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!

Ramp Champ - @reneritchie

Ramp Champ has just gone free. Here's what I said about when I picked it back in October of 2009:

Ramp Champ is co-developed by Iconfactory, so you know it's pixel perfect. A skee-ball type casual, fun, time passer it's perfect for the iPhone. Thanks to in-app purchase you can buy more ramps when -- make that if -- you get through the 4 for so that come with the app. I say if because, while the first challenge is easy, the second is hard, and I think I'll need an Ambrose Chase-style description field to get through the third. And did I mention it's gorgeous as well?

Yet another reason I'm going to have to figure out a way to slip the Icon Factory $10 at WWDC.

[Free - iTunes link]

Shop Savvy - @Alli_Flowers

Still on my scanner kick, this week I fell for Shop Savvy, another really clever app that's also available in the Android Marketplace. Find something you like in a store, and scan the barcode. In a matter of seconds, Shop Savvy will tell you where else you can find it locally, as well as where you can find it online, and the relative cost.

You can almost always count on the item being available for less on Amazon. (It just stands to reason.) But on occasion you'll find that your local shop has whatever it is at a low enough cost that once you add in shipping, you may as well buy it locally.

Tonight I was in our local Pet Supplies Plus, looking at a crinkle bag for my feline children. It was $27. A quick click with Shop Savvy showed me that on Amazon it was only $18, while at Allegro Pet shop it was a whopping $28! However, not only did it not list any other local stores carrying the totally awesome Kitty Crinkle Sack, it didn't list Pet Supplies Plus. Shop Savvy does give you the option of adding the store and the item though.

In addition to being able to add stores, you can add the items if they are not already in Shop Savvy's huge database of consumables, and photos. And of course, you can always look the item up old school, and just type in the name of the product.

There is also a premium version for $1.99. I'm almost tempted to buy it just to see if there are any more options for purchasing the amazing Kitty Crinkle Sack!

[Free - iTunes link]

Order & Chaos Online - @JBaby_9783

Order & Chaos Online is so much fun. I am a recovering World of Warcraft addict having played for 4 years. I haven't played in a year and I thought I was over my addiction. But then came Order & Chaos Online and I fell off the wagon. It's everything people love about WoW only it's on iOS. It's not exactly like WoW but it's so close. I like to think of it as a Pocket WoW. The most jarring difference, to me, is Humans and Elves can talk to and play with the Undead and Orcs. That feels unnatural to me.

I mainly play on my iPad 2 and it plays beautifully. It's even awesome on the iPhone 4. I wasn't sure if it would be since the screen is so much smaller. To my surprise I had no problems. I do prefer playing on my iPad though. You just can't beat the extra screen real estate.

There a few bugs like some quests are messed up. But for a 1.0 release they are easily overlooked. The real question I have is will Gameloft continue to update this game? MMORPGs need fresh content. Overall I'm thrilled with this game. I can't wait to see what the future will bring. Will this push Blizzard into making an official version of WoW for iOS? Sound off in the comments.

Warning: I highly recommend this game but if you value your time and/or your family STAY AWAY!!! Don't say I didn't warn you.

[$6.99, with subscription and in-app purchases - iTunes link]

iPad 2 – @chrisoldroyd

Yes, I decided to take the plunge and get an iPad 2 even though I said I wouldn't!. I managed to grab one on Tuesday this week so it is still early days but so far the upgrade is well worth the money. Went a bit cheap and got the 16GB WiFi model; it’s all I really need as I can tether to my iPhone 4 for data.

The speed increase has been the most impressive part for me, everything works that much faster. Web pages loads without seeing the checker board patterns and apps load in a flash. It is a double win for me. The wife has inherited my original iPad so she's happy too! So far, really loving my iPad 2!

[Starting at $499 - Apple.com]

MyEmpire - @JorjLim

EmpireAvenue is a unique social stock market, based on friends and other online personalities.

By integrating your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other supported social sites, you create yourself as a stock. Your activity on the connected sites, affects your share price.

MyEmpire is a great iPhone app, that allows you to monitor your stocks and shares, as well as buy and sell stock on the go. There are leaderboards built in to the app, so you can see who is best to buy or sell.

The app’s UI is quite basic on iOS, however the functionality in the app makes up for it.

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

xkcd - @llofte

xkcd is "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language" that is targeted towards a special kind of geek. Most comics are related to computer science, physics, or mathematics. I love xkcd and love it even more on my iPhone. The app is very basic but sends out a push notification when a new comic is available. If you're a fan of xkdc, get this app.

[Free - iTunes link]

Barrel (Jailbreak) - @GeorgiaTiPb

Barrel is a sweet little tweak from Cydia that lets you customize the way the animation looks when you swipe between home pages. On a pure iPhone, the icons just slide over. With Barrel, they can rotate like a 3D cube, or they can slide up or down, scroll or fade, stair-step or squeeze, scatter or carousel, collect or get flippy with it. Or my favorites, curl and roll away or zoom.

It adds just that little extra touch of flare to your iPhone, makes you smile when you change screens, and is a great demo to show people who might be interested in the kind of customization Jailbreak allows.

[$2.99 - Cydia]

Notesy - @_JKK_ (Reader's Choice)

Notesy is the best of the rest in a crowded field of Dropbox-synchronizing text editors. Making use of the phenomenally stable and fast Dropbox API, Notesy is able to quickly and reliably sync notes from my Mac to my iPhone and iPod touch.

Since the notes are saved in the universal .txt file format, the notes aren't locked into any proprietary program; you can view them anywhere you have an internet connection with the online Dropbox web client.

My personal system includes syncing notes from Notational Velocity back and forth to Notesy between two iPods, an iPhone, and an iPad using Dropbox as the behind-the-scenes system; it works great, with no problems to report upon.

Notesy includes timed auto-saving (every two minutes if the file is being edited), an extremely smart, minimalist design, and is super slick; lag isn't an issue with Notesy, even whenever the library of notes approaches a ridiculous size and number.

[$2.99 - iTunes 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](http://www.twitter.com/llofte] 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!

Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most 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 (or iPod touch) related, they're fair game.

So who's on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!

Chad's Pick: FourSquare

I am really getting into the whole location-based check-in concept. There are several tools out there but my favorite right now is foursquare. The app and service is free, it scans Twitter, Facebook and your iPhone's address book for friends. This makes finding friends that use foursquare easy. You have weekly leaderboards to compete with friends and a todo list of places to check out. Give foursquare a try! [Free - iTunes link]

Chris' Pick: Ramp Champ

After all the buzz, I decided to download and try Ramp Champ, the skee ball style game. And I have to say it is a blast. Graphics are great, game play is smooth, background music is entertaining, and you even get tickets to trade in for prizes! This is a fun little game that.can be used as a quick diversion, or spending time to hone your skills. Add in the fact that you can use in-app purchases to add additional levels (or games) and we have ourselves a winner! [$1.99 - iTunes link]

Derrick's Pick: Let's Golf

Recently Let's Golf was free and I decided to check it out. I don't know why I didn't buy it sooner. Let's Golf is a fantastic golfing game for the iPhone. It's a very well designed and I'd suggest it to anyone looking for play a few rounds on their iPhone. [$1.99 - iTunes link]

Matt's Pick: Video Panorama

Video Panorama allows you to take a video with your iPhone or use a pre-recorded video. It then automatically selects frames from the video to be used in the panorama, stiches them together and then allows you to save the image to your library. A great way to quickly get panoramas! [$1.99 - iTunes link]

Rene's Pick: Consume

Consume is another in a long list of simple, elegant apps from Bjango that shows how many voice minutes and how much data you've used on your iPhone. This may not matter to people on unlimited plans in the US, but those of us in other countries with tiered service, or those on pay-as-you-go plans (and reward cards) may just find it very welcome. Sure, some carriers SMS you when you get to 80% or 100% of your monthly limit, but being able to check any time, and as often as you like right from the comfort of your iPhone -- priceless. [$1.99 - iTunes link]

Your Pick?

You're part of team TiPb too, so what's your pick? What app was your absolute fav last week? Let us -- and everyone -- know in the comments!

Happy New Year and welcome to the iPhone blog's 2009 TiPb Editor's Choice Awards for the very best (in our opinion!) iPhone and iPod touch apps and accessories released in the last year!

Smartphone of the Year: iPhone 3GS (by default)

We're not really doing Smartphone of the Year since, unlike our sibling sites, Apple has so far seen fit to only release one new iPhone each year. However, that doesn't mean we don't think the iPhone 3GS isn't terrific. It is. Even if we consider the smartphone space as a whole, even if we put it up against the best Android, BlackBerry, Nokia, Palm, and Windows have to offer, while it might get bested -- even eclipsed -- in certain specs or feature sets, there's still nothing that brings it all together in so appealing a mainstream package as the iPhone 3GS.

From its butter-smooth interface now with "s as in speed" to its singular build quality to its incredible ecosystem to its 120,000 apps for anything and everything, even if we did do this category -- which we're not -- the iPhone 3GS would still be our pick for Smartphone of the Year. So there.

Competition of the Year: Palm Pre and webOS

Make no mistake, the Droid, the BlackBerry Bolds and Tour and Storms, the Nokia N900, the Windows Phone HTC HD2 -- each brought it in their own way (hey, it's why we do the Smartphone Round Robin), but each mostly brought it with hardware specs like 480p displays, or services like free navigation. They made good things better.

Palm brought it with a whole new OS, one that combined amazing visualization for multitasking with brilliant notification handling, and sidestepped the developer divide by using web technology as their SDK. If the iPhone woke up a complacent smartphone industry, Palm made sure they stayed awake another year. Sure the hardware could have been harder core and there was that whole iTunes sync brouhaha, but that combined with the "years in the desert" to go from PalmOS to webOS, made Palm even more of a comeback story, and who doesn't root for Rocky? That's why the Palm Pre is our competitor of the year!

Apple Innovation of the Year: $99 iPhone 3G

Last year Innovation of the Year was easy: the App Store. Now, two-billion downloads, well over 100,000 apps, and almost universal imitation not just from the Android Market, but now from BlackBerry App World, Microsoft Windows Marketplace for Mobile, Nokia Ovi Store, Palm webOS App Catalog, and who knows what else, it's still far and away the market leader, if the idea itself has long passed being led. Not that Apple didn't try in 2009, with the iPhone 3.0 Sneak Preview Event the undoubtedly innovative in-app purchases (including free apps no longer needing to stay free) and accessory access via the dock and Bluetooth. Push notification tops the candidates list as well. It isn't he full-on multitasking some still demand, but it covers 90% of the functionality at 20% of the battery drain (ahem) and hey, even some multitasking smartphones don't handle push notification yet.

But no, we're going with something more important even if less interesting. The $99 iPhone 3G. Sure, it's last year's model, but it's got the latest iPhone OS 3.x on it and most importantly it redefined -- and disrupted -- what was considered a budget smartphone and forced every other platform and player to lower prices and reconsider the -- frankly crappy -- handsets they offered for cheap. Up front cost shouldn't mean much to people on contract for $2000+ over two years but it does. Getting under $100 was huge for Apple. And for consumers, who's previous budget choices were the likes of Palm Centro, BlackBerry Pearl, or WinMo... whatever, it was huger still. That makes the $99 iPhone 3G our Apple Innovation of the Year.

App Store App Innovation of the Year: Augmented Reality

Last year Google Mobile snuck in some private-API wizardry (later made all nice and legal by iPhone 3.0) to make voice search so good we thought we were in Star Trek. This year Apple announced accessory access and all sorts of new API's and developers certainly didn't disappoint. Some of the most amazing new iPhone Apps weren't new to mobile, however. RedLaser reads barcodes and finds competitive prices amazingly well, but Android had that first. Likewise Qik is finally streaming live, but geeks were doing that from the N95 a couple years ago. Still, with everything from the latest Apple Remote to Zipcar, it's harder then ever to single one app out.

So we're singling out a category -- Augmented Reality. Take a live camera view, add location services and -- one day, visual recognition -- and layer data on top of it. Hold your iPhone camera up to a restaurant and the menu pops up for you to read. Point it west and see the tweets of the physically closest people you follow. Point it at your friend and get a reminder you owe him $5. We're not sure if it's just trendy concept or will really, truly prove functional one day, but just like Google Mobile made us think of Star Trek, this combines several cutting edge technologies in such a way that it makes us think of a dozen sci-fi heads-up displays and gorramit if we don't want that future today.

UI Gem of the Year: Tweetie 2 "Pull Down to Refresh"

Too small to be the overall innovation of the year, this category is for the tiny little tweaks that never the less make all the difference. Lots of developers continued to make drop-dead gorgeous iPhone apps in 2009, including Tapbots' latest Pastebot, Twitterrific 2's ability to hide so much functionality behind so sensible a layout, and Facebook 3.0 finally showed how to do massive social networking right on a local app, and Apple even rolled out new Voice Recorder and Compass app interfaces. It was something much simpler, however, much more insidious that got inside TiPb's user experience this year.

Yeah, it's totally Tweetie 2's terrific "pull down to refresh". Apple built the wonderful, tactile feeling elasticity of the "rubber band" effect into iPhone 1.x but never did much with it. Developer Atebits took it and made it a simple, intuitive way to request new data from an internet server -- in this case update your Twitter timeline. That many of us now try to use it to reload a page in Safari, or get new messages in Mail, or refresh anything and anything that feels like it should refresh when we pull down shows just how simple and intuitive it is. Sometimes it's not the big once-and-a-while's that make the difference, it's the little use-it-all-the-times.

Camera App of the Year: ReelDirector

iPhone 3GS brought a much improved camera and video recording, amazingly improved photo software, and even trim-able video recording. A lot of apps took advantage, both of the old gear and the new. Leanna covered five fantastic ones earlier, and since then a couple have even come around to offering video for the iPhone 3G.

But if video is the new still, ReelDirector ups the ante from Apple's trim to full-on (for a mobile) video editing. From titles to transitions, soundtracks to Ken Burns effects, it may not be Final Cut Pro but it's definitely a fun first cut.

Productivity App of the Year: Documents to Go Premium

Over two and half years in and some are still foolish enough to call the iPhone a toy. Unless, of course, they mean the iPhone can make even productivity work more fun than it has any right to be.

Documents to Go, which updated their flagship app to Premium and added PowerPoint editing and Gmail attachment support at almost the last minute gets our vote. Even though Apple still hasn't provided a universal document repository, or file picker (the way the picture picker works for images), Documents to Go continues to push the boundaries of what an Office-style app can do on the iPhone.

Social App of the Year: Twitter Clients

If Facebook had gotten push notifications, if Skype had actually gotten 3G access, this category might be even harder to decide than it already is. Likewise notification enabled IM clients such as BeeJive that now has group chat is a social powerhouse.

But those iPhone twitter clients just. won't. stop. We already mentioned Tweetie 2 and Twitterrific 2, but there's also Birdfeed, and both Twitbit and SimplyTweet made it into our staff picks of the year. And yeah, TweetDeck is on the iPhone now as well. In addition to the general-purpose clients, we have apps like Birdhouse that excel at writing and Reportage that make reading manageable. Heck, even Twitter's own WebApp got a great makeover.

Twitter exploded in 2009, and the quality of iPhone Twitter apps exploded right along with it. They're all so good, again we can't pick just one, so we're naming them all the social networking apps of the year!

Navigation App of the Year: Navigon Mobile Navigator

Another of app category made possible by iPhone 3.0 is turn-by-turn GPS navigation, and it didn't take long for top of the line, premium-priced market leaders like TomTom to come on board (and with car kits!), and subscription services like the TeleNav-powered AT&T Navigator have come on board, but low-cost, crowd-sourced alternatives have also flourished. And even with the 800lbs gorilla of the newly announced Google Maps Navigation staring them down all searchy and free, they've continued to update and innovate.

Navigon's MobileNavigator has been helping push the pace of those updates and that innovation. Whether it's text to speech or live-traffic, this maps-on-board solution took iPhone 3.0's APIs and didn't run -- it drove.

Action Game of the Year: N.O.V.A

If there was a theme to iPhone and iPod touch gaming in 2009 it was the maturing of the platform that brought both big franchises and games very much akin to the big franchises. There are literally too many to list (though Jeremy started and Chad focused in on FPS' a while back).

But N.O.V.A brought "Halo" to the iPhone. Maybe we should have found something more original, more uniquely dependent on the iPhone's specific technologies. But N.O.V.A brought "Halo" to the iPhone.

Racing Game of the Year: Real Racing

Given the accelerometer, racing games are just such a natural fit for the iPhone and iPod touch that it's no wonder there are so many great racing games for the platform (Chad's picked out a top 5 already!) And with iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3 level horsepower and OpenGL 2.0 no doubt there's even better ahead (hey, we've seen a glimpse of it already).

For now, however, Real Racing is where it's at. Our 2009 Grand Prix winner is also a racing game of the year.

Puzzle Game of the Year: Ramp Champ

A lot of great puzzle games have hit the iPhone, from Peggle to Stoneloops to Bejeweled 2 and Tetris, to well almost every great puzzle game that could come to the platform. In 2008, however, Trism showed you could do an iPhone-proper puzzler and do it incredibly well.

Ramp Champ took a flick at it in 2009, with gorgeous graphics, one of the best implementations of in-app purchases to date, and arguably too much challenge for its (or rather its players) own good. There maybe puzzle games with bigger brands, more levels, and perhaps even better physics, but when we think about what we love most about iPhone software -- indie developers, attention to detail, love of UI -- Ramp Champ lands squarely in the bullseye.

Jailbreak App of the Year: ProSwitcher

Even post-iPhone 3.0, Jailbreak continued to fill gaps in functionality like theming, BT keyboards, lockscreen widgets, notification management, and -- of course -- unlocking the iPhone 3GS. If Apple won't do it, it's been proven time and time again the Jailbreak community will.

ProSwitcher did the same, but looked especially great doing it. Take a Jailbroken iPhone, add Backgrounder to get your multitask on, and then manage the whole thing with Safari Pages-style -- and yes, webOS cards-style UI candy.

Bluetooth Headset of the Year: Blueant Q1

Apple raised the stakes in 2009 by adding iPhone 3.0 support for A2DP stereo Bluetooth -- sort of. Apple forgot to add all the proper control protocols, so you can't skip tracks, but boy can you still rock out. Now iPhone and iPod touch users can enjoy music (and adjusting volume), and excellent products like the Motorola S9-HD and the Jabra Cruiser speakerphone.

And if that wasn't enough, our pick for BT headset of the year, the Blueant Q1 got an update -- really, how often to BT headsets get firmware update?! -- to enable A2DP. It's a premium product, just like the iPhone, but with voice control, and support for two phones (for you dual wielders), it's also a fantastic one.

Case of the Year: Otterbox Defender

Apple can't win. They change the design of the iPhone 3G and people with iPhone 2G cases complain their old accessories don't fit. They keep the iPhone 3GS in the same duds, and people complain it's boring. But at least the case makers could concentrate on better rather than different, and better they have. From the soft-stylings of the iSkin solo to the gloss of the Case-mate Barely There Chrome and the utility of the Golla bag, there's definitely a "case for that".

And if we're talking case, and we're talking protection, the Hummer of cases, the battle-armor of protection, is the OtterBox Defender. It's not for those who just want a sticker or a skin, a splash of color or the smell of fine leather -- it's for those who want their iPhone survive. And it's our case of the year.

EPIC FAIL of the Year: Capricious App Store Rejections

No doubt the App Store is such a smash hit that even Apple was unprepared for the tsunami of submissions they're now facing. The numbers are staggering, but not as staggering as the growth rate. But choosing to be a gatekeeper comes with it the responsibility of being a good gatekeeper. It's Apple's store and they can fill it's virtual shelves with what they want, but when the developers who make the apps those shelves are being filled with lose faith -- when they no longer trust Apple's rules, or realize there are no consistent rules being enforced, even if Apple and mainstream users don't lose out, the platform does. Sure, they've made some small improvements inside iTunes connect and with the RSS feed, but they're slow to the point of being arduous.

Some developers have been frustrated enough to leave the iPhone. A few returned only because the competitions' development environment, install base, and user experience wasn't competitive enough... yet. But that "yet" could change at any moment. And if the best and brightest developers are making the best and brightest apps for Android rather than the iPhone, that's not a loss to Apple's bottom line, it's a loss to their heart.

That's why rejected App Store apps, specifically the capricious, opaque way in which they're continuing to be rejected, is our epic FAIL of the year.

Story of the Year: iTablet

We've mentioned most of the other big stories already -- the still amazing Jailbreak journey, the still disappointing App Store rejections. And then there was the leave of absence, and triumphant return of Steve Jobs.

But iTablet/iStlate was the story that wouldn't quit, however, and the rumors, speculation, and rampant geek want built and built throughout 2009. We're not even sure actually announcing the device (which may just happen in 2010) could have been a bigger story -- anticipation is just that powerful. Whether (more likely when) it ultimate comes out, Apple's mysterious, mythical, magical, maybe iTablet is our story of the year.

Bring on 2010!

Well, that's it -- TiPb's Editor Awards for 2009 gone and done! What will we see in 2010? Who knows, but we're excited to find out!

Did you agree with any of our picks? Disagree? What would YOU have given the nod to? Feel strongly about it? Tell us -- or tell us off -- in the comments! (And we'll have our next Readers' Choice Awards coming up later in 2010 so you can put your apps where your opinions are as well!)

Happy New Year

--The iPhone blog team

Is Apple's iTunes App Store broken, a combination of developers racing to the bottom and users getting conditioned -- and feeling entitled -- to pay less than what an app is worth? Or, are some developers not yet savvy enough in terms of planning and marketing to take advantage of the App Store business model?

Since we covered Ramp Champ this morning, it's timely to cover both the thoughts of the developer, Gedeon Maheux, and a response from Tumblr and Instapaper developer Marco Arment that are currently surrounding it.

The crux of Maheux's post, Losing iReligion, is that the App Store is broken, that it's too hard to gain visibility, and that if you miss the immediate exposure-on-landing of hitting a top list or featured spot, you're doomed to obscurity.

In order for a developer to continue to produce, they must make money. It’s a pretty simple concept and one that tends to get lost in the excitement to write for the iPhone. It’s difficult for me to justify spending 20-50 hours designing and creating new 99¢ levels for Ramp Champ when I could be spending that time on paid client work instead. I would much rather be coming up with the sequel to Space Swarm than drawing my 200th version of a magnifying glass icon. But I’d also like to have some assurances from Apple about reducing the length of the App Store approval process, having the ability to respond to factually incorrect iTunes reviews, not be limited to 100 beta testers, or that large, prominent developers won’t always get preferential treatment. In short, I’d like to know things will be fixed and I don’t mean merely posting a page of marketing text in iTunes Connect.

Arment, argues that there are The two App Stores. The first is superficial, geared to Top Lists and $0.99 apps that are basically disposable by both users and their developers alike. These make quick money and then disappear. The second are the profound apps, which flourish only from user word-of-mouth and online coverage, and while they don't get the initial boom, they have a longer tail before it comes to bust. He further argues that it's when developers mistake one App Store for the others, and miss-target their efforts, that frustration occurs.

The Iconfactory’s apps are able to compete strongly when people choose apps based on research, reviews, or feature comparisons. But that’s not how App Store A’s customers operate. Whether Ramp Champ is a better game than Skee-Ball is irrelevant to them because they’ll never take the time to find out.

Anyone interested in development and why we get the apps we do (and the ones we don't) should take the time to read both posts (linked above). Then come back and let us know what you think. Are there two App Stores? Which one do you shop at? And why?

Ramp Champ [$1.99 - iTunes link] is a skee-ball-like, old school boardwalk arcade or amusement park-style game for the iPhone and iPod touch. Co-developed by the Iconfactory and DSMediaLabs, it's also gorgeous. Of course, I'd expect no less from the pixel perfectionists behind it (and behind other well-loved apps like Twitterrific and Frenzic).

The premise is simple: using your finger and the iPhone's multi-touch screen, you flick balls up a ramp and try to hit targets, win trophies, score points, get tickets, and redeem those tickets for prizes. The art is sublime, from the included Clown Town, Breakwater, Spaceswarm, and Icon garden to the in-app purchasable add-on packs like the Ninja Attack and Tiki Island combo ($0.99 each). Other add-ons currently include Voyage, Halloween, and Challenge. This part of the app is implemented particularly well, and there's even a "restore purchases" button should you even need to re-download the add-ons.

In-jokes abound for the attentive as well. Developer Ged Maheux points out the classic icon sizes 16, 32, 48, 64, 128, etc. used as ticket cost for the prizes. And, of course, the first prize I bought was the Twitterrific blue bird itself.

There are three "goals" to each ramp. The first one tends towards the easy, a cookie to reward us for playing. The second and third range from difficult to how-the-frak-do-I-do-this. (Obvious tip: try to time your shots so that you hit more than one target with each ball). That you can often get close works only to make it more frustrating and addictive to play.

The frustrating part may be a double-edged sword, however. Sometimes flicking the ball seems absolutely intuitive and under your complete control, and sometimes it seems like there's no rhyme or reason to where the ball goes relative to how you flick. In the real world, and number of quirks in a ramp could account for chaotic end results. On the iPhone, it might just be a matter of tweaking the physics engine a bit more.

All-in-all, it's a beautiful, engaging, casual time-filler of a game, perfect for occupying interstitial moments. As a test, however, I gave it to an 11-year old to try out. I only got it back an hour and half later. So, yeah, it works for a wide range of players and time constraints as well.

If you give Ramp Champ a go, let us know how how many goals you get, and which prizes you pick up.

Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most 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 (or iPod touch) related, they're fair game.

So who's on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!

Chad's Pick: MyStarbucks

This app rocks for several reasons including the ability to send invites to friends via email with store location info and more for meetings, etc. You can also create your own hot or cold beverage, save and share with your friends. A complete food list is accessible as well and if you are looking for coffee bean details, they can be found here too. [Free - iTunes link]

Chris' Pick: Vconqr

I am trying to find the perfect Risk-style game, and am currently trying out Vconqr. It has a nice interface, easy to play and simple graphics. It doesn't have some of the customization options of the other games, but it is great for just a quick game of Ris....er, Vconqr. Until they actually come out with Risk, this is a good compromise. [$3.99 - iTunes link]

James' Pick: ESPN Radio

I am a sports junkie. I can't get enough of my Chicago teams. Anywhere I go, I usually listen to espnradio1000.com. Unfortunately for me, my work VPN blocks the radio stream. Now I can listen to ESPN no matter where I am. For fans of other cities, the app has streams of the main radio and other cities such as New York and Dallas. [$2.99 - iTunes link]

Jeremy's Pick: South Park Mega Millionaire

South Park Mega Millionaire let's you help Cartman, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny as they skate their way through a series of challenges. Any true fan of South will appreciate this game a lot more than the previous attempt of South Park Imagination Land. [$2.99 - iTunes link]

Josh's Pick: Tap Tap Revenge Classic

Basically it's like guitar hero or rockband on the iPhone. I play it every day, like a bad addiction - lol! 100s of songs to play, it never gets old with even classic hits such as Free Bird and Sweet Home Alabama from Lynard Skynard. [$0.99 - iTunes link]

Leanna's Pick: Twitbit 2.0

There are still only a handful of Twitter applications that offer push notification and with Twitbit's new update, Twitbit 2.0 is the by far the best one. It has a clean UI, isn't lacking in important features, and mentions and direct messages are quickly pushed with less than a 2 minute delay. I have a bit of a Twitter app addiction, but Twitbit is the only one that lives on my home page. [$2.99 - iTunes link]

Matt's Pick: Photoshop.com Mobile

I was begining to wonder when Adobe might hop on the iPhone app creation boat... This application allows you to edit your photos - from croping them to adding special effects to your photos. The application is quite powerful and incredibly easy to use. Within the app you can also register with Photoshop.com and upload you pictures to their photo hosting service and share/edit/link your photos. (Includes 2GB for free!) On a side note, the online side of the service is really quite awesome and very intuitive. At its price, you can't beat it. Download this one now! [Free - iTunes link]

Rene's Pick: Ramp Champ

Ramp Champ is co-developed by Iconfactory, so you know it's pixel perfect. A skee-ball type casual, fun, time passer it's perfect for the iPhone. Thanks to in-app purchase you can buy more ramps when -- make that if -- you get through the 4 for so that come with the app. I say if because, while the first challenge is easy, the second is hard, and I think I'll need an Ambrose Chase-style description field to get through the third. And did I mention it's gorgeous as well? [$1.99 - iTunes link]

Your Pick?

You're part of team TiPb too, so what's your pick? What app was your absolute fav last week? Let us -- and everyone -- know in the comments!