. Based on a combination of the harsh Canadian winters, my proclivity for carrying a lot of gadgets around with me, and the traveling I’ve been doing to CES, Macworld, and now GDC next week, I went all in and have had good results.

The Quantum Jacket’s weather resistant outer shell combined with the warmth of the Fleece 5.0 kept me going on those days when it’s so cold your skin hurts on contact with the air. The dedicated, capacitive-touch friendly pockets for iPhone and iPod touch were great (though I need to make or get some capacitive gloves to really get the most out of them).

When traveling (especially this year with all the crazy security) being able to store an iPhone, iPod touch, cameras all the cables and headsets, not one but two mophie juice packs [TiPb Store link], my passport, papers, pens, and everything else — and just take it off and lay it in a security tray and then walk through the scanner is priceless. (Getting an inch around the “one carry-on rule” this year — beyond priceless).

I also had the chance to send Scott some questions about their iPad compatibility, so check out the video below and let me know what you think!

YouTube link

TiPb Gear: SCOTTEVEST Quantum Jacket, Fleece 5.0, Ultimate Hoodie for iPhone… and iPad! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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