According to many of our readers, iCloud is down for them — something Apple’s iCloud system status page currently confirms.

iCloud: Services – Users Affected: Some

11/11/2011 13:40 PST

Users may be unable to access iCloud services. Normal service will be restored ASAP.

If iCloud is down for you, let us know for how long, what’s giving your grief, and when it comes back.

Source: iCloud system status

Jump and Splash is a new iPhone and iPad game available in the App Store. In Jump and Splash, you control Pilu, a little fish who’s lost his mom, by jumping through the side-scrolling levels picking up coins and destroying crabs along the way.

I’ve played a few rounds of Jump and Splash and find it to be pretty fun. It’s extremely similar to Whale Trail, so if you like that game, you’ll like Jump and Splash.

A beach should be a dream place… But when a tiny fish looks for his mom, a new adventure begins! Hurry up Pilu! The water is going away! Swim, jump and fly for your life before it’s too late!

• Simple but addictive one touch game
• Incredible speed and mega jumps
• Horrible crabs and creatures to explose
• Dozens of colourful levels
• Thousands of coins to collect
• Extra-powers to get and manage
• Beautiful procedural graphics for a different look every day
• Game Center enabled to share your progress
• … and much more to discover!

Jump and Splash is available on the iPhone and iPad for $0.99.

[App Store 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.

AllThingsD‘s John Paczkowski received a statement from Apple concerning continued battery life issues following this week’s iOS 5.0.1 release.

The recent iOS software update addressed many of the battery issues that some customers experienced on their iOS 5 devices. We continue to investigate a few remaining issues.

TiPb is conducting a poll to see how, if at all, iOS 5.0.1 has helped improve battery life so head on over there and give us your impressions.

Source: AllThingsD

Apple’s iPhone 4S is now available factory unlocked in the U.S. from Apple.com. Why it took until November when countries like Canada and the UK got unlocked models at launch, who knows? But if you’ve been waiting to go contract and SIM-lock free, now’s your chance! (Reminder: Only the GSM/AT&T version is available unlocked, not the CDMA/Verizon/Sprint version).

Apple has also launched the iPhone 4S in 13 more countries, namely Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Malta, Montenegro, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Romania and South Korea.

If you grabbed a new iPhone 4S today, let us know where and which model you got! And if you need more information to help you decide and get up to speed, check out:

iPhone 4S Features

• iPhone 4S review
• iOS 5 for iPhone and iPad walkthrough

iPhone 4S Buyers Guide

• Should you get an iPhone 4S?
• Spec Wars: iPhone 4S vs. Samsung Galaxy S II vs. BlackBerry Bold 9900 vs. HTC Titan vs. Pre3
• iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, or iPhone 3GS: Which should you get?
• AT&T vs. Verizon vs. Sprint: Which iPhone 4S should you choose?
• Verizon and Sprint iPhone 4S and the limitations of CDMA
• 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB: Which iPhone 4S capacity should you get?
• Black or white: Which iPhone 4S color should you choose?
• How to sell your old iPhone before upgrading to the iPhone 4S

iPhone 4 Starters Guide

• iPhone 4S glossary
• How to setup your new iPhone 4S
• How to transfer your data over from your old iPhone to your new iPhone 4S
• How to transfer your data over from your old Android, BlackBerry, webOS or Windows Phone to your new iPhone
• iPhone 4S tips and how-tos
• iPhone Live! podcasts (with video!)

iPhone 4S apps

• iPhone 4S apps
• TiPb Top 5s

iPhone 4S accessories

• TiPb iPhone 4S Accessory Store
• Amazon iPhone 4S Accessories

iPhone 4S help

• iPhone 4S tips and how-to
• iPhone 4S forum

According to a leaked internal Sprint memo, all Sprint iPhone 4S handsets sold starting today will have their SIM card slots locked to Sprint. It has never been fully clear how Sprint was shipping its iPhone 4S models but it now looks like they were originally shipping them with unlocked SIMS.

According to the memo, the SIM locking will be done during the iPhone's activation process and it will be done invisibly. The customer will not see any notification of it happening.

What does this mean for any new Sprint iPhone 4S users? Well you will lose the ability to use a local SIM card if you travel out of the U.S. You will now have to have a roaming agreement in place with Sprint and pay the much higher call and data charges. One bit of good news, today's decision does not impact current iPhone 4S Sprint users; we assume that this means their SIM card slots remain unlocked.

Source: SprintFeed

The new photo editing app, Photogene² for iPhone, is now available. The original Photogene was a major hit, and Omer Shoor now brings a completely redone interface and new features.

Photogene was always one of my favorite photo editing apps, so I downloaded Photogene² without giving it a second thought. I was pleasantly surprised to be immediately offered, as a valued customer of Photogene, an in-app purchase for free! The choices were Go Pro ($6), Collage Templates ($2), or More Frames ($1). I promptly selected Go Pro! (Make sure Photogene is installed to receive the offer).

Check out the video below to see Photogene² in action!

Photogene is back with a brand new version! Loads of new features and a completely overhauled user interface.

• Full featured photo editor: crop, straighten, color adjustments (including histogram and curves), sharpen and denoise, retouch tools (dodge/burn, heal, localized effects and more).
• Export several photos at once. Photogene supports a wide selection of export destinations, including Flickr, Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, FTP and e-mail.
• Full support for iPhone 4S native 8 MP resolution.
• Special effects: center focus, vignette, frames, reflection, text boxes and much more.
• Presets: large collection of predefined presets. Instantly give your photo a new look and then tweak it yourself.
• Collage maker: combine several photos into one piece of art using a variety of templates.
• Camera: use our built-in camera module to snap great photos and apply real-time effects.
• Metadata viewer: visual display of all the information stored in your photos. Including location on a map, date&time, file size, etc (IPTC editor included).
• Resize your photos as you export them. You can export edited photos at full resolution (same as the original).
• Compare edited photo vs the original at any time.

Photogene² for iPhone is on sale for $0.99 until November 17.

[App Store 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.

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

• Hotspot Shield VPN: Functions as a bandwidth compression service for iOS devices, allowing users to more than double the amount of Web content they can use under their mobile data plans and save money. [Free for iPhone - App Store link]

• Cat Catch: Christmas Toy: A toy for your cat! Delight your cats this Christmas with an unforgettable toy! The whole family will remember this entertaining gift for years to come! [$0.99 for iPad - App Store link]

• Chuggington Terrific Trainee!: Now your little trainees can ride the rails with their favorite Chuggington characters, Wilson, Koko, Brewster and Action Chugger! There are sixteen action-packed missions as you follow Vee's instructions to make deliveries, patrol the rails and race against time. [$0.99 for iPhone - App Store link]

• Smoovie: A stop motion animation app. Makes it child’s play for budding animators to bring their toys to life. And more seasoned enthusiasts will feel equally at home with Smoovie’s simple, fast, yet surprisingly powerful editing tools. [$4.99 for iPad - App Store link]

• Today In History: As soon as you open the application you are shown all the major events that happened on that day. Created for history, trivia, and knowledge lovers and also for fans of On This Day, This Day In, Today In pages. [$1.99 for iPhone - App Store link]

Any other big app or game releases or updates today?

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.

Apple has released iOS 5.0.1, purportedly to fix all the rigamarole surrounding battery life issues, but now that the TiPb Nation has had it for a day or so, we’re curious — did it get the job done? Is standby rock solid for you now, or still tumbling like it’s in free fall? Can you turn your various location and notification settings back on and still, you know, have power left to use your iPhone as a phone? Can you raise Siri to speak without her telling you to go plug in somewhere?

And how’s everything else working for you? Any bugs under 5.0.1 you didn’t have before the update?

• How to fix battery life problems with iOS 5 or iPhone 4S
• Need extra help? Try our iOS 5 Forum!

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Facebook might just be close to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that would fundamentally change the way they treat their users, and their users’ personal information.

According to people familiar with the talks, the settlement would require Facebook to obtain users’ consent before making “material retroactive changes” to its privacy policies. That means that Facebook must get consent to share data in a way that is different from how the user originally agreed the data could be used.

Facebook, which makes one of the most popular apps for iPhone and iPad, has been charged with misleading users about how private information was being handled — making it public by default. Under this settlement, Facebook would switch from opt-out to opt-in, letting users decide what they want to share before sharing it, and be subject to audits for 20 years to ensure compliance (much as Google has recently agreed to, and Twitter to a lesser period).

Source: Wall Street Journal

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer — like most of the rest of the world — thinks Apple is working on a television set.

Stringer declined to provide details about what Sony is developing but said “there’s a tremendous amount of R&D going into a different kind of TV set.” He added that he has “no doubt” Apple’s Steve Jobs also was working on changing the traditional TV set.

No surprise there, since Jobs said as much, and Stringer provides nothing in the way of “they’re sourcing components from Sony” to jazz up the story as he’s done previously for things like higher megapixel iPhone cameras.

Speaking of iPhone, some 5 years later, Stringer claims Sony is working hard to make up ground there as well.

Meanwhile, Stringer said other phone makers will catch up to the iPhone, but their devices need to become “seamless.” “The beauty of the iPhone is it’s really well organized,” he said.

And just FYI, Stringer says he’s also not leaving Sony, despite their lackluster performance under his tenure.

Source: Wall Street Journal (Paywall)

War of Words is a word game similar to Scrabble or Words with Friends, only with War of Words, you can steal and blow up your opponents’ words! War of Words has action tiles in addition to the traditional letter tiles. With them, you can place bombs or land mines on your opponents words, allows yourself to spell words backwards, gain an extra turn, or even earn the ability to place your word anywhere on the board.

In comparison to War of Words, Scrabble and Words with Friends are so innocent.

War of Words is the next generation online crossword game. It starts with the turn-based word spelling gameplay you know and love – and adds bombs! Have you ever wanted to blow up your opponent's words? Or maybe steal some words for yourself? Now you can.

• Start with the standard online crossword gameplay you know and love
• No longer limited to just letters – War of Words introduces Action Tiles!
• Bomb Tiles let you destroy your opponent's letters
• Thief Tiles allow you to steal words from the other player
• Drop Land Mine Tiles to catch your opponent unaware
• Play your own Multiplier Tiles to get the score of your dreams
• Reverse Tiles let you play a word backwards
• Start Over Tiles let you start a word anywhere on the board – without connecting to another word
• Use an Extra Turn Tile to play two turns in a row
• Barricade Tiles let you block strategic locations on the board
• Shield Tiles protect areas from your opponent
• Wildcards can be multiple letters at the same time

War of Words is available on the iPhone and iPad for $1.99. There is also a free, ad-supported version available.

[Free App Store link] [$1.99 - App Store 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.

Curious how to setup notifications in iOS 5? With all the various banners and popups, badges and sounds, widgets and lock screen options, it can be a little tricky for first-time users, but worry not — we have you covered! First up, here’s how the new Weather and Stock widgets work!

Stock widget

The Stock widget pulls stock information directly from the native Stocks app in iOS 5. By turning the Stock widget to ‘On’ you’ll see a scrolling ticker displaying your favorite stocks. If you want to change the stocks that are displayed in the Stock widget, just follow these quick steps:

1. Open the Stocks app from the iPhone home screen, or tap the Stock widget in Notification Center.
2. Tap the ‘i’ information button in the lower right-hand corner.
3. Tap the + button in the upper left-hand corner to add a new stock. You can search for stocks by stock ticker or company name.
4. Tap Done to finish.

Now, the stock that you’ve just added to the Stocks app will show up in the scrolling Stock widget within Notification Center!

Weather widget

Apple also included a weather widget that displays current weather information as well as a full five-day forecast. Just swipe to the left or right to reveal the five-day forecast. The weather widget pulls information from Yahoo! Weather locations stored in the native Weather app in iOS 5. In order to add or change weather locations, follow these steps:

1. Open the Weather app from the iPhone home screen, or tap the Weather widget in Notification Center.
2. Tap the ‘i’ information button in the lower right-hand corner.
3. From here, you have the option to either use Local Weather (pulled from location services) or add a location manually. For instructions sake, we’ll add a new location. To add a new location, tap the + button in the upper left-hand corner.
4. Search by City, State or ZIP and input your preferred location.

Now the location you’ve manually setup will be displayed in the Weather widget. If you have more than one location in the Weather app, the Weather widget will only display the 1st location. If you have no manual locations set and have the Local Weather feature on, you’ll only see the temperature relative to your geographic location (make sure you have Location Services turned on!)

There you have it, how to configure your Notification Center widgets. We’ll cover the other elements, like Mail and Messages notifications, Lock Screen info, etc. next time. Meanwhile, if you have any favorite Notification Center tips, let us know in comments!

Daily Tips 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…)

Snapseed is a premium photo editing app for iPhone and iPad. You can make adjustments ranging from the basics to more creative things like tilt-shift and special filters.

One of my favorite features of Snapseed is the ability to make adjustments to specific areas of the photo with Nik Software's U Point technology. Snapseed makes pro-level editing easy for the average user.

Snapseed is the only photo app you'll want to use every day. It makes any photograph extraordinary with a fun, high-quality photo experience right at your fingertips.

Basic Adjustments:

• Auto Correct – Automatically analyzes your photo and adjusts color and exposure to perfection.
• Selective Adjust – Make precise selections and enhancements to specific areas of your photos in seconds with Nik Software's revolutionary U Point technology.
• Tune Image – Use Ambience to create depth and vibrancy that uniquely adapts to colors and textures. Adjust White Balance, Saturation, Contrast, more.
• Straighten & Rotate – Rotate 90° and/or straighten photos with simple gesture controls.
• Crop – Easily crop images to remove distracting parts of your photo, now with standard aspect ratios.
• Take Photos – Open photos from the Camera Roll or take new photos.

Creative Enhancements

• Black & White – Get that classic Black and White look with this darkroom-inspired filter.
• Vintage Films – Make any photo look like a vintage color film photo from the 50's, 60's or 70's.
• Drama – Add style with a custom effect specifically tailored to your photos, ranging from subtle textures to wildly artistic effects.
• Grunge – Give your photos a totally unique, hip, and dingy look.
• Tilt-Shift – Create a narrow in-focus area designed to simulate depth of field, common in a Miniature Scene look.
• Details – Enhance details with traditional sharpening or the unique Structure control found in the Nik Software professional products.
• Center Focus – Draw attention to the subject of your photo by blurring the surrounding background.
• Organic Frames – Add stylized borders to photos for the perfect finishing touch.

Sharing

• Email – Send images at original resolution.
• Social – Share on Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter (using iOS5).
• Print – Print wirelessly using Apple's AirPrint technology

Giveaway

The good folks at Nik Software are partnering with us to give away 5 copies of Snapseed to our readers! For a chance to win, let us know which country you’re from and how many photos you have in your library waiting to be edited with Snapseed. Must also provide a valid email address to win.

Snapseed is available on the iPhone and iPad for $4.99.

[App Store 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.

The provider of the voice for the UK version of Siri has been revealed and what makes the story even more intriguing is the fact that the guy who provided all the sounds didn't even know it was him until he saw Apple’s commercial. The voice, known as "Daniel", was provided by former technology journalist Jon Briggs; but it was not provided directly to Apple. The voice over work was originally done six years ago for a company called Scansoft which was later purchased by Nuance, which subsequently licensed it to Apple.

"I did a set of recordings with Scansoft five or six years ago, for text-to-speech services," says Briggs. "Five thousand sentences over three weeks, spoken in a very particular way and only reading flat and even. Then they go away and take all the phonics apart, because I have to be able to read anything you want, even if I've never actually recorded all those words."

He is certainly not bitter that it is now being used by Apple. He was paid well originally by Scansoft for his work and he loves Apple products. Jon Biggs also provides the voice for many other technology products including satellite navigation units for Garmin, TomTom, Jaguar, Land Rover, Audi and Porsche.

Source: The Telegraph

Raging Pigs is an iPhone and iPad game where it’s you, a single pig, versus a flock of birds. It is your goal to smash and destroy them all. Each level has a different challenges including crates, special powers, platforms, and weapons.

Raging Pigs also has a companion app for the controls if you want to use your iPhone as a controller for your iPad or with AirPlay.

I’m am still undecided about Raging Pigs. The controls are on the screen and take a little getting used to. The more familiar with the controls I become, the more I like it. The iPad version has a free trial version, so I definitely recommend picking that up first and giving it a try.

The pigs are back and boy are they pissed! Control the raging pigs as they smash, squish and squash birds through 168 levels of pig jumping arcade fun.

Each level presents different challenges and puzzles to solve including pushing and pulling crates, platforms to activate, hot chili pepper powers, arrow shooting crossbows, protective helmets, fire platforms, disappearing platforms, falling crates and the everlasting infinity level.

Enjoy hours of fun as you win up to 3 eggs per level in this fast paced arcade puzzler! Game Center integration is included for achievements and leader boards as well.

Raging Pigs is available on the iPhone for $0.99 and on the iPad for $2.99. The iPad version also has a free trial version. Raging Pigs Joypad is available on the iPhone for free.

[iPhone - App Store link] [iPad (Free) - App Store link] [iPad (Full) - App Store link] [Joypad - App Store 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.