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!

Alli’s pick: Virtual Guitar Free

It has been said that all the great hits can be played using the same 3 chords. There was even a youtube video proving the point. So now you can play all the hits and then some!

I found this thread in the forums and gave it a try. I used to play a bit of guitar, so I was interested. You are limited in your choice of chords in this free version, but you can actually pick individual strings on the virtual guitar so that you can do some nice effects – works really well for songs like House of the Rising Sun.

So if you’ve ever wanted to play guitar without the headache of learning which fingers go where, or lugging around the guitar, or miss playing occasionally – you’ll love this.

[Free - iTunes link]

Ally’s pick: 1Password

I have a LOT of passwords. I never use the same password for more than 2 sites. Things that are super sensitive, they have their own. It can get tedious keeping track of them. Enter 1Password.

1Password not only saves passwords and identities, but can auto-fill forms for you. I use the iPhone and iPad app in conjunction with 1Password for Mac, which also has auto-fill. When it comes to saving your password data, it can sync with Dropbox to create a backup file or you can manually save a copy to a computer. So if you ever need to restore, you’re critical password data is safe.

There are several price points for 1Password, so I won’t list them all but the iPhone only version currently runs $9.99 while the iPad and iPhone universal binary (1Password Pro) runs $14.99. I also own a Mac license (which is a great investment). The Mac single license (and PC) is $39.99. There’s also family packs available as well.

[$9.99 - iTunes Link]

Andrew’s pick: Fast Food Calories

Fast Food Calories is a great nutrition guide for the iPhone that has over 9,000 menu items from a huge selection of restaurants. The app delivers nutrition facts for just about every item on the menu from places like Wendy’s fast food to the Olive Garden restaurant, and it even has my favorite – Denny’s!

If you’re trying to keep track of your intake or want to make sure you’re sticking to your new years resolution to lose a few extra pounds in 2011, this app will definitely help you along the way. It has a familiar interface with icons and pages similar to the iPhone springboard, and selecting your menu item is as easy as 3 or 4 taps. You can get the free version now, or upgrade to the pro version ($1.99) to get features like search and to remove the ads. Check it out!

[Free - iTunes link]

Chris O’s pick: SoundTouch

This week I have chosen an app that my 18 month old daughter loves to use on the iPad. SoundTouch is a relatively simple application that has a grid of cartoon icons representing various animals, forms of transport musical instruments etc.When your little one clicks on one of them, a real picture appears and an actual real life sound plays. Each selection has a number of different pictures and sounds attached to it.

This app provides a great way for your little ones to identify everyday objects by the sounds they make as well as how they look. The app is a universal binary; so looks great on the iPad as well as the iPhone and iPod Touch. Trust me, your little ones will love this!

[$2.99 - iTunes Link]

Chris V’s pick: The Simpsons Arcade

I just downloaded the classic Simpsons Arcade game, by EA. I remember playing this arcade game in..well, the arcade back in the 1990’s, and the version of the game in the iPhone is pretty faithful to the original. The game is a classic 1990’s “beat ‘em up” scrolling screen game (like that classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game), where you travel from level to level (and world to world) beating up opponents as the screen scrolls by. Along the way you can pick up various things like a health boost (a donut) or even use parts of the background (like a mailbox) as weapons. The best thing about this game is the use of the Simpson’s characters and locations. There is nothing like playing Homer and beating up Chief Wiggum or Krusty the Clown. And just like the arcade version, there are small minigames in-between some of the levels that are fun to play!

Unfortunately the game doesn’t include the option to play as other characters (as you could do in the arcade version) or to have multiple people play (the original version could have four players at a time). But even playing by yourself can be fun for a real Simpsons fan. The controls are smooth, the graphics are good (in the classic 90’s arcade sense), and the sound is direct from the Simpsons TV show. It’s a fun game for any Simpsons fan, even if it is lacking a little bit from the original arcade version.

[$2.99 - iTunes link]

Leanna’s pick: White Noise Lite

Sometimes the only thing that will put my 4 month old daughter to sleep is white noise. Those are the times I am extremely grateful for White Noise Lite and the 10 different noises it includes. My daughter isn’t particularly picky, but for adults who have trouble sleeping, you can mix and match these sounds to make a new sound customized just for you. If 10 sounds aren’t enough, check out the full version of White Noise which comes with 40 sounds – that’s thousands of different noise combinations you can create. White Noise Lite also has timers to turn off the noise, set off an alarm, or exit the application. If you or your infant benefit from white noise for sleep, check this one out!

[Free - iTunes link]

Rene’s pick: LockInfo (Jailbreak)

Sometimes you don’t realize how much you’ll miss something until it’s gone. That’s me right now following the loss of my Jailbreak and hence my Jailbreak/Cydia apps like LockInfo. I updated to the iOS 4.3 beta and haven’t had any luck re-Jailbreaking with the unofficial pwnagetool so I’m stuck on stock and it’s made me realize how much I’d come to depend on glance-able data like the mail and message icons in the status bar or the list of events and email on the lock screen.

Yes, it is a little WinMo Today screen. Yes you could choose to set it to pull down like Android’s notification curtain. And yes Apple hired the guy who designed webOS’ superb notification system and we just might see something official at the iOS 5 sneak preview event in a couple months. But damnit I want my LockInfo back now. Today.

Check out Ally’s LockInfo how-to for more on this amazing app. Now here’s her screenshot because mine is gone so I can’t take one of my own.

(What, you thought I was going to pick the Verizon iPhone?

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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Complete feature guide to Apple’s iOS 4.3 software beta for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

iOS 4.3 has just come out in beta with a rumored release date anywhere from February 10 (the Verizon iPhone release date) to March, 2011, and new features like Wi-Fi personal hotspot for iPhone and multitouch navigation gestures for iPad.

If you want a quick look at the new software but don’t have a lot of time, check out the video above for everything you need to know about iOS 4.3 in just 5 minutes. For a more in-depth iOS 4.3 guide, read on after the break.

Note: We’re combining iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad walkthroughs below since, post iOS 4.2 grand-unification the size of the updates are roughly similar. If it gets more complicated later, we’ll split iPhone/iPod touch out from iPad like last time.

What hasn’t changed

iOS 4.3 looks to have interesting albeit far from numerous changes thus far. Since we’re only covering what’s new and improved, here’s a list of previous walkthroughs for those new to iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad so you can learn about all the established features. Major releases in bold.

• iOS 4.2 for iPhone | iOS 4.2 for iPad
• iOS 4.1 for iPhone
• iOS 4 for iPhone
• iOS 3.2 for iPad
• iOS 3.1 for iPhone
• iOS 3.0 for iPhone
• iPhone 2.2 for iPhone
• iPhone 2.1 for iPhone
• iPhone 2.0 for iPhone

System-wide changes

AirPlay

AirPlay was introduced in iOS 4.2 and allows video and audio to be sent from iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and iTunes on Windows or Mac to an Apple TV, or audio-only to a growing number of 3rd party speakers and other accessories. While iOS 4.2 only provided video-to-Apple TV support from the YouTube and iPod/Video apps, iOS 4.3 promises to allow both apps and web content the ability to send video to Apple TV. (It’s up to individual developers to implement, of course.)

Apple’s own apps, like Photo, should be able to AirPlay video recordings in iOS 4.3 as well. Hurray.

3rd party apps like Air Video and Zumocast should gain Airplay Video streaming. No word yet on Angry Birds (using iPhone or iPad as a controller, naturally).

Home Screen

SpringBoard, the app that runs the home screen and overall interface in iOS, gets its multitasking dock UI tweaked once again on iPad.

Multitouch navigation gestures (iPad only)

Apple has introduced 4 or 5 finger multitouch navigation gestures in the iOS 4.3 for iPad beta with language that indicates they may or may not be bound for primetime:

We are providing this preview before releasing them to the public to understand how these gestures work with your apps. Test them and give us your feedback on the Apple Developer Forums.

The new gestures don’t replace the Home Button but do reduce the amount of times you need to single or double click it, which could reduce concerns of hardware wear and tear post iOS 4.

The new gestures can be done with 4 or 5 fingers and resemble multitouch trackpad gestures available on Mac OS X since the introduction of the original MacBook Air in 2008 and expanded upon in the recent Mac OS X 10.7 Lion preview given by Steve Jobs at the Back to the Mac event. The gestures currently include

• Pinch all fingers in to exit an app and return to the Home Screen (identical to single-clicking the Home Button).
• Swipe up from the bottom bezel to reveal the multitasking Fast App Switcher Dock (identical to double-clicking the Home Button).
• Swipe sideways from left to right or right to left to move between recently open apps (similar to double-clicking the Home Button to reveal the Fast App Switcher and tapping on an app icon immediately to right).

The sideways swipe is interesting in that it allows you to go left or right whereas the Fast App Switcher reorders the recent app icons so you always go backwards in “time” to the right. It seems perceptively faster for a single app-back movement since there’s no carousel animation, yet you can only swipe back one app at a time whereas you can tap on any of 4 immediately available app icons in the Fast App Switcher and swipe back 4 additional apps at a time.

Performance on the current generation iPad, however, is hampered by lack of RAM. With only 256MB many apps will need to reload when you swipe back to them (at least so far in the beta). An iPad 2 with 512MB — or better yet 1GB — would fly with this system (just sayin’…).

Mute widget (iPad only)

When iPad shipped with iOS 3.2 the hardware switch above the volume rocker was set to lock or unlock screen orientation. In iOS 4.2 it was changed to a mute/un-mute switch like iPhone. Uncharacteristically, Apple has now added a Settings toggle to let the user choose which function they want the switch to perform. Since iOS 4.2 added a software orientation lock widget in the multitasking Fast App Switcher dock, iOS 4.3 now also toggles between that widget and a software mute button to fill whichever function is no longer being provided by the hardware switch. (Hardware switch set to orientation lock means dock widget becomes mute button and vice-versa.)

Photos

As mentioned above, you now have the ability to send recorded videos out over AirPlay to Apple TV, something which was noticeably missing when the feature was introduced in iOS 4.2.

Notes

iOS 4.2 finally let us change the Notes font from Marker Felt to something — anything — else, as long as that anything else was Helvetica or Chalkboard. Well it turns out Chalkboard wasn’t long for this world as it has been replaced in iOS 4.3 with Noteworthy.

App Store

The App Store gets a new design for the Updates page.

iAds

For developers, iAds can now go full screen. That includes the big iPad screen, which Apple says allow for “immersive, interactive iAd experience”. They also say the new banner format is easy to implement.

HTTP Live Streaming metrics

HTTP Live Streaming, the technology Apple uses to stream high quality video including their own press conferences and events, now includes viewer engagement and performance metrics. This is intended to help developers fine tune and optimize their content.

Settings

Not only does Settings hide the usually interesting tweaks found in any new iOS version but this time it’s home to one of the marquee new features — Wi-Fi Personal Hotspot.

Personal Hotspot (iPhone 4 only)

Freshly sandwiched in between VPN and Notifications for iPhone 4 users is the new top-level Personal Hotspot setting. (It also find it in Settings: General: Network: Personal Hotspot, where it replaces the previous Tethering setting, but why dig that deep when you no longer have to?)

When you tap Personal Hotspot you’re taken to a screen that lets you toggle it on or off (why can’t we do this top-level like Airplane Mode or VPN?) along with your — visible — current WPA access point password (with no choice to hide it). Instructions on how “to connect using Wi-Fi” have been added to the previous tethering instructions for Bluetooth and USB. As before with Bluetooth, if you don’t have Wi-Fi enabled you’ll get a popup asking if you’d like to enable it or if you’d prefer to tether via Bluetooth (if that’s enabled) or USB.

You can change your WPA password by tapping on it, and you’re warned the new password must be at least 8 characters long (we recommend something not easily guessed like “password”) and that changing the password will disconnect any currently connected devices.

When activated you get the same blue bar across the top of your iPhone that tethering presented under iOS 3 and iOS 4, though renamed Personal Hotspot and now indicating the number of devices connected (up to a maximum of 5).

Note: Personal Hotspot currently does not seem to be available for iPhone 3GS users, much as individual text tones weren’t under iOS 4.2.

Location Services

Location Services has also been promoted to top level in iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. (see iPhone screenshot above, iPad screen shot below)

General: Restrictions

If you don’t want your children discovering new, electronic hipster songs on Apple’s social music network, Ping, iOS 4.3 lets you disable it via the Parental Controls.

General: Use Side Switch to (iPad only)

The iPad’s hardware switch, originally released as an orientation lock/unlock in iOS 3.2 and changed to an iPhone-like mute/un-mute switch in iOS 4.2 now becomes user assignable in iOS 4.3. Yes, with a simple checkbox you can choose which way you personally like it.

As mentioned up top, whichever option you do not choose becomes a software control in the multitasking Fast App Switcher dock.

General: Multitasking Gestures (iPad only)

A simple toggle allows you to turn on or off the new multitasking navigation gestures (see the description under system-wide changes, above).

(If you don’t see the setting try connecting your iPad to Xcode and hitting the “use this device for development” button.)

Messages (iPhone only)

The settings for Messages now allow you to choose how many times you want SMS/MMS alerts to sound, repeated at two minute intervals. Choices include:

• Once
• Twice
• 3 Times
• 5 Times
• 10 Times.

Notes

As mentioned previously, Noteworthy replaces Chalkboard in the Notes settings.

Safari

Hopefully Apple’s comments about AirPlay supporting web content means we’ll be able to stream H.264 video from Safari to Apple TV as well under iOS 4.3.

In addition we’d expect Apple adds whatever other HTML 5, CSS, and Nitro (their JavaScript rendering engine) improvements they’ve made since iOS 4.2 shipped.

Hints at more

As is often the case, iOS 4.3 beta 1 contains strings and refrences that hint at even more features, including those for future devices.

• Find My Friends feature hidden in iOS 4.3?
• iOS 4.3 beta points to iPad 2 cameras but no Retina Display
• iPhone 5, iPad 2 model numbers found lurking in iOS 4.3

Pricing and compatibility

No iOS 4.3 pricing information has been made available but we’ll go out on a limb and say it’ll likely be free for everyone and all devices, same as iOS 4.2.

Compatibility, however, is so far even more restricted that iOS 4 — namely iPhone 3G/iPod touch G2 do not have beta versions of iOS 4.3 to date.

• iPhone 4, iPod touch 4 (2010), iPad: All features
• iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3 (2009): No features requiring iPhone 4 or iPod touch 4-type hardware (i.e. front facing camera)
• iPhone 3G and iPod touch G2 (2008): not compatible/no update (yet?)
• iPhone 2G and iPod touch G1 (2007): not compatible/no update

We’ll update as soon as we find an official list from Apple.

Not concluded

It’s possible Apple will supply additional new features in a future iOS 4.3 beta or even take some existing beta features away. As always, If you noticed we missed anything, drop us a note in the comments or send us an email and we’ll update as needed.

iOS 4.3 beta for iPhone, iPad walkthrough is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Last year Apple introduced their own 1Ghz Apple A4 system-on-chip (SoC) alongside the iPad and if recent rumors are to be believed we might just see the next generation — perhaps called Apple A5 — this year alongside iPad 2.

While Apple has never released the component specs for the Apple A4, it’s accepted as being an Apple designed, Samsung fabricated ARM Cortex A8 CPU with Imagination PowerVR SGX GPU. That combination was fast on the iPhone 3GS and it was even faster, thanks in part to Intrisity’s clock-speed know how, on iPad, iPhone 4, iPod touch 4, and Apple TV (2010). So what would an Apple A5 look like?

The successors to both CPU and GPU were first announced in early 2010 — the dual-core ARM Cortex A9 and Imagination PowerVR SGX543/545 series. Apple didn’t use either last year but, again if recent rumors are to be believed, they could very well be using them this year.

We’ve heard that Apple has been telling developers for at least a year now to think about making their apps multicore aware (they can already be multithread aware). Mac and Windows PCs have been dual and multicore aware for a while. It would no doubt lead to performance improvements in some areas, though power consumption would likely be an equal and opposing reaction (especially in early generation mobile dual-core procs). Android phones are going dual core in a big way this year so the technology is definitely productized.

Add in a smoking fast graphics engine and iOS, with support for OpenGL ES 2.x and OpenGL 3.2, should be able to push pixels like nobody’s business. If Apple TV finally goes 1080p and iPad 2 really does get a higher resolution display that kind of power will be put to good use. Given Apple’s investment in OpenCL, which lets GPU assist CPU when not otherwise occupied, and we literally have the makings of melt-in-your-pocket processing power in mobile.

What we haven’t heard so far — and we desperately need to hear about — is more RAM to go along with all that power. iPad and iPod touch (2010) feel positively anemic at 256MB compared to iPhone 4’s 512MB but all of them could really shine with 1GB. Apple will want to keep prices in line with last year — $499 starting price for iPad 2 Wi-Fi — but RAM is no longer where cost cutting should apply.

Now it’s fair to ask if we really need all that power and performance in what’s essentially a pocket device — or at least portable in iPad’s case. After all, iPhone 4 is buttery smooth with the current Apple A4 SoC. Would Apple be better off sticking with A4 and coaxing even more battery life out of it?

They may. They’re notoriously conservative at times (like with RAM!). I think the next generation of iOS 5 software and apps will really be able to make use of improved internals. We could see a whole new class of innovation, from video and image processing to games on the Unreal 3 Engine (and similar) to real-time augmented reality apps. And if there’s one thing Apple does care about, it’s software. (That’s why they build all this hardware to begin with.)

Regarding an Apple A5 chipset for iPhone 5, iPad 2 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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