TiPb checks out the best, most must-have apps to load up on your iPhone or iPad before you head into the Christmas Holidays

Wondering how you’ll get through all the Christmas cooking, cleaning, shopping, and entertaining? Luckily there are lots of iPhone and iPad apps for that. Whether you need to take your turkey (or tofu!) up a notch, get the perfect gift for that special someone, or just survive the relatives festivities, read on for TiPb’s top 5 favorite, most recommended, most must-have iPhone and iPad apps to get you through Christmas and into the New Year.

Epicurious Recipes and Shopping List (Universal)

From the famed website of the same name Epicurious brings the best in seasonal recipes to your iPhone and iPad year round, but they really give it their all for Christmas. Currently featured categories include Christmas Cookies, Pies and Tarts, Christmas Dinners, Holiday Desserts, Christmas Cocktails, Edible Gifts, Holiday Sides, and Vegetarian Holiday fare. From full time foodies to those who only cook — and panic about it — this time of year, Epicurious is our go-to app to get our Christmas cheer started in style. Universal app – download once, use on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. [Free - iTunes link]

Also check out:

• iTunes Holiday Cooking Apps [Various - iTunes link]

Gift Plan (iPhone)

Watching Homer Simpson race out the door, hop into the car, and speed off to the gas station because he forgot to buy that all-important Christmas gift may be funny to watch but it’s terrifying when it happens to you. Gift Plan makes sure it never ever does. While it works for birthdays, anniversaries, and pretty much any special occasion, it really shines over Christmas when everyone needs presents all at once. Just enter in who you have to buy for, include all-important metrics like your lady’s dress size or boss’ hobbies, add ideas as you get them, and then let Gift Plan do the heavy reminder lifting. And hey, if it’s too late and you missed a gift this year, whip out Gift Plan and add it in for next year. The app is cheap. Staying off the couch and out of the dog house is priceless. [$1.99 - iTunes link]

Amazon Windowshop (iPad)

Once you know what you want to buy, you still need to buy it. Online shopping offers tons of options from the megamarts to the mom and pops but Amazon is the reigning king of great selection, good prices, and fast delivery. With Amazon Windowshop, they’ve even made it more fun to get your shopping done. It’s a completely custom, totally optimized iPad interface and it makes browsing for items a fast, fluid experience. All the usual product categories are there, as are featured items, best sellers, new releases, most wished for, and appropriately for the season — most gifted. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, or don’t mind forking over the extra cash for next or second-day delivery, it can even rescue the last-minute shopper in you. [Free - iTunes link]

Also check out:

• iTunes Apps for Holiday Shopping [Various - iTunes link]

Scrabble (iPhone/iPad)

Scrabble, the classic word game, is available for both iPhone and iPad, though you have to buy each separately. Each works pretty much as you’d expect — you can play Scrabble on your iPhone or iPad with them, just the way you’ve played the board game for years if not generations. But here’s where it gets especially great for the holidays: If you have an iPad and an iPhone, or especially if a group of you have iPhones, you can use the iPad as the Scrabble board and each keep your individual letter tiles on your iPhone via the free Scrabble Tile Rack app. Then, where you’re ready to play your word, you can flick the tiles from your iPhone to the iPad board. It supports up to 4 friends and/or family members and while gimmicky it’s also a great. [$0.99 on sale - iPad iTunes link, iPhone iTunes link] [Free - Tile Rack iTunes link]

Also check out:

• iTunes Holiday Apps (Games section) [Various - iTunes link]

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Universal)

The classic Dr. Seuss book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas comes to both iPhone and iPad in interactive form. It can automatically read to kids, young and old, read but let you control the page turning, or let you read out loud all by yourself. You can also touch the pictures — all Dr. Seuss originals, of course — and their name will be written, and spoken out loud. There are a half-dozen or so Dr. Seuss books available in the App Store but this time of year none makes our tiny, cold little hearts grow more sizes than the story of the Grinch. Perfect to either help keep the kids busy or to read together for some quality time over the holidays. Universal app – download once, use on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. [$3.99 - iTunes link]

• iTunes Holiday Apps (Books section) [Various - iTunes link]

Your top Christmas apps?

So there you have them, our top 5 best iPhone and iPad apps for Chistmas. Be sure to check out our Picks of the Week and iPhone App and Games Forum and iPad App and Games Forum for more recommendations, and if we missed any of your favorites leave them in the comments below!

Top 5 Christmas apps for iPhone and iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Does it bother you that some apps running on your iPhone (or Android phone), that know all your contact information and perhaps even your current location, could be spying on you? The Wall Street Journal says:

An examination of 101 popular smartphone “apps”—games and other software applications for iPhone and Android phones—showed that 56 transmitted the phone’s unique device ID to other companies without users’ awareness or consent. Forty-seven apps transmitted the phone’s location in some way. Five sent age, gender and other personal details to outsiders.

It seems like we’ve been talking about this since Apple added a GPS and the App Store to the iPhone 3G and iOS 3 back in 2008 and everyone from tiny, unknown developers to giants like Google began taking advantage of the features — in both senses of the word.

Sometimes it can be beneficial — Google’s web search, Gmail, and mobile AdMob adds try to give us ads that better reflect our interests so they’re less likely to annoy us and, of course, we’re more likely to click on them. Apple’s now in that game as well with iAds. But what about those tiny, unknown developers using their free or cheap apps to extract your information?

Apps sharing the most information included TextPlus 4, a popular iPhone app for text messaging. It sent the phone’s unique ID number to eight ad companies and the phone’s zip code, along with the user’s age and gender, to two of them.

Pandora is also cited as an app that transmits lots of demographic information. Apple claims they police the apps and make sure they fall within proper guidelines but the WSJ believes some, like Pumpkin Carver, can skirt the rules, and many of the developers claim they anonymize data before aggregating it and transmitting it on to advertising networks.

While permission is required to share location, no permission is required to share your iPhone (or iPad or iPod touch) UDID — the unique identifier, effectively a fingerprint or “super cookie* that can be used to correlate and track all your activities. Angry Birds, according to the WSJ, sends both UDID and location data back to its publisher (who says they don’t use it to advertise and don’t share it with anyone else).

The entire article is fascinating reading especially for those concerned with privacy in the mobile information age. Personally I trust Apple and Google but I’m not sure I trust every little developer who has the same access to my data or who uses Apple’s and Google’s networks and systems.

What about you, any alarm bells ringing?

[Wall Street Journal, thanks Dominick!]

Are you concerned your iPhone apps may be spying on you? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Every week a few of us from team TiPb will bring you our current favorite, most fun and 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, iPad, or iPod touch related, they're fair game.

To see what we picked this week, and to tell us your pick, follow on after the break!

Alli’s Pick: Bejeweled Blitz

The very first app I purchased the day I bought my iPhone, is still the one I use every day. Bejeweled has long been a favorite of mine. The Palm and Windows Mobile versions weren’t cheap, but in iTunes, it’s only 99 cents.

While most of you are probably familiar with the basic concept – match coloured jewels in rows to clear jewels and score points. Bejeweled has improved greatly even since I first purchased it for iPhone. It now includes the Blitz, which you play against your Facebook friends. Nothing better than a little friendly competition, and no better way to compete with your friends than in Bejewled Blitz.

Earn bonus coins either on Facebook or your iPhone, and use them to buy “boosts” to help give you that competitive edge. Bejeweled is simple, yet highly entertaining, and incredibly addictive. If you are one of the few people left who doesn’t already own Bejeweled Blitz, now is the time to hit the iTunes link and spend the 99 cents.

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

Ally’s Pick – Droplr for iPhone

Droplr for iPhone is a utility that allows you to quickly upload a video or image and create shortened links. You can then view stats and share content you have uploaded in numerous ways. Not only do they have an iPhone version, but a desktop version. I can simply drag an image or video to the icon on my Mac desktop and it’ll copy a link to the clipboard automatically. This is much easier opposed to using Twitpic or another service that makes you manually upload pictures.

Droplr for iPhone also shows you how many times one of your links has been viewed. You also have the option to email, tweet, or copy the link to your clipboard. I’ve been using this service for about 3 months now and I love it. It’s by far the easiest way I’ve found to sync content I’ve shared between devices and computers. Setup is easy and syncing is seamless. Give it a try!

[$3.99 - iTunes Link]

Brian’s pick: PhoneCloser [Jailbreak]

If you are like me and get bothered by the little things the iPhone seems to do wrong then PhoneCloser is the perfect tweak for your jailbroken iPhones. If your phone is locked and you receive a phone call, once the call ends and you unlock your phone it automatically opens to the phone app. I found this to be incredibly annoying. Granted it’s not hard to hit the home button and get out of it but I feel like I shouldn’t have to do that. PhoneCloser simply will close the phone app at the conclusion of the call. When you unlock your phone you will be greeted by your springboard/home screen rather than the phone app. This tweak installs no icons and has settings you can configure through the settings app. Best of all is this is a free tweak currently available in the Cydia Store.

Chris O's pick: Google Mobile

I have chosen this app for one main reason. The search function using pictures is absolutely brilliant. I was given lots of company branded calendars to give out to my customers this week; each month had a photograph of a beautiful building, some I knew most I didn't recognize. I fired up the Google Mobile app and took a picture of each building and the app identified every one of them perfectly.

I was extremely impressed and that is the reason for this pick of the week. Oh and it does a lot more – like easy access to your usual Google apps and voice search.

[Free – iTunes Link]

Chris V’s pick: Jenga

My pick of the week is Jenga. Ever since I saw the iPhone 4 demo this past summer (when Steve showed off the gyroscope with a Jenga-like game) I have been waiting for the game to come out in the app store. In the app, you can play Jenga with multiple people taking turns. In my opinion, this is the best way to play, although there is also an “arcade mode” where you can match colored tiles for extra points. The app doesn’t take advantage of the gyroscope function like we saw with Steve’s demo, but I hope this might be an “super difficult mode” that might appear in future edition (imagine having to keep the iPhone vertical to prevent the tower from falling). I can easily see how this version could be a fun, party-game type of activity.

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

Farbod’s pick: Eternal Legacy HD

As more and more console quality games pop up on both the iPhone and the iPad, Gameloft adds a stunning JRPG to the mix with Eternal Legacy HD. Being a turn-based RPG junkie, I am thrilled that finally a quality, classic style, JRPG has been made for iOS even if its not by Square-Enix. With a mixture of fantasy and sci-fi, Eternal Legacy brings great story elements, side quests, and some dungeon crawling to the table. You can level grind, customize weapons and items, and interact with tons of characters and environments. Eternal Legacy even has a tremendous amount of voice acting and story based cut scenes. If you are an RPG fan I definitely think you should give this a try. It is a bit expensive at $9.99, but for me it was well worth it. There is also a separate iPhone App for $6.99.

Leanna’s pick: Ten One Design Pogo Sketch

The Ten One Design Pogo Sketch is the perfect pair to last week’s pick of Penultimate. If you desire to use your iPad to take handwritten notes or to create paintings and drawings, the Pogo Sketch is a must-have. The stylus works perfectly with the capacitive touch screens of both the iPhone and iPad.

We’re getting into the cold months these days, and the Pogo Sketch is also a great tool for using your iPhone with gloves on. Say goodbye to answering your iPhone with the tip of your nose and pick one of these up!

[$14.95 - TiPb Accessory Store]

Rene’s pick: Word Lens

I’m a sucker for Star Trek apps, the ones that make me think the future I’ve dreamed about, that childhood sci-fi so informed, is closer and closer to being reality. That’s why I loved the original Google Mobile app where you could just speak search terms (always prefaced by a Scotty-like “Computer!”). That why I liked the early Augmented Reality apps like that layered information over live camera views. And that’s why I’m picking Word Lens this week. The idea is as simple as it is awesome. You just hold up your iPhone’s camera to a sign, menu, or any printed block text and it automagically translates and replaces the text for you. Yeah. Wow.

It’s limited to English/Spanish and Spanish/English at the moment, and while it’s local and not server-side it only does word-by-word translation so there’s no idiom and lots of hilarity, but again — the future. Or at least the bleeding edge of it and I admit, that’s the fun part.

[Free with in-app purchases - iTunes link]

Your pick?

You're part of the team as well, so jump into the comments and let us know your pick of the week!

TiPb Picks of the Week is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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The popular time-management game Smurfs’ Village recently updated to include Game Center support as well as more mini-games and quests. Here are the highlighted new features:

• Add friends via Game Center and visit their villages
• Play your Smurfs' Village game across multiple iOS devices
• More story scenes and quests for every level
• Baby Smurf and Lazy Smurf (with a new mini-game) are now available
• Greedy Smurf’s baking game now gives gold as well as XP
• Jokey now gives Smurfberries in his daily gift more often
• Smurfberries are given for every level-up and shown on the level up screen

Of all the time-management games, Smurfs’ Villiage is my favorite. The storyline and mini-games adds a new level of enjoyment to the game genre. If you like FarmVille and We Rule, I recommend you pick this one up!

[Free - iTunes link]

Smurfs’ Village update and quick review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Facebook has yet again released an update for their iPhone and iPod touch application, this time with some long overdue UI improvements as well as bug fixes.

• Improved reliability in chat and messages
• Improved notifications UI
• Fixed memory usage
• Fixed some crashes
• Walls you cannot post on no longer show the text field at the top
• Restore ability to post as a page that you admin
• Fixed group photos
• Various Places improvements

Having just downloaded this update and played around with it for a few minutes I will say the new notifications UI is long overdue and provides a much cleaner and easier to use interface. Hopefully this update will also fix many of the issues users have been hoping to see fixed for a while now.

So go ahead and grab your updated Facebook app and let us know what you think of the improvements and as always if you have any issues we want to hear about those as well.

Facebook for iPhone updated with new notification UI, bug fixes is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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