It’s almost time! You ready?! Come 6pm PT, 9pm ET, 2am GMT, we’ll be live over at:

http://live.tipb.com/live/

And yes we’ll be giving out some promo codes for some awesome apps. You want them? Come join us live and get them!

iPhone live! podcast tonight (Promo code give-aways anyone?) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

YouTube Link

360 Panorama for iPhone just issued a large update to their popular panorama app that uses the built-in gyroscope feature. This essentially allows you to capture more accurate panoramic photos much easier. It can take a bit longer than a standard stitching app but the overall quality seems to be better. As iPhone photography becomes even more prominent and mainstream, good photography apps tend to do well. 360 Panorama is definitely an app to check out if you enjoy editing and taking photos on your iPhone.

When you first load the app you’ll be presented with a 360 view grid with an image in it. You’ll simply select capture and the app will capture what you’re viewing as a panorama in real time. The app has built-in light sensing too as well. This will automatically help the app adjust for low light settings. In good light settings, you should have no problem panning continuously to get a pretty good shot. In low light, I tended to go a bit slower to prevent seeing seams in the image.

Occipital has also mentioned that holding your phone at an angle also allows you to maximize capture area. This is a great feature if you have good light quality. In a low light setting, this feature wasn’t too great and I’d still recommend holding it in portrait.

After you’ve finished creating your panoramic shot, you can view it live in the app as a 360 view image. Simply rotate your phone and the gyroscope feature will automatically pan the live shot for you (refer to video for example). You also have the option to save the image to your camera roll as a regular image, e-mail it, or upload. Some uploads allow the full 360 view as well. Nice little add on for those who want an interactive photo.

Overall, I’d say this is one of the better pano apps I’ve used on my iPhone. The only issue that really bugged me was that when you attempted to move the phone up and down a bit in order to maximize a capture area, the image didn’t line up very well and you’d be left with overlapping elements. But for a simple 360 shot, this app will be a great addition to anyone’s photography app portfolio.

Pros

• Extremely easy to use
• You have options when it comes to sharing your photos in-app
• Rendering time is faster than other similar panoramic applications
• Overall quality is much better (in most situations) than stitching applications

Cons

• When creating a pano, if you move your phone up and down, sometimes the seams don’t match up properly
• In low light settings, seams can be noticeable if you pan around too quickly

360 Panorama For iPhone – app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

You can say goodbye devilish red eyes and blemishes with Perfect Photo 2.0 for iPhone. The popular photo editing application has just released a significant update that, in addition to red eye removal and spot healing, also includes:

• Retina display support
• New user interface design
• Sharing to Flickr
• Sharing files via Documents folder
• Hi-quality image processing

Perfect photo has recently become my favorite photo editing application and I welcome this update with open arms. The new interface is substantially better than the previous one.

Now for the give-away! The good folks over at MacPhun LLC have generously given us a few promo codes to give away to you, our awesome readers. Just let us know why Perfect Photo will be the perfect addition to your photography app collection and we’ll randomly choose a few of you and send you a promo code. The contest begins now and ends Friday, December 3 at 8p EST. (Must have US iTunes account to win. Apple’s rule, not ours!)

Check out the video after the break!

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

[YouTube link]

Perfect Photo 2.0 brings red eye removal and spot healing to iPhone [give-away] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Glasshouse Apps released its newest application for iPhone today — Gift Plan. With Gift Plan, you can keep a detailed shopping list that tracks your spending. You can also keep track of your loved ones’ clothing sizes and likes and create individual lists filled with gift ideas. But Gift Plan’s usefulness doesn’t end with Christmas — keep track of birthdays and anniversaries and receive notifications to remind you of these important occasions. Speaking of lists, here’s what Gift Plan has to offer:

• Chronological, filterable list of upcoming occasions
• Contacts birthday importing
• Facebook birthday importing
• Customizable color-coded occasion types
• Shopping list with support for prices and tally
• Customizable recipient profiles
• Up to two notifications prior to each occasion plus one on the day
• Calendar view with color-coded occasion indicators
• Optional passcode protection
• Beautiful user interface with full retina graphics

The interface of Gift Plan is simply beautiful. Each individual has their own profile where you can see their personal tastes, gift ideas, sizes and upcoming occasions all at a glance. There are also elegantly designed pages to view occasions, ideas, shopping lists, and calendar.

If you pick this one up. Let us know what you think!

Check out the screenshots after the break!

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

Gift Plan for iPhone makes holiday shopping easier is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Have a rather large iTunes library and curious how to still get it all your apps, games, movies, music, TV shows, and podcasts onto your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad? Fret not, w’re going to show you a neat little trick to help cut down the size of your music and fit more of everything else… after the break!

Built right into iTunes is a feature that automatically converts your higher bit rate song (256kbps is the current standard) to 128kbps for optimized transfer to your iPhone and iPad. Music lovers might not want to risk any loss of quality but for most people the difference is not distinguishable and the storage savings are significant. Here’s what to do:

• Plug your iPhone and iPad into iTunes
• Select “Convert Higher Bit Rate Songs to 128kbps AAC”
• Sync
• That’s it!

Note: if you have a large iTunes library it might take a long time to do the initial conversion (my 495+ song took about an hour) but it only happens the first time and when it’s done you’ll have tons of space for videos, apps, or anything else (I saved about 3.4GB!)

Bonus tip: With iTunes 10, if you just select the “convert” box, the memory display bar will automatically adjust, so you can see how much space you’ll be saving before hand and can decide if it’s really worth it to you.

It’s too bad they don’t offer this for video! If you try it out, let us know how much space you saved and if you have any questions, leave them in comments!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward.)

Tip: How to get more apps and media onto your 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

According to the latest data from The Nielsen Company, Apple’s iOS for iPhone and RIM’s BBOS for BlackBerry are neck-and-neck for total U.S. smartphone operating system market share sitting at 27 percent each. Android OS, which powered a bunch of phones from Motorola, HTC, Samsung, and others, is hot on their heels now sitting at 22 percent of total U.S. Market share.

Among users planning to get a new smartphone, current smartphone owners showed a preference for the Apple iPhone (35 percent), while 28 percent of both smartphone and featurephone planned smartphone upgraders indicated they wanted a device with an Android operating system as their next mobile phone.

Featurephone owners planning to get a smartphone are less likely to have made up their mind about the OS they will choose: 25 percent were "not sure" what their next desired OS might be compared to 13 percent of smartphone owners. Those over 55 were markedly less certain than younger mobile users, with 27.8 saying they weren't sure what kind of device they wanted next, compared to 12.2 percent of those 18 to 24.

Apple's iPhone and devices with the Android operating system were the "most desired" among likely smartphone upgraders, with Apple showing a slight lead among those age 55+ , 18 to 24, and 25 to 34.

Women planning to get a smartphone are more likely to want an iPhone as their next device, with slightly more males preferring Android.

We know if you’re reading TiPb you probably like the iPhone but what’s your opinion on the survey, do the results match what you’re seeing with your friends and colleagues?

[ Nielsen via Engadget ]

Apple iPhone now tied with BlackBerry for US market share, Android catching up is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

aTV Flash for Apple TV (2010) is here, bringing with it the ability to view HTML5 content through a custom browser, view the weather, RSS feeds, and adds last.fm access. aTV Flash also supports a pethora of video formats as well, including – .m4v, .mp4, .mov for video, HE-AAC, AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV for audio.

As of now, there is one down side – you’ll need to be running iOS 4.0 on your Apple TV in order for aTV Flash to work. The developers say a version that will work on 4.1 is coming soon though. Using aTV Flash will not interfere with any regular features of AppleTV. aTV Flash also boasts simple installs and easy upgrades.

When you pre-order aTV Flash for $19.95, you’ll gain instant access to the beta version.

Any TiPb users out there plan to pick this up and try it out? If so, what features are you most looking forward to using on your AppleTV?

[via MacStories, via FireCore]

aTV Flash now available: Brings new video features to Apple TV (2010) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Verizon has officially launched their 4G LTE network with a website, press release… but no phones yet, and especially no LTE iPhone 4G. Non-iPhone LTE phones should come by mid-2011 though we’ll probably get some sneak peaks at CES this January. Rumors still heavily suggest an iPhone 4 on Verizon early next year but just like Apple stuck to EDGE for iPhone 2G, it’s assumed they’ll be sticking to CDMA for the Verizon iPhone.

This LTE (Long Term Evolution) deployment is just the beginning of the slow, steady march towards true, fantastically fast 4G connectivity and early radios will no doubt be battery hogging, network clogging, voice-hybrid technology. Based on previous behavior, Apple will avoid them and put out an LTE iPhone 4G (and iPad 4G) in 2012 or 2013 when the radios are more mature and the networks better built out.

Still, it’s fun to dream, and if you’re really hyped up about some LTE hyperspeed, Verizon has broadband plans ready to go:

4G LTE Mobile Broadband Data Plans, Devices and Coverage Areas Verizon Wireless customers can choose from two 4G LTE Mobile Broadband data plans: $50 monthly access for 5 GB monthly allowance or $80 monthly access for 10 GB monthly allowance, both with $10/GB overage. For laptop connectivity, two 4G LTE USB modems will be initially available: the LG VL600 is available at launch and the Pantech UML290 will be available soon, each $99.99 after $50 rebate with a new two-year agreement. Both USB modems provide backward-compatibility with Verizon Wireless' 3G network. If laptop users travel outside of a 4G LTE coverage area, they will automatically stay connected on the company's 3G network.

So you could always turn the tables and tether from your laptop while you wait… right?

[Android Central]

Verizon launches LTE network (but don’t hold your breath for iPhone 4G) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

What are the top 5 best, or just our most favorite, Jailbreak apps and tweaks for iPhone? That’s something we get asked a lot in comments, in the forums, and during the podcast chat. Cydia is filled with wonderful tools and applications to enhance your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. In this version, we’re going to look at the top 5 jailbroken apps or tweaks to help you make the best of your iPhone experience. Some of these may apply to other devices as well, but we’ll strictly be looking at the iPhone variants. Hit the break for what we think are 5 jailbreak utilities every jailbreaker should check out!

Winterboard

Winterboard is a must have if you intend to apply themes to your iPhone or customize the interface. Of course, you can always SSH and install themes on your own, but Winterboard will make almost everyone’s lives a lot easier. A lot of the times, if you download a theme that has a dependency on Winterboard, it’ll automatically install it for you. Once you’ve got Winterboard installed, browse Cydia for themes and UI tweaks you’d like to put on your phone. The great thing about Winterboard is that it works as a hierarchy. Say you download a theme but you don’t like the sounds. You can download a sound pack from Cydia you do like, check it in Cydia and drag it above the main theme. It will then override the theme’s default sounds with the ones you’ve selected. It’s an amazingly powerful tool that allows you to customize your iPhone just the way you’d like.

YouTube Link

SBSettings

SBSettings is more of a tweak than an actual app. It will allow you to add quick toggles to your springboard. You’ll swipe your status bar (or whatever gesture you prefer to configure with Activator), and it’ll show a drop down with several options. It also monitors your available memory, which is a nice added feature. It comes with several toggles built in such as wifi, 3G, bluetooth, brightness, and airplane mode. There are a lot of times I want to toggle some of these settings to save battery life. It’s much easier to swipe my status bar and tap the ones I’d like to toggle than to dig through the settings panel for each individual setting and flip them off.

SBSettings also allows you to hide apps on your springboard. I personally prefer to hide some of the Apple default applications that I never use such as stocks, weather, compass, and a few others. You can still spotlight search for them but it hides them on your springboard. There are also many other tweaks and add-ons for SBSettings in Cydia, including themes.

YouTube Link

Folder Enhancing Applications

Under 4.x, Apple gave us the ability to create folders. Yet again, Apple limited the functionality of this feature. You can’t create subfolders and you can only have 12 applications per folder. I have about 50 games installed on my iPhone at any given point. It’s a pain to have to create 5 folders just for games. Apps like Folder Enhancer and Infinifolders seek to solve this problem. They give you the ability to create sub-folders within a folder. Not only that, it removes the app limit cap. Now I can have several applications in one folder. And if I choose, I can create sub-folders. I have all my games in one folder, then divided by sub-categories such as RPG, Strategy, Action, etc. Folder Enhancer will allow you to change the folder background image as well.

Text Message Replacement or Add-On Applications

Although Apple’s default texting app is visually appealing, it’s still got a long way to go in terms of functionality. Enter apps like BiteSMS, iRealSMS, & QuickReply for SMS. These apps pick up where Apple has left us hanging. I personally prefer BiteSMS but iReal is also an acceptable solution. I wouldn’t recommend purchasing QuickReply for SMS as the dev has announced he isn’t updating it any further. It’s been rumored to go free any day now.

My biggest gripe with Apple’s default texting app is that it’s obtrusive and forces me to enter the app when I want to compose a text or reply to one. With apps such as BiteSMS, I can simply create a gesture that will bring up a quick compose screen. I can easily and quickly send a text without it interrupting my work-flow. When I receive a text, I can simply tap a reply button and reply without having to enter the texting app. BiteSMS is also highly configurable. You can configure options and tab through them on the QuickReply window. Options range from adding options such as reply, open, call, skype, delete, and many others.

BiteSMS and iRealSMS also have the option to show contact pictures in line with your text messages. This is a feature I wish Apple would have added to contacts and texting a long time ago. For now, apps like BiteSMS and iRealSMS will give you that functionality until Apple decides to.

MyWi and My3G

Network add-on applications are also a welcome addition to the jailbreak community. For those of us lowly users in the United States, AT&T likes to charge a ridiculous amount for tethering. MyWi allows you to turn your iPhone into a wireless hotspot. I use this feature frequently to tether my iPad. Until some carriers come to the realization that data is data and if we’re paying for it, we should be able to use it how we like, apps like MyWi and My3G are essential.

My3G allows you to trick your phone into thinking your on Wifi. This is useful if you’re in 3G and would like to download an app that is over 20MB. Simply turn on My3G and you’re iPhone will assume you’re on wifi and it’ll bypass Apple’s 20MB cap on network downloads. My3G also allows you to use FaceTime over 3G as well. There are several other apps available in Cydia like My3G so you can take your pick. Some of the others are 3G Unrestrictor, FaceTime over 3G, and Facebreak. You can choose from whichever suits your needs the best.

Your top 5?

As always, this is a list of our favorite jailbreak applications here on TiPb that we think all jailbreakers should at least check out. We know you guys have favorites too, so let us know in the comments! If you’re new to jailbreak or thinking about jailbreaking your phone, check out our guide to jailbreak terms and tools and if you need extra help, dive into our Jailbreak Apps Forum.

Top 5 best Jailbreak apps and tweaks for iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

iOS 4.2 for iPhone supports a technology known as Network Controlled Fast Dormancy which enables the cell network and the handset to work together to create the best conditions for smartphones to work quickly yet have a longer battery life, and minimize network congestion.

Interestingly, it is Nokia Siemens Networks and not Apple that has brought this to everyone's attention. Nokia Siemens Networks has posted the news on its own blog page.

Tests by Nokia Siemens Networks have shown that iPhone iOs 4.2  supports a technology called Network Controlled Fast Dormancy. To overcome the problem Nokia Siemens Networks introduced a method that, instead of putting the handset into idle or keeping it always active, keeps the handset in an intermediate state. From here, a smartphone can wake up much more quickly and needs to send far fewer signals to and from the network to start a data connection. You get a fast network response and longer battery life.

As Nokia Siemens Networks point out, this technology is a good thing for the user and the actual network. Users gobble up less data and get a better overall experience; especially battery life. The network receives less demand and can provide a better service to its users.

So have any of our readers noticed any improvement in data retrieval times and more importantly battery life since updating to iOS 4.2? Let us know in the comments.

[Nokia Siemens Networks via Engadget]

iOS 4.2 for iPhone eases network congestion and improves battery life is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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