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: Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor.

This game is a blast! You play a spider who’s goal is to make it to the end of several levels from the lawn to closets. You can crawl anywhere on screen, jump with a swipe of you finger and create webs by creating a geometric pattern! The reason I like this game is that it is unique and fun! Catching bugs and finding the secret passages are a blast. The music is good, but gets a little repetitive. If you are in the mood for something different, give Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor a try! [$2.99 - iTunes link]

James’ Pick: SportsTap

SportsTap is a free application that allows you to keep up with the latest sports news and scores. The app also utilizes Push Notifications to alert you when your favorite team starts a game, every time there is a score update, and when the game is complete. A necessity for any sports fan who can’t watch the game! [Free - iTunes link]

Jeremy’s Pick: Zombies & Me

Electronic Arts has put together this fun little game that is perfect for “killing” a few minutes out of your day. At $.99 it really is a quality game that’s worth picking up. Did I mention you blow up zombies? [$0.99 - iTunes link]

Justin’s Pick: The Weather Channel

With hurricane season starting to kick into gear with the first named storm this is definitely an app I want to have handy. I’ve used this app for a while and it has come a long way since the early versions. You can view radar, watch videos, check severe weather alerts, and much more. The only thing missing that I wish it had, especially for hurricane season, is push alerts for severe weather updates. [Free - iTunes link]

Rene’s Pick: Reportage

What with Twitter once again going up and down faster than App Store rejection policies, I’ve found myself using Reportage to “tune in” to the people I follow so I can get updates in between the echoing silence of the great, not-even-whale-failing Twitter outages. The concept remains as specialized as it is killer, and if you want to read your way through different Twitter users, I’m hard pressed to think of a better paradigm than Reportage. [$3.99 - iTunes link]

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.

Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, SportsTap, Zombies & Me, The Weather Channel, Reportage - TiPb Picks of the Week

Yet another “leaked” Apple iTablet “image”.

There’s no way Steve Jobs lets the home button cut across the bezel like that, right?

[via Silicon Alley Insider, via Nowhereelse.fr]

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

Yet Another “Leaked” Apple iTablet “Image”

(Hurricane for iPhone Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

Hurricane [$3.99 - iTunes link] is a hurricane tracking app for the iPhone and iPod touch.

Back when I lived in Florida, hurricanes were a yearly concern. Now that I am in Texas, they don't play such a prominent role but they are still something to think about. Hurricane is an app designed to try to take away some of that concern.

I have actually had this app for well over 4 months, but I wanted to wait till the middle of hurricane season so I could see it in action. And let me say, the app generally performs very well. The app starts off with a screen where you can select Atlantic or Pacific hurricanes, and then gives you a list of the active storms as well as completed storms. When you click on a storm, you can look at the radar loop, projected path, tracking map, satellite images, and bulletins. All of this allows you to try to keep on top of these potentially devastating storms.

In addition, you can look a historical storms (from last year going back to 1851) and specific data feeds (like satellite images) from a variety of sources. For people with little hurricane experience, you can also see how hurricanes are rated on the Saffir-Simpson scale. While it certainly isn't necessary, it would be nice to have some sort of hurricane checklist included (what to do, or not do, when one hits, for example).

Unfortunately, the app doesn't provide any customization options. You can specify your location and only look at storms that may hit you. You can't mark a storm as a "favorite" to keep close tabs on it. You don't get push notifications when a storm status changes (or a new alert is released). These are all kinds of features that would put this app into an elite category. In addition, there is no ability to sort or search the historical data. I can't look for all historical Cat 5 storms that have him Florida, for example. If I am curious about how frequently a specific area has been hit, I can't only include storm that hit Texas. The historical data is nice, but in the present form it is a little unwieldy unless you know exactly what you are looking for.

Conclusion

As hurricane tracking apps go, this is a nicely designed app, giving you a lot of the pertinent and critical information. If you live in a hurricane prone area, it could certainly be worth the $3.99 price. However, the app is missing some features that would move it into a premium app category (which, I should note, I haven't seen in other hurricane apps as well).

(In the interest of full disclosure, I received a promo code for this app.)

Pros

• Up to date hurricane tracking and projections
• Detailed data regarding hurricanes
• Historical data included

Cons

• No to choose "favorites"
• No push notifications
• No location based data
• No search or sort feature for historical data

TiPb Review Rating

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

App Review: Hurricane Tracking for the iPhone

Would you pay $1000 for a hand-craft, culturally symbolic iPhone case?

Crunchgear says they’re intended “to show how Japanese warlords from the Sengoku period would probably use their iPhones if they lived today”:

The so-called JAPAN TEXTURE [JP] series consists of a total of five cases with different designs. Created under the supervision of a historian, SoftBank says each case is covered with special lacquer and gold dust. It takes three to four weeks to make one, which kind of explains the price.

Given the prices for lacquer bowls, tea sets, and other object d’art, maybe $1000 is no barrier? What say you?

[Picture credit - Nobi]

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

$1000 Japanese Hand-Crafted iPhone Cases Anyone?