Thanks so much to everyone who entered our Make Us a TiPb-themed YouTube video intro contest!

The winning entry, courtesy of llofte, is embedded above, and be sure to check out some of our other favorites from Alli, sil3ntrid3r11, iLoveiPhones, and Bela, below the fold!

Earlier this month, we celebrated TiPb’s Birthday Bash, and as a giant thanks to you, our members, we spent nearly a week giving away iPhone accessories, promo codes for some of our favorite apps, and iTunes gift cards. We’ll be highlighting some of the winners, runners-up, and otherwise awesome entrants this weekend, but for right now I think we’ll just go ahead and announce the winner of our biggest grand-prize so far:

• A factory unlocked 8GB iPhone 3G in your choice of 35 different color options courtesy of the awesome folks at ColorWare.

That’s right. One of you is about to get your iPhone, your way. And we’ll tell you who… after the break!

Drum roll please….

Congratulations to — PirateNinja!

We hope you enjoy your new, unlocked ColorWare iPhone 3G — and for those of you who didn’t win, be sure to check out ColorWare’s services as well, pimping your iPhone has never been so fun or so easy, and if you want to maximize your geek-bling cred, check out their Beats by Dr. Dre.

Keeping this Birthday Bash organized has been a lesson in futility for us these past few days! Too much to give away, not enough time to give it! Not wanting our readers to suffer the same fate, Stand Alone is kindly offering up four (4) copies of Satchel, the Backpack Client for iPhone ($9.99 – iTunes Link)

Satchel is a native client for Backpack, 37signals’ web-based service that makes organizing your information incredibly easy. After creating your account on Backpackit.com, you can edit your pages, lists, and notes right on your iPhone, whether you’re online or not.

So what do you have to do to get one? Well, TiPb has already spent the last year taken on the iPhone. Now… (insert megalomaniacal laughter) we want to take on the world! Drop us a comment below and help us figure out the top three tasks we need to do… to bring order to the galaxy… er… planet!

1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. Rule earth

Of course:

• US iTunes Store account required to redeem promo codes
• Backpackit.com account (basic level is free!)
• Contest starts now and ends May 12, 11:59pm

Entering this contest counts as an entry in TiPb’s Birthday Bash grand-prize draw for an Unlocked ColorWare iPhone 3G!

Tapbots makes some of the most innovative and attractive iPhone apps on the market:

• Weightbot [$1.99 - iTunes link] is a weight-tracking robot. Whether you are trying to lose (or gain) weight, tracking your progress has never been more fun. Set your goal, record your weight, view your BMI, and see your progress on a beautiful graph. Weightbot was designed for everyone to use.

• Convertbot [$1.99 - iTunes link] is a unit conversion robot. Convert currency, length, mass, time and much more in an exciting new way! Converting numbers will never again be a mundane task. In addition to its innovative interface, our robot is smart enough to convert to and from mixed units. Are you 5 foot 9 inches tall? Other converters require you to convert that to 5.75 ft in your head before being able to enter it. Convertbot allows mixed units like Foot + Inches, Pounds + Ounces, and more!

And better yet, they’ve given us five (5) promo code packs — each containing both Tapbots apps — to give on to you.

How can you get yours? Turns out the iPhone needs to drop some dead weight and convert one of its features. Head on over to our Convertbot + Weightbot Give Away thread on the forums and tell us:

• What feature would you drop from the iPhone, and what would you bring over from the BlackBerry, Palm Pre, Google Android, Windows Mobile, or Nokia/Symbian to replace it?

Buh bye accelerometer, hello BlackBerry Messenger? So long Multi-touch, greetings WinMo slider keyboard? What will it be?!

You have one chance to swap out one feature for another. But you have five (5) chances to get Weightbot and Convertbot for FREE, so get on over to the forums and get to it!

• US iTunes Store account required to redeem promo codes.
• One entry per person.
• Contest starts now and ends Tuesday, May 12 at 11:59pm

If the iPhone is king of the smartphone mountain, PCalc is what did all the complicated mathmagics to figure out just exactly how far and high it had to vector itself to get there. It’s not like the built-in calculator on steroids (how cliche!) it’s like the built-in calculator on Hulk serum! And the great folks over at TLA Systems are giving us four (4) copies of PCalc ($9.99 – iTunes link) to give to you!

PCalc is ideal for scientists, engineers, students, programmers, or indeed anybody looking for a feature-rich calculator for the iPhone or iPod Touch. It includes an extensive set of unit conversions, a paper tape, an RPN mode, engineering and scientific notation, as well as support for hexadecimal, octal and binary calculations.

How to get one? Just drop us a comment below and tell us the calculation you’d least like to see. What don’t you want to know? How much you’ve spent on iPhone apps? What that car repair’s going to cost? How much Apple will charge for the iTablet?

Give us your best comment, and we’ll give four (4) of you free copies of PCalc!

• US iTunes Store account required to redeem promo codes.
• One entry per person.
• Contest starts now and ends tonight, May 11, at 11:59pm.

We know how it is. Twitter is so addictive, and the iPhone such a perfect device for it, that you’re afraid to really get into it in case it wears your battery down in no time flat. Well good news on all fronts!

First, the awesome Atebits has provided five (5) promo codes for Tweetie ($2.99 – iTunes link), the most iPhone-like Twitter client on the market.

Tweetie is a fast, full-featured twitter client for iPhone and iPod touch. It offers everything you’d expect – from your timeline to trends – all with an incredibly polished user interface, fantastic performance, and unparalleled ease-of-use.

And to help you out with the battery issue, TiPb’s iPhone Store is kicking in a Case-Mate iPhone 3G Fuel Rechargeable Battery Pack!

The iPhone 3G FUEL. It’s a protective case, carrying solution, and extended battery life all in one. So from here on out you’re good to charge on the go. So the next time you’re rushing to get to the airport at 6am and you forget your charger…relax, your iPhone 3G is taken care of. Now you can focus on hitting up Starbucks and get to recharging yourself.

How can you win this epic combo? Just head on over to Twitter and let everyone know it’s TiPb’s birthday and we’re giving away an UNLOCKED ColorWare iPhone 3G! To make sure we can track your entry, be sure to include our username: @theiphoneblog and our Birthday Bash URL: http://bit.ly/JCbHZ.

No spamming please, just one entry per Twitter account. (But, hey, if you get re-tweeted (RT) or Via love from your tweeps, we’ll give you additional entries, b’okay?). So what are you waiting for? Get thee a-tweeting!

• US App Store account required to redeem promo codes.
• US mailing address required to receive accessory prizes (sorry, no international shipping).
• Contest starts now and ends tonight, May 11, at 11:59pm
• One entry per twitter account (no spamming)
• One additional entry per credited re-tweet (RT) or Via (tagged with your Twitter ID)
• One (1) big prize: Tweetie for iPhone + Case-Mate Fuel Case
• Four (4) secondary prizes: Tweetie for iPhone promo code

Entering this contest counts as an entry in TiPb’s Birthday Bash grand-prize draw for an Unlocked ColorWare iPhone 3G!

Help! Rene was typing out an URGENT instant message using iPhone uber-IM client, BeeJiveIM ($15.99 – iTunes link):

Stay connected to all your instant messaging buddies anywhere you go! BeejiveIM keeps you in touch with your friends on AIM®/MobileMe®, MSN®/Windows Live®, Yahoo!®, GoogleTalk®, Facebook, MySpace, ICQ® and Jabber… all at the same time, all on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

But here’s the thing — Rene was too late. Something crazy happened, he lost his grip on his trusty iPhone 3G, and now he’s scrambling to get it back. This is where the help comes in. Actually, the where is the help. This is our:

• BeeJiveIM Green Screen Challenge!

We’ve provided the image (a PNG file) but we need YOU to provide the background. (Specifically, take the image and add a background to it in Photoshop or the image editor of your choice!) Show us where Rene is — where he lost his grip on his iPhone while desperately trying to finish his IM. The more creative, the better. The funnier, the better. The more spectacular, the better. You get the idea — and if we choose your entry, you get one of five (5) free copies of BeeJiveIM.

So head on over to our TiPb Birthday Bash: BeeJiveIM Green Screen Challenge! thread and show us just what in the world (or other worlds?) is happening to poor Rene!

• US iTunes Account required to redeem promo codes
• Contest begins now and ends Wednesday, May 13, 12pm EDT
• Inappropriate entries will be disqualified at the sole discretion of the moderators.

What goes better with coffee on a lazy Sunday morning than crossword puzzles? Yup, crossword puzzles on your iPhone! And thanks to the kind folks at Stand Alone, we have four (4) promo codes for Crossword ($9.99 – iTunes link) to pass on to you!

Download and play crossword puzzles right on your iPhone or iPod touch. Each day many newspapers provide their crossword puzzles online; with one tap you can download and solve them, get hints, view clues, and track how quickly you’re improving!

Crosswords is a personal favorite of Smartphone Experts’ editor-in-chief, our own Dieter Bohn, who insists it boosts brains and supercharges smarts. Want a copy? Just drop us a comment below telling us your favorite daily crossword puzzle (New York Times? Wall Street Journal? Something else?).

• US iTunes Store account required to redeem promo codes
• Valid email address required to send you the code (won’t be made public)
• Contest starts now and ends tonight, May 10, at 11:59pm EDT

It’s Sunday morning. It’s mothers day. It’s also a great time to curl up with gourmet coffee. To help us help you out, the finely brewed folks at BaristaApp have given us five (5) promo codes for Barista ($2.99 – iTunes link):

Barista is your personal tutor in the art of making brilliant espresso at home. It will help you get the most out of your espresso machine by:

• Providing step-by-step guidelines on crafting some of the most common espresso beverages
• Detailing a range of tips and techniques such as selecting, storing and grinding coffee beans, tamping and extracting single and double shots, texturing milk, pouring latte art and more
• Explaining espresso-related terms and identifying your espresso equipment and its uses

Featuring beautiful graphics, Barista takes you one big step closer to that perfect espresso.

Want yours served up piping hot? Just drop a comment below telling us what type of coffee you’ll be drinking today.

• US iTunes Store account required to redeem promo codes
• Valid email address required to send you the code (won’t be made public)
• Contest starts now and ends tonight, May 10, at 11:59pm EDT
• In case it’s not clear by the description above: you need to have access to an espresso machine to use this app!

Entering this contest counts as an entry in TiPb’s Birthday Bash grand-prize draw for an Unlocked ColorWare iPhone 3G!

This is actually tomorrow’s contest, but since that means many of us will be busy celebrating — or being celebrated — we’re bumping it up to give everyone a little head start. And to help all of us out, those remarkable folks over at Appigo were gracious enough to let us give away a few of their remarkable apps:

• Todo is a powerful tool that makes task management simple and fun. Use Todo by itself or synchronize your tasks to the web or your desktop using a popular online todo list like Toodledo or Remember The Milk (Pro account required for RTM). Todo helps you focus on what matters most and allows you to integrate the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology or your own. ($9.99 – iTunes link)

• Notebook gives you quick and easy access to your notes anywhere. Use Notebook by itself or synchronize your notes to the web using Toodledo.com, a free online service for notes and tasks. Capture your thoughts and ideas anywhere, categorize them, and synchronize them for safe keeping. Later on, you can browse by Notebook or search all notes by entering key words in the search field. ($4.99 – iTunes link)

• AccuFuel™ Fuel Efficiency Tracker makes monitoring your vehicle’s fuel efficiency simple and fun. Is your SUV guzzling gasoline? Is your hybrid saving you money? With AccuFuel, you’ll instantly see how your driving habits affect your fuel efficiency. ($0.99 – iTunes link)

And because the TiPb Store wants to make moms happy too, they’re throwing in a Griffin Clarifi Case:

• Slide the Clarifi lens into place over the built-in lens of your iPhone 3G. Your macro and close-up shots are instantly finer in detail, more accurate in color. With Clarifi’s lens, your iPhone 3G can image an entire business card with astounding clarity. Slide the lens aside for normal photography. Without Clarifi, the iPhone 3G requires about 18 inches to focus properly. Slide Clarifi’s lens into place and you can move in to 4 inches for crisp detail and great pictures.

How to win? Because we know you’ll be busy, we’re keeping this simple. Just head on over to our How Are You Making Mom Happy thread on the forums, and give us your top three (3) to-do’s for mother’s day.

Do that, and we’ll give one of you the case and all three apps. Runner up will still get all three apps. And because Appigo knows how hard it can be to take proper care of moms, four more of you will still get Appigo Todo and Accufuel!

So what are you waiting for, go tell us your top 3 funny, sweet, sentimental, sensational, silly to-do’s for Mothers Day!

• Must have access to US App Store to redeem Promo Codes.
• Must have US mailing address for accessory prize (sorry, no international shipping).
• Contest starts now and ends Sunday, May 10, 11:59pm EDT.
• 1 big prize of 3 Appigo apps + Griffin Clarifi case
• 1 runner up prize of 3 Appigo apps
• 4 consolation prizes of Todo and Accufuel

Entering this contest counts as an entry in TiPb’s Birthday Bash grand-prize draw for an Unlocked ColorWare iPhone 3G!

Woohoo! The week is done, Saturday’s here and it’s time for… another Birthday Bash contest? Oh, yeah, and also fun!

This time the fabulous folks at ngmoco have given us not one, not two, but three (3!) of their astounding games to gift on to three (3) of you:

• Topple 2: Enjoy the classic Topple experience, but master the new modes as well. Upside-down mode inverts gravity for a topsy-turvy play experience. Balance mode lets you weigh two towers against each other. Power Tower mode challenges you to build a power line using conductive blocks. Rescue mode uses your tower building skills to save the precious golden egg.

• WordFu: Shake your letter dice and spell as many words as you can before the clock runs out. Build up your score by unleashing an endless word barrage! Freeze time, flick dice for better letters, and let loose a fiery spelling fury! Once you’ve mastered it on your own, take on your friends over WiFi. Dominate the leaderboard on your quest to earn WordFu Belts and become a true WordFu Grand Master. Once no worldly man can defeat you, play Shaolin Style for the highest WordFu challenge!

• Rolando: Rolandoland has been invaded and the Rolandos need your help! Use innovative tilt, tap and Multi-Touch controls to solve physics puzzles, toy with interactive environments, and evade pesky enemies as you lead the Rolandos to victory.

But wait, there’s one more thing!

And to sweeten the pot beyond sweet, TiPb’s iPhone Store is kicking in a Jabra BT530 Bluetooth Headset so you can keep your hands free for all that gaming action!

Destroy unwanted sound with Noise Blackout.The Jabra BT530 is the first Bluetooth headset with Noise Blackout. Unique amongst wireless hands-free headsets, it provides background noise elimination – without any compromise on natural voice quality.Dual microphones, coupled with advanced DSP technology, identify the source of sound – and then enhance your own voice, and obliterate peripheral noise.

And what do you have to do to win? Why just:

• Turn a TiPb staffer into a… Rolando!

That’s right, take Dieter, Rene, Chad, or Jeremy and draw, photoshop, collage, papier mache — whatever! — us all scrunched up into a rolling round ball, and post the results in our TiPb Birthday Bash: Turn a TiPb staffer Into a Rolando! Win ngmoco Apps + BT Headset! forum thread! The one we like best gets the headset and all three games. The two runners up still get all three games!

Reference pictures are available via our About TiPb page. Reference Rolando-types are all over ngmoco’s Rolando site.

Make wicked fun of the staff and get an awesome prize back? Doesn’t get any better than that, so get to it!

• Open to everyone with a US iTunes Store account and a US mailing address (sorry, no international shipping)
• Inappropriate content will not be considered for the contest at the sole discretion of the staff.
• Contest starts now and runs until Tuesday, May 12, at 12pm.

UPDATE: DEADLINE PUSHED BACK TO TUESDAY, MAY 19! See below!

Entering this contest counts as an entry in TiPb’s Birthday Bash grand-prize draw for an Unlocked ColorWare iPhone 3G!

Hard as it may be to believe, not everyone in the ‘verse know about TiPb. Yet. Even some of our friends don’t really know us. That’s where we need your help. In the age of user generated content, in honor of our birthday, we need our users to generate us a little content! Namely:

• A TiPb-themed YouTube video intro!

Introduce us to the world. Not the iPhone hardware — everyone knows about that already! — but the actual blog and forums, the places where we talk and share and rumor and rant.

Yep, just that simple. What teaser would we see before the big budget TiPb sci fi movie? What entrance video would we use before TiPb fights Brock Lesnar for the heavyweight title? What walkthrough would you present for the TiPb iPhone app? (Check out the awesome Birdhouse intro for the current high-bar on that!). How would you tell people to leave Britney alone… but come visit TiPb?! That’s the video we want to see!

Funny, spoofy, dramatic, goofy — just shoot it off your webcam, iSight, camcorder — whatever’s handy — upload it to YouTube, and make sure you include “the iphone blog” in the keywords. Then copy the URL and paste it into our TiPb Birthday Bash: Make Us a Video – Win $100 iTunes Gift Card! forum thread.

We’ll check them out, love them all, and pick one to receive a big, honking $100 iTunes Gift Card thank you!

• Open to everyone with a US iTunes Store account (see here)
• Inappropriate content will not be considered for the contest at the sole discretion of the staff.
• Contest starts now and runs until Tuesday, May 19, at 12pm.

Slacker‘s music catalog has reached well over 2 million tracks. If you’ve been living with your ears in the offline sand, here’s the skinny:

Slacker is an Internet radio service allowing users to create their own customized music stations starting with either Slacker’s preset stations or their own custom built stations. Slacker offers many traditional genre, specialty and artist stations pre-made by professional DJs like “Today’s Hits”, “80′s, 90′s and Today”, “Country”, etc. while also letting users build entire stations of specific artists just by typing in their name. Users can continue to evolve any of these stations by rating favorite songs and banning artists or songs. Stations can also be fine tuned to play older or newer music, more hits or more eclectic music all through the intuitive interface at Slacker.com.

To celebrate their achievement, and TiPb’s Birthday Bash, we’re teaming up together to not only offer 1 FREE YEAR of Slacker Plus service, but a brand new pair of iharmonix Platinum i-Series Stereo Earphones to listen with — courtesy of the TiPb iPhone Store.

How do you win this one-two-combo punch of prize-ness? Remember our Birdhouse Twitter Notebook give-away from earlier today? This is part two of the same contest. If you entered that, you entered this! If not, what are you waiting for?!

5 chances to win a great app, 1 chance to win a great Slacker Plus radio service AND great set of earphones for FREE! Get to ‘em!

• Must have a Slacker Radio account. They’re free, so if you don’t, go get one.
• Must be able to receive Slacker Radio service, which is US-only.
• Contest is already started! Finishes same time too! Go read them previous rules!

Birdhouse isn’t your 9-to-5, six-pack guzzling iPhone Twitter app. Birdhouse ($3.99 – iTunes link) your fine wine sipping special occasion iPhone Twitter app. It doesn’t try to do everything; indeed it does only one thing:

• It crafts tweets.

And it does it very, very well. The connoisseurs over at — love the name — Sandwich Dynamics have given us five (5) copies to give to you. How can you get one? Wicked obvious:

See, it’s TiPb’s birthday. Yep, we’re getting older and we’re just the slightest bit bummed about that. What would make us feel oh, so much better about it is this?

• A “happy birthday” tweet. Scratch that. A highly crafted happy birthday tweet.

Get on over to Twitter and give us your slickest, sweetest, most humorous, most ironic, most iconic, punniest, or just plain most awesome happy birthday tweet. Be sure to include @theiphoneblog (our Twitter name) and this URL: http://bit.ly/14rREB (where we’re having the Birthday Bash).

• Must have access to US App Store to redeem promo codes
• Must include @theiphoneblog and http://bit.ly/14rREB in happy birthday tweet
• contest ends Sunday, May 10, at 12pm (but get to it quick, as Twitter’s gonna have some down time today!)

Oh, and you’ll need that tweet posted for the next big give away we’re doing in a few hours. Yes this is part 1 of a 2 part contest! We have some gear to give away as part of this next, so what are you waiting for? Tweet us good!

Confession: I bought my first PDA so I could work on some book projects while mobile. Several Palm PDAs, Treos, and Windows Mobiles later, and I was still looking for that holy grail: seamless back-and-forth compatibility between my desktop tools and my handset. Of course, the iPhone didn’t have any document editing features when it was launched, but flashforward to today, and Quickoffice is the first to fill that huge functionality gap. Quickoffice Mobile Suite ($19.99 – iTunes link) sets the bar:

Quickoffice’s integrated application is the essential high-performance mobile office productivity tool for anyone on the go. Experience enterprise-grade Microsoft® Word and Excel® Office functionality with leading-edge innovation and unparalleled ease-of-use. Edit important files with confidence; Quickoffice maintains 100% data integrity and guarantees Microsoft compatibility.

Is this my holy grail? Let’s find out: courtesy of Quickoffice, we’re giving away two (2) copies of the full Mobile Suite to two lucky forum members and all you have to do to win is help me finish my latest story:

It was a dark and stormy night, and the full moon lent an anxious glow to San Francisco’s Moscone Center, still but for long, wind-snapped banners that read: Welcome to Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2009.

Rene sat, finger poised above the mouse button, ready to click into being the last rumor round up, the TiPb Prediction post. He smiled, his finger coiled, tensed, and–

“Hold the presses!” Dieter roared as he burst through the doors of TiPb HQ, iPhone clenched and shaking in his hands.

“Presses?” Rene said. “Really? We have this thing now called the inter–”

“Quite youse!” Dieter shoved his iPhone at Rene. “And read.”

Rene bent forward, took it. “What am I reading?”

“Just the scoop of the century.” A smile raced up Dieter’s face. “Secret source. Top secret. Roof of the world secret. Would you believe that tomorrow, during the WWDC, Apple is going to…”

What?! Don’t leave us hanging like that! What is Apple going to announce?

Turns out YOU have to finish the story, the conversation. That’s right. Don’t just tell us, show us: we want action, dialog, drama, suspense, comedy. What’s Dieter going to say, and how is Rene going to take it? How’s the internet going to take it?!

Get your creative juices flowing and two story-tellers will get each get a copy of Quickoffice Mobile Suite absolutely free.

• One entry per person
• Must have access to US App Store account to redeem promo codes
• Inappropriate or off-topic material will be removed at the sole discretion of the moderators.

Now hurry up, get over to the TiPb Birthday Bash: Quickoffice Mobile Suite Give Away forum thread and get writing! I want to know how it ends!

Entering this contest counts as an entry in TiPb’s Birthday Bash grand-prize draw for an Unlocked ColorWare iPhone 3G!

CrackBerry Nation. Trekkies (Trekkers?). Wu Tan Clan. Colbert Nation. TiPb… ???

Who are we? What are we?

We need an identity here folks! And we need you to come up with it!

Post your ideas in a reply to the TiPb Birthday Bash: Name the “Nation” forum thread! There’s a juicy $50 iTunes Gift Card up for grabs for the one we like best, so get with the collective naming!

• iTunes US (or Canada) account needed to redeem gift card. (Don’t have a US account, no problem, see here!)
• Contest runs from now until Monday, May 11, 12pm EDT
• Enter as often as you like
• In the event of similar suggestions, we’ll credit the one made first.
• For the above reason, edited posts will be disqualified. If you have a better idea, make a new post.

Good luck, TiPB… ???!

Entering this contest counts as an entry in TiPb’s Birthday Bash grand-prize draw for an Unlocked ColorWare iPhone 3G!

Courtesy of TiPb’s iPhone Store, our first accessory give-away is the mophie Juice Pack 3G! Designed to more than double the time you can Rock, Talk, Surf and Send with your iPhone 3G. The Juice Pack is a rechargeable lithium polymer battery in the form of a non-slip, soft grip case. It extends the time that you can use your iPhone 3G in these ways (additional hours):

• Standby Time – Up to 350 hours
• Talk Time – Up to 6 hours on 3G | Up to 12 hours on 2G
• Internet Use – Up to 6 hours on 3G | Up to 7 hours on Wi-Fi
• Audio Playback – Up to 28 hours
• Video Playback – Up to 8 hours

What do you have to do to win one? Simple: tell us why you need one. Get on over to the forums, in the Win a mophie Juice Pack Battery Pack/Case for iPhone 3G thread and tell us what makes your day so long, so intense, so iPhone battery-draining that you need a mophie Juice Pack 3G to help get you through it? Give us your best iPhone Road Warrior story!

• One entry per person
• Contest ends tomorrow, Friday May 8, and 12pm EDT
• Need a real US shipping address to win (no international shipping, sorry!)

Entering this contest counts as an entry in TiPb’s Birthday Bash grand-prize draw for an Unlocked ColorWare iPhone 3G!

G-Map for iPhone, in both US East and West flavors ($24.99 each – iTunes link), is the current king of the iPhone roads. Chad’s already gone on record with his love for this app:

I have been using G-Map US East for the iPhone now for a couple of months. Why wait for FULL GPS Navigation with Turn-by-Turn with Software 3.0 when you can have it now. All that is lacking is the audible cue to turn, but it has excellent visual cues. Easy to use and fast calculations make this one a winner! The developer says they will add Audible Turn-by-Turn with Software 3.0. Did I mention that Internet access is not required? That’s right, all of the maps are on your hard drive with no subscription!

With slick features like real 3D junction view, there’s nothing else like it for short hauls or cross-country road trips alike. Which brings us neatly to our first, and maybe one of our most challenging TiPb Birthday Bash contests!

• Great American iPhone Photo

Inspired by babydol‘s idea, head on over to the TiPb Birthday Bash: G-Map East & West Great American Give Away! thread in the forums and post a photo of your iPhone that best shows where it’s been, where you want it go, or just how you feel about traveling the United States. Be majestic, be funny, be creative. (And yes, Photoshop is fine too.)

Give us that EPIC moment of iPhone Americana, and we’ll pick five (5) of you to give promo codes for BOTH G-Map East & West (that’s $50 worth of apps!), courtesy of XROAD.

Contest details after the break!

• Access to the US App Store required to redeem promo codes
• Contest runs from today, Thursday May 7, to 12pm EDT Monday May 11
• One entry per day, per person.

• Our podcast feed
• Download Directly
• Subscribe via iTunes

News

• iPhone 3.0: Beta 4
  • Like clockwork, Apple releases iPhone 3.0 Beta 4 (just don’t mind the PSOD!)
  • iPhone 3.0: iTunes Account Management in App Store
  • Find My iPhone to be MobileMe WebApp?
  • iPhone 3.0: Predictive Text Enhanced?
  • iPhone 3.0: Paste Long Passwords into Wi-Fi Settings?
  • iPhone 3.0 Beta 4 Requires iTunes 8.2, Mac note sync requires 10.5.7, now iTunes Connect provides crash logs.
• iPhone: Next Gen Rumorpalooza Continues
  • iPhone to Become One Stop Video Production Shop?
  • iPhone HD Rumors: Next Gen iPhone has “Improved Screen”?
• TiPb Birthday Bash! Accessories, app promo codes, gift cards… and a great big grand prize! Go register at the TiPb iPhone Forums now! Plus, listen to the podcast to hear what you need to do for a chance to win one of two packs: GMap East, Gmap West, and Accufuel!
• NIN’s Trent Reznor gets rejected, blasts App Store… but blasts other platforms worse
• Apple vs. EFF Jailbreak Showdown: AIPLA Quarterly Journal covers it, Joz faces off!
• One. Billion. Apps.
• What does Apple know that nobody else does?
  • Xbox Exec
  • All about power and control?

brought to you by the iPhone Blog Store. Don’t forget to email in for your chance to win our podcast app giveaway as a part of TiPb Birthday Bash!

Credits

Thanks to the the iPhone Blog Store for sponsoring the podcast.

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You — iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge
• Relaxation Spa Treatment by Dan the Automator via Wired 12.11: Sample the Future
• Wataridori 2 by Cornelius via Wired 12.11: Sample the Future
• DC 3000 by Thievery Corporation via Wired 12.11: Sample the Future

As previously announced, TiPb celebrates our one year anniversary on May 11, and as a giant thanks to you, our members, we’re celebrating in style. Birthday Bash style! Starting tomorrow, we begin a slew of daily give-aways including iPhone accessories, promo codes for some of our favorite apps, iTunes gift cards, and… our biggest grand-prize so far:

• A factory unlocked 8GB iPhone 3G in your choice of 35 different color options courtesy of the awesome folks at ColorWare.

That’s right. Your iPhone. Your way.

How can you win? Simple! Remember those daily give-aways we just mentioned? Enter them (this here Birthday Bash link will help you keep track!). Every time you enter one of the give-away contests, you are automagically entered to win the grand-prize.

Contests start tomorrow, May 7, 2009. Announcements will be here on the blog, but the contests themselves will take place on the TiPb iPhone Forums so if for some unimaginable reason you haven’t yet — register now!

Contest details after the break!

Them Details:

• Open to everybody who has a real shipping address in the United States (no international shipments, sorry!)
• Methods of entry will vary for the daily contests, but they’ll always happen in the forums, so sign up!
• For each daily contest your enter, you will get one entry for the grand prize — if the daily contest allows for multiple entries, that’s still just one entry for the grand prize, capice?
• Contest will run starting Thursday, May 7, 2009 and end 12pm EDT, Tuesday, May 12, 2009.
• Winner will be announced on iPhone Live!, Wednesday, May 13, 2009 sometime after 8pm EDT at http://www.imore.com/live
• Not open to Smartphone Experts employees or contractors

Good luck everyone, and thank you for making TiPb something worth celebrating!

May 11 marks the anniversary of the original Phone different and the iPhone blog’s transformation and merger into — the all new TiPb! To celebrate, we’ll be counting down and giving away fabulous prizes including iPhone accessories from the TiPb Store, promo codes for some of our favorite iPhone apps, gift certificates, and and grand prize big enough to blow our previous contests away!

The Birthday Bash officially kicks off Thursday, May 7, and will take place primarily on our TiPb iPhone Forums. If you haven’t already, get over there, register now and start posting. To help you get started we’re even going to run a little pre-celebration contest contest!

No, that’s not a typo. We’re going to be running so many contests next week, we’re running out of ideas for them! That’s where we can use your help:

• Go to the TiPb Birthday Bash: Pre-Celebration Contest Contest! thread on the forums
• Tell us your best, most favorite idea for a contest. (i.e. caption a funny photo, write an iPhone haiku, etc.)
• Keep it short, simple, and sweet. (We have the big stuff covered, but you can help us fill in the rest).
• If we pick your idea, we’ll thank you with a $20 iTunes Gift Card (US or Canada stores only).
• We may need several ideas, so don’t be shy! Bring ‘em on!

Whatcha waiting for? Get going! The countdown to the Birthday Bash Countdown starts now!