Contests

TiPb Responds to iPhone Reviews -- Smartphone Round Robin

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Feb 2, 2010 a 10:00 pm

Over the last 5 weeks of the 3rd Annual Smartphone Round Robin, the editors of our sibling sites, Casey from AndroidCentral.com, Kevin from CrackBerry.com, Matt from NokiaExperts.com, Dieter from PreCentral.net, and Phil from WMExperts.com have all had their chance to review TiPb's flagship iPhone 3GS. And we've just had to sit here and take it, the good and the bad, the raves and the rants. Well, it's week 6 now, baby, and TiPb gets to retort!

TiPb Give Away: 10 FREE Copies of eBuddy Pro for iPhone!

By Jeremy, Tuesday, Feb 2, 2010 a 10:40 am

Yes we are back with yet another give away for all of the TiPb readers out there. This time the folks over at eBuddy have given us 10 FREE copies of their instant messenger client, eBuddy Pro! [iTunes Link - $4.99]

TiPb Give Away: 10 FREE Copies of Twitbit for iPhone!

By Jeremy, Monday, Jan 25, 2010 a 1:01 pm

TiPb loves to give back to our readers with our give aways, so why not give away my personal favorite Twitter app in all of the Apple App Store, Twitbit!

Our good friends over at High Order Bit have been generous enough to share 10 FREE copies of their Twitbit application to give you! If you want in on the action, all you have to do is visit this thread in our iPhone forums and leave a single post telling High Order Bit what feature you would like to see added to the already feature filled Twitbit!

Palm Pre, Palm Pix, webOS Review from an iPhone Perspective -- Smartphone Round Robin

By Rene Ritchie, Sunday, Jan 24, 2010 a 3:10 pm

My first smartphone was a Palm Treo 600 and so my last 2009 Smartphone Round Robin "away" review focusing on Palm's new webOS platform as embodied by the Palm Pre and Palm Pix does not lack for symmetry. Between the two, last year I reviewed the Palm Treo Pro which I quipped was more HTC than Palm, ran Windows Mobile and not a Palm-made OS, and had a keyboard that was hard to consider "pro" level. 3 years of round robin, three totally different platforms from Palm, and only this review for me to try and make my own sense out of it.

Luckily I had the mobile accomplisher himself, our editor-in-chief Dieter Bohn to show me Palm's new platform and their new devices, and the truly exceptional community over at PreCentral.net Forums to help understand where it's at and where it's going.

(And just a reminder, every day you post on that PreCentral.net thread, or any of the official Round Robin threads, is another day you're entered to win one of six (6!) new smartphones!)

Now let's get this on...

TiPb Give Away: 10 FREE Slacker Plus Subscriptions Up for Grabs!

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Jan 21, 2010 a 12:14 pm

To celebrate their Canadian launch, the fine folks at Slacker are teaming up with TiPb to offer you 10 FREE Slacker Radio Plus subscriptions. Here's the break-down:

3 first prizes -- 1 year FREE Slacker Plus subscriptions
7 runner-up prizes -- 3 month FREE Slacker Plus subscriptions

(And yes, it's open to American Slacker listeners too. Love. Up.)

Here's how to enter:

Make sure you have a free Slacker basic account (they'll need the account info to make the upgrade).
Head on over to the TiPb iPhone Forums and tell us the name of a great song you've recently discovered.
Contest starts now and ends Saturday, Jan. 23, 12pm PST.

You don't have to have discovered the song on Slacker (but hey, let us know if you did). We need recommendations, TiPb-verse!

And just to make you want to go enter now, we're listing the Slacker Plus features again... after the break!

iPhone Hands-on from a Nokia Expert's Perspective -- Smartphone Round Robin

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Jan 19, 2010 a 9:28 am

We're in the final "away" week of the 2009 Smartphone Round Robin, and since I began the event looking at Nokia, what better way to cap it off than with NokiaExperts' Matt Miller looking at our iPhone 3GS.

iPhone Review from CrackBerry Kevin -- Smartphone Round Robin

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Jan 18, 2010 a 10:29 pm

Apple's third iPhone meets CrackBerry Kevin's third iPhone review, exclusively in the 2009 Smartphone Round Robin. Year one he called it the iSmudge. Then they got the Storm. Year two he called it the Ah *** phone. Then they got the Storm. (Joking. Not.) What's he calling the iPhone and iPhone users this year?

Palm Pre, Palm Pixi webOS Hands-on Video -- Smartphone Round Robin

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Jan 18, 2010 a 2:47 pm

When last I left Palm they had but the Centro and some HTC Windows Mobile device to offer, now webOS and the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi's inform Week 6 of the 2009 Smartphone Round Robin. Talk about night and day. Lucky I have the daywalker himself, our illustrious editor-in-chief and PreCentral.net's own Dieter Bohn to show me how the brand new generation of Palm devices work. And works well.

Remember, every day you post on my PreCentral.net Forums thread, you're entered for a chance to win a webOS device of your very own. (And there's a total of 6 smartphones up for grabs -- one per SPE site -- so check them all out!)

This week also brings mobile powerhouse Matt Miller of Nokia Experts to TiPb's own iPhone. He's on the TiPb iPhone Forums and needs your help! Give him a hand and get a chance to win an iPhone 3GS for your troubles!

Video hands-on with Palm Pre and Palm Pixi, after the break!

TiPb Invades WMExperts Podcast -- Round Robin

By Rene Ritchie, Sunday, Jan 17, 2010 a 9:57 pm

Phil and Mal over at WMExperts.com were gracious enough to invite me onto the WMExperts podcast today to ~~kick my apps~~ discuss my Windows Phone Review, as well as all the weeks news -- including whether the iTablet or Windows Mobile 7 wins the prize for most rumored, unannounced product of the year.

Check it out!

Microsoft Windows Phone HTC Touch Pro2 and HTC HD2 Review from an iPhone Perspective -- Smartphone Round Robin

By Rene Ritchie, Saturday, Jan 16, 2010 a 11:13 am

Windows Phone is only slightly better off in this year's Smartphone Round Robin than Palm was last year -- like we substituted in the WinMo Treo Pro for the aging PalmOS in 2008, we're using two heavily HTC-skinned devices as WMExperts entries in 2009 -- the HTC Touch Pro2 and massive HTC HD2.

And I'm melancholy about that, because I kind of liked the unabashedly Windows Mobile tweaky, geeky Treo Pro last year, and was hoping to see a pure Microsoft Windows Mobile 7 device this year. Scrappy, underfunded Palm was able to deliver webOS after all, Google went Android 2.0, and Apple went iPhone 3.0. Instead we got Windows Mobile 6.5, which was decidedly bashed, and the aforementioned HTC Sense UI/TouchFlo shellacked over it -- a UI so opaque I think users might have trouble distinguishing HTC's Windows Phone devices from their Android ones going forward.

But those are the WinPhos we were dealt, and they're certainly tremendous in their own rights. To help me make sense of them (no pun intended), Phil Nickinson went over the finer points for me and the WMExperts Forum members really helped me out.

(And just a reminder, every day you post on that WMExperts thread, or any of the official Round Robin threads, is another day you're entered to win one of six (6!) new smartphones!)

Okay, enough preamble, it's time for the review... after the break!