Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game.

So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!

Chad’s Pick: iPhone 3G S

The iPhone 3GS is my pick for the week! Though the outside may seem old, it is “all new” on the inside! Look for my post about what I specifically like about this model of iPhone, till then! [$199/$299 on subsidy - Apple link]

[Easy out! - Ed]

Chris’ Pick: iPhone 3G S

Is there anyone who wouldn’t pick the iPhone 3GS as the pick of the pick?

[Apparently not! - Ed]

James’ Pick: Mophie Juice Pack

As with most of us TiPBers, I use my iPhone for everything, which causes the battery to drain by noon. Enter the Juice Pack. I am able to recharge the battery in the go so I can still check the latest news from TiPB. A must for the heavy iPhone users out there!

Leanna’s Pick: The Sims 3

The Sims 3 on iPhone 3GS - I have always been a fan of The Sims and was disappointed when it didn’t meet my expectations on iPhone 3G because of lag and crashes. On iPhone 3GS, however, The Sims 3 is a great game and I have yet to experience any performance issues. I now control my sim (named affectionately after my dear husband) with smooth scrolling, quick load times, and zero lag thanks to iPhone 3GS! [$9.99 - iTunes link]

Matt’s Pick: TxtDrop

TxtDrop is a web-app that allows you to send text messages to anyone’s cell phone (it also supports international users; however, it is not an iPhone web-app). I was initially concerned about privacy, but after reading their Private Policy (and viewing other trust-website-lookups), it look safe. If you are worried about getting spammed you can add your phone number to their block call list. I thought this was a nice as I have never found a “truly” free text messaging as some of the apps that do this still cost to purchase them [Free- Web link]

Rene’s Pick: BeeJiveIM 3.0

I was worried when I tried some beta Push Notification apps. The alerts themselves were great, but the apps took a long time to load, login to their own servers, and fetch the original data. BeeJiveIM 3.0 helped assuage those worries. It’s quick — on the iPhone 3G thank you very much! — and when you add BeeJiveIM’s already great functionality with iPhone 3.0 push convenience… swoon

Apple, what’s taking so long to approve this?!

Your Pick?

You’re part of team TiPb too, so what’s your pick? What app was your absolute fav last week? Let us — and everyone — know in the comments!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3G S, Mophie Juice Pack, the Sims 3, TxtDrop, BeeJiveIM 3.0 - TiPb Picks of the Week

Throwing any last remnants of fragile self-consciousness to the four winds, I break out my subpar French and very rusty Italian and Mandarin Chinese (Aiya!) and see if, even under the onslaught of terrible accents, Apple’s new iPhone 3G S Voice Control can still do as it’s told.

Note: the accent appears to be key. If you say a command in French, you can’t pronounce the following name English-style and expect good results (though Chinese seemed much more English name tolerant). However, I tried some (poorly rendered) regional accents at the very end and that didn’t seem to be a problem.

If you’re multilingual, or have a colorful twang to your speech, give it a try and let us know how Voice Control works for you!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb Video: iPhone 3G S Multilingual Voice Control Challenge

iPhone 3G S comes with typical shiny white Apple headset buds, but for the first time these earbuds sport the new “remote”, which includes volume controls and more.

Apple previously introduced iin-ear headsets with remote and mic for the second generation iPod touch (and aluminum MacBooks) in September 2008, but clearly labeled them as not-compatible with the iPhone 2G or iPhone 3G because the “remote” part was useless.

What a different a generation makes.

Now the full control scheme introduced with the 4th gen iPod shuffle is available to iPhone 3G S owners with one notable difference — holding down the center button activates Voice Control.

(Thanks Bruce for the tip!)

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3G S (Finally!) Supports Full Apple Headset Remote Features

We’re really not sure how, or even if and when, to cover Steve Jobs anymore. We’d just rather report he’s back at work, personally carving the 4th gen iPhone out of adamantium, and not telling Kevin Rose anything about Video iChat.

Absent information, rumor spreads, however, and given that — we’re not really sure where the Wall Street Journal’s latest piece falls exactly.

If you don’t care about the details, they claim Jobs is recovering from surgery and still expected back at Apple later this month, just like Apple has been saying all along.

If you do want more, check out their article.

Either way, get well soon Steve Jobs.

(Thanks to RascalsBarbers and DigitalLifeDad for the tips)

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Wall Street Journal on Steve Jobs

Pinger fulfills the longstanding demand for SMS-style alerts with iPhone 3.0-style support for Push Notifications in the aptly named Textfree 3.0 ($5.99 - iTunes link).

What does that buy you? One year of free text messages for the iPhone (and iPod touch!). With support for every U.S. mobile carrier, including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, Alltel, and others, if the idea of paying Big Telco big money for incredibly small amounts of text doesn’t appeal to you, check out Textfree 3.0 and let us know what you think!

Screenshots after the break!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App: Textfree 3.0 with Push Notification for iPhone

Busy week for TiPb in the media! Smartphone Experts Editor-in-Chief Dieter Bohn joined CNN’s Richard Quest on Quest Means Business yesterday to talk about the Latest smartphones

iPhone 3G S, Palm Pre, and “any of the others” are discussed. Give it a watch!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb on CNN - Quest Means Business

According to Anandtech, Dieter was spot on in his iPhone 3G S vs. Palm Pre browser speed test video. (as was our iPhone 3G S vs. iPhone 3G smackdown video)

The bigger story, of course, is not only do we have several great devices pushing competition and better serving users these days, but Mobile WebKit (the rendering engine behind Apple’s Safari, Google’s Chrome Lite, Palm Pre’s browser, and Nokia S60 (tip of the hat to Sascha Segan) has become the mobile internet platform.

That it’s relentlessly standards based, scales elegantly from desktop (where it ironically holds minimal share) to handset, and is continually being improved upon makes us especially happy for all concerned devices.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3G S vs. Palm Pre Web Render Benchmarks

We’re figuring a lot of folks will default to the ubiquitous YouTube for iPhone 3G S video sharing, since Apple was user-minded enough to include it in the options. But for those who want pristine QuickTime quality, the Mobile Me news blog has you covered:

The new iPhone 3G S lets you shoot video in addition to photos, and sharing those videos on your MobileMe Gallery works exactly the same. From your camera roll choose what you want to share — video or photo — tap the arrow in the lower left corner, and choose Send to MobileMe. Enter a title, choose the album you want to publish to, and tap Publish. (If there are no albums in your Gallery, one called “New Album” will be automatically created.) Click here to learn more about Gallery.

If you’re sharing some iPhone 3G S video, let us know how you like the quality, and the MobileMe gallery uploads.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

How To: Share iPhone 3G S Video via Mobile Me

We’re pretty sure you were turning your eyes to TiPb today for the haps on the iPhone 3G S launch, but you weren’t alone in seeking out the sage wisdom found here. Our very own Rene Ritchie had a brief spot on NPR’s Marketplace, a daily half-hour radio show devoted to all things financial. Rene’s take:

iPhoneblog editor Rene Ritchie says people might scale back on downloading music, kill their landline, even cut back on their cable. But they will not do without their smartphones.

Rene Ritchie: I think they’re becoming increasingly a necessity. Now your instant messages, everything can be popping up at you 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Ritchie says now that smart phones have made it possible, we’re all expected to be on call around the clock. Employers want to be able to reach their employees at will. Clients expect immediate attention. Friends feel snubbed if you don’t text them back, right now.

You darn tootin, Mr. Ritchie. Jump to 8:15 in the show to hear the story, or hit up 9:30 to hear the dulcet tones of your favorite iPhone blogger.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb on NPR, OMG