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: Chipotle

The iPhone is revolutionary. Why? I just placed an order for a Chipotle Burrito on my iPhone! You can create an online account, give your order a name, pick a location and voila! The order interface is easy and clean. You can add multiple orders and pay wih your credit card all on your iPhone. Yummy! [Free - iTunes link]

Chris’ Pick: Lion Pride

I just downloaded and have been trying Lion Pride. This game is similar in some ways to games like Harbor Master and Flight Control – except you are a lion trying to eat your prey! You control a lion or lions, and try to hunt your prey – between stalking and outright chasing your food items, between different strategies for different prey, the game can be quite involving. The normal game is $.99, but if you want to try it first, there is a “lite” demo for free. [$0.99 - iTunes link

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James’ Pick: iVillain Theme (Jailbreak)

I tried not to. I really tried not to jailbreak. I was happy with my “stock” iPhone 3GS. Then I saw this theme…and I liked it. I could resist no more. If you have seen the HTC Sense UI, you will recognize it immediately as a “port” of the skin to the iPhone. It was easy to install and configure. There are also a few variations of the them included in the link. [Free - Web link]

Jeremy’s Pick: Local Concerts

Great free app for anyone who likes to be kept in the loop of local concerts. Too many times I find out one of my favorite bands played a live show after the fact, not anymore. Local Concerts pushes all new local live concerts directly to your iPhone. Can’t beat that for the price of…. [Free - iTunes link]

Leanna’s Pick: Enigmo 2

Enigmo was one of the first apps I purchased when the App Store was launched and I loved it. Now Pangea Software has recently released Enigmo 2 and it’s awesome. Instead of manipulating only droplets, you must also direct lazers and plasma with reflectors and gravity balls in 3-dimensional space. If you enjoyed playing the orignal Enigmo, I highly recommend picking up Enigmo 2. [$3.99 - iTunes link]

Matt’s Pick: Otterbox Defender iPhone case

I have been eyeing this case for quite some time & finally I figure I “needed” it. The case is quite worth the price. It literally “seals” your iPhone inside so that no dirt can get inside, I’d definitely say it is spash-proof, but not waterproof. The only really exposed area is the speakers. I unintentionaly did a six foot drop “test” in the case and survived. The only issue I encountered was where – the overlay screen protector sticks to the iPhone screen creating a watermarked effect. It’s easily solved with an anti-glare screen protector (at least this is the one I used.) [$44.95 - TiPb Store link]

Rene’s Pick: iPhone 3.1 + iTunes 9

Had. To. Be. Picked. (Especially after Leanna stole Enigmo 2 from me!) While on the surface iPhone 3.1 appears to contain… nothing on the surface, when you combine it with iTunes 9, all the much-needed bug fixes and feature fill-ins really start to shine — especially with things like in-iTunes app management, and Genius for Apps. Unless you’re jailbroken or desperate for a few early weeks of AT&T MMS and tethering, get this update now. [Free - Web 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.

Chipotle, Lion Pride, iVillain Theme, Local Concerts, Enigmo 2, Otterbox Defender, iPhone 3.1, iTunes 9 – TiPb Picks of the Week

At Apple’s annual special music event, this year dubbed “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it” they announced a new, old-style album-centric offering called iTunes LP. The image painted was of a young Steve Jobs, grabbing his bike, riding to the music store, buying the latest Dylan on vinyl, racing home, putting it on his turn table, and then lying back and listening, while pouring over the album art, liner material, lyrics, and other extras.

Fast forward to the era of CDs, and ultimately iTunes and digital downloads, and extras became less common, as did buying entire albums. For lazy artists who made one or two good songs and loaded the rest with filler, well deserved. For true artists who wrote albums like epics, like symphonies in multiple parts, well… the listener was the one missing out.

Admittedly, when we first heard about iTunes LP, code-named Cocktail, we worried that Big Music was trying to force Apple to force us to buy those lazy, filler-filled albums, and maybe even sneak DRM (Digital Rights Management) back into our freshly-liberated iTunes.

Turns out that young Steve Jobs and his Dylan album was closer to what we get with iTunes LP than a Big Music lock down scheme. And thank goodness for that.

Web developer Jay Robinson (via Daring Fireball) has taken a closer look at iTunes LP, and provided lots of great details for those interested in the format. Like what?

• The iTunes LP files are ITLP format and rather large (~500MB)
• They’re in 720p, (which is confusing for smaller display sizes like on some laptops, but might make sense on Apple TV, or dare we say, an iTablet?)
• iTunes LP visualizer
• Internal structure uses WebKit (the foundation of Safari) for rendering, HTML 4.01, CSS, and Javascript.
• And best of all — DRM-free! (YES!)

Check out Robinson’s full write up for a lot more on the new iTunes LP format, and if you try it out, tell us what you get and how you like it!

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

Inside iTunes LP: No DRM, Lots of WebKit

Updating to iPhone 3.1 this weekend? TiPb’s got your back!

• Complete iPhone 3.1 Software Walkthrough
• Warning for those with jailbroken or unlocked iPhones
• Need help? Having problems? Head on over to TiPb’s iPhone Forums!

We’re also going to keep track of known iPhone 3.1 issues and bugs, so if enough of us find the same problems, we’ll post on them and they’ll automagically get added to the list.

Go luck and happy updating!

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

Updating to iPhone 3.1? Here’s What You Need!

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

In the turn by turn wars, Sygic has entered the fray with their Mobile Maps US. They also have versions for a number of other countries. Like all turn by turn apps, this one allows you to create navigation routes, utilize points of interest (POI), and assists in the actual driving of the route by giving you turn-by-turn directions. So how does it compare? Read on to find out.

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

First thing I want to say is I love the interface. Probably this was my favorite of all four apps I have tested so far. The buttons are clear and large, meaning they are easy to read and easy to selection. The options make sense (such as "route", "settings", "navigate to"). I never found myself trying to figure out what button I needed to hit.

The routing overview options are great – you can see the instructions, see the route as images, see a summary, see a demo of the route, and even show a large map with your route. Likewise, when choosing a navigation point, there are a number of clear options – point on a map, GPS position, city center, address, POI, etc. Unfortunately there is no integration with your iPhone contacts – something that I would consider almost essential for any turn by turn GPS app.

When creating a route, you have some nice options I haven't seen in some of the other apps. You can choose shortest and fastest (pretty standard), but you can also choose economical, pedestrian, and bicycle. Unfortunately you need to choose these in the settings, and can't adjust them on a trip by trip basis. You do have the option of requesting an "alternate route" once your route is created, but it will still use your existing preferences. You can also choose to add an intermediate point (travel via…) if you want to go by a specific city or town. You can also choose to avoid an upcoming segment (the next mile, the next ½ mile, etc). Unfortunately, you can't do this in advance to avoid a specific segment of the trip, it only avoids the next immediate segment. Lastly, you can choose to avoid traffic delays, but I am not sure if this downloads actual traffic data, or bases it on travelling through a city center (or historical traffic data). I tried it a couple of times, but didn't find any change in my planned route.

When driving, you can have a speed warning option turned on, that will warn you when you are going over a speed limit by a user-defined amount. There is supposed to be an audible warning, but I never heard one. In addition, the speed limits seemed somewhat variable – sometimes they were accurate, sometimes they were wrong, and sometimes they were missing. You have the option of defining some of the data that appears on the screen – ETA, distance remaining, speed, time remaining, etc. I like this a lot because it enables everyone to choose what information they would find most valuable. The driving interface is nice, pretty standard with views like "night time view", and it can be viewed in landscape mode as well. The turn by turn directions are good, although it doesn't read the street names (it does read highway route numbers, though). The voice also includes little qualifiers like "turn immediately" if you need to make a quick turn following another turn. I find information like this helpful when driving. You can also see the POI on the map as you are driving (and can choose which icons you are able to see). Unfortunately, I couldn't find anyway within the app to disable the screen off function, so my screen kept turning off as I was driving.

So those are some of the good features about the Sygic app. Unfortunately, there were two really big flaws that were glaring. The first is when it comes to routing options – the routing options make no sense. Just like the other apps, I used this app to plan a route from Edinburg, TX to Terlingua, TX. A trip that I know is about 600 miles. I choose the shortest route, and it had me driving up THROUGH San Antonio – adding about 100 miles to the trip. I tried to hit "find alternate route", and it took me up through Fort Worth…adding another 150 miles to the trip. So if I followed these directions, a 600 mile trip would have turned into a 700 or 850 mile trip. It was only after driving for about an hour on what I knew was the shortest route (or at least a shorter route) that the app finally gave me the instructions I wanted (which was calculated out to be shorter than the 700 miles it had suggested originally).

In addition, if you go off route, rather than trying to calculate a new route based on your current location, it seems to try to only get you BACK on to the previous route. So this app was telling me, at various times, to take a u-turn, drive back another 15 miles to the point where I went off the planned route, then continue from there. If I cancelled that route and created another one, that's when it would then give me the best route from my current location.

Lastly, the maps seem very out of date. One of the first things I noticed was that the map for my home town didn't have my street on it. Now, my street is fairly new (within the past 5 years) so maybe that was a simple mistake. But when I was planning my trip to Terlingua, TX, Terlingua didn't even come up as a town in Texas! So in addition to missing roads, the app is missing whole towns. This may not be a factor if you are living in a large metropolitan area, but if could be a concern if you are living somewhere less developed (or travelling somewhere like that).

Driving around town I had no problems with this app. It seemed to have most of the POI that I was looking for (although the database was a little bit lacking). It also generally suggested reasonable routes to take (even if they weren't the exact same ones I would have suggested). The real problems with this app came with the long distance travel.

Conclusion

All in all, there are many things I like about this app, but in the end the two glaring problems prevented me from giving it a strong recommendation. This app may be fine if you live and travel only in large, well known areas. But if you plan to go to smaller towns or visit newer roads, you will have a hard time using this app. These facts, combined with a few other flaws (lack of contact integration, poor route planning) leads me to reduce the rating, despite the great user interface and some nice features and options I haven't seen on other TBT apps. For $39.99 [on sale, typically $59.99], I would expect to get accurate maps and better routing instructions. Three out of five stars. (I welcome and will post any comments from the app programmers in response to this review)

UPDATE

I just received an email from Sygic – contact integration and text to speech (reading road names) are going to be in the next update.

text-to-speech, i.e. voice guidance announcing the name of the next street or road in North America, Australia and New Zealand, the ability to choose addresses straight from iPhone contacts and navigate to them, smooth fading out of the music playback before the voice instructions, enhanced GPS lock, smoother position display when moving on the route. Also, the navigation will automatically resume after completion of phone call, without the need to tap the ‚Accept’ button anymore.

Pros:

• Includes nice routing options
• Can avoid upcoming route segments
• Nice interface and customization options

Cons

• No contact integration
• Maps out of date
• Sometimes route choices are questionable

TiPb Review Rating

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

App Review: Sygic MobileMaps US

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse was put on Charlie Rose’s hot seat and asked the pointed question: “Is the Palm Pre making a dent into the iPhone market?”

Hesse’s response?

Aaah… It’s-it’s doing well, but you can almost put the iPhone, to be fair, in a separate category. The Apple brand and that device have done so well, it’s almost not… it’s like comparing someone to Michael Jordan.

Gizmodo figured they’d remind Hesse that it was, in fact, the same category and that Apple needs competition (the consumer needs competition). Engadget thinks it was a duly respectful and tactful acknowledgement of the iPhone’s success.

We think it’s nice to hear a wireless CEO who’s not so bombastic and, frankly, disconnected as most of them seem to be, as evident by Hesse’s answers on Android, Nextel, the price of touchscreen handsets, and battery life as an impediment to smartphone growth.

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

CEOh-Snap: Sprint Says Comparing Palm Pre to iPhone is “like comparing someone to Michael Jordan”