Apple has once again opened the beta doors to its music locker service, iTunes Match, for US developers. To get in, you’ll need the latest iTunes 10.5 beta 8 and a US iTunes account associated to a US credit card (sorry international devs, no gift cert’ing your way into this one.)

Devs who do make it in (and it looks like some are having trouble at the moment) will have to pony up the $24.99 annual subscription fee for iTunes Match, and are warned up front their libraries will be deleted at the end of the beta period. So remember, it’s not really early access, it’s beta.

iTunes Match, part of iCloud, is expected to launch for everyone this October alongside iOS 5.

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!

LIFE for iPad – @sethclifford

I love photography, and in particular, photos that transport me to other times and depict life as it used to be. I’m fascinated by our changes as a culture, and always love comparing what we see now to the way things looked decades ago. I completely stumbled onto LIFE for iPad this week, and instantly fell in love with it, tweeting out how great it was. I’ve been spending a lot of time with the app this week, and I’m still enjoying it immensely.

Life magazine has been a staple of photojournalism for almost a century now, and has gone through some transitions in that time. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the incredible quality of the images it brings to readers. The iPad app is a wonderful way to browse some of these libraries, both from the past and present. Much of the app focuses on current events and color photography, but for me where it really shines is with the historical archives you can page through. I spent hours poring over pictures of New York City from the 30s-50s, and gazing at pictures from the 1939 World’s Fair and the construction of the Empire State Building. The captions and the summaries for each picture provide a little more insight into the moment of capture, and allow you to really immerse yourself in the scenes.

There are, unfortunately, some jarringly intrusive ads that sit within the photo sets, but you can skip them easily enough. I would really prefer if the ad content was served some other way, because it takes you out of the frame of mind in which you’re viewing the content, but for now it’s not so annoying that it would prevent me from using the app. There are also some sharing functions (email, Facebook, Twitter) if you want to post photos or tell friends about the app.

If you’re a student of history (and you should be) and appreciate great photography, it’s worth the few minutes to download. I can see this being a “must-install” whenever I restore or change my iPad out in the future.

[Free - App Store link]

Frogger Decades – @chrisoldroyd

I am showing my age here but I remember the original game and used to play it in the arcades when I was young. Anyway to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the original, Konami has released Frogger Decades. It follows a similar theme to the original game but is much more colorful and has a more varied back drop than the original. It has loads of levels and even carries Game Center support!

It does look beautiful and is one of those games that you pick up instantly and enjoy forever. It is only $1.99 in the App Store so stop messing about and go and get it. It’s pure gold!

[$1.99 - App Store Link]

Tangled – @Alli_Flowers

I’m not a big game player, and I hate games with a soundtrack that distracts me. I stumbled onto Tangled, which is normally $.99, but the developer is giving it away for a limited time. It’s minimalistic (no soundtrack – yay!), simple, beautiful, and neither too simple nor frustrating.

The object is to untangle the lines by grabbing the round handles and moving them around. Of course, the tangles become increasingly difficult, but not impossible. You won’t “die” if you don’t untangle them inside 60 seconds, and you can always reset and start over if you get things more tangled than they were when you started.

This is a peaceful brain exercise that you can catch onto quickly. Go get it while it’s still free!

[Free - App Store link]

1Password (Mac App Store edition) – @reneritchie

1Password has just hit the Mac App Store. Repeat, 1Password has just hit the Mac App Store. This is not a drill. Deploy. Deploy. Dep… What, too over the top?

Listen, there’s a few things I do whenever I install or re-install a Mac. I a) Type in my Apple ID and start syncing down my Preferences, Keychains, etc. (which iCloud won’t be doing in the near future, frakdammit), b) install Dropbox and start syncing my home directory, including the library I’ll use to, c) install 1Password.

And then I’m most of the way done.

Now if you bought 1Password directly from AgileBits in the past, you might hesitate on buying it again via the Mac App Store. Don’t. It’s on sale for $20 and comes with a free upgrade to 1Password 4 when it launches.

If it was any more of a no-brainer, it’d be negative brained. Seriously. Especially because it’s also available for iPhone and iPad as a universal app, and Windows if you swing that way (or both ways). It also plugs into Safari, Chrome, Firefox, etc. to autofill your password hassles away.

There’s supposed to be a continual conflict between security and convenience. 1Password does a great job of mediating that conflict. It lets you have gnarly, strong, pseudo-random passwords without having to remember them.

Get it now.

[$19.99 - Mac App Store 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!

Here are the winners from our last few contests, including our Jabra DRIVE giveaway to keep you connected in the car, BookBook to keep your wallet and iPhone in one place, iWork to help you get back to school (or work), and MoneyWiz to help you keep track of all the cash you saved due to awesome TiPb giveaways! If you didn’t win, don’t worry, we also have a bunch of great new contests under way, so check them out and enter now!

Jabra DRIVE Bluetooth Speakerphone

• rodger3gs

BookBook for iPhone 4

• Justin Long

Numbers, Pages, and Keynote

• Numbers
  • Topypunk
  • Bacco
  • Cfroisland
  • Russell Nutt
  • Hardy Mayer
• Pages
  • Knedberg
  • Chicks2180
  • captainmorgan
  • David Peters
  • Njchenard
• Keynote
  • Humbleteacher
  • TeeHeck
  • Franzenjg
  • kenston
  • Craftytony

MoneyWiz

• Bobby1210
• Jimmy
• Jeremy
• Matt8823
• Prheckman

More chances to win!

These contests are still open, so hurry up and enter!

• Win a FREE Naztech N15 3.5mm Mini Boom Speaker!
• App Giveaway: MadPad by Smule
• App Giveaway: wake N shake – The Merciless Alarm Clock Pro Shaker Edition for iPhone
• App Giveaway: Fluke HD for iPad
• App Giveaway: Alert Notes for iPhone

If you won you will be receiving an email either from us or directly from the retailer/developer in the next few days. (If for some reason you don’t receive an email within 7-14 days — be sure to check your spam/junk folder just in case — you can email us at news@tipb.com and we’ll be sure to get you taken care of! Please be patient as some prizes may take longer than others to arrive. Congrats to all the winners, and if you didn’t win this time, we have lots of contests you can enter now, and more on their way!

Talk show host Conan O’Brien has obviously been following the latest lost Apple iPhone prototype shenanigans closely as he has put together a rather amusing comedy sketch.

The sketch is based on the format of an Apple advertisement with various imaginery senior Apple employees discussing the person responsible for the theft and what they intend to do the individual when they find him or her.

Just in case you are not aware, this is the second time Apple has mislaid an iPhone prototype in a bar in San Francisco. An iPhone 4 prototype was lost  just before it was officially announced last year. This time it is an alleged iPhone 5 prototype that has been lost and remains at large but unseen so far.

[YouTube]

Now that the Google Books app has had to remove their store button from their iPhone, iPod touch and iPad app, are you curious how to continue buying your eBooks on iOS? Fret not, for Google has sent out a helpful list of instructions to ensure you can keep getting your read on.

For iPhone/iPod touch users: Install the Google eBookstore

1. Open your Safari web browser
2. Go to the address: books.google.com/ebooks
3. Tap the bookmark symbol at the bottom of the screen
4. Tap “Add to Home Screen”
5. Tap “Add”

To shop at the Google eBookstore, simply tap the bookstore icon. Any ebooks you purchase or download will automatically appear in your Google Books app for you to read.

For iPad users: Install the Google eBookstore

1. Open your Safari web browser
2. Go to the address: books.google.com/ebooks
3. Tap the bookmark symbol at the top
4. Tap “Add to Home Screen”
5. Tap “Add”

To shop at the Google eBookstore, simply tap the bookstore icon. Any ebooks you purchase or download will automatically appear in your Google Books app for you to read.

There you have it, HTML5 web apps to the rescue. Now you can shop as you so wish online, and read away in the same Google Books app you know and love.

Any other great eBooks tips for us? Let us know!

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