Clayton Miller’s Interuserface takes a look at the iconic shapes behind today’s biggest mobile companies, and while Apple, iPhone, and iPad are obviously roundrects (rounded rectangles), their competition is just as geometrically aligned:

Microsoft's Metro UI owns the square. Apple has a corner on the roundrect, from the Springboard launcher to the iPhone hardware itself. Nokia, despite its late entry with MeeGo's Harmattan UI, found the squircle unclaimed and ran with it beautifully. Palm has used the circle from the early days of PalmOS, and in WebOS, HP continues the tradition with care (one might even note that both Palm and HP structure their wordmarks around the circle).

Zune, obviously, couldn’t hold the squircle, and neither Bada nor RIM could take the square or roundrect as their own. Interestingly, Google’s Android has no iconic hold on any simple shape (nor do Facebook or Amazon for that matter, who have elected to stick with letters).

[Interuserface via WPCentral]

Some more information has come to light about the Nortel patent auction, which saw a consortium that included Apple win big, and Google get frozen out. According to Reuters, however, Google had some fun along the way:

“It became clear that they were bidding with the distance between the earth and the sun. One was the sum of a famous mathematical constant, and then when it got to $3 billion, they bid pi,” the source said, adding the bid was $3.14159 billion.

“Either they were supremely confident or they were bored.”

Brun’s and Meissel-Mertens constants aside, it came down the the Apple “Rockstar” team, which included RIM, Microsoft, and others, and Google’s Rangers. Google stayed in until the price rose above $4 billion. While they won’t say much on the record, Google is privately furious according to TechCrunch‘s MG Siegler. Compared to Apple and the other mobile platforms, Google has an incredibly weak mobile patent portfolio and, if the Nortel deal goes through, this puts them in an even more vulnerable position.

Robert Cringely thinks Google will try to stall the deal through litigation and anti-trust complaints, and while citing anonymous sources, says:

Apple put up $2 billion for outright ownership of Nortel's Long Term Evolution (4G) patents as well as another package of patents supposedly intended to hobble Android.

FOSSpatents reminded me that there’s a hearing scheduled for July 11, and it’s possible more solid information will become available at that time.

[Reuters, TechCrunch, Cringely, @asymco @FOSSpatents]

The TiPb forums are naturally a great place to talk, commiserate, celebrate, get help, and offer advice to your fellow iPhone users. Below we’ve compiled a few of the most current hot topics in the forums for you to participate in. In order to get in on the action you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is easy and free so if you haven't already, head on over and register now!

• iPad 3 coming this October

• iOS 5 beta 3

• iOS 5 beta incompatible apps/games

• iPhone vs Android device – always a fun topic to debate.

See you in the forums!

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, and to tell us your pick, follow on after the break!

PDF Reader Pro – @Alli_Flowers

If you’re anything like me, you receive a lot of important information in .pdf format. It’s become a pretty universal standard – everyone can read .pdf documents, regardless of platform, and the readers are almost always free. Newsletters, calendars, and even textbooks come in .pdf format, and with my iPhone, I always have them at my fingertips.

But what happens when I need to send a .pdf to someone else? That’s when PDF Reader Pro comes in especially handy. I can snap a photo of whatever document I need to share from inside PDF Reader Pro, and it turns it into a .pdf that I can then email right from inside the app. This has been especially handy for my auto registration, license, and insurance information!

PDF Reader Pro also makes it a snap to load documents to your iPhone (or iPad). You can transfer files from your computer using WiFi, download directly from a website, or download from a variety of webdav servers including Dropbox and GoogleDocs.

Unlike some other .pdf apps I’ve tried, PDF Reader Pro doesn’t choke on large documents. For example, I have my entire French 1 textbook loaded, and it’s quite manageable even on the small screen of the iPhone.

It would be a bargain at twice the price!

[$0.99 on sale - iTunes link]

Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Blu-ray – @reneritchie

One pick to rule them all. One pick to find them. One pick to bring them all. And on TiPb, bind them.

Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy was as real and well executed as George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels were fake and ill-conceived. In the lush environs of New Zealand, with the brilliant practical and digital effects work of Weta, Toklein’s Middle Earth was brought magnificent, mesmerizing life.

And while Steve Jobs may call Blu-ray a “bag of hurt”, the truth is their high-capacity physical media is still the best looking bag of hurt available to movie aficionados today. As a bonus, the package also contains a “digital copy”.

If you’ve seen Lord of the Rings, I don’t need to say much else. If you haven’t, I refused to say much else. It’s Lord of the Rings, dammit. It’s where everything from Dungeons & Dragons to Harry Potter to Game of Thrones comes from. Go watch it.

[Amazon.com link]

Instacast – @chrisoldroyd

My quest this week has been to find a better way of managing podcasts on my iPhone. iTunes sync is a very convoluted experience on the desktop and on the iPhone itself. I wanted an app that would update my podcasts as a whole not one at a time manually. I tried out a few apps (Paid for them too, oh I wish Apple would give us a 24hr trial period) and have settled on Instacast.

Instacast does everything I need, one click update of all podcasts, a beautiful interface, download resume if you have a connection drop and full AirPlay support. One of the pains transferring to an app for podcasts, is having to re-enter all your current podcast subscription feeds. Not with Instacast, it looks at your podcasts in the iPod app and picks them all up and subscribes you to them. Fantastic! This app does it all for me and I want to thank @jjb70 for pointing out this awesome app!

[$1.99 - iTunes link]

Play Dead – @andrewwray

Play Dead is an extremely simple app with one goal in mind: to prevent your friends from always using your iPhone! The only thing Play Dead does is display an endless loading screen that you usually see when shutting down your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. This can be a godsend for parents with children who constantly ask to play Angry Birds on their iPhone, and it’s saved me more than once at work recently when co-workers have asked to use my iPhone to see the latest awesome app they heard about though the grapevine.

So the next time you’re asked to hand over your iPhone so someone else can play with it, just fire up Play Dead with a sad face and inform them your iPhone is currently on the fritz — then get back to playing Angry Birds!

[free - iTunes link]

Verbs – @iMuggle

Several months ago I downloaded Verbs and found the interface to be absolutely beautiful. The problem was that the functionality just wasn’t there yet. No push notifications was a no go for me. The latest version of Verbs solves this problem and adds support for push (which works flawlessly).

I am also a huge fan of Droplr and Verbs offers built-in support for it. You also now have the option to stay online for 7 days. If you bought Verbs previously, you can just buy Verbs Pro as an in-app purchase for $4.99 in order to activate push notifications. I was surprised the price that high to add push but I think it’s well worth it. The app is quick, beautiful, and much more “iOS like” than other messenger apps like Beejive, which has been replaced by Verbs on the first page of my iPhone.

[$2.99, with in-app purchases - iTunes Link]

iSub – @sethclifford

I’ve talked about this before on the TiPb shows, but it’s so cool that it’s worth repeating. iSub is a universal iOS application that allows you to stream and listen to your entire music collection using Subsonic to serve up tracks. Subsonic itself is an open source server application that runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, and Unix. Mobile clients are available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7. It requires you to have a machine on at home in order to access the tracks, but many of us might already have just such a machine that we remote into to do things. In my case, I have a Mac mini that functions as both a media server and redundant Dropbox machine, and I use this Mac to access Subsonic.

iSub is basically a mobile interface to Subsonic. I’m not overly thrilled with the design of the app and the UI could use a little work, but functionally it’s very solid. Since it accesses your personal server, the information on play counts, recent albums, newly added music et. al. is always pushed to your device, so you can navigate around fairly quickly. Another cool feature is an adjustable cache within the app to store offline music. As you play tracks, iSub fetches the next one (or few) and stores them to avoid gaps in playback if you lose signal. In addition to being nice, if you find yourself without any connectivity at all, you always have at least a few things locally stored within the app to listen to in a pinch.

It’s worth noting that while Subsonic is an open source project, in order to use the mobile API a donation to the project is required. However, you can determine the amount you’d like to donate, and in addition to mobile access, you gain an ad-free web interface and a personal server address so you can always access your server quickly and easily. Plus, you’re supporting a cool project. Oh, I almost forgot – iSub also offers lyric support, AirPlay support, Twitter integration, and Last.fm scrobbling, among many other things. I’ve barely scratched the surface of the functionality. It’s definitely worth a look.

Why wait for iCloud when you can have all your music on your iOS device right now?!

[$4.99 - iTunes link]

Order and Chaos – @JorjLim

I picked up Order and Chaos, when it was on sale for just $0.99. I do not regret it for one second.

The game is a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) that is played across four servers worldwide. You can choose a race between Human, Elf, Orc or Undead, and play as a Warrior, Mage, Monk or Ranger. The controls are simple and intuitive and are designed perfectly for a touchscreen device. So its incredibly easy to move around the world, chat with friends, and sort your inventory.

Unfortunately, there is a small monthly fee of another $0.99 (or $1.99/3 months or $2.99/6 months) to play; however, I am happy to pay it because it’s a huge game that is constantly being updated. Don't buy this game if you have important things to do because it eats up your time when you’re busy levelling up. There are nights where I've found myself up until 4am playing this game.

Order and Chaos is also a universal app so it will work on both the iPhone and the iPad.

[$6.99, with in-app purchases - iTunes link]

Starbucks – @llofte

The Starbucks iPhone app has been updated with all kinds of goodies and I love it! Now you can make Starbucks card purchases with the app (like the Starbucks Card Mobile app), transfer balances, reload your card, and my new favorite feature – eGifts!

I am horrible when it comes to getting gifts, especially “congratulations” gifts. Most of the time I end up getting a Starbucks Card and mailing it a month later than what’s appropriate. Now, I will still gift Starbucks Cards, but as eGift cards and directly from this app! You can send the eGift through email or Facebook. Very cool.

The only strange thing is that now Starbucks has two apps: Starbucks and Starbucks Card Mobile. My guess is that they get rid of Starbucks Card Mobile now that Starbucks has the same functionality.

[Free - iTunes link]

Sleep Cycle alarm clock – @alfyboza (Reader’s Choice)

Sleep Cycle alarm clock monitors you as you sleep and wakes you when it determines you’re at your lightest phase of sleep. The app accomplishes this by detecting the intensity of your movements using the iOS device’s accelerometer to determine what sleep phase you’re in.

I was skeptical at first – and may not be a 100% believer just yet – but it’s worked every night I’ve tried it! (Or my mind’s playing games with me – I can’t tell). I am one to usually set three alarm settings to ensure I wake up in the morning, but I haven’t had to since I started using Sleep Cycle about a week ago. I am recommending it as an TiPb Pick of the Week so that perhaps someone else may benefit from it!

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

Your pick?

You're part of the team as well, so we will be choosing one reader to make a submission each week! Just look for the announcement on twitter or our Facebook page each weekend for a chance to be picked! In the meantime, jump into the comments and let us know your pick of the week!

Last night the iPad 2 Jailbreak that Comex has been working on for JailbreakMe.com was leaked online by a beta tester, and this morning it’s all over the web in post and video form. And we’re not going anywhere near it.

We’ve waited this long for an iPad 2 Jailbreak, we might as well wait the last few days for a well tested, verified, proper release version. Hacking iPad 2 was most likely non-trivial for Comex, and messing around with leaked betas seems needlessly risky, unless you have more time, spare iPad 2s, and urges to tinker than you know what to do with.

Jump into the Jailbreak Forum if you absolutely have to mess around with it, but otherwise hold stead and lets hope the real JailbreakMe.com launches soon in all its PDF exploiting, iPad 2 Jailbreaking glory.

[Thanks to everyone who flooded our inboxes!]

There are hundreds of thousands of iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps for just about everything — so how come the one you need, the one you know just has to be there, is so hard to find? Enter TiPb’s new weekly feature where staff and readers alike sort through the App Store and help you find just the right App for That. This week, Jeremy asks:

Is there an app that would allow me, an iPhone 4 user, and my wife, an Android user, to share a task list? Help!

To see our solution for Jeremy, follow along after the break!

Wunderlist [Free - iTunes link] is a task management app that syncs between iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, and Windows. Syncing is seamless and in the cloud. If you’re concerned about security, Wunderlist has got you covered with SSL 128 bit encryption over HTTPS.

Once you sign up with a free account and download the apps onto your desired devices, you’re ready to start sharing lists – and with push notifications, you’ll never forget what you need to do.

Not only does Wunderlist have great functionality, but it looks good at the same time. You can even choose between different backgrounds to customize the app to fit your personality. Perhaps shopping is a chore, but you’ll love crossing things off your Wunderlist!

Anyone else have any App for That suggestions for Jeremy? Let him — and all of us — know in the comments.

[wunderkinder]

Having trouble finding what you need in the app store? Send us an email to iosapps@tipb.com and let us know what you’re looking for, and we’ll do our best to find you just the right App for That!

The LA Times is reporting that Google is in preliminary talks to acquire none other than Hulu. The information comes from anonymous sources close to the situation. Google is supposedly interested in buying Hulu due to the huge potential for advertising revenue. The report also claims that Google will face stiff competition from Yahoo and Microsoft.

Hulu has content from a number of current TV shows and has apps available for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad that are based on a monthly subscription model, though it is currently US only.

If Google does buy Hulu,maybe it would even improve things? Google does tend to give content away for free in return for a user's personal data!

[Los Angeles Times via Android Central]

Pool Party is a photo sharing from the brains behind the recently-aquired Slide. Like Google+, it’s an invite-only beta right now, and like Google+, and Picasa, it allows you to quickly and easily share pictures with people you know who are also members. Why Google feels they need to be positively Microsoft-ian about the sheer number of overlapping image sharing services they offer right now, I don’t know, but here’s how they bill this one:

Instant photo fun

Pool Party is a simple, free photo sharing app. Create group albums and see your friends’ photos as they happen in real-time.

Pool Party is invite-only at the moment, so you’ll be asked to enter your email address after installing the app. If you haven’t already been invited to Pool Party by a friend, you can visit our website at poolpartyapp.com to request an invitation.

I’ve been testing Pool Party for iPhone with Phil Nickinson from Android Central, who’s putting the Android version through its paces and… it’s got a lot of promise. The UI is dark, with big, bold white text. (Though they insist on color-coding your friends’ names, which is ends up feeling very Christmas tree.) They also stick to tried and true UI metaphors (even, smartly, borrowing the now almost standard “pull to refresh” pioneered by Loren Brichter in Tweetie/Twitter for iPhone).

Organization is done in Pools, and one you add a a Pool you can add people to it. For those who thrive on such things, push notifications are included to keep you up to date on every little interaction imaginable (I turned them off, like I turned off Google+’s email notifications). There are also a couple prominent places to provide feedback, so it’s clear the developers and designers want to make this a good experience.

This being Google, there’s also a web interface for when you’re away from your iPhone (or Android device).

Whether or not this ultimately takes any users away from established image sharing services like Flickr, Facebook, Instagram, or Google own services, new and old, like Picasa and Google+ remains to be seen. It’s great to see Google trying things and fantastic to see them working on improving their user experience. Ultimately, however, it will be nice to see them coalesce into a single, coherent, consistent service.

Screenshots after the break. If want more on the background story, MG Siegler from TechCrunch broke it yesterday (link below).

[TechCrunch]

If you’re a developer wondering how to link users directly to the App Store update page for your app, you’re in luck, Gabe has posted the URL format up on Stack Overflow.

Turns out the phobos links do still work and you can link directly to the update page using this URL format:

itms-apps://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwareUpdate?id=[APPID]&mt=8

Of course replacing the [APPID] with your own app id, not including the brackets. This will link directly to the latest update for the app, instead of the main app page.

It should work on-device for an app with a waiting update. If you give it a try, let us know how it goes and if you have any other developer tips for us, send them in!

[Stack Overflow via @tapbot_paul]

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 news@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)