If location-based Reminders weren’t working for you in previous iOS 5 betas, give iOS 5 beta 4 a whirl and see if you get alerted when — er, where — you leave or enter an important-to-remember place.

Thanks Ryan!

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, @Sethran asks:

Do you know of any apps which will let me use my iPhone as an external keyboard for the iPad?

Unfortunately, due to the restrictions on the iOS SDK, there is no app that will let you use your iPhone as a keyboard for your iPad systemwide. However, we think we’ve found the next best thing. To find out, follow along after the break!

External Keyboard [$0.99 - iTunes link] is an app that will let you use your iPhone as a keyboard for your iPad via bluetooth or WiFi, but there’s a catch – you must have the app opened on both devices at the same time in order to do so.

This limitation is a bummer, but it works. On the iPad, External keyboard is web browser and on the iPhone, it’s just a keyboard. Just tap which fields in the browser you’d like to type and start typing away on the iPhone.

There is also a button for email. This opens a blank screen with an option to email what you type. If you choose to email, it pastes your text into a new email where you must use the iPad keyboard to complete. If you need to type text into a different app, you can copy it from this email section, close the app and paste into any app you wish.

Clearly, this isn’t the most elegant of solutions, but until Apple opens up the SDK, it’s as good as it’s going to get.

Anyone else have any App for That suggestions for @Sethran? Let him — and all of us — know.

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!

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!

DropVox – @sethclifford

As most of you know, I’m a huge fan of Dropbox and apps that capitalize on it by tying into the APIs to create interesting new services. I also find Apple’s own Voice Memos app lacking in that there’s no easy way to get those recordings off my iPhone short of syncing (for now). DropVox is a little app that solves this problem simply. All it does it record audio and throw it into your Dropbox for you. Using compressed .m4a files, the app fires up quickly and sends faster than you might expect. It’s not the kind of thing you’d use to record a full album in the studio, but it’s super handy for quick thoughts. You can also set it up to record immediately on launch, which makes the flow even faster (this is how I have it set up because when I’m using something like this, time is of the essence).

It’s a clean-looking app, with a singular function, and it does it well. Check it out.

[$1.99 - iTunes link]

Twinkle Twinkle – @chrisoldroyd

My little girl loves singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star so she absolutely loves this app. “Twinkle Twinkle” tells the story of a friendship between a restless owl and a little star that watches over the forest. The simple touch animations are designed to help children relax. Touch the screen to watch the owl’s wing’s flap and hear the owl hoot. See the star spin around. Help the owl and the star fly across the sky with a flick of your finger!

It comes with different reading options as well as two videos showing the content of the book all beautifully rendered. It also includes a simple counting the stars game. If you have young children, they will love this app and story. Great for bedtimes!

[$2.99 - iTunes link]

OS X Lion – @reneritchie

Really, did you expect anything else? After OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, whose changes were as profound as they invisible to end users, OS X Lion finally brings some user experience refresh to Apple’s aging desktop operating system — and it brought it straight back from iOS. It’s not a gimmick either. Apple has spent decades trying to simplify and mainstream the computing appliance. What started with the Apple II in a garage has thus far come closest with iPad in 20 million homes. That’s not lost on Apple, Steve Jobs, or the OS X team. Lion is proof. We get full screen apps, LaunchPad which mimics the iOS home screen right down to folders and jigglies, saved state and auto-resume that blurs the distinction between open and closed apps, and multitouch gestures to swipe and pinch through it all. Even the built in apps, from the outstanding new 3-pain, threaded Mail, to the curious stitched leather iCal, look like their iPad equivalents.

It’s even distributed via the Mac App Store. For $30. For all your personal machines. (And you can bump that up to full on OS X Server for $50 more.)

Lion is not without it’s frustrations of course — beyond the above-mentioned stitched leather UI. Scrolling has been reversed, also to match iOS. Give it a week, however, and you’ll likely not want to go back. Pushing content really does feel more natural than pulling scroll bars (which Lion does its level best to hide anyway.)

Auto-restore, where every window comes flying back up when you re-start an app could potentially cause embarrassment depending on what kind of website you were last on, who you were last drafting an email too, or what video you last had playing, so user beware.

You can turn almost all of these fancy new features off in settings, but you can also get used to the brave new world of auto-saving, document versioning, sandbox securing, Mac App Store downloading wonder. It’s a glimpse at the future and Apple’s brought it to us today.

Bottom line, if you love iOS, you’ll love Lion. And if you want to no more, check out Ars Technicas epic 20,000 word review, courtesy of John Siracusa, which analyzes and critiques every byte and pixel from the controls to the code. You can even enjoy it on your iPad in ebook form if the mood strikes you.

[$29.99 - Mac App Store link]

Diptic – @Alli_Flowers

Diptic is a triptych app, pure and simple: three images together in a single work of art. On your iPhone, you can use 2, 3, or 4 photos, and arrange them into a single piece. You can take a new photo from your iPhone’s camera as you go, choose a photo in your album, use one of your Facebook photos, or grab something from Flickr.

There are a series of frame layouts from which to choose, and all you have to do is drop your photos into the box. Once there, you can zoom or rotate so you have just what you want. You can even get artsy and traditional and use the same photo in each box, with only a portion showing in any one section. You have total control over the frame’s thickness and colour.

Diptic is great if you have trouble deciding which photo is the best – you can just use them all in a single image, or if you have pets or children, and like to show them off simultaneously.

It’s an extremely easy app to use, and offers lots of flexibility.

[$1.99 - iTunes link]

Metal Gear Solid Touch – @skeetobite

My pick of the week is Metal Gear Solid Touch (played on the iPad). This universal binary continues the Metal Gear Solid line, a game franchise I first looked at on the Playstation! This first person shooting game is a little different than some others – you aren’t moving through corridors or buildings. Instead, you are stationary, and you have to aim your gun by moving the target around on the screen. You have a couple of different kinds of guns (for sniping or closer combat) and the goal is simple – survive and kill your enemies. The interface is very very intuitive, although for a while I was expecting the target to appear wherever I tapped (it doesn’t, you have to move it around the screen by sliding). The graphics are outstanding, and all in all this was a fun way to waste many hours this week. I wish there was a little more variety in some of the levels (although in fairness, I haven’t gotten very far so maybe it changes). This game has been fluctuating in price between, although I missed out on the most recent sale. If you keep an eye on it, you might get it at a greatly reduced price sometime soon!

[$7.99 - iTunes link]

FX Photo Studio – @llofte

FX Photo Studio just got a big update and now it has a Masking Studio. This is exactly what this app needed! FX Photo Studio has nearly 200 different filters you can apply to your photos, but, unfortunately, not all of them look good on the entire photo. There are many times when one filters does wonders to the sky, another to buildings, and still another to skin, while simultaneously making the rest of the photos look worse. With Masking Studio, you can mask in (or out) the part of the photo you want (or don’t want) to be affected by the filter. I love it! Hopefully the next update will have a “soft brush” update to better blend the edges of the masks.

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

Starbucks – @duscraftphoto (Reader’s Choice)

America is a country that is run on C8H10N4O2 (Caffeine) and it's our crazy schedules and long work days that are to blame… Wouldn't it be nice if there was an app that made the consumption of this popular potable even easier? Well, the good folks over at this little Seattle based coffee company called Starbucks have heard your cries and offer a solution… The Official Starbucks app.

The Starbucks app has recently gone through a major overhaul and is vastly better than the earlier versions. You now have the ability to completely control your Starbucks card collection, monitor your Gold Points, view nutrition facts, make and share custom drinks, find store locations and even buy gifts for people you're fond of. The app also allows you to protect all of your super secret secrets with a passcode.

Now, you're probably asking yourself "How this can help me improve my day to day life?" Well, let's say you're like me and your job requires you to travel a lot and work late into the night… We all know how lame that is. If i'm out of town and I need a quick Iced Soy Cinnamon Dolce Latte fix and I can't find a Starbucks anywhere around me (which is highly unlikely if you're on or around Earth). I can just pop out my phone, go straight to the Starbucks app and tap on the "Stores" button and with the power of GPS and, lets face it, magic… I'm on my way! All while avoiding having to Google a location.

Not impressed yet?.. Well, you can also use the app to pay for your coffee at most locations! You don't even have to fumble with that pesky wallet and all of it's Velcro tyranny . Nope, you just pull out your phone and tap the pay icon and hold your phone in front of their laser ray gun and BOOM! You've just paid for your coffee!

Maybe you're one of those people that always orders their drinks in the wrong order and then gets the "correction" from the barista. That minor embarrassment is a thing of the past because now you can read your drink order to them from your Favorites just the way Schultz intended. No more "Can I have a Venti Iced Vanilla Latte with Soy?" and getting this response "You mean an Iced Venti Soy Vanilla Latte?.."

So go my caffeine addict friends, go and drink the sweet nectar of modern day life with ease and serenity… And while you're at it, get me a triple shot.

[Free - 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!

Cut the Rope, the popular puzzle game by Chillingo, has updated with a new Toy Box, achievements and candy types.

Om Nom is jumping for joy with his new Toy Box! Now you can choose to feed him candy, donuts or cupcakes. And Om Nom has been making a special treat for you, too! He has drawn and colored some cute pictures for you to share with your friends, but he has been so busy catching candy he can’t remember where he left them! Will you be the first to find them all and get them back to his gallery?

• A new Toy Box
• OmNom drawings feature
• “Gift this app” button
• Ability to post drawings to Facebook
• New achievements
• New candy types

Cut the Rope is one of my favorite iPhone games! When a new iPhone owner asks for a list of must-have apps, Cut the Rope is always on my list. The gameplay is so fun, yet many times infuriating when trying to get all 3 stars.

Cut the Rope is available for $0.99. Screenshots after the break.

[iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

While the big news for iOS 5 beta 4 is no doubt the over-the-air (OTA) update switch finally being pulled, there are a few other little tweaks that seem to have slipped in, and like always you folks are doing a bang up job of letting us know.

• OTA updates are now live. You’ll get a popup telling you an update is available and Settings will get an alert badge to prompt you to open it.
• Documents in the Cloud are now in iCloud Settings.

We’ll keep collecting the new and notable stuff right here, so if you find anything else, let us know.

Screenshots after the break.

[Thanks @jdipane for the top pic]

It looks very likely that Apple will be delivering a fully integrated voice recognition service into iOS 5 when it is released in the fall. 9to5 Mac has uncovered a setting screen which clearly shows a toggle switch for a service called Assistant. The Assistant service will supposedly take voice input to a whole new level, allowing you to control all the core operating system actions with voice. This is not the first time we have seen information pointing to system wide voice recognition and control.

"Assistant" does not work only based off a user's voice inputs, but Apple will take information – securely – from user's devices like location, contact's information, and music metadata to formulate the best information to serve a user's request. Since Apple will be taking information such as phone contacts and location, we truly think that "Assistant" will work just like the Siri iPhone application does; but fully integrated into the operating system.

Apple is said to be still working on this feature for iOS 5 and it is unclear at this stage if it will be ready in time for the iOS 5 fall release. It does look like this could be an exclusive feature for the iPhone 5 too; similar to how voice control was a feature of the iPhone 3GS but not offered to earlier models when it launched.

Guess we will just have to wait and see. I am really not that excited by the prospect of voice control. Unless it is done perfectly and works every time, it just takes longer to do things and becomes a constant source of frustration!

[9to5 Mac]

 

Facebook for iPhone has been updated.

• Restored the Send button for Comments, Chat and Messages
• Restored friend lists to the News Feed filter
• Fixed a number of bugs that caused the app to crash

A Facebook update isn’t complete without the cryptic “bug fixes” claim. What bugs have you experienced to be fixed? More interestingly, what new bugs have been introduced?

[iTunes link]

Bliss Software have released their new puzzle game, Rat Fishing.

Are you sick and tired of easy and boring puzzles that finish in a couple of days? Are you still into some girly childish games like Angry *****, or Cut the ****? If you are, it's time to move on to a real mind bending game. Welcome to the world of "Rat Fishing"!

• Easy and simple ways to control.
• Mind bending levels to test your brain and skills
• Catchy and infectious melody and sounds in the background.
• Variety of fun ways to kill the rats.
• Fun, unique and exciting achievements to spice up while playing.
• 63 different rounds to test your skills.

The puzzle games that frustrate and anger me are always the best kind and boy does Rat Fishing do just that. I will admit to being a little skeptical at first, but this is a great little game! My only complaint is that the mice are a little too cute and I feel bad killing them.

Rat Fishing is available for $0.99. Screenshots and video after the break.

[iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

iOS 5 developer curious how to do an over-the-air (OTA) update to iOS 5 beta 4 for iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch? Yes, Apple finally pulled the big test switch in the cloud and you can go from beta 3 to beta 4 via a svelte, under 200mb, bit differential (delta) update-in-place rather than the usual beefy 700MB+ iTunes restore of updates past. We’ll show you how, after the break!

Initiating an OTA update for iOS 5 beta 4 is easy as fairly easy pie. Some reports even indicate badge and/or popup notifications will alert you to its availability (though we haven’t seen any on our end… yet). To start it manually:

1. Launching the Settings app
2. Tap General
3. Tap Software Update
4. (If it gives you an error pop up, just try again later. The Cloud, it strains.)
5. Tap Download and Install
6. Watch the progress bar! (This part depends on the speed and quality of your 3G or Wi-Fi signal. Don’t be alarmed if it takes a long time or appears to jump around. Beta means beta!)
7. Once it’s finished downloading, you’ll be prompted to instal (and restart) your device. If you don’t explicitly hit Later or Install within a few seconds, it will install on your behalf.
8. Apple will verify the install.
9. That’s it! You should reboot into iOS 5 beta 4 exactly how you left off in iOS 5 beta 3.

Seriously, once the download finishes it’s amazing quick and smooth Apple may not have invented OTA updates (Chris swears BlackBerry has had them for ages, and Nokia likely invented them in 1812…) but if beta 4 is any indication, they’re doing them right.

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…)

If you’re Jailbroken and trying to get iOS 5 beta 4 via over-the-air (OTA) update, you just might be out of luck according to iPhone Dev-Team member MuscleNeard:

The 5.0b4 OTA update won’t work on JB devices due to an explicit check of /Applications..almost like a present from Apple

they check to make sure /Applications is a real directory, which it isn’t in a stashed jailbreak (not sure how unionfs would act)

Never underestimate the resourcefulness of the Jailbreak community, but if you want to try OTA now you’ll likely have to restore to iOS 5 beta stock before proceeding.

[@musclenerd]