Apple won much of the decade in AdWeek’s Best of 2000s Awards, which given their long and successive history of brilliant advertising shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to any of us in tech. And it starts right at the top with the big apple himself, Steve Jobs, Marketer of the Decade:

“Think different.” The effort relaunched the Apple brand, but carried an equally important message: Steve was back. Visionary, iconoclastic and fearless, Steve Jobs the marketer is inseparable from Steve Jobs the personality. His inimitable blend of competitive skill and design savvy hasn’t just saved a fading brand, it’s recast two businesses that used to have nothing to do with computers: music and mobile phones.

Apple also took honors for Brand of the Decade, iPod for Product of the Decade, “Get a Mac” for Campaign of the Decade, “Silhouettes” (the iPod+iTunes commercials) for Out-of-Home Ad of the Decade, and “Nike Plus” for Digital Campaign of the Decade.

Phew. Hope Steve had Phil Schiller help him cart away those trophies!

[via MacRumors]

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

Apple Owns the Decade on AdWeek’s Marketing Awards

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: Dragon Dictation

Dragon Dictation is one slick app. You can dictate then email, text or copy your text to the clipboard. I found the app to be accurate as long as there is no background noise. Oh, did I mention it’s free? [Free - iTunes link]

Chris’ Pick: Pizza Hut

Scenario: you are at a bar, loud music, a couple of beers, and you are hungry. How can the iphone help? Pizza Hut app! Set up an account, order your pizza through the app (no talking and not being able to hear on the phone), and in 30 minutes- fresh, hot pizza. Used it each of the past Fridays during the faculty bar night, and saved many a faculty from , well, being hungry. [Free - iTunes link]

Derrick’s Pick: What’s On TV

What’s On allows you to see what’s playing the not only on your TV but also what’s in the movies, Its one of my favorite apps and did I mention its free? This app is definitely a must have. [Free - iTunes link]

Georgia’s Pick: TED

The TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) Talks application allows you watch their cutting-edge videos on your iphone. Each year TED hosts some of the most awe inspiring, fascinating people. No matter what I am interested in learning about there is a TED talk about it. Here are some of my favourite iphone related TED talks: Jeff Han – Multi-Touch Interaction, David Pogue – Simplicity sells, Sir Ken Robinson – Do schools kill creativity? (And is that why Steve Jobs dropped out?!) I would be really interested to hear which are your favourite TED Talks as well! [Free - iTunes link]

James’ Pick: SmartScreen (for Jailbreak)

If there is one thing I would like to see in iPhone 4.0, it would be widgets on the lockscreen or any one my my app pages. Android does and it really adds a nice customization touch. Luckily I don’t have to wait until 4.0 for widgets, as SmartScreen offers that functionality. Only a few widgets are currently available, but the developers behind the app have released a SDK for others to develop widgets. [$5 - via Cydia]

Jeremy’s Pick: ESPN ScoreCenter

My pick this week is ESPN ScoreCenter. If you want to know why you can read all about it here… [Free - iTunes link]

Leanna’s Pick: BabyBump

When I found out I was pregnant a few days ago, I started looking for a pregnancy app almost immediately and BabyBump is excactly what I was looking for. For each new week of the pregnancy stage, BabyBump provides information about the developmental progress of my baby including its approximate size/weight, an object that is similar in size (this week, Baby is about the size of a poppyseed), and a picture of what my baby looks like. BabyBump also gives weekly information on what changes I can expect with my body and a place for me to store a picture of my belly for my records. In the journal, I can keep a daily record of my weight, waist size, moods, and anything else I want to record. BabyBump also has a kick and contractions counter that can be shared directly with Facebook and Twitter. BabyBump is the pregnancy app to have and I highly recommend it for all pregnant women. [$4.99 - iTunes link]

Matt’s Pick: Waze

Waze is a community map navigation application. Waze has an initial base map in it, which users then help verify the roads by simply leaving the app running while driving. The application will also notice if traffic is getting heavy (live traffic reporting) and reports it to the community map so other people that might be traveling that route can avoid that area. That is one of the numerous features that Waze offers. Overall, the routing was decent and the turn-by-turn prompts are is very good. [Free - iTunes link]

Rene’s Pick: Tweetie 2

Trying to do this year’s @SPERoundRobin (#RoundRobin) without a good, nay — great Twitter app would be very, very difficult. I’m not using Tweetie 2 with it’s excellent re-tweet, search, saved-search, and other functions has been a sanity savor. I use tons of Twitter apps. I try new ones whenever they come out. Thus far, I’m still going back to Tweetie 2 because it’s a powerhouse and it just suits my brain — such as it remains. [$2.99 - 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.

Dragon Dictation, Pizza Hut, What’s On, TED Talks, SmartScreen, ESPN ScoreCenter, BabyBump, Waze, Tweetie 2 – TiPb Picks of the Week

Are recent iPhone reception problems on Rogers Canada the result of Bell and Telus putting up “dummy” HSPA towers? That’s what a Rogers rep told one customer who complained about calls cutting in and out for the last couple of weeks.

I apologize for the inconvenience that is happening with you’re iphone. It is probable due to the new hspa dummy towers being put up by other carriers that it is interfering with you’re signal. So I would advise to manually select the rogers network instead of the phone doing an automatic selection which it does by default. To manually connect on an iphone do the following. On the phone go to ’settings’ then go to ‘carriers’ uncheck automatic and only select rogers from that list.

I’ve been having similar problems, only while in the western part of downtown Montreal, and also only for the last two weeks, and I know of almost a half-dozen others with the same problem in the same area.

Are dummy HSPA towers a likely explanation? We’ll give Rogers’ proposed solution a try and get back to you. If you’ve been having the same problem, let us know if it works, or if you have other ideas.

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

Rogers iPhone Reception Problems Due to “Dummy” Bell and Telus HSPA Towers?

Can you run an iPhone without an AT&T voice or data contract, and could a Verizon (or Sprint) MiFi be used instead (insert iPhone on Verizon! humor here). That’s what TiPb reader Angie wants to know:

Can you use an iPhone with wifi? like I have Verizon MiFi and cannot afford the AT&T data cost for the iPhone.

TiPb answers after the break!

For those unfamiliar, MiFi is an EVDO modem and WiFi router all-in-one. So, you can use it to connect to Verizon or Sprint’s 3G network, and share that connection with several WiFi enabled devices. For geeks, they’re pretty much little pocket-sized miracles.

So, you could run all the basic iPhone internet functions by connecting to your MiFi over WiFi, including surfing the web, checking email, downloading music and video from iTunes, and of course getting and using App Store apps. About the only thing you wouldn’t be able to use is the Phone and SMS/MMS. However, VoIP apps like Skype could mitigate the phone part — our good friend Matt Miller from NokiaExperts.com has been Skype’ing away on his N900 via MiFi and enjoying it. Likewise, IM or faux-SMS apps, of which there are tons and tons in the App Store, could make messaging livable as well. WebApps like Google Voice if that’s how you roll, can get around SMS as well.

It won’t be perfect — you’ll have to set up your MiFi and wait for your iPhone to connect, and incoming calls would be a hassle since VoIP won’t run in the background on a stock iPhone, but it’s the closest anyone can come to an iPhone on Verizon, or iPhone on Sprint these days.

Now, if you Jailbreak your iPhone, then GV Mobile (Google Voice), Backgrounder-enabled Skype, and many other options become available.

If anyone else has tried running their iPhone off of a Mifi on Verizon and/or Sprint, please add a comment below and let Angie know how it worked for you.

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

TiPb Answers — Can You Skip AT&T and Use an iPhone Over Verizon (or Sprint) MiFi?

TiPb-verse, the 2009 Smartphone Round Robin starts NOW! And for me, it starts with what’s likely the biggest challenge — Nokia and its dual platforms of Symbian S60 and Maemo as represented by the N97-mini and the netbook-that-thinks-its-a-smartphone, N900. Hugely popular everywhere that’s not North America, it wasn’t in last year’s Round Robin, and truth-be-told, I’ve barely ever seen it before.

To get some extra help, I’ve got a post up at NokiaExperts.com, where I’m really hoping to get my understanding expanded a notch (or ten).

Dieter Bohn, on duty for Palm webOS has likewise triumphantly returned to TiPb’s iPhone forums, and you folks really need to get in there an get him up to date on all things iPhone 3GS and 3.x.

(As extra incentive, remember that every day you post a reply on those threads (or the other Round Robin threads) you get another chance to win on of six (6!) smartphones — one per site!)

To get things kicked off right, we’ve got a video after the break where likely the best man on earth for the job, Matt Miller gives me a guided tour of the N97-mini and N900, helps me with the interface, and reveals the awesome power of the platforms.

Next up, I spend the week figuring out what Symbian S60 and Maemo mean in relation to the iPhone, the smartphone space in general, and to new users considering their first platform, or veterans considering making the switch. That’ll all be summed up right here on Friday. Can’t. Wait.

[YouTube Link]

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

Nokia N900, N97-mini Hands-on Video, Smartphone Round Robin